Convocation Features Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto March 20

by Richard Veit

The Baylor University School of Music will present pianist Krassimira Jordan and the Baylor Symphony Orchestra in a convocation program at 4:10 p.m. Thursday, March 20, in Jones Concert Hall. This special concert will consist of a single work, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23, with the orchestra conducted by Stephen Heyde, Baylor's director of orchestral activities.
This is the same composition which Jordan and the Baylor Symphony will perform in Houston on April 7 as part of the School of Music's Diamond Jubilee Campaign.
Tchaikovsky's work is one of the most popular of all piano concertos, and it has held an honored place in the repertoire ever since its world premiere in Boston, Mass., on Oct. 25, 1875.
A former student in Moscow of legendary pianists/teachers Heinrich Neuhaus and Emil Gilels, Krassimira Jordan has been a member of the music faculty at Baylor since 1989. Her most recent compact disc, "Slavic Masterpieces for Piano," has just been released by Albany Records. Music critic Alexander Morin, writing in the current issue (March/April 1997) of American Record Guide, calls the new recording: "Interesting music, well-played, in good sound, and worth hearing." He praises Jordan as "a skillful and sympathetic interpreter of this music...always in control, intelligent and expressive."
This special convocation performance is free and open to the public. For more information, call the School of Music at 755-3991.