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Bennardo-Larson Duo Concert
Maya Bennardo and Karl Larson
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Tuesday, April 1, 2025
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
The Bennardo-Larson Duo is a contemporary classical duo committed to the performance of forward-thinking works for violin and piano. Comprised of Maya Bennardo, violin, and Karl Larson, piano, the duo is dedicated to aesthetically diverse programming that illuminates new repertoire for their instrumentation alongside intrepid works from the past. The Bennardo-Larson Duo was formed in 2016 when they undertook the task of learning and performing Charles Ives’s complete works for violin and piano, which they presented on their annual ‘Ives of March’ concerts from 2017-19.
Their performance at Cal Poly will focus on contemporary performance techniques and recent collaborations with living composers. The program will include new works by Bennardo and Anthony Vine.
Free admission, parking permit required
Mivos Quartet Concert
Mivos Quartet
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Thursday, April 17, 2025
7:30 p.m., Perfoming Arts Center Pavilion
(6 p.m. pre-concert talk
)
The Mivos Quartet will give a free talk and concert!
The members of Mivos are violinists Olivia De Prato and Adam Woodward, violist Victor Lowrie Tafoya and cellist Nathan Watts. They are devoted to bringing new string quartet music, in all its variety, to diverse audiences worldwide. Since its founding in 2008, the quartet has performed and closely collaborated with established and emerging composers representing a broad range of demographics and compositional aesthetics.
Their pre-concert talk at 6 p.m. will focus on performing, commissioning and collaborating on music being written today.
For the concert at 7:30 p.m., they will perform pieces by Victor Báez, Ingrid Laubrock, George Lewis and Cal Poly's Julie Herndon.
The group has performed to critical acclaim at Música de Agora na Bahia in Brazil; Shanghai New Music Week in China; Lucerne Festival in Switzerland; and Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress and Lincoln Center in the U.S.; among others. In recognition of their work in championing new music, the quartet received the Interpretation Prize at the Darmstadt Summer Courses, as well as the 2019 Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Prize for Interpreters of Contemporary Music.
The quartet is regularly the ensemble-in-residence at summer festivals in the U.S. and abroad. Mivos grants the Mivos/Kanter String Quartet Composition Prize, a yearly award to support the work of emerging and mid-career composers residing in the U.S., and the I-Creation prize, an award for composers of Chinese descent worldwide.
Their recent album “Steve Reich: The String Quartets” on Deutsche Grammophon, described as “essential listening” (Morning Star), is the first complete album of Reich’s masterpieces, with all backing tracks recorded by Mivos. Other recent albums feature the music of JG Thirlwell (Cantaloupe Music), Lei Liang (New World Records) and Mary Halvorson (Nonesuch). Mivos can also be heard on releases with KAIROS, New Focus Recordings and Tzadik labels.
Free admission, parking permit required
'A Musical Time Machine' Concert
Friday, April 18, 2025
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Sarra Hey-Folick, Aaron Kline
Kate Meyer, W. Terrence Spiller, Alin Melik-Adamyan
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Cal Poly Music Department faculty members Sarra Hey-Folick, clarinet, and Aaron Kline, composer, will showcase the voice, clarinet and piano through the ages!
Titled “A Musical Time Machine,” the program’s works will range from W.A. Mozart’s “Parto Parto, ma tu, ben mio” to Kline’s “The Rose.” Guest artists include Kate Meyer, mezzo-soprano, and pianists W. Terrence Spiller and Alin Melik-Adamyan.
Hey-Folick teaches applied clarinet at Cal Poly, and directs its Clarinet Ensemble. She is also a lecturer at Ventura Community College and is a teaching artist for the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, a Los Angeles Philharmonic organization. She plays with local orchestras in both Southern and Central California. Her studio credits include the 2024 Halsey album, "The Great Impersonator." Hey-Folick holds a doctorate in clarinet performance from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; a master's degree in performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach; and double bachelor’s degrees in music performance and political science from UCLA. Her principal teachers include Boris Allakhverdyan, Helen Goode-Castro and Michele Zukovsky.
Kline teaches composition, theory, musicianship, and music appreciation at Cal Poly. His compositions have been performed at College Music Society conferences throughout the U.S. He holds a doctorate in composition with cognates in theory and history from Texas Christian University. He has taught elementary music and directed bands at the middle school, high school and community college levels in Texas. His research interests include the analysis wind ensemble compositions, counterpoint and composition pedagogy. His past composition teachers include Blaise Ferrandino, Neil Anderson-Himmelspach, David Gillingham, José-Luis Maúrtua, Till M. Meyn, and Robert Garwell.
Meyer is a mezzo-soprano crossover actor based in New York City. She sings a variety of styles of music, and has played roles including Orpheus, Cherubino, Bradamante, Die Dritte Dame, Mrs. Segstrom from "A Little Night Music," and Chlo from the musical "Inside Out." She earned her bachelor's degrees in vocal performance and communication arts from Montana State University Billings, then went on to earn her master's degree in music from University of Nevada Las Vegas.
Spiller is a Cal Poly professor emeritus. He taught in the Music Department from 1991-2023, and served as its chair from 2004-19. He earned degrees in piano performance from the University of Washington, Indiana University, and the University of Southern California. A prize-winner in international piano competitions, he was recognized by the University of Southern California School of Music as the outstanding doctoral graduate of 1991. Spiller has performed across the U.S. and Europe as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and accompanist.
