June 10, 2009


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michele Abba
Cal Poly Music Department
805-756-2406; music@calpoly.edu

Cal Poly Students Need Help to Perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall

PolyPhonics with the Moran Choir
Walt Disney Concert Hall at the Music Center of Los Angeles County.
Photo by Henry Salazar

SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Cal Poly’s Music Department is launching a fundraising campaign to send its 60-member Wind Ensemble to participate in the 2010 Los Angeles International Music Festival to be held at the Walt Disney Concert Hall June 19-22, 2010.

The Wind Ensemble was chosen to serve as the festival's Showcase Ensemble and is scheduled to perform as part of the closing ceremonies the evening of June 22, 2010.

The Wind Ensemble will perform three concerts prior to the Disney Hall Concert. Repertoire will vary at each event:

  1. Spring Concert: Saturday, June 5, at 8 p.m., Performing Arts Center’s Christopher Cohan Center
  2. Home Concert: Friday, June 18, at 7:30 p.m. Cuesta College Cultural and Performing Arts Center
  3. Orange County Concert: Saturday, June 19, at 7:30 p.m., Irvine Valley College Performing Arts Center
  4. Walt Disney Concert Hall Concert: Tuesday, June 22, at 7:30 p.m Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
    Tickets (on sale starting April 1): Ticketmaster

The public can purchase tickets to the Walt Disney Concert Hall performance for $20.

The travel cost per student is $521, a fundraising goal of $31,260 for the group. Donations may be made online at the Web page of the Wind Ensemble or Music Department.

Donations may also be sent directly to the Music Department. Checks should be made payable to Cal Poly. Mail donations to:

Music Department - Wind Ensemble
Cal Poly
1 Grand Ave
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407-0326

Conducting the Wind Ensemble will be Director of Bands William Johnson and Associate Director of Bands Christopher Woodruff. Guest soloists are scheduled to perform with the ensemble at all of the related concerts. They include pianist W. Terrence Spiller, organist Paul Woodring, and Cal Poly alumnus, percussionist John Astaire. Cal Poly alumna Anna Binneweg, cover conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and conductor for the Londontowne Symphony Orchestra (Annapolis, MD) and Anne Arundel Community College Symphony Orchestra (Arnold, MD) will guest conduct, as will Lawrence Sutherland, the festival’s artistic director. Among the works the group will perform will be a new composition for wind ensemble and organ by Cal Poly professor Meredith Brammeier.

The Cal Poly Wind Ensemble has performed in major concert halls throughout the world. In 2000, the group performed in the Sydney Opera House and the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington, New Zealand. In 2003, the ensemble made its debut in Carnegie Hall and in 2006, it performed in the Smetana Hall in Prague.

For more information, please contact the Cal Poly Music Department at 805-756-2406.

###