Baylor Symphony, Percussion Quartet To Perform Sept. 22

The Baylor Symphony Orchestra will present an exciting new percussion concerto--plus two masterpieces by Brahms and Beethoven-- at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, in Jones Concert Hall, located within the Glennis McCrary Music Building. This program, the orchestra's first concert of the 2005-2006 season, will be conducted by Director of Orchestral Activities and Conductor-in-Residence Stephen Heyde and by graduate student Gary Casity. Guest artists will be three members of the dynamic quartet, So Percussion.
The concert will open with the Academic Festival Overture of Johannes Brahms, written in 1879 on the occasion of the composer's receipt of an honorary doctorate from the University of Breslau. It makes use of popular German student songs of the time. Casity will conduct.
Next, the orchestra will welcome to the stage Baylor Lecturer in Percussion Todd Meehan and So Percussion members Douglas Perkins, Adam Sliwinski and Jason Treuting for a performance of the Percussion Concerto, "Algunas metáforas que aluden al tormento, a la angustia y a la guerra" ("Some metaphors that allude to torment, anguish, and war") by Puerto Rican composer Carlos R. Carrillo-Cotto. This work, scored for four percussionists and chamber orchestra, juxtaposes Puerto Rican clave rhythms with contemporary compositional techniques.
The program will conclude with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major, his so-called "dance symphony," which was begun in Teplitz in 1812 and finished several months later. The composer himself conducted the premiere in 1813 at a Viennese concert to benefit Austrian and Bavarian soldiers who had been injured at the battle of Hanau in the Napoleonic Wars. That same program also featured the premiere of another Beethoven work, the martial Wellington 's Victory.
The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor University School of Music at (254) 710-3991.