Wind Ensemble to Play Premieres Nov. 18

by Richard Veit

The Baylor University Wind Ensemble will present its second concert of the 1997-98 season at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, in Jones Concert Hall. The Wind Ensemble-regarded as one of the finest collegiate wind bands in the nation-is conducted by Michael Haithcock, director of bands and professor of conducting at Baylor.
The concert will open with an arrangement by John P. Boyd of Felix Mendelssohn's Overture for Winds. Then guest conductor Jeffrey Grogan will lead the ensemble in a performance of Gustav Holst's Hammersmith: Prelude and Scherzo. Grogan is associate director of bands at Baylor and director of the Golden Wave Marching Band.
Two world premieres of music by composer Daron Hagen will be presented-Night, Again and the Concerto for Cello and Wind Ensemble. The soloist in the concerto will be Robert LaRue, who has studied with such renowned cellists as Bernard Greenhouse, Janos Starker and David Soyer. Hagen is now in residence at Baylor and will be in attendance for these two premiere performances.
Concluding the program will be Tchaikovsky's little-known "Dance of the Jesters" from the ballet The Snow Maidens. This will be heard in a transcription for military band.
The Wind Ensemble concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 710-3991.