February 4, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michele Abba
Cal Poly Music Department
805-756-2406; music@calpoly.edu
Cal Poly Choirs to Perform ‘Wings of Bliss’ on Feb. 27
SAN LUIS OBISPO - The Cal Poly Choirs will present their annual Winter Concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, in the Performing Arts Center’s Christopher Cohan Center. The concert will premiere the new work “Wings of Bliss” by Cal Poly Music Professor Craig Russell.
PolyPhonics and The University Singers will be conducted by Cal Poly Music Professor Thomas Davies in works by composers William Byrd, Benjamin Britten, Johann Sebastian Bach, César Alejandro Carrillo, Robert Schumann and Robert Young.
Forty-five voices strong, PolyPhonics will open the concert with Byrd's lively motet, "Haec Dies." This will be followed by Bach's opening chorus to Cantata #149, "Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg" (They Sing with Joy of Victory), composed for the Feast of St. Michael, the archangel. Songs celebrating the life and times of Queen Elizabeth I and II by Benjamin Britten will also be a part of the PolyPhonics program.
The featured work, “Wings of Bliss,” is based on a poem by Los Osos resident Mark Lloyd Richardson. This beautiful work is for chorus, piano and violin. Brynn Albanese, violin, and Susan Azaret Davies, piano, join PolyPhonics for this exciting premiere.
The 70-voice University Singers will perform an engaging new interpretation of the "Gloria" text by Venezuelan composer César Alejandro Carrillo. This is a movement of a larger work, the "Missa Sine Nomine" (Mass without a name) composed in 2000. This work will be followed by a Hebridean Song, "The Ben's of Jura" arranged by Portland composer Craig Kingsbury; "The Nightengale,” composed by Robert Young on a poem written by Christina Rossetti; and Robert Schumann's lively work, "Zigeunerleben" (A Gypsy's Life).
Closing the concert will be several works from Africa. The Cal Poly Choirs welcome Ron Kean, director of choral activities at Bakersfield Community College, who will lead the ensembles in several joyous songs from Africa. Accompanied by various percussion instruments, the combined choirs will sing and dance Kean's arrangement of "Ise Oluwa," and "Noel," arranged by Brad Holmes.
Staff members Susan Azaret Davies and Paul Woodring accompany the choirs.
Tickets for the concert are $13 and $15 for the public, $12 and $14 for senior citizens and $8 for students. They are on sale 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 (805-756-2787). 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 805-756-2406.
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