Symphonic Band Concert Will Feature A World Premiere April 22

by Richard Veit

Baylor University's Symphonic Band will present a concert at 8 p.m. Monday, April 22, at in Jones Concert Hall. The concert will include the world premiere of a new work by Frank Ticheli. The Symphonic Band is under the direction of Gerald Luckhardt, assistant professor and associate director of bands at Baylor.
The program will open with the "Celebration Overture" of the prolific American composer Paul Creston. The overture was commissioned by Edwin Franko Goldman for a performance at the American Bandmasters Association's national convention in 1955.
The "Symphonic Suite" of Clifton Williams is in five movements: Intrada, Chorale, March, Antique Dance, and Jubilee. Winner of the ABA's 1957 Ostwald Award, the suite will be conducted by graduate student Julie Cromar.
Frank Ticheli's "Blue Shades" was commissioned by a consortium of 30 university, community, and high school concert bands under the auspices of the Worldwide Concurrent Premieres and Commissioning Fund. In the composer's own words, "Much of the work possesses a jazzy feeling, but it is not, as the title might suggest, a blues piece. At times the work parodies some of the clichés from the Big Band era, as a playful tribute to them."
Jazz composer, arranger and performer Jack End wrote his "Blues for a Killed Kat" in 1960 for Frederick Fennell and the Eastman Wind Ensemble. It is a bluesy homage to a deceased alley cat, the pathetic remains of which End witnessed on a bleak winter morning in Rochester.
Henry Fillmore was known primarily for his splendid marches, but in the first quarter of this century he wrote a series of fifteen trombone novelties that also attained popularity. "Shoutin' Liza Trombone" was composed in a vaudeville style. It features a trio of trombonists with band accompaniment.
The Symphonic Band concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 755-3991.