Wind Ensemble Concert Includes World Premiere Sept. 20

by Richard Veit

Baylor University's nationally recognized Wind Ensemble will present its first concert of the 1999-2000 season at 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20, in Jones Concert Hall. The Ensemble will perform under the baton of Michael Haithcock, professor of conducting and director of bands, and the guest soloist will be operatic baritone Paul Kreider.
The central portion of the program will feature three works by composer Daron Hagen, including the world premiere of his song cycle, The Heart of the Stranger. This cycle, scored for baritone and orchestral winds, consists of 10 songs--with texts by 10 different poets--each dealing with the subject of love. They will be sung by Kreider, chairman of the department of music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Kreider, who has performed in some of the world's greatest opera houses, was a principal singer in the premiere of Hagen's opera, Bandanna, last February in Austin.
Two other compositions by Hagen will also be presented at the Baylor concert. Forward! was written in 1998 as part of Wisconsin's statehood sesquicentennial celebration. "Scene and Interlude" comes from the opera Bandanna, which is set in a Texas-Mexico border town during 1968.
Besides the works by Hagen, the Wind Ensemble will play music by Aaron Copland and Jules Massenet. Copland's An Outdoor Overture will open the concert. Dating from 1938, it stands as one of the composer's first attempts at writing music in a tonally accessible vein that would later include such works as the ballets Appalachian Spring and Rodeo.
Closing the program will be the famous ballet music from Jules Massenet's 1885 opera Le Cid. Originally for full orchestra, these seven exuberant dances--favorites of audiences everywhere--were arranged for wind band by Verne Reynolds.
This concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 710-3991.