Monday, April 28, 1986/The Battalion/Page 5
evoted to career
ductor wrapped up in music
‘ i s ill the exceptional people
h<> have a hand in making artistic
. hiii'-t'' here happen,” he says. “It’s
i Id hat vet, where the status quo
! ii.is been established and it goes on
'd it and on and on, year after
1 1 with about the same enthusiasm
l> \< I The excitement is so high that
^ l (i 11 jmi makes everything that hap-
,i , ns l )t ns just that much more special.”
Krager s father and grandfather
' ' "•'•n named Franz, and although his
'•uvms (hose to Americanize liis
ame to 1-rank, he later decided he
uiu'd to be known by his ancestral
: aim I he foreign-sounding name
mg the is an asset, given the current trend
caching toward hiring foreign-born conduc
es but his name change is far less
: liasia than that of many aspiring
inductors who have changed their
‘ ,'ai names to lielp their careers.
Ihe orchestra takes up much of
ki.igot's time but his teaching job is
- dn one that allows him to reach peo-
' si, pie who otherwise might not be ex-
1 al an posed to classical music.
lie brings enthusiasm and humor
1 '• his musk appreciation classes, re-
( nth telling a class that crescendo
■ md decrescendo marks on a musical
v ore are ‘the ones that look like
1 ei sidewa\s ice-cream cones” and dem-
'h in onstraling how a composer of the
l -‘ i i" 1 K baroque period would go about his
ate out work at the piano.
I he class is challenging, he says,
be* uise the students have widely va-
• i nig degrees of musical knowledge
h lore they enter the course. He says
e iliout a third of the students have
xp' i iemv on a musical instrument
aid about a third are what he calls
' ,' i• 1 \ exposed" to music — they
a o« limited plaving experience.
\nd then of course you’ve got
1 lit d that basicalIv play the radio
ml die television and that’s it,” he
Uespiie that imbalance in knowl-
ige. krager sa\ s he doesn’t have a
pro' ■lem leaching the class.
i i never had a problem trying
: . m . thoughts to other peo-
■ nd I think that helps the whole
bat k to thing," he says.
i Ins isn’t to say Krager has never
h problems with teaching. In
■ om college student to college
Missouri, he skipped a
>tep in the traditional teaching lad-
' dm , not teaching in a public
u tmem school setting.
It was a rough first two years
< iat Missouri) because 1 had no
\ I o l ienee.’’ he says. “I was thrown
• a situation at the age of a very
11 a11g ’1 where 1 had graduate stu-
di nts under me who were older than
1 1 was. and I mean much older —
. di< earh :W)s in some cases.
Mid that posed real problems,
t ■ l< li ning to find how far you could
ith voui authority and learning
i .1 people would respect you.
t ! here w ere a lot of tense moments
hi: those first couple of years.”
Ki.-eci savs he thinks those initial
problems were due to his lack of tea-
• a his citing experience.
Photo by Anthony S. Casper
Franz Krager of the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra con
ducts orchestra members at practice.
“In this business, we’re dealing so
closely with people’s feelings that in
general you have to be a ‘people per
son’ to be really successful,” he says.
“And unless you know how to do
that you’re going to step on a lot of
toes and hurt a lot of feelings and
make a lot of people angry at you —
and you’re going to learn what not to
do in a hurry.”
Krager handles his classes with an
ease that belies those early tense
times.
He wasn’t fazed when a student
recently disagreed strongly with his
evaluation of a performance.
“That’s the thing about art,” he
told the class. “There is no one per
formance that satisfies everyone.
That’s the way art goes. But if you
don’t go, you won’t have an opinion.
So you need to go.”
Krager is not afraid to make his
students laugh — even if they’re
laughing at him. During a class dis
cussion of the Vienna Choir Boys’
performance, he launched into an
explanation of what he termed “a
very embarrassing moment.”
He spent most of a day preparing
a detailed lecture on the choir, to be
presented at the A&M Opera and
Performing Arts Society’s Lag-
niappe Lecture Series. In what he
called “the nightmare of all lec
turers.” the time of the lecture had
been mispublicized. He stepped out
on stage to give his lecture — and
found himself face-to-face with a
completely empty theater.
“Anyway, minutes lalei there
were 12 people in the audience so I
went ahead with the lecture," be
said. “ I he ushers, bless their hearts,
came and sat in the back to make it
look more crowded.
“This is embarassing. I don’t
know Why I’m telling you this. But if
any of you have questions about the
Vienna Boys’ Choir, I have a very
elaborate lecture.
"I try to tie what we study in depth
into the whole art scene and how it’s
part of the human soul,” he says.
“I’m not concerned that people
know details about remembering
composers’ dates and the key to the
second movement of a symphony
and how many measures make up a
phrase and all that stuff, you know,
how many sharp's it takes to make up
the key of whatever.
