PRESIDENT'S CONCERT V: FAMILIAR & UNFAMILIAR

A musical mix of the known and unknown awaits those who attend President's Concert V Friday night.

"There's enough familiar they're going to say, `I know this music,'" says Dr. Jordan Tang, conductor of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. "And there's enough unfamiliar they won't say, `I just went to the shopping mall.'"

Tang, who also conducts the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in Jackson, Tenn., was in Cape Girardeau Tuesday to rehearse with the Choral Union.

The concert will be presented at 8 at Academic Auditorium on the Southeast Missouri State University campus. It is sponsored by Southeast President Dr. Dale F. Nitzschke and the Friends of Music.

The first half of the program, to be performed by the orchestra, includes a number of tunes with the word Christmas in the title: "White Christmas," "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," "The Christmas Song," along with "Silver Bells" and "Here We Come A-Wassailing," among many others.

But also on tap is the Serenade from Berlioz's "L'Enfance du Christ," an oratorio Tang himself arranged for orchestra. "I can guarantee that's one piece people have never heard before," he said.

The orchestra also is scheduled to play Alfred Reed's Russian Christmas Music, a selection that "ends big," Tang promises.

After an intermission, the orchestra and Choral Union will perform selections from Handel's "Messiah." Soloists will be soprano Elizabeth James Gallagher, alto Tamara Brannon, tenor Christopher Goeke and bass Jonathan Stewart.

The finale, of course, will be the Hallelujah! chorus, a work associated with Christmas even though its actual subject is the Second Coming of Christ.

"Tradition," Tang explains with a shrug.

He is a native of Hong Kong who came to the U.S. in 1969 to pursue graduate studies in music composition. He taught at Southwest Missouri State University and was the associate conductor of the Charlotte Symphony in North Carolina before becoming conductor at Jackson and Paducah 10 years ago.

As a guest conductor, he has directed the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Nashville, Memphis, Kansas City, South Arkansas and Sewanee Summer Music Center Orchestras.

The collaboration with the Choral Union came about, Tang thinks, because the Paducah Symphony played at the Show Me Center in 1994 in concert with The Moody Blues. "I think people said, `I didn't know Paducah had a symphony."

Dr. David Green and Dr. Marc Fulgham, both Southeast faculty members, and Melvin Gilhaus are local musicians who play with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. John Egbert, who ordinarily conducts the Choral Union, will have an opportunity to sing with the group this time. Egbert is a former member of the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus.

Tickets are available by calling the Department of Music at (573) 651-2141. They also will be available at the door.

A reception will be held after the concert in the Commons area of Robert A. Dempster Hall. Admission is by reservation only at an additional cost.