Melik-Adamyan is a prize-winning collaborative artist, soloist and chamber musician. She has won numerous competitions and scholarships including the YMF/ASCAP Leiber & Stoller Scholarship, first prize at the Los Angeles Liszt International Competition and first prize at the William Grant Still Young Artists Competition. She has appeared as a soloist with various orchestras throughout the U.S., and has worked with world-renowned musicians including Ralph Kirshbaum, Pamela Frank, Jeffrey Kahane and the late Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Charles Wuorinen. Melik-Adamyan recently worked with Steven Spielberg and John Williams as the live pianist and hand double in Spielberg’s 2022 film, "The Fabelmans." For 12 years Melik-Adamyan studied with Carl Matthes, then with Kevin Fitz-Gerald at the USC Thornton School of Music. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in piano performance, and doctorate in keyboard collaborative arts. She a full-time staff pianist at El Camino College in Torrance, California.
$5 at the door, parking permit required
Mark Kroll Lecture-Demo: The Art of Musical Ornamentation
Thursday, April 24, 2025
11:10 a.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
The art of musical ornamentation, or embellishment, describes the practice of adding notes or rhythms to an existing piece of music to make it more beautiful, interesting or just different. This universally admired skill often evoked passionate reactions, such as the description of Italian violinist Pietro Locatelli’s ornamented performances as being “so ravishing” that “it would cause a canary to fall from its perch in a swoon of pleasure.”
In his lecture demonstration, Kroll, a harpsichordist and Boston University professor emeritus, will explain how and why it was done, by playing examples of musical ornamentation or embellishment by a wide range of composers and theorists, such as Josquin, Diruta, Monteverdi, Corelli, F. Couperin, Vivaldi, Handel, J.S. Bach, Chopin and even the Modern Jazz Quartet. He will also invite audience members to submit melodies that they would like for him to ornament.
Free admission, parking permit required
Departure Duo Concert
Thursday, April 24, 2025
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Nina Guo and Edward Kass of Departure Duo present music for soprano and double bass, exploring the possibilities for music at its extremes. You will hear flying chips of marble, shifting grayscale landscapes and sensual James Joyce settings, alongside the biting humor of Dorothy Parker. The centerpiece is the duo's newest commission by Tomás Gueglio, a Chicago-based, Argentine composer, which draws inspiration from the heightened drama and radiophonic landscape of telenovelas.
Free admission, parking permit required
W. Terrence Spiller: All-Chopin Piano Recital
Friday, April 25, 2025
7:30 p.m. Performing Arts Center Pavilion
Music Professor Emeritus W. Terrence Spiller will explore a broad swath of Frédéric Chopin's works, including dances, a nocturne and concluding with his extraordinary set of Preludes, Op. 28.
- Tres Valses brillante, Op. 34
- Berceuse in D-flat Major, Op. 57
- Nocturne in F-sharp Minor, Op. 48 No.2
- Polonaise in F-sharp Minor, Op. 44
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Cello Fest May 1-4
Aaron Kline and Megan Chartier
'Between the Notes' Lecture-Demo
Thursday, May 1, 2025
11:10 a.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Music Department faculty members Aaron Kline, composer, and Megan Chartier, cello, will discuss the composition and performance process for Kline’s "Sarabande in 7-8" for solo cello which will have its California premiere on May 4. They will explore the unique difficulties of writing for solo cello, the flexibility of interpretation with a living composer and the evolution of a piece through the voices of multiple performers.
Free admission, parking permit required
Eric Sung
Eric Sung Cello Master Class
Thursday, May 1, 2025
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Eric Sung is principal cellist for the San Francisco Ballet who will coach Cal Poly students on their performance.
Free admission, parking permit required
Emiko Wong
Emiko Wong Junior Cello Recital
Friday, May 2, 2025
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Titled "Tides of Memory" music major Emiko Wong will perform a junior recital accompanied by Music Department faculty member Janet Joichi.
Work to be performed:
- "Pampeana No. 2" by Alberto Ginastera
- "Fantasiestücke," Op. 73 by Robert Schumann
- "Orbit" by Philip Glass
- "Cello Sonata in C Minor," Op. 6 by Samuel Barber
Free admission, parking permit required
Cal Poly Cello Ensemble
Cello Ensemble Concert: Cello Romanza
Saturday, May 3, 2025
2 p.m., San Luis Obispo United Methodist Church
The Cal Poly Cello Ensemble will perform the following works:
- "William Tell Overture" by Gioachino Rossini
- "Cello Sonata in E Minor," Mvt. 1 by Johannes Brahms
- "Tiris" by music major Noah Bettelheim (world premiere)
- "Cello Concerto," Mvt. 1 by Edward Elgar (Sarah Chang, soloist)
- "Por Una Cabeza" by Carlos Gardel
- "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga (arranged by Bettelheim)
- "Misty "by Erroll Garner
- "Elegie" by Josef Werner
- "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
Free admission, parking permit required
Megan Chartier
Megan Chartier Faculty Cello Recital: ‘In Search of Light’
Sunday, May 4, 2025
2 p.m., Temple Ner Shalom
Music Department faculty member Megan Chartier will present a solo recital with works by Max Reger, Rudolf Matz, Ernst Bloch and Music Department faculty member Aaron Kline.
Free admission, parking permit required
T.J. Borden and Mari Kawamura: ‘Morton Feldman, Patterns in a Chromatic Field’
Sunday, May 11, 2025
6 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
T.J. Borden, cello, and Mari Kawamura, piano, will present Morton Feldman's "Patterns in a Chromatic Field" (1981), a piece Pitchfork Magazine calls "infinitely nuanced." The program will connect aspects of interpretation in Feldman's work — especially as those pertain to ambiguity — and look at how they manifest in a variety of contexts.
Free admission