“When they can hear a piece of
music on the radio 10 years from
now and keep it on rather than turn
ing it off out of boredom or say to
themselves, ‘Gee, that sounds like it’s
out of the Romantic period,' those
types of things are the things that
are important to me.”
wnai sup
Monday
THE BATTALION, applications are being accepted for edi
torial cartoonist, columnists and photographers for the
summer and fall. Applications can be picked up in 21b
Reed McDonald.
The Medical Sciences Library will be dosed to all but medical
and veterinary medical students from 6:00 p.m. until dos
ing May 4. to May 15. For more information, contact Vir
ginia Aigermtssenat845-742T -w
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: will sponsor the mmi writing-
course, “Proofreading^ at 6:30 p.m. in 120 Blocker. For .
more information call S45-3452 or stop bv 227 Blocker.
CENTER FOR RETAILING STUDIES STUDENT ASSO
CIATION: Samuel Spritzer will discuss the different as
pects of the retailing business at 7 p.m. in 153 Blocker,
TAMU AGGIE MAJORITY FOR CLEMENTS: will sponsor
a rally at noon at Rudder Fountain with free.cokes and a
live band. Everyone is welcome, r -TT ; ;
STUDENT Tr applications for public relations, cookie crew,
freshman programs and Sesmncentennial chairmans are
available through Monday on the second floor of the Pavil
ion, iSliili • lllfli H • .'rVi:" tcbTf'MN-:: | ; : tl
EL PASO HOMETOWN CLUB: will meet at 7 p.m. in 204
Harrington.
AGGIE ALLEMANDERS: will meet at 7 p.m. in the lobby of
Zaehry EngineeringCemfer, : 2 .:
MSC AGGIE CINEMA: will meet at 7 p.m, in 502 Rudder.
Til : ' •
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: will sponsor the mini writing-
course, “How to Decode Your Writing/' at 6:30 p.m. in 120
Blocker. For more information call 845-3452 or stop by
227 Blocker. •.t/Tv
ADVERTISING ASSOCIATION: Bill Mofl it and Charlie
Moger form KSRR — 97 Rock in Houston will talk about
advertising and promotions at 7:30 p.m. in 163 Blocker,
AGGIE G.O.P.: officer elections will be held at 7 p.m. in 401
Rudder at 7 p.m.
SPANISH CLUB: will elect officers at 8:30 p.m. in 410 Rud
der.
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SOCIETY: will have a
panel discussion at 6:30 p.m. in 127 Blocker,
AGGIE DEMOCRATS: will meet to discuss the primary at
8:30 p.m. in 502 Rudder.
items for What’s Up should be submitted to The Battalion,
216 Reed McDonald, no less than three days prior to de
sired publication date.
Jury selection continues
in organized crime case
KERRVILLE (AP) —Jury selec
tion resumes Monday in the state’s
organized crime case against a Hill
Country family and a hitchhiker ac
cused of torturing to death a drifter
who had been forced to work on a
ranch.
District Attorney Ron Sutton said
the jury selection process, which be
gan with the selection of an initial
panel on March 24, probably will
take a week to complete.
I he state district court jury will
consider the state’s case against Wal
ter Wesley Ellebracht Sr., his son
Walter Wesley Ellebracht Jr., and
the younger Ellebracht’s wife, Joyce.
The three, along with hitchhiker
Carlton Robert Caldwell, are ac
cused of the March 1984 death of
drifter Anthony Warren Bates.
Prosecutors say Bates was one of
several hitchhikers who went to the
Ellebrachts’ sprawling Hill Country
ranch after he was promised work,
and then was forced to stay. The
state contends Bates was tortured to
death with an electric cattle prod
and his body burned.
The court summoned 500 poten
tial jurors in March, and narrowed
that pool to 140. Another 200 were
to report for possible duty Monday,
Sutton said.
Five other defendants, all drifters
who at one time lived at the ranch,
have been charged in the organized
crime indictment.
A 10th defendant, Darryl Hun-
sacker, remains charged under the
original murder indictment handed
down before prosecutors obtained
the organized crime indictment.
en Martin’s Family Restaurant’s
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all 3 locations:
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Sunflay-Thursday
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no coupons needed
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College Station
The social event of the year is here
Monmouth Duo
presented by Pi Beta Phi
and Kappa Kappa Gamma
On the second day of May,
Nineteen Hundred Eighty-six
m
JUSTICE
ROBERT M. CAMPRELL
SUPREME COURT
B.A. DEGREE
JURIS DOCTOR
DEGREE
7 YEARS
EXPERIENCE AS
SUPREME COURT
JUSTICE
BUT YOUNG ENOUGH
TO UNDERSTAND
TODAY’S PROBLEMS
FORMER SCHOOL
TEACHER
2 TIME VETERAN
U.S. ARMY
TEXAS NATIONAL
GUARD-10 YEARS
AUTHOR OF 126 SUPREME COURT DECISIONS
PROVEN ABILITY & INTEGRITY
Paid for by the Robert M. Campbell Campaign, P.0. Box 8418, Waco, Texas 76714.
: : . ■ ' - ;/ ■. ‘ :
•- ' •' .’ T ‘ ‘ vf ■ ?*r- *’