Calendar of Events 2008-2009
2008 |
2009 |
Multiple event discounts are available when purchasing 4 or more events (10% discount for 4 events; 15% discount for 5 or more events).
Events held in the Performing Arts Center's Christopher Cohan Center will be indicated as Cohan Center. The Performing Arts Ticket Office charges a $3 per ticket facility fee.
Recitals are subject to change--please call 805-756-2406 to confirm recital dates, times, and locations
Saturday, September 27
The Great Poets in Song: 1900 and Beyond
8 p.m., Spanos Theatre
Jacalyn Kreitzer, mezzo soprano, and Susan Azaret Davies, piano, with guest artist Nancy Nagano, cello, skillfully and imaginatively wield their talents in their 2008 autumn recital. Hear the lilting and exquisite melodies and delicious—sometimes manic—subjects and texts of Franz Lehar and Viktor Leon, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, Reynaldo Hahn, Charles Loeffler and Paul Verlaine, Jake Heggie and Emily Dickinson, Frances Poulenc and Guillaume Apollnaire, Alban Berg and Otto Erich Hartleben, and Harold Arlen and Truman Capote. Featuring the song cycle composition of Cal Poly Music Department graduate Alex Kato-Willis, set to the poetry of Christina Rossetti.
tickets ($10 general/$6 seniors and students)
Great Poets Recital News Release
Saturday, October 18
Poems of E.E. Cummings
2 p.m. Davidson Music Center Room 218
Katherine Arthur, soprano, and Susan Azaret Davies, piano, will perform a song cycle of eight poems by E.E. Cummings set to music by Kenneth S. Habib. The lecture-recital will feature a discussion of the compositional design of the song cycle by Habib along with elucidative performance demonstrations by Arthur and Davies followed by the premiere of the entire cycle.
Tickets at the door: $5 general;
$2 students and seniors (not available for discount)
Poems of Cummings Lecture-Recital News Release
Saturday, October 25
Cal Poly Choirs' Debut Concert: American Idols
8 p.m., Cohan Center
Meet the 2008-09 Cal Poly Choirs as they present music of our American heritage. PolyPhonics, The University Singers, and the Early Music Ensemble will be joined by our barbershop quartets and our award-winning a capella ensemble, Take It SLO. Selections will include folksongs, barbershop harmony, patriotic songs and spirituals. Renowned composers include Stephen Foster, Aaron Copland and Randall Thompson. Toe-tappers to soothing ballads! Outstanding student soloists!
tickets ($13 & $15 general/$12 & $14 seniors/$8 students)
Saturday, October 25
University Jazz Band at Jubilee by the Sea, Pismo Beach
Time TBA
www.pismojazz.com
Saturday, October 25
University Jazz Band Performance
Tailgate BBQ
3 p.m., O'Neill Green (near Cotchett Education Building), Cal Poly
For information, visit the Parent Program Web page
Saturday, November 8
University Jazz Band Performance
Alumni Homecoming BBQ and Wine Tasting
1 p.m., O'Neill Green (near Cotchett Education Building), Cal Poly
For information, visit the Homecoming Web page
Saturday, November 15
Bandfest ’08!: "Mi Alma Latina”
Cal Poly Wind Orchestra,
Wind Ensemble & Mustang Band
8 p.m., Cohan Center
A festive season opener that starts with a bang and never looks back. Get swept away by the fascinating rhythms of Spain, Cuba, and Central and South America. With over 200 collegiate wind and percussion musicians in action, this concert will be a band fan’s dream-come-true. You’ll have a blast!
