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Photos by Dr. Wesley Kluck.
The first Composer Laureate in the state of Arkansas, a former conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (ASO), and a talented composer with international prominence, Dr. Francis McBeth has left a legacy that will not soon be forgotten.
McBeth, who spent 39 years as a professor of music at Ouachita from 1957 to 1996, passed away in January of last year, and now the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will play a concert on campus to honor his life and many accomplishments.
The concert will take place tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Performing Arts Center.
The orchestra plays this concert not only to honor McBeth as a distinguished Arkansas composer, but also to thank him for his crucial service to the orchestra in its beginning stages. The ASO was officially established in 1966, but struggled greatly to stay alive for the first few years.
“In the early 1970s, the symphony orchestra asked Dr. McBeth if he would come and conduct, try to get the orchestra on its feet and raise enough money to actually have a season, and he essentially saved the orchestra,” said Dr. George Keck, professor emeritus of music and member of the organizational committee that planned the upcoming concert. “He conducted for about three years and by the time he left, he had literally resurrected the orchestra.”
At the concert, the ASO will play two of McBeth’s distinguished compositions, one of which, his Symphony No. 3, was composed while McBeth was studying for his doctorate in Rochester, New York, at the Eastman School of Music. Submitted as part of his graduate study, this piece won the Howard Hansen prize for the best student composition of the year.
Though it has been performed numerous times by various orchestras, Symphony No. 3 has never been recorded, but it will be recorded for the first time when the ASO performs it on Friday night.
The second featured piece by Dr. McBeth is a small, string orchestra piece titled “A Rose For Emily,” which the ASO also performed at McBeth’s funeral last year. “A Rose For Emily” is based off of one of his mother’s favorite short stories by William Faulkner. The orchestra will also play two additional pieces that were not composed by McBeth.
More than 500 tickets have already been sold and a full house is expected the night of the concert. Several of those present will be some of McBeth’s former students who all remember him fondly.
“For those of us who had him as a professor, this will be a special event,” said Phil Hardin, assistant to the president for administration, and leader of the concert planning committee. “I had at least two classes with him every year and he was a neat, neat professor, very funny, and he knew a lot about church history and Baptist history.
“When we would go to class we would talk not just about the musical subject matter, but about the bigger picture, about life. All of the people who have been in his classes just have very fond memories.”
The planning committee has spent months organizing and raising money to bring the ASO to campus and many are very excited to have the orchestra here to honor a professor they remember so well.
“It has been a really important effort for a very, very important cause, and I think it’s something that students, faculty and townspeople, are really going to enjoy,” Keck said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to hear a really great orchestra play some really great music.”
Student tickets for the concert are free, but must be reserved in the box office with a student ID. For more information about the concert, contact Hardin at hardinp@obu.edu.
