El Camino College to Present 30th Anniversary Concert to Celebrate Conductor Dr. Joanna Medawar Nachef
El Camino College’s Symphony Orchestra, Chorale, Concert Choir and Women’s Chorus will present “A Legacy of Excellence - 30th Anniversary Celebration” in honor of El Camino alumna, professor, and Director of Choral & Orchestral Activities Joanna Medawar Nachef, who plans to retire at the end of this academic year.
Special guest artists such as the Joanna Medawar Nachef Singers (JMNS), ECC alumni, and a variety of friends will also join in to perform musical highlights from Nachef’s 30 years at El Camino College. The concert is scheduled for 8 p.m. May 31 in Marsee Auditorium.
The program will feature selections from Handel’s “Messiah,” Beethoven’s “Finale” from his ninth symphony, as well as Nachef’s favorite gems for orchestra, spirituals and gospel music.
Nachef is recognized as the first woman conductor from the Middle East. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, she moved to Los Angeles in 1976. A graduate of El Camino, she transferred to California State University, Dominguez Hills where she earned a bachelor’s degree in piano performance, then continued her education at USC where she earned a doctorate in musical arts and master’s degree in choral music. She is the founder and artistic director of the Joanna Medawar Nachef Singers and artistic director/conductor of the Torrance Pops Orchestra. Since 1980, she has served as the choir director at Peninsula Community Church.
Over the past 40 years, Nachef has directed both locally and in guest appearances in motion pictures, in addition to touring nationally and internationally with her performing groups. Her concert tours covered the U.S, Canada, Hawaii, Eastern Europe, Vienna, Lebanon and Russia. Guest conducting appearances have included six performances at Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, National Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, Torrance Pops Orchestra, Carson/Dominguez Hills Symphony Orchestra, El Camino College Symphony Orchestra, and Beirut Chants Symphony Orchestra.
On May 25, 2024, Nachef gave her seventh guest conducting appearance at Carnegie Hall, with the El Camino College Symphony Orchestra, ECC Choirs, Joanna Medawar Nachef Singers and Sons of Thunder Choir.
In addition, she is a speaker and “citizen diplomat” for the U.S. State Department, a charter board member and past president for the LA/Beirut Sister City Organization and alumna of the U.S. Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C. Nachef has received numerous lifetime achievement and prestigious awards, including the Daughters of the American Revolution’s 2015 State Americanism Medal, El Camino College’s Distinguished Faculty Award 2014-2015, was featured in the 2017 Book “100 Influential Lebanese Figures Around the World,” and was the first recipient of TPAC 2019 “Peace and Harmony” Award. In the summer of 2019, she coordinated, led and conducted her first U.S. Department of State grant-funded international concert tour to Russia with her choral group, JMNS – the first American choir to be featured in the St. Petersburg “Singing World Festival.”
The El Camino Community College District encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation, or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Center for the Arts as soon as possible, but no later than seven days prior to the event.
Tickets to the concert are $10 and may be purchased at www.centerforthearts.org using the online ticketing system or by phone at 310-329-5345. The Ticket Office is open from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday for walk-up sales, and one hour before all scheduled performances. Campus parking permits are required; a $3 daily parking permit can be purchased on the day of the performance (cash only) or when completing a ticket purchase online, in person, or via telephone. El Camino College is located at 16007 Crenshaw Boulevard, Torrance.