Wind Ensemble Features Music of Steven Stucky

by Richard Veit

The Baylor University Wind Ensemble will present its first concert of the 1996-97 school year at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, in Jones Concert Hall under the direction of Michael Haithcock, professor of conducting and director of bands.
Among the seven works to be performed will be two by Baylor graduate Steven Stucky, a former Composer-in-Residence of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra who is now professor of composition at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. (Earlier in the day, there will be a free convocation of Stucky's music, at 4:10 p.m. in Roxy Grove Hall.)
"Threnos" was written by Stucky in 1988 on a commission from Marice Stith and the Cornell University Wind Ensemble. This lamentation for winds was created in memory of Stucky's colleague and friend, composer Brian Israel, who died of leukemia at the age of 35. "Fanfares and Arias," which dates from 1994, was commissioned by the Big Eight Band Directors Association and premiered last year by the University of Colorado Wind Ensemble.
Also on the program will be Jack Stamp's "Aubrey Fanfare" of 1995, which is dedicated to the memory of Waco-native Fisher Aubrey Tull, who taught at Sam Houston State University until his death two years ago. "Terpsichore" by German composer Michael Praetorius was published in 1612, and the Wind Ensemble will perform an arrangement by Bob Margolis.
Franz Krommer's "Concerto for Two Horns and Octet" is actually one of his partitas of 1803. The soloists in its Baylor performance-omitting the first movement-will be Margaret Robinson, Visiting Professor of Horn, and two of her students, Janet Boyce and Eric Overholt.
"March of the Princesses," which comes from Jules Massenet's opera "Cinderella," will be played in a transcription for winds by Fred Junkin. The concert will conclude with two folksong arrangements by Percy Grainger, "Irish Tune from County Derry" (better known as "Danny Boy") and "Shepherd's Hey."
This concert by the Baylor Wind Ensemble is free and open to the public. For more information, call the School of Music at 755-3991.