Director helps orchestra gain awareness in Oklahoma

Participants pay a minimal fee to join the orchestra, which rehearses weekly on the Oklahoma Christian campus.

The group’s upcoming performance, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Oklahoma Christian’s Hardeman Auditorium, will feature works by Gliere, Rosas, Wagner and Zimmer. Violinist Kyle Dillingham will be featured in the premiere of Callen Clarke’s "The Mary Rose.”

Now in its 26th season, the 75-member orchestra is led by John Fletcher, a professor of music at Oklahoma Christian University.

Fletcher grew up in a home filled with music. His mother taught piano lessons and his father was the first music faculty member hired at Oklahoma Christian in 1950. Fletcher never really considered other career opportunities, noting that he "grew up thinking this is what people did.”

After graduating from Oklahoma Christian, Fletcher landed a job as band director at Garden City (Kan.) Community College.

He returned in 1987 to his alma mater, where he conducts the symphonic band and musical theater productions, as well as instrumental conducting, theory and orchestration.

Fletcher is now in his sixth season as music director of the Oklahoma Community Orchestra.

It’s an eclectic group, both from the perspective of age and musical training.

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