wife wants to take photography classes

wife has been asking for about a year to take some photography classes and I am now researching cameras. I have 1000 dollars to spend on camera and have been looking at the Nikon D40x,D80 and the Canon xti. She will be starting her class at the end of feb. so I want to get her a nice camera before then. Any suggestions appreciated. We live in Utah so primarily alot of outdoor pics, with some concert pics as well.

All good cameras. Go to a place or places and let her try them in her hand to see which feels best.....its important. The d40x will require newer lenses with afs, meaning the lens has its own focusing motor.
I have the d80 and am pleased with it. Can't speak for xti but others like theirs.
The outdoors or concert pics will depend on the lenses more than the camera.

The only thing to point out, as frog said, is that the D40/D40x will only autofocus with newer lenses (ones that have focus motors in the lens). Older lenses will work, but you must manually focus. The D80 does not have this problem.

I went with the XTi and love it. It's a little smaller than the D80, I think, which fits my hand fine. But trying them out in a store to see which is more comfortable is a very good idea.

You need to find out whether or not the class requires a film camera or not. My nephew signed up for a class, bought a Nikon D70, then found out that digital cameras were not allowed at all. I gave him my trusty old FE2 to use for that class.

If you find out that digital is not allowed then I would suggest going on eBay and buying a used camera and lens combo. They are selling for pennies on the dollar nowadays since everyone, even some professionals, are jumping on the digital bandwagon. If you want me to suggest a camera then I would say get a Nikon N8008/N8008s or N90/N90s. These are great autofocus film cameras that still have manual controls and the autofocus lenses will work with even the newest DSLR (except for the D40/D40x which require autofocus lenses with built in motors).