Kelly Thomas Memorial Concert, Knoxville, TN, Sept. 27th

[graybach]

I received the following information in a mass e-mail sent out by my teacher, Winston Morris, and thought I'd pass it along for anyone interested.
Thanks,
Gray Bach

Memorial Concert for Dr. Kelly Thomas
“TENNESSEE TECH GRADUATE: 1993-1997”
The Southern Stars Symphonic Brass (SSSB) with guest artists, the Tennessee
Tech Tuba Octet, will be presenting a Memorial Concert on Sept. 27 to honor the
memory of Dr. Kelly Thomas, who died in June of a wasp sting. Dr. Thomas was
only 40 years old and left a wife and 4 children who reside in Niota, TN. Kelly was
the professor of Tuba/Euphonium at the Univ. of Tenn, a position which he had held
for one year. He also was the principal euphonium musician with the SSSB and
the ensemble's musicians are donating their talents to perform this concert to honor
one of their own.
The concert will be held at the Cornerstone Church that is located at 1250 Heritage
Lake Blvd in Knoxville, and the concert will be at 3:30pm on Sunday, Sept.
27. Admission is free and an offering will be available to support the Thomas
Family Fund.
The Southern Stars Symphonic Brass are a professional ensemble comprised of 30
instrumental musicians. Dwight Wages is the President and founder of the SSSB
and had this to say, "Kelly had only performed a couple of concerts with us, but he
made a great impression on his fellow musicians in a short period of time. He was
a terrific musician and what really impressed me was what a great father he was to
his children. It is also obvious that he was a great mentor to his student
musicians".
The concert program was selected to represent music enjoyed by his family, sacred
music, euphonium/tuba feature selections, and inspirational music. The program
includes: "Summon the Heroes", "Be Thou My Vision", "Melody Shop march", "If
We Hold On Together", "Bugler's Holiday" and "Amazing Grace" (previous two
selections will be presented by the Tenn. Tech. Univ. tuba/euphonium octet),
"Pantomime" -euphonium solo, "Make His Praise Glorious", Holst's "1st Suite in
Eb" (mvt. 1), "Closer Walk with Thee", "Walking with Heroes", and "You'll Never
Walk Alone". Guest vocalist, Brenda Frye is an operatic soprano, and she will
be singing "If We Hold On Together" and "You"ll Never Walk Alone".
This is a great opportunity to hear an inspirational Memorial Concert honoring Kelly
Thomas who was an outstanding individual who left this world too soon.