October 19, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Michele Abba
Cal Poly Music Department
805-756-2406

Cal Poly Bandfest 2007 Is Simply ‘Out of This World’

San Luis Obispo -- More than 200 collegiate musicians will present Cal Poly’s annual Bandfest concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, in Harman Hall in the Performing Arts Center’s Christopher Cohan Center.

The Cal Poly Wind Orchestra, Wind Ensemble and the Pride of the Pacific Mustang Marching Band will take the stage for a night of musical pageantry. Billed as “Out of This World,” the concert will feature the combined forces of the Wind Orchestra and Wind Ensemble in Robert W. Smith’s Symphony No. 1, “The Divine Comedy,” a major work for large wind band based on Dante Alighieri’s epic poem by the same name.

Additional highlights will include Frank Ticheli’s “Vesuvius,” a musical description of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii in A.D. 79 and Richard Wagner’s “Hundingungsmarsch,” a work for wind band written in 1865 to honor King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

The Cal Poly Wind Ensemble will perform the West Coast premiere of a new work titled “Winanga-li” by Dutch composer Hardy Mertens. The work is inspired by the folklore of Australia and includes chants and sounds describing the beauty of its indigenous people, its wide-open majestic spaces, and the raw and untamed landscapes overrun by wild insects and animals, according to William Johnson, Cal Poly conductor of bands. 

The 130-member Pride of the Pacific will present Ernesto Lecuona’s “Malagueña,” Harold Arlen’s “Blues in the Night,” Chick Corea’s “Spain,” Josef Zawinuls’ “Birdland,” and a special memorial to Luciano Pavarotti in Giacomo Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.”

Bandfest is sponsored by Cal Poly’s Music Department, College of Liberal Arts, Athletics Department and Instructionally Related Activities program. Tickets are $8 to $19 and can be purchased at the Performing Arts Ticket Office 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). Discounts are given to patrons who buy tickets to four or more Music Department events for 2007-2008.

For more information, call the Music Department at 756-2406.

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