Cal Poly to Host Country’s Finest Wind Bands in Festival March 7-10

SAN LUIS OBISPO – The California Wind Band Festival, a four-day series of concerts featuring seven of the nation’s finest wind bands, will take place Wednesday through Saturday, March 7-10, in Harman Hall of the Performing Arts Center’s Christopher Cohan Center. Showtime is 8 p.m. all evenings.

The festival is part of the American Bandmasters Association’s 73rd annual national convention, to be held this year in San Luis Obispo. Over 300 members from throughout the United States and Canada are expected to attend.

The first two concerts will feature university ensembles from Oregon, Minnesota and Arizona; the third concert will feature community groups, and the finale will be performed by the U.S. Army Band, “Pershing’s Own,” from Washington, D.C.

The Cal Poly Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Professor William Johnson, will open the festival on March 7. Paul Severtson, co-principal violinist of the San Luis Obispo Symphony, will be featured in Stephen Melillo’s Concerto for Violin and Wind Ensemble. The Cal Poly Men's Chorus will join the Wind Ensemble in its performance of “Kings Go Forth” by British composer Edward Gregson.

Two of the West Coast’s finest community bands, the San Luis Obispo Wind Orchestra and the Ohlone Wind Orchestra from Fremont, will perform March 9. Morro Bay resident Chungsam Doh will conduct the San Luis Obispo Wind Orchestra in “Variations on a Korean Folksong” by John Barnes Chance and “And Can It Be” by David Gillingham. Doh is the former conductor of the Korean Navy Band.

The final festival concert, on March 10, will feature the U.S. Army Band, widely considered one of the nation’s premier professional wind bands. The band will conclude its performance with the official march of the United States of America, John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

The U.S. Army Band concert is free, with a limit of four tickets per household.

Tickets for the other festival concerts are $8 to $19 per person per evening and may be purchased at the Performing Arts Ticket Office at 756-2787 or online at www.pacslo.org. 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 Music Department, College of Liberal Arts and Instructionally Related Activities program. For more information, call the Music Department at 756-2406.

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