PLU Orchestra Festival

For over twenty years, the PLU Orchestras have hosted up to a dozen of the finest high school orchestras and chamber orchestras from around the region for a day of music making and sharing. The Annual PLU Orchestra Festival offers your ensemble an opportunity early in the year to hone their performance skills and get great feedback from both our faculty and the warm, generous acoustic of our world class Lagerquist Concert Hall.

High school directors or youth symphony directors, please submit your Application form for the Festival For High School Orchestras.

Once applications have been reviewed, directors will be notified of acceptance via email and provided access to Registration form. Once received, please complete registration and payment using the link provided by the deadline. 

Please note that no refunds will be allowed after registration has been completed, and no registration or payment will be accepted following the deadline listed below:

• REGISTRATION DEADLINE: October 16, 2026, 11:59 pm
• PAYMENT DEADLINE: October 16, 2026, 11:59 pm
• REGISTRATION FEE: $250.00 per Ensemble

• 8:00 am-12:00 pm – Welcome/Festival Begins
• 12:00-12:30 pm – PLU Symphony Orchestra Performance
• 12:30-1:00 pm – Meet and Greet with Clinicians, Q&A with Students
• 1:00-6:15pm – Festival Resumes

• A chance to perform in one of the best concert venues in Washington, Lagerquist Concert Hall
• Positive feedback from expert PLU faculty clinicians
• A low entry fee
• A link to an audio/video recording of your performance and clinic session will be provided within approximately two weeks after the festival
• The opportunity to hear other orchestras’ performances and clinics, Including PLU Symphony Orchestra

Dr. James O. Welsch is a conductor, educator, and musician whose career encompasses orchestral conducting, music education, composition, and artistic leadership. He currently serves as Director of Orchestral Studies at Pacific Lutheran University, Music Director of the Tacoma Youth Symphony Association, Music Director of the Kirkland Civic Orchestra, and Associate Conductor of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra.
At Pacific Lutheran University, Welsch leads the university’s orchestral program, working to create an environment in which students develop as accomplished musicians, thoughtful artists, and engaged members of a musical community. His work with young musicians has been a defining element of his career. As Music Director of TYSA, he leads one of the region’s prominent youth orchestra organizations, overseeing a comprehensive orchestral program serving hundreds of young musicians.

Prior to his work in the Pacific Northwest, Welsch served as Music Director and Symphonic Orchestra Conductor of the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestras, while also teaching at Stetson University and serving as Visiting Professor of Music and Director of Orchestras at the University of Central Florida. Earlier, he spent several years in El Paso as Associate Conductor of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and Music Director and General Manager of the El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestras.

Welsch’s career in higher education began at the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University, where following completion of his master’s degree, he served for five years as Assistant Professor of Music Theory, Composition, and Conducting. There he taught undergraduate and graduate courses, conducted orchestras and ensembles, directed fully staged opera productions, advised students, and participated extensively in recruitment and university service. He was honored as the school’s Outstanding Music Faculty Member in 2008.

Welsch is also the founding Music Director and Principal Conductor of Orquesta Filarmónica Juvenil México-USA “The Bridge,” a binational youth orchestra bringing together young musicians from Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. The initiative reflects his longstanding belief in music’s ability to create meaningful connections across cultural and geographic boundaries and has received recognition in both Mexico and the United States, including from Yo-Yo Ma.

As a conductor, Welsch is committed to both the established orchestral canon and the discovery of works by underrepresented and overlooked composers. His programming frequently explores connections between music, history, culture, and the human experience. He is an active guest conductor, adjudicator, clinician, masterclass teacher, composer, and arranger.

Welsch earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from The University of Texas at Austin, studying with Gerhardt Zimmermann. He holds a Master of Music in orchestral conducting from Syracuse University and a Bachelor’s degree in theory and composition from Stetson University. His conducting studies have included work with Jorma Panula, Raffi Armenian, James Croft, Timothy Reynish, Kevin Noe, Joseph Kreines, and others. His composition teachers have included Kari Juusela, Sydney Hodkinson, Daniel Godfrey, and Joseph Kreines.

A French horn player by training, Welsch remains deeply engaged with music-making from both sides of the podium. At the heart of his work is a belief that orchestras are not simply vehicles for performing great music, but communities in which musicians learn to listen, collaborate, imagine, and create something larger than themselves.

• Asieh Mahyar, Symphony Orchestra Conductor at West Seattle Community Orchestras
• Jerry Kracht, Prof. Emeritus at Pacific Lutheran University
• Don Thulean, former Music Director of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra
• Roger Briggs, Conductor Emeritus of the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra
• Huw Edwards, Music Director of the Olympia Symphony
• Paul Eliot Cobbs, Music Director of the Tacoma Youth Symphony Association
• George Shangrow, Former Music Director of Orchestra Seattle
• Roupen Shakarian, Music Director of Philharmonia Northwest
• Harvey Felder, Music Director of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra
• Stewart Kershaw, Music Director of the Auburn Symphony Orchestra
• David Waltham, Former Music Director of the Rainier Symphony Orchestra
• Wesley Schulz, Orchestra Director at the University of Puget Sound
• Marcus Tsutakawa, Conductor Emeritus of the Garfield Symphony Orchestra

Dr. James Welsch, Conductor, PLU Symphony Orchestra
School of Music, Theatre & Dance; Pacific Lutheran University
e-mail: jowelsch@plu.edu

Abby Deskins, Coordinator of Educational Outreach Programs
College of Professional Studies; Pacific Lutheran University
(253) 535-7877 e-mail: adeskins@plu.edu

• Directions to PLU
• Bus Parking Information