East Texas Symphony Orchestra to perform 'The Music of Will Jennings' June 22

May 6—It is especially fitting that the East Texas Symphony Orchestra's upcoming concert, "The Music of Will Jennings," will be held on the Tyler Junior College central campus.

Long before he wrote the lyrics to Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" for the motion picture "Titanic" and won a roomful of Academy Awards, Grammys and numerous other honors, Jennings was a student — and briefly an English professor — at TJC.

After graduating from Chapel Hill High School in 1961, Jennings attended TJC on a music scholarship. He played trombone in the TJC Band, was active in theater productions, studied journalism, wrote poetry and met his future wife, Carole.

Jennings graduated from TJC in 1963 and then briefly attended The University of Texas at Austin before transferring to Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in English.

He taught English at TJC from 1967 to '68, and then taught at the University of Wisconsin before moving to Nashville to concentrate on songwriting. He eventually wound up in Los Angeles, where he spent decades as a prolific and sought-after songwriter.

Jennings' impressive songbook includes "Higher Love" and "Back in the High Life Again" by Steve Winwood; "Looks Like We Made It" by Barry Manilow; "I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again" by Dionne Warwick; "Didn't We Almost Have It All" by Whitney Houston, "Where Are You, Christmas?" by Faith Hill, and many more.

He first struck Oscar gold in 1983, with "Up Where We Belong," from the motion picture "An Officer and a Gentleman," which was named Best Original Song.

His "Titanic" Oscar win with composer James Horner came in 1997.

The ETSO performance and featured soloists

Under the direction of Maestro Richard Lee, the ETSO will perform the Jennings tribute concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 22, in the Rogers Palmer Performing Arts Center on the TJC central campus.

Featured soloists will be Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell and TJC alumna and opera singer Julianne Casey.

Crowell met Jennings when they were students at SFA.

"Usually, when Will worked with artists, he wrote the words and the other guy wrote the melodies," Crowell said during Jennings' induction into Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016. "But when Will and I worked together, it was the other way around. I used his melodies. As far as I know, I'm the only one who's ever gotten to do that, and that's perfectly fine with me."

One of those collaborations was "What Kind of Love," which he and Jennings wrote from a recording of a melody Roy Orbison had written just before his death.

"You never knew when Will would just call you out of the blue with some brilliant idea," Crowell said, explaining how the Orbison tune came about. "One day, he said, 'Man, I need you to come over in a hurry. This is really important, and we've got to do a really good job on this one."

TJC vocal performance alumna Julianne Casey will perform "Up Where We Belong" from "An Officer and a Gentleman," as well as "Hymn to the Sea" from "Titanic."

"I can absolutely say it is a true honor to be invited to sing in this great musical celebration honoring Will Jennings," Casey said. "I grew up listening to so many of the songs he wrote which were sung by many of my favorite artists such as Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Eric Clapton, Randy Crawford and Steve Winwood.

"His lyrics truly feel like a soundtrack to my childhood, and I find it so incredible that this brilliantly talented artist was a student of Tyler Junior College. His influence is deeply inspiring to not only the music students of TJC, but he also serves as a great inspiration to the literature and creative writing students of our TJC community."

Over the years, Jennings and his wife have maintained their connection to TJC.

At the opening of TJC's Rogers Palmer Performing Arts Center in 2021, the center's Carole and Will Jennings Lobby was named in their honor. Jennings was also inducted as an inaugural member of the TJC's Ovation Society, which recognizes TJC alumni who have honored the College by distinguishing themselves through accomplishments and service to the fine and performing arts.

Of the June 22 performance, Mitch Andrews, TJC vice president of institutional advancement, said, "We look forward to this very special evening celebrating the music of Will Jennings. It will be a night of beautiful music plus a few surprises."

For tickets, go to ETSO.org.