- Alberto Ginastera: "Danza Finale"
- Alfred Reed: "El Camino Real"
- Donald Grantham: "Baron Cimetére’s Mambo"
- Stephen Melillo: "Cuba"
- John Mackey: "Red Line Tango"
- Robert W. Smith: Symphony No. 3 “Don Quixote” (West Coast premiere)
In addition, the Pride of the Pacific Mustang Marching Band will fill the hall with its dazzling arrangements performed at halftime in Spanos Stadium.
tickets ($16 & $19 general/$13 & $15 seniors/$8 & $11 students)
Sunday, November 16
Cal Poly Symphony Fall Concert
Spiller plays Rachmaninoff
3 p.m., Cohan Center
Russian music: passionate, brilliant and powerful. Join the Cal Poly Symphony as we explore two masterworks conceived for the piano. Pianist W. Terrence Spiller will be our featured soloist for Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, a tour de force that has thrilled audiences since its premiere in 1901. The Cal Poly Symphony will also play Mussorgsky’s "Pictures at an Exhibition," a work originally written for solo piano and later orchestrated by Maurice Ravel.
tickets ($10 & $12 general/$8 & $10 seniors/$6 students)
Tuesday, November 18
Piano Student Recital
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Thursday, November 20
Instrumental Student Recital
11 a.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Friday, November 21
Vocal Student Recital
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Saturday, November 22
Senior Recital: Patrick Little, tenor
3 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
FREE
Friday, November 21
University Jazz Band Swing Dance
9 p.m.-midnight, Carrillo Recreation Center, 100 East Carrillo St., Santa Barbara
(free dance lessons at 8 p.m.)
For more info., call 805-897-2519
tickets ($12 general/$10 students)
Thursday, December 4
Instrumental Student Recital
11 a.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Friday, December 5
Fall Jazz Concert
8 p.m, Spanos Theatre
This concert will have an eclectic mix of jazz standards and modern compositions, and will be performed by the University Jazz Bands No. 1 and No. 2 and the Cal Poly Jazz Combos.
tickets ($10 general/$8 seniors and Jazz Federation members/$6 students)
Fall Jazz Concert news release
Saturday, December 6
Cal Poly Choirs' "A Christmas Celebration"
8 p.m., Cohan Center
Buy your tickets early for our annual holiday spectacular, “A Christmas Celebration.” Begin the holidays with the special sounds of the season featuring carols from around the world and a guest appearance by our spectacular Cal Poly Brass Ensemble, conducted by Christopher J. Woodruff. The musical highlight will be a new holiday treat composed by Cal Poly Music Professor Meredith Brammeier!
tickets ($17 & $20 general/$16 & $19 seniors/$10 students)
Friday, January 9
W. Terrence Spiller Faculty Piano Recital
8 p.m., Spanos Theatre
Concert pianist and chair of the Music Department W. Terrence Spiller will perform works by Mozart, Ravel, Bartok, and Liszt.
tickets ($10 general/$6 seniors and students)
Saturday, January 24
Early Music Ensemble: Monteverdi’s Masterpieces!
8 p.m., Pavilion
Vocal and instrumental forces combine to present the vast variety of madrigal styles composed by the great Italian composer, Claudio Monteverdi. Conductor Thomas Davies will outline the differences in Monteverdi’s compositional approach in a lecture-recital format.
tickets ($12 general, $8 seniors and students)
Tuesday, January 27
Piano Student Recital
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Saturday, February 7
"A Night at the Mission" Chamber Ensemble Concert
8 p.m. Old Mission Church, San Luis Obispo
An evening of beautiful music performed by our chamber ensembles. Performing at this event will be the Aurora Borealis Wind Quintet, Celestial Winds Quintet, Saxophone Quartets, Horn Choir, Clarinet Ensemble, Brass Quintets, Trombone Choir and Brass Choir.
tickets ($10 general and $8 seniors and students)
Saturday, February 21
Just Jazz Concert
8 p.m., Cohan Center
This concert will have an eclectic mix of jazz standards and modern compositions, and will be performed by the University Jazz Bands No. 1 and No. 2 and the Cal Poly Jazz Combos.
tickets ($12 & 15 general/$10 & 13 seniors and Jazz Federation members/$6 & $10 students)
Saturday, February 28
Cal Poly Choirs' Winter Concert
A Celebration of the Masters
8 p.m., Cohan Center
PolyPhonics and The University Singers present music in honor of past masters Felix Mendelssohn (born 1809) and Franz Joseph Haydn (died 1809). In addition, we are proud to premiere a new work by our own master, Cal Poly Music Professor Craig Russell.
