March 17, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michele Abba
Cal Poly Music Department
805-756-2406; music@calpoly.edu
State's Best High School Musicians to Perform at Cal Poly on April 18
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly Music Department will host the All-State Festival Concert, featuring more than 130 of the state’s best high school musicians, on Sunday, April 18 at 2:30 p.m. in Harman Hall in the Performing Arts Center.
The All-State Festival Wind Orchestra, Festival Symphony Orchestra and Festival Jazz Band will perform as part of the closing festivities in Cal Poly’s three-day Open House event. The Festival's Solo Competition winner will also perform, accompanied by pianist Susan Azaret Davies.
The Festival Symphony Orchestra
The Festival Symphony will perform Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio Espagnol," a masterpiece of Russian orchestra music based on Spanish melodies.
The Festival Symphony Orchestra's conductor will be Julien Benichou, music director of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony and Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra in Maryland. Benichou
founded and directed the Montpellier Young Orchestral Ensemble in France. He studied at French conservatories, Northwestern University, Yale University and the Peabody Conservatory.
The Festival Jazz Band
The Festival Jazz Band will perform Charles Mingus' "Boogie Stop Shuffle," from the hard bop style of the 1950s that incorporated elements of gospel music as well as strong blues influences into original compositions; Miles Davis' "Boplicity" which appeared on the seminal "Birth of the Cool" album; "Puffy Taco," a fine example of the salsa style of Latin jazz; and "The Chicken," the arrangement to be performed is the centerpiece of composer Kris Berg's successful series of funk compositions for big band whose titles refer to chickens ("Feather Report," "Flew the Coop," "Fowl Play," "Poultry in Motion," "Pecking Order" and more).
The Festival Jazz Band director will be Charles Wood. Wood is professor emeritus of music from Santa Barbara City College, where he served as the director of bands and jazz studies for 15 years. He was the director of bands at Bakersfield College for 24 years. He is the recipient of the Jazz Masters Award given by the Santa Barbara Jazz Society and received an Honorary Service Award from the California State PTA for outstanding service to the youth of the community.
The Festival Wind Orchestra
The Festival Wind Orchestra will premiere "Century Sail" by Daniel Chan, "Mighty Micro People" by Gareth Coker and "Chaos Theory" by J. Eric Schmidt. Additional works by Schmidt will be performed including "Resonant Reflections" for wind band, and three movements from "Pictures at an Animation Exhibition."
The Festival Wind Orchestra will be conducted by Cal Poly alum J. Eric Schmidt. He has composed, orchestrated and conducted the music for more than 300 episodes of animated shows produced by Disney and Warner Bros, and dozens of motion pictures, commercials and theme park shows. He is currently teaching conducting and composition at the USC Film Scoring Program.
Patrons who buy season tickets to four Music Department events through the Performing Arts Ticket office will receive a 10 percent discount; a 15 percent discount is given to those who buy 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 or go to http://music.calpoly.edu.
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