Baylor Symphony Orchestra in Concert

The Baylor Symphony Orchestra, multiple winner of the prestigious American Prize for Orchestral Performance, will present its next concert on Tuesday, March 22, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Concert Hall, which is located within the Glennis McCrary Music Building. This nationally renowned, 105-member orchestra is led by Conductor-in-Residence Stephen Heyde, and its graduate conductor is K. Trey Thompson from Haslet, Texas. Performing as soloist will be pianist Fjoralba Zguro, winner of the 2020 Baylor Concerto Competition.
The program will open with Mr. Thompson leading a performance of “Siegfried’s Funeral Music” from Götterdämmerung, the final work in Der Ring des Nibelungen, a four-opera cycle by German composer Richard Wagner. “Siegfried’s Funeral Music” begins after the hero is murdered while on a hunting expedition. His lifeless remains are then marched to the hall of the Gibichungs, accompanied by this stirring music.
Guest soloist Fjoralba Zguro, a native of Albania, earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance at Baylor University, where she studied under Dr. Jani Parsons. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at Carnegie Mellon University. Ms. Zguro will appear as soloist in French composer Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, a work whose premiere performance was given in Paris in 1932 by pianist Marguerite Long, with the Orchestre Lamoureux conducted by the composer. Within months, the work was heard in the major cities of Europe and in the United States.
German composer Johannes Brahms wrote his Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, in the summer of 1877, during a visit to Pörtschach am Wörthersee, a town in the Austrian province of Carinthia. Its premiere was given in Vienna on December 30, 1877, with Hans Richter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.
The Baylor Symphony Orchestra concert is free of charge and open to the public. It is also available for livestreaming at baylor.edu/music/live.