tickets ($13 & $15 general/$12 & $14 seniors/$8 students)
Thursday, March 5
Instrumental Student Recital
11 a.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Friday, March 6
Arab Music Ensemble Winter Concert
8 p.m., Pavilion
Join the Arab Music Ensemble as it performs vocal and instrumental selections of some of the best-known art and popular music of the Eastern Mediterranean and larger Middle East. Hear the traditional melodic and rhythmic modes in the contexts of old and new genres on instruments including the oud, nay, qanun, buzuq, violin, cello, bass, guitar, accordion, riqq, daff, darabukka/tabla, and others. Renowned guest artists bring added depth and virtuosity to the concerts, and San Luis Obispo’s own Middle Eastern dancers top off the performances with folkloric dancing.
tickets ($10 general, $8 seniors and students)
Sunday, March 8
Cal Poly Symphony Winter Concert
Student Soloist Showcase
3 p.m., Cohan Center
Come hear the winners of our annual student solo competition for a taste of Cal Poly students’ musical talent. The Symphony will also perform music of Latin America.
tickets ($10 & $12 general/$8 & $10 seniors/$6 students)
Thursday, March 12
Instrumental Student Recital
11 a.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
Friday, March 13
Vocal Student Recital
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Saturday March 14
Cal Poly Wind Bands' Winter Concert: “From Russia With Love”
Cal Poly Wind Orchestra & Wind Ensemble
8 p.m., Cohan Center
From the memorable melodies, strong colors and uninhibited emotionalism of Tchaikovsky, to the inner power and technical invention of Shostakovich, this concert will bring you a basket of bold, brassy blockbusters by some of Russia’s greatest composers. Join us for an evening to remember!
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:
- "Dances from the Oprichnik" (Dance No. 1)
- Dance of the Jesters"
- "Capriccio Italian"
- Dmitri Shostakovich:
- "Festive Overture"
- "Jazz Suite"
- "Festive Overture"
- Sergei Prokofiev: "Opus 99"
- Vasily Kalinnikov: “Finale” from Symphony No. 1
- Nikolai Rimsky-Ko'sakov:
- 'Festival at Baghdad” from "Scheherazade"
- Johan de Meij: "Extreme Make-Over"
tickets ($16 & $19 general/$13 & $15 seniors/$8 & $11 students)
Saturday, April 11
The 20th Century with Kurt Weill
8 p.m., Spanos Theatre
A pastiche of the touching, fiery and brilliant songs of German native Kurt Weill. The songs are set to the fascinating texts and poetry of such famous writers of the time: Bertolt Brecht, Ogden Nash, Max Anderson, Elmer Rice, and Alan Paton. You’ll hear “Mack the Knife” and “Pirate Jenny” (Threepenny Opera), “Alabama Song” (Mahagonny), “Surabaya Johnny” (Happy End), “Speak Low” (One Touch of Venus), “Lost in the Stars” (from same-titled musical), “My Ship” (Lady in the Dark), and “September Song” (Knickerbocker Holiday), and others. Come experience the music of of 1920s and ’30s Berlin!
tickets ($10 general/$6 seniors and students)
Saturday, April 18
Open House Concert: “Around the World in 80 Minutes”
Featuring the Cal Poly Symphony, Wind Ensemble & University Jazz Band
8 p.m., Cohan Center
It took 80 days in Jules Verne’s book, but after an exciting day at Cal Poly’s Open House, we will take you on a musical journey around the world in 80minutes (approximately!).
The Cal Poly Symphony will perform music of Latin America.
The University Jazz Band will take you to Ethiopia with “Amlak Abet Abet,” an Ethiopian pop tune from the 1970s rearranged by the innovative big band The Either/Orchestra. You’ll also visit several South American locations for some of the best jazz by composers indigenous to that continent.
The Wind Ensemble will take you on a tour to Russia to hear Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italian,” Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” (excerpts). Then the Wind Ensemble will deliver you to Brazil for a brilliant five-minute finale, conducted by Dario Sotelo from São Paulo, Brazil.
tickets ($16 & $19 general/$13 & $15 seniors/$8 & $11 students)
Sunday, April 19
All-State Music Festival Concert
Festival Symphony Orchestra
Festival Jazz Band, Festival Wind Orchestra
2:30 p.m., Cohan Center
One hundred and fifty of the state’s finest young musicians participate in this spectacular Open House event. These young people may still be in high school, but they don’t sound like it. They are the future of music and will perform like young professionals. Come and enjoy an afternoon of extraordinary talented young folks as they display skills far beyond their years.
