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Choirs
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Cal Poly Choirs: Holiday Kaleidoscope
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Friday, Dec. 5, 2025
7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center
The Cal Poly Choirs will present the annual “Holiday Kaleidoscope”!
All four choirs — Cantabile, Chamber Choir, PolyPhonics and University Singers — will collaborate with local music groups and other Cal Poly ensembles for the concert.
For the ninth consecutive year, the Cabrillo Madrigal Singers from Lompoc directed by Cal Poly alumnus Jennifer Peterson (Music, ’95) will be on the program.
The concert will also feature the San Luis Obispo High Choir under the direction of Rick Robbins, who is making his debut appearance as a conductor on the concert.
Each choir will perform a selection of music, as well as join with others for collaborative pieces.
A Cal Poly orchestra of 30 students and guests will perform with the choirs on several combined works, and accompany beloved carols for a singalong with the audience. Cal Poly’s popular a cappella groups Take it SLO and That’s the Key will combine to perform a “jazzy” arrangement of a popular Christmas song.
The University Singers will sing a haunting arrangement of the medieval chant “Puer Natus Est” as well as a rousing arrangement of an Appalachian carol, “Star in the East.” Francis Truong, a senior music major, will conduct the choir for one of the pieces.
The Chamber Choir — while decked out in ugly holiday sweaters and other attire — will sing ancient and dramatic music. The group will perform a preview of its upcoming Bach Week repertory with Giacomo Carisimi’s “Plorate Filii” from the oratorio “Jepthe.” It will also perform Herbert Howells stunning “A Spotless Rose” and other selections.
Cantabile will combine with senior music major cellist Emiko Wong to present Sarah Quartel’s “Snow Angel,” a short multi-movement work with narration with vivid imagery and metaphors related to winter and angels.
PolyPhonics will present a variety of modern works including pieces by Moses Hogan, Ernest Bloch and Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds (including handbells!). They will also perform Paul Caldwell and Sean Ivory’s rousing gospel piece “John the Revelator.”
The concert will close with the traditional performance of all the choirs singing “Silent Night” as arranged by Malcolm Sargent.
Scott Glysson will conduct the Cal Poly Choirs, and University Organist Paul Woodring will accompany the choirs on piano and organ.
Tickets ($17 and $22 general, $12 students)
Cal Poly Choirs: Cantus Novus
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Friday, March 6, 2026
8 p.m., Mission San Luis Obispo (note later start time)
The Cal Poly Choirs’ “Cantus Novus” Concert at 8 p.m. Friday March 6, in Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, will feature Renaissance works as well as more modern compositons that draw on Renaissance-style elements.
“The mission is a perfect setting for this music,” said Cal Poly Director of Choral Activities Scott Glysson. “It is music that was written and intended for performance in a live, resonant sacred space.”
University Singers will open the concert with one of the most iconic choral works of all time, “Sicut cervus” by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina who was born in 1525. Last year marked the 500th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The choir will also perform works by 15th-century composer Claude de Sermissy, as well as modern works in Latin by Joseph Martin and Kyle Pederson.
The Chamber Choir will present a very special requiem mass by Spanish Renaissance composer Cristóbal de Morales. “Missa pro defunctis” was composed around 1554, likely while the composer was working in Rome. This beautiful mass is a wonderful representation of Renaissance polyphony in the Vatican just before the time of Palestrina.
PolyPhonics and the Chamber Choir will join to perform the featured piece of the program, “Mass in G Minor” by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Vaughan Williams composed this work in 1921 in the style of the great Renaissance composers; and scored it for double choir and soloists. This hauntingly beautiful piece has stood the test of time as one of the great works of 20th-century choral music.
Glysson will conduct the choirs, and Paul Woodring will accompany the choirs on piano.
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Cal Poly Cantabile and PolyPhonics: Persichetti Winter Cantata
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Saturday, March 14, 2026
2 p.m., First Presbyterian Church of San Luis Obispo
Cantabile will present Vincent Persichetti’s “Winter Cantata” for marimba, flute and choir. PolyPhonics will give a preview of its Sacramento concert tour.
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Cal Poly Chamber Choir and Cantabile: Who is My Neighbor?
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Friday, May 22, 2026
7:30 p.m., San Luis Obipo United Methodist Church
The Chamber Choir and Cantabile will present Benjamin Britten's "Cantata Misericordium" as well as other works.
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Cal Poly Choirs and Symphony: Symphonic Expressions
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Saturday, June 6, 2026
7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center
More information on the Cal Poly Symphony Page.