Wind Ensemble Plays at Baylor on Feb. 1

Baylor University's nationally recognized Wind Ensemble will present a concert at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, in Jones Concert Hall. The program, featuring five works from the 20th century, will be conducted by Michael Haithcock, director of bands.
Opening the concert will be "Tempered Steel," a 1997 composition by Baylor graduate Charles Rochester Young, who now serves as chair of composition/music theory at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The performance is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Richard Willis, Composer-in-Residence at Baylor for more than 30 years. Young studied with him during his undergraduate years at Baylor.
Next on the program will be Percy Grainger's "Colonial Song" from 1911 which, according to the composer, was written "to express feelings aroused by thoughts of the scenery and people of my native land, Australia, and also to voice a certain kind of emotion that seems to me not untypical of native-born colonials in general."
Like the Young piece, David Gillingham's "Concertino for Percussion and Wind Ensemble" also dates from 1997. It was commissioned by the Oklahoma State University Wind Ensemble. Associate director of bands Jeffrey Grogan will appear as guest conductor.
Florent Schmitt's massive work for winds and percussion, "Dionysiaques," was completed in 1913 but not premiered until 12 years later. It is a romantic tone poem in the style of Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss but with a distinctly French tonal language.
The Wind Ensemble's program will close with the familiar "Festive Overture" by Dmitri Shostakovich, which was composed in 1954 between Shostakovich's work on the Tenth Symphony and the First Violin Concerto. It uses the standard instrumentation of the Russian military band.
This concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call 710-3991.