Healthy Community Initiative

St. Olaf College alumna Nahal AfsharJavan has plenty of reasons to toot her own horn, including a literal one (she’s a French horn player in a Twin Cities adult concert band). AfsharJavan is an accomplished conductor and music educator with a B.M. in Instrumental Music Education, committed to fostering student-centered learning.

But she is best known in Northfield for leading the high school band program to new heights since taking the job three years ago. Last winter, the upper-level concert band was selected to perform at the annual Minnesota Music Educators Association Midwinter Convention in Minneapolis. Their program, “Illumination,” highlighted our shared and individual experiences through unique compositional voices and included the premiere of Eleanore Harpstead’s work “Desperate Measures.” Watch it on YouTube here!

This spring, the band will perform with St. Olaf’s Norseman Band in celebration of the college’s 150th anniversary.

“I hope students take away with them the beauty of the community of music-making,” AfsharJavan said. “Band is a place where you can be who you are.”