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April 10, 2009 Harding University Wind Ensemble and Chorus to honor retired directorSEARCY, Ark.⎯The Harding University Wind Ensemble and Chorus will cometogether under the direction of Dr. Michael Chance on April 23 to honor Dr. Eddie Baggett, retired director of bands. Baggett spent more than forty years as a professor at Harding and served as director of bands from 1951 to 1982. In his honor, Harding band alumni and friends commissioned prominent Arkansas composer Charles Booker to compose a new concert band work as a lasting tribute to Baggett. According to Chance, the concert will serve as the composition’s premiere performance. “The new work for band is a suite set in three movements, each presenting an impression of either Baggett himself or of Harding University, to which he dedicated his entire career,” says Chance. Other selections in the program include John Philip Sousa’s Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and Suite for Tuba by Don Haddad, with soloist Hiroaki Iizumi. The event will be held in the Administration Auditorium at 7 p.m. and is free to the public. Harding had a record enrollment this year of more than 6,500 students from 48 states and 52 foreign countries. It is the largest private university in Arkansas and attracts more National Merit Scholars than any other private university in the state. Harding also maintains campuses in Australia, Chile, England, France/Switzerland, Greece, Italy and Zambia. |
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