2014-2015 Season
ENSEMBLE SHOWCASE
Friday, October 24, 8 p.m.
Harman Hall, Performing Arts Center
Cal Poly’s 2014 Parent and Family Weekend will kick off with the Music Department's "Ensemble Showcase" concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, in Harman Hall of the Performing Arts Center. Music Department Chair W. Terrance Spiller (pictured) will serve as Master of Ceremonies, and the concert will feature the department's major performing ensembles: the Cal Poly Symphony, Cal Poly Choirs (PolyPhonics and The University Singers), University Jazz Band I, Cal Poly Arab Music Ensemble and Cal Poly Wind Ensemble.
Repertoire:
Rossini - The Barber of Seville: Overture
Saint-Saëns - Samson and Dalila: Bacchanale
FALL CONCERT: "Symphony at the Opera"
Sunday, December 7, 3 p.m.
Harman Hall, Performing Arts Center
The Cal Poly Symphony, joined by soprano Ciera Lamborn and tenor Christopher Campbell (pictured), will launch its 2014-2015 season with some of the greatest opera music ever written.
In addition to presenting solo arias, our guest artists will join forces - as Mimì and Rodolfo - for a concert performance of the first act of La Bohème, from the moment when the two lovers meet.
Repertoire:
Wagner - Die Meistersinger: Overture
Rossini - The Barber of Seville: Overture
Saint-Saëns - Samson and Dalila: Bacchanale
Puccini - Tosca: "Vissi d'arte" (Ciera Lamborn, soprano)
Puccini - Turandot: "Nessun dorma!" (Christopher Campbell, tenor)
Puccini - La Boheme: Act I Finale (Ciera Lamborn and Christopher Campbell)
TOUR
Thursday, February 12 (eve) - Saturday, February 14 (noon)
San Francisco
The Symphony will travel to San Francisco in February to perform for - and meet - students at Lowell High School, a public magnet school known for its academic excellence. We will also attend a concert of the San Francisco Symphony and enjoy activities organized by our student officers.
Repertoire:
The Symphony will perform selections from our Fall Concert
WINTER CONCERT: "Student Soloists / Orchesis"
Sunday, March 8, 3 p.m.
Harman Hall, Performing Arts Center
Every year, the Symphony holds auditions for student soloists of any major. The prize for several of them - a performance with the Symphony, of course! Come hear this year’s winners and celebrate musical talent from across the University.
The program will also include our second collaboration with Orchesis, Cal Poly’s oldest concert dance organization. Selections will include Karl Jenkins’ “Palladio,” choreographed by Diana Stanton, Piazzola’s “Oblivion,” choreographed by Michelle Walter, and music from the James Bond movies, choreographed by Christy McNeil.
Repertoire:
Bock - “If I were a rich man” from Fiddler on the Roof (Leah Anderson, tuba)
Creston - Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra (Daniel Diaz, marimba)
Ewazen - Concerto for Tuba or Bass Trombone, mvt. 1 (Rose Doylemason, bass trombone)
Thomas - “Connais-tu le pays?” from Mignon (Leah Ginsky, mezzo-soprano)
Bottesini - Bass Concerto No. 2 in B minor, mvt. 2 (Troy Hanson, bass)
Puccini - “Chi il bel sogno di doretta” from La Rondine (Shaina Levin, soprano)
Puccini - “Quando m’en vo” from La Bohème (Alexis Rubell, soprano)
Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488, mvt. 1 (Wicky Woo, piano)
Karl Jenkins - Palladio (choreographed by Diana Stanton)
Piazzolla - Oblivion (choreographed by Michelle Walter)
Norman - the James Bond theme (choreographed by Christy McNeil)
OPEN HOUSE CONCERT
Friday, April 17, 8 p.m.
Harman Hall, Performing Arts Center
After an exciting day at Cal Poly’s Open House, come and enjoy an evening of live entertainment by three of the Music Department’s finest instrumental ensembles: the Cal Poly Symphony, University Jazz Band, and Wind Ensemble.
Repertoire:
The Symphony will perform selections from our Winter Concert
SPRING CONCERT: "Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5"
Saturday, June 6, 8 p.m.
Harman Hall, Performing Arts Center
In May, 1888, after an exhausting conducting tour in Western Europe, Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky felt played out. As he recuperated in Frolovskoye, a beautiful little town in the Russian countryside, he wrote to his patron, Nadezhda von Meck, “I am dreadfully anxious to prove not only to others, but also to myself, that I am not yet played out as a composer.”
A few months later, his fifth symphony was complete and he had proven to himself, and to the world, that he was capable of crafting a monumental work that is as emotionally powerful as it is musically unified. Played out indeed!
Our final concert will also feature faculty flutist Suzanne Duffy (pictured). Currently principal flute for Symphony of the Vines and second flute/piccolo for Opera Santa Barbara, she has performed with Opera San Luis Obispo, the Palm Beach Opera, Santa Barbara Symphony, Florida Philharmonic, and the New World and Indianapolis Symphonies, among others.
Repertoire:
Glinka - Russlan and Ludmilla: Overture
Charles Griffes - Poem for Flute and Orchestra (Suzanne Duffy, flute)
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5 in E minor, op. 64