Music Ensembles at Parent and Family Weekend
Cal Poly’s 2014 Parent and Family Weekend will kick off with a musical showcase emceed by Music Department Chair W. Terrence Spiller at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, in Harman Hall of the Performing Arts Center on campus.
The Parent and Family Weekend Ensemble Showcase will feature all Cal Poly Music Department major performing ensembles: the Cal Poly Arab Music Ensemble, Cal Poly Choirs (PolyPhonics and The University Singers), University Jazz Band I, Cal Poly Symphony, and Cal Poly Wind Ensemble.
The Arab Music Ensemble, directed by Ken Habib, will begin the program with classic selections of art and popular music from the Eastern Mediterranean and larger region.
The Cal Poly Choirs, with The University Singers, will perform “The Morning Trumpet,” an early American hymn arranged by Cal Poly Professor Meredith Brammeier. PolyPhonics will follow with Lee Kesselman's “Musica est Dei,” based on the Orlando de Lasso motet “Musica est Dei donum optimi” (“Music, gift of the highest God”) and “Two Cat Songs” by Wilfred Josephs. The groups will combine in a performance of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” arranged by Mack Wilberg.Thomas Davies conducts the choirs, and Susan Azaret Davies and Paul Woodring are the accompanists.
The University Jazz Band I, led by Jazz Studies Director Paul Rinzler, will perform a program of big band swing dance classics.
The Cal Poly Symphony, under the direction of David Arrivée, will preview selections from its Fall Concert, “Symphony at the Opera,” including Saint-Saëns’ “Danse Bacchanale” from “Samson and Dalila” and Rossini’s overture to “The Barber of Seville.”
The Wind Ensemble, directed by Andrew McMahan, will close the show with performances of traditional and modern works selected from the best repertoire written for symphonic wind band.
Tickets are $12 and $14 for the public and $9 and $12 for senior citizens and students. Pricing includes all Performing Arts Center fees, and event parking is sponsored by the PAC. Tickets are sold at the Performing Arts Ticket office between noon and 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. To order by phone, call SLO-4TIX (756-4849).
A 10 percent discount is given to patrons who buy season tickets to four Music Department events through the Performing Arts Ticket Office; a 15 percent discount is given on tickets to five or more events.
The concert is sponsored by Cal Poly's College of Liberal Arts, Music Department, and Instructionally Related Activities program. For more information, call the Music Department at 805-756-2406.