HP
Heath Perkin
  • Class of 2012
  • Abilene, TX

Heath Perkin Tours with Hardin-Simmons University Orchestra

2011 Nov 16

The Hardin-Simmons University student orchestra toured North Texas November 17-18, playing three separate concerts: one at the Performing Arts Center in Allen, Texas, and two concerts in Carrollton, Texas, at R.L. Turner High School and at the First Baptist Church.

Heath Perkin of Abilene, Texas, who is majoring in music performance, is an orchestra member who performed during the tour.

Orchestra director Dr. Peter Isaacson says the tour served several purposes, including the fact that it was a great learning opportunity for the 48 HSU student musicians in the orchestra. "Being a musician means that you also assume the responsibility for exposing others to music, and many times this entails a tremendous amount of organizing, arranging and moving before you ever play a note," says Isaacson.

HSU's School of Music and Fine Arts is unique in that it supports a full orchestral program at a university with only about 2,300 students. Also, HSU is the only Baptist university in Texas, other than Baylor, with an orchestra that performs concerts regularly from the standard repertoire and trains students for graduate study, employment in education, and opportunities for performance in professional ensembles.

Isaacson says he likes to go off campus at least once a year because it provides an opportunity for outreach in the advancement of music and helps to promotes interest in the HSU Orchestra program beyond Abilene and the Big Country.

The tour not only provided a platform for recruitment but also a way to reconnect with HSU alumni in the field of music. "This is essential because Texas has so many fine institutions that excel in the arts. Therefore, prospective students are presented with a myriad of excellent options for study within their home state," says Isaacson.

"It is important to provide our students with the experience of performing repertoire under a variety of conditions and situations," says Isaacson. "I think this certainly gives them a perspective on the rigors of being a musician, and it demonstrates to them the fact that we need to be ambassadors for the arts in our lives and careers. I also think it is a really wonderful opportunity for our students to have more than one performance with the same repertoire. Their growth from each performance is exponential, and it is really exciting for me as a director to see how the ensemble matures and improves from each concert."

The HSU Orchestra performed the following repertoire:

Alexander Borodin's Symphony No. 2 in B minor

Camille Saint-Saens' Dance Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah

Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain

About Hardin-Simmons:

HSU has an enrollment of approximately 2,300 undergrad and graduate students from 29 states and 19 countries. HSU has a 13:1 student faculty ratio with a campus that sits on 209 acres. Seventy-nine percent of HSU's faculty hold the highest degree in their field.

The university is named by U.S. News and World Report as one of the best universities in the western region of the United States and is listed by The Princeton Review as a Top Ten Best in the West University. It is a member of the Colleges of Distinction, and the Chronicle of Higher Education named it to their honor roll as a "Great College to Work For."

Seven undergraduate degrees encompass 70 major fields including: athletic training, criminal justice, social work, counseling, psychology, molecular biology, biochemistry, environmental science, religion, music, art, teaching, history, communications, English, and sociology.

Ten graduate degrees include the Doctor of Ministry and the Doctor of Physical Therapy.

International study programs include England, Austria, Hong Kong, Spain, and Australia.

Hardin-Simmons University, founded in 1891, is a private Christian institution, and has been affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas (Texas Baptists) since 1941.