The Baylor University Wind Ensemble will present its first concert of the 2021-2022 season on Thursday, September 16, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Concert Hall, located within the Glennis McCrary Music Building. The conductor of this fine, 74-member ensemble of woodwinds, brass, and percussion is Baylor’s Director of Bands, J. Eric Wilson.
To open the program, graduate conductor Ceon Rumphs will lead a performance of the first movement (“Beginnings”) of American composer Adam Schoenberg’s Rise. This work was written in 2018 on a commission from the California Wind Band Consortium. Schoenberg currently serves as a professor at Occidental College, where he runs the composition and film scoring programs.
Then the Wind Ensemble will play American composer Frank Ticheli’s 1994 setting for wind band of the familiar eighteenth-century hymn by John Newton, “Amazing Grace.” Ticheli teaches composition at the University of Southern California.
Also to be heard is the world premiere of Spanish Dances (First Book) by Valencia-native Luis Serrano Alarcón. The movements are entitled “Petenera,” “Zortziko,” and “Jota.” Spanish Dances was commissioned by twelve U.S. university ensembles and their directors, including the Baylor University Wind Ensemble and its conductor, Eric Wilson.
The program will close with excerpts from a ballet called Pineapple Poll, which was arranged by Charles Mackerras in 1951 from the operatic music of Sir Arthur Sullivan. Pineapple Poll was first performed at Sadler’s Wells Theatre as part of the Festival of Britain. Scarcely one year later, the transcription for band was produced by William James Duthoit.
This Wind Ensemble concert is free of charge and open to the public. It is also available for livestreaming at baylor.edu/music/live.