The 1999 President's Concert Set for May

by Richard Veit

The Baylor University 1999 President's Concert, titled "An American Salute," will be presented in Jones Concert Hall at 8 p.m. Saturday. It will feature the Baylor Wind Ensemble, conducted by director of bands Michael Haithcock, along with guest artists Krassimira Jordan, Lynda Keith McKnight and Grant Teaff.
Morton Gould's "American Salute" will open the program. Written in 1943, it makes use of the familiar tune "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." The Wind Ensemble will perform "Niagara Falls" by the eclectic Michael Daugherty, a popular contemporary composer who, as part of the Lyceum Series, performed several of his works at Baylor in the fall of 1992.
Krassimira Jordan, professor of piano and Artist-in-Residence, will be the soloist in the original version for jazz orchestra of George Gershwin's most famous work, "Rhapsody in Blue." Later orchestrated by Ferde Grofé, the first of Gershwin's two rhapsodies was premiered in 1924 by Gershwin himself with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.
American composer Dan Welcher now resides in Austin. The Baylor Wind Ensemble will perform his Symphony No. 3, "Shaker Life," which utilizes several Shaker tunes as its principal themes.
Soprano Lynda Keith McKnight, assistant professor of vocal studies at Baylor, will sing Composer Luigi Zaninelli's arrangements of "Four American Hymns." This set includes "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," "Give Me That Old Time Religion," "Amazing Grace" and "We Shall Gather at the River." Zaninelli is on the music faculty of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
Concluding the program will be Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait," which dates from 1942 and contains excerpts from the speeches and letters of Abraham Lincoln. Serving as narrator will be Grant Teaff, former head football coach at Baylor who now is director of the American Football Coaches Association.
General admission tickets are priced at $5. For ticket information, call the Baylor School of Music at 710-3991.