Terry Summa will lead the Festival Jazz Band. Summa was the director of bands at Foothill College for over 20 years. Since his retirement, Summa has been active as a clinician and adjudicator. Recent awards include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Jose Jazz Society and Outstanding Service Recognition from the Cazadero Music Camp. He was inducted into the Californian Music Educators Association Hall of Fame in March of 2008.
Dario Sotelo, artistic director and conductor of the Brazilian National Wind Orchestra, will conduct the Festival Wind Orchestra. Maestro Sotelo is in great demand as both a guest conductor and a lecturer. He has worked closely with Brazilian composers and arrangers to promote Brazilian music through new commissions, premiering their music with the Brazilian Wind Orchestra and the Paulista Symphonic Orchestra.
Thomas Cockrell will conduct the Festival Symphony Orchestra. Cockrell has served as the Nelson Riddle Endowed Chair in Music, director of orchestral activities and music director of the University of Arizona Opera Theater since 2000. In 2007 he was named the director of the James E. Rogers Institute for Orchestral and Opera Conducting, a bold new comprehensive leadership program for advanced conductors.
tickets ($16 & $19 general/$13 & $15 seniors/$8 & $11 students)
Friday, April 24
Faculty Artists’ Song Recital
Katherine Arthur and Susan Azaret Davies
8 p.m. Spanos Theatre
Please join soprano Katherine Arthur and pianist Susan Azaret Davies for an enchanting evening of song.
tickets ($10 general/$6 seniors and students)
Friday, April 24
University Jazz Band Swing Dance
8 p.m., Chumash Auditorium
The public is invited to this dance concert featuring original swing-era tunes played by the Cal Poly University Jazz Band No. 1. The dance will be from 8 to 10:30 p.m. in Chumash Auditorium at Cal Poly. Free swing dance lessons will be given at 7 p.m. The University Jazz Band will perform authentic big-band classics, suitable for dancing or listening.
tickets ($10 general/$6 students) at the door (not available for multiple event discount)
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Saturday, May 16
Johannes Brahms’ "Ein deutsches Requiem"
8 p.m., Cohan Center
The 250-member chorus and orchestra combine to perform this most beautiful music, Brahms’ Requiem. The Cal Poly Choirs join the Cuesta Master Chorale in celebration of Thomas Davies’ 25 years of choral leadership.
(not available for discount—sponsored by Cuesta College—individual tickets may be purchased from the Performing Arts Ticket Office)
Tuesday, May 19
8 p.m., Methodist Church Church, San Luis Obispo
All That Brass . . . and More!
FREE
For the second year in a row, Roy Main’s Trombone Choir and Christopher Woodruff’s Brass Choir team up for an evening of fabulous fanfares, flourishes and fantasies in the new Methodist Church in San Luis Obispo. Also performing will be two of Cal Poly’s Brass Quintets. In addition,
some windy woodwind players manage to sneak on to the stage for some much needed timbre contrast in the program. Come and join us.
Saturday, May 23
Early Music Ensemble: Masters of the Mission
8 p.m., Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa
Works by two giants of the Mexican Baroque: Ignacio de Jerusalem and Manuel de Sumaya. Craig Russell leads us through an exploration of this fantastic repertoire.
tickets ($12 general, $8 seniors and students)
Tuesday, May 26
Piano Student Recital
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Thursday, May 28
Instrumental Student Recital
11 a.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Friday, May 29
Jazz Night
8 p.m., Cohan Center
This concert will have an eclectic mix of jazz standards and modern compositions, and will be performed by the University Jazz Bands No. 1 and No. 2 and the Cal Poly Jazz Combos. A surprise guest artist will be featured!
tickets ($12 & $15 general/$10 & $13 seniors and Jazz Federation members/$6 & $10 students)
Saturday, May 30
Cal Poly Symphony Spring Concert
Looking East, Looking West
8 p.m., Cohan Center
The Cultural Revolution in China was not the easiest time for virtuoso pianists or orchestral musicians. Some orchestras were banned outright from performing any Western orchestral music, and one pianist in particular, Yin Chengzong, had nothing to do but accompany Revolutionary songs. It is miraculous indeed that Yin and a group of five other composers rearranged a patriotic cantata from 1939 into a genre of music so closely tied to the tradition of European virtousi—a piano concerto.
