Baylor Symphony to Present Concert Dec. 5

by Richard Veit

The Baylor Symphony Orchestra will present its final concert of the fall semester at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5, in Jones Concert Hall. The concert will be conducted by Stephen M. Heyde, the Mary Franks Thompson Professor of Orchestral Studies and Conductor-in-Residence.
Antonín Dvorák's "Carnival Overture" will open the program. This tone poem was written in 1891 and premiered in Prague the next year-just prior to the composer's extended visit to the United States.
Aaron Copland received the Pulitzer Prize for his ballet Appalachian Spring, which was first presented in 1944 scored for 13 instruments. An orchestral suite from the ballet soon followed, and then-in 1970-the suite was reduced back to its chamber dimensions. Thirteen members of the Baylor Symphony Orchestra will present the chamber version of the Appalachian Spring suite under the direction of graduate conductor Beverly Everett.
The concert will conclude with a performance of "Roman Festivals," the final installment in Ottorino Respighi's famous Roman trilogy (which also includes "The Pines of Rome" and "The Fountains of Rome"). "Roman Festivals" is programmatic-portraying, in four descriptive movements, festivals from various periods of Roman history. The movement headings are "The Circus Maximus," "The Jubilee," "The October Festival," and "The Epiphany."
This Baylor Symphony concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 755-3991.