Symphonic Band To Perform March 1

by Richard Veit

The Baylor University Symphonic Band will present the second of its three spring-semester concerts at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 1, in Jones Concert Hall. The 67-member group performs under the direction of Dr. Barry Kraus, assistant professor of ensembles and associate director of bands.
The program will open with Fanfare Canzonique by American composer Brian Balmages, written in memory of Gilbert Johnson, who played principal trumpet for the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Next, guest conductor Kevin Sedatole, associate professor and director of bands, will lead a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's Komm, snsser Tod ("Come, Sweet Death"), BWV 478, as arranged for band by Alfed Reed, followed by American composer Norman Dello Joio's Fantasies on a Theme by Haydn. The piece is based on the principle theme from the finale of Franz Josef Haydn's String Quartet in F major, Op. 74, No. 2.
Following intermission, guest conductor Christopher Bianco, continuing lecturer in ensembles and assistant director of bands, will conduct a performance of American composer Eric Whitacre's Noisy Wheels of Joy, which the composer describes as "just pure, simple fun, written in the tradition of the great comic operatic overtures."
The program will conclude with American composer Donald Grantham's Phantasticke Spirites, based on tunes from the Elizabethan period but placed in a modern harmonic context.
The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 710-3991.