“The Yellow River Concerto” used patriotic material to look West—into the musical tradition of Europe—at a time when doing so was unacceptable. Composers in the European tradition have often looked to Eastern cultures for inspiration as well. Join the Cal Poly Symphony and guest pianist Tianshu Wang in a concert that explores music that looks West, and music that looks East.
Tianshu Wang is acclaimed by the press as a “superbly talented pianist” who plays with “prodigious technique and eloquent phrasing.” Wang has appeared on concert stages in the United States, China and Mexico. She has also received invitations to perform in Europe, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore. Winner of many competitions, including the first prize in the National Young Artist Piano Competition in Colorado, she is active in both solo and collaborative performances and has played with many major orchestras in China and the United States.
tickets ($10 & $12 general/$8 & $10 seniors/$6 students)
Tuesday, June 2, and Thursday, June 4
RSVP XIV: Emergent Forms
8 p.m., Pavilion
This marks the 14th season of this diverse transmedia series celebrating electroacoustic diversity and compositional risk. Set in post-apocalyptic times, this year’s performance examines the age-old struggles of new emerging ideologies in a world of powerful tradition. Don’t miss this unique blend of sound, visuals and staging artistically directed by faculty member Antonio G. Barata.
tickets ($11 all seats)
Thursday, June 4
Instrumental Student Recital
11 a.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Friday, June 5
Vocal Student Recital
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
FREE
Saturday, June 6
Cal Poly Wind Bands Spring Concert
“Visions” Featuring Alex Iles, Trombone &
the Cal Poly Wind Orchestra & Wind Ensemble
8 p.m., Cohan Center
When you combine Hollywood’s studio trombonist Alex Iles with the band world’s star composer Eric Ewazen, then add 130 collegiate musicians playing at their very best, you have the ingredients for a smashing season finale. Ewazen’s extraordinary work for trombone and wind ensemble, “Visions of Light,” provides the inspiration for this special evening. Through the magic of music, the performers will explore our innermost thoughts with compositions about visions, dreams, revelations, allegory and even the macabre. To commemorate the Allied Powers’ vision of eliminating the Third Reich on June 6, 1944, James Barnes’ “Lonely Beach” will be performed. Don’t miss this one.
- James Barnes: "Dreamers”
- “Lonely Beach”
- “Visions Macabres”
- “Lonely Beach”
- Alfred Reed: “Three Revelations” from the Lotus Sutra (excerpts)
- Rolf Rudin: “The Dream of Oenghus”
- Stephen Melillo: “Escape from Plato’s Cave”
- Eric Ewazen: “Visions of Light for Trombone & Wind Ensemble”
Alex Iles is principal trombonist of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed as alto, tenor and bass trombonist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the L.A. Chamber Orchestra, the Pasadena Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, Opera Pacifica and the Santa Barbara Symphony. He has performed on hundreds of television series and motion pictures.
tickets ($16 & $19 general/$13 & $15 seniors/$8 students)
Sunday, June 7
Cal Poly Arab Music Ensemble Spring Concert
7 p.m., Spanos Theatre
Join the Arab Music Ensemble as it performs vocal and instrumental selections of some of the best-known art and popular music of the Eastern Mediterranean and larger Middle East. Hear the traditional melodic and rhythmic modes in the contexts of old and new genres on instruments including the oud, nay, qanun, buzuq, violin, cello, bass, guitar, accordion, riqq, daff, darabukka/tabla, and others. Renowned guest artists bring added depth and virtuosity to the concerts, and San Luis Obispo’s own Middle Eastern dancers top off the performances with folkloric dancing.
tickets ($10 general, $8 seniors and students)