May 12, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michele Abba
Cal Poly Music Department
805-756-2406; music@calpoly.edu
Cal Poly Wind Bands’ June 5 Concert to Feature
Conductor's Final Campus Performance
Show will be a Preview for the Wind Ensemble’s Walt Disney Concert Hall Performance
SAN LUIS OBISPO – The Cal Poly Wind Ensemble's Spring Concert on Saturday, June 5, will be the final on-campus performance to be led by its conductor, William Johnson, who will retire from Cal Poly at the end of spring quarter after 43 years.
The concert will also preview the ensemble’s performance in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on June 22, as the showcase ensemble for the 2010 Los Angeles International Music Festival.
The concert, at 8 p.m. in Sidney Harman Hall in the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center, will open with works performed by the Wind Orchestra including Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Fantasia in G Major,” Samuel R. Hazo’s “Exultate,” Percy Grainger’s “Molly on the Shore,” and Norman Dello Joio’s “Scenes from the Louvre.”
Guest soloists include W. Terrence Spiller, performing Kamilló Lendvay’s “Concertino for Piano, Winds and Percussion,” and John Astaire performing Joseph Schwantner’s “Concerto for Percussion.” Spiller is a classical pianist and chair of the Cal Poly Music Department. Astaire is a Cal Poly graduate completing his doctorate in percussion performance at Indiana University.
Guest conductors will include Anna Binneweg and Lawrence Sutherland. Binneweg is a professional conductor in the Washington, D.C., area and a cover conductor for the National Symphony. Sutherland is director of bands emeritus at Fresno State University.
The Wind Ensemble will continue with Kevin Puts’ “Millennium Cannons,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Fugue à la Gigue,” and the world premiere of Meredith Brammeier’s “Stitches in Time.” Brammeier is a member of Cal Poly’s music faculty and leads its music theory program.
The concert will close with Paul Woodring performing on the Forbes Pipe Organ in Jaromir Weinberger’s Polka and Fugue from “Schwanda the Bagpiper.”
A retirement reception honoring Johnson will be held immediately after the concert.
The Music Department is compiling anecdotes and well-wishes for a memory book for Johnson. Those wanting to contribute can do so at http://music.calpoly.edu/johnson.
Johnson arrived at Cal Poly in 1966 and has been coordinator of instrumental music and director of the Cal Poly bands, which include the Wind Orchestra, Wind Ensemble and Mustang Marching Band. He has been a guest conductor, lecturer and clinician throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Israel, Korea, Singapore and China.
He was selected as one of three Distinguished Teachers at Cal Poly for the 1975-76 school year and received the Life Time Achievement award from the California Band Directors Association in 2009.
“Bill has accomplished many extraordinary things in his years at Cal Poly, fueled by his passionate commitments to education and music,” said Music Department Chairman W. Terrence Spiller. “He’s brought the quality of his instrumental program to an amazingly high level. He’s taken our ensembles on tour all over the world. Students’ lives have been enriched in countless ways by Bill’s efforts as both maestro and tour guide.”
Tickets to the concert are $8 to $19 and 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).
The concert is sponsored by Cal Poly’s Music Department, College of Liberal Arts, and Instructionally Related Activities program. For more information on the concert, Johnson’s retirement reception or the Wind Ensemble’s participation in the 2010 Los Angeles International Music Festival, visit the Music Department Web page at http://music.calpoly.edu or call 805-756-2406.
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