Los Medanos College has welcomed its newest full-time Music Lab Coordinator Fernando Lozano.

Last March, LMC saw Keith Parsons, the former Music Lab Coordinator, move on to Diablo Valley College to work in their marketing department. Lozano is the first to fill the position since Parsons’ departure.

Lozano, 24, is both a former student and employee of LMC. From 2009 to 2014 he was a music major and a student assistant for the departments of music and recording arts.

He is currently a band director for the Pittsburg High School marching band, and has been since 2012. For a year in 2014, he directed the marching band and worked as a customer service representative for Educational Testing Service, the company that manages all standardized tests in California.

After a year away, it was Lozano’s personal connection to LMC that has led him back to the college.

“This place is very important to me because I’ve learned a lot here,” said Lozano, noting with fondness that, “the student body here is very supportive of each other.”

He continued that he took the opportunity to come back “to give back to a place that’s given so much to me.”

“We’re happy to have him and he’s doing very well,” said Dean of Liberal Arts Nancy Ybarra, who initially announced Lozano’s new position via email.

Ybarra also mentioned that in addition to hiring Lozano, the music department is in the process of hiring a new full-time faculty member, slated to begin in August of this year, with more details to come.

The music department has announced a few events for the spring semester – the first being a concert from the Electric Squeezebox Ensemble on Saturday, Feb. 27. Presented by Michael Zilber and the Los Medanos College Jazz Studies Program, the Ensemble will perform with both the Heritage High School and LMC Jazz Ensembles. The concert will be held at the LMC Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. and tickets will be $5 for students and seniors and $10 for general admission.

On Thursday, March 3 LMC will host a free performance of Black Virgins Are Not For Hipsters, starring writer, performer and playwright Echo Brown. Brown describes the show as “a one-woman show about love and race in the Age of Colorblindness.” The show, followed by a free Q&A workshop session, will take place at LMC’s Little Theater at 2:30 p.m.