Spring Concert - "Looking East, Looking West"
Saturday, May 30 · 8:00 PM, Cohan CTR

Our Spring Concert this year is special. "Looking East, Looking West" is the culmination of a new festival at Cal Poly: The World Across the University. Each year, the festival has a theme, and this year it focuses on the "Republican Era" in China, a period in the early to mid 1900's. Information on all of the events in this year's festival can be found on the World Across the University page.

"Looking East, Looking West" is a concert in three acts. First, the Cal Poly Symphony will perform music of Borodin, Ravel and Puccini, which captures Eastern cultures from a European point of view. Second, the Shenyang Early Music Ensemble will perform traditional Chinese music on traditional instruments. Based in Shenyang, China, the ensemble features the sound of China, uninterpreted by European composers.

Finally, pianist Tianshu Wang will join the Symphony in a performance of the “Yellow River Concerto,” written during the Cultural Revolution in China by a committee of composers. “Yellow River Concerto” is a reworking of the patriotic “Yellow River Cantata,” written in 1939 by Xian Xinghai.

During the Cultural Revolution, European arts were considered unpatriotic. It is miraculous that a group of composers were able to rework the patriotic cantata into a genre of music so closely tied to the tradition of European virtuosi — a piano concerto.

Wang has appeared on concert stages in the United States, China and Mexico and 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 U.S.

Tickets for the concert are $10 and $12 for the public, $8 and $10 for seniors and $6 for students. They are on sale at the Performing Arts Ticket Office from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. To order by phone, call SLO-ARTS (756-2787). To order online, visit this event page at www.pacslo.org.

The concert is sponsored by Cal Poly's Music Department, College of Liberal Arts and Instructionally Related Activities program. For more information, call the Music Department at 756-2406.