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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’ 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.
Admission is $5 at the door. Parking is free after 5 p.m. in the Grand Avenue parking structure (No. 130) and Structure 131. Please arrive early since there will be events in Performing Arts Center venues that also begin at 7:30 p.m. For more information on parking on campus, visit Cal Poly’s Transportation and Parking Services website.
Departure Duo Concert
Nina Guo and Edward Kass
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7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Departure Duo is a “high-low duo” with Nina Guo, soprano, and Edward Kass, bass, which explores the possibilities for music at its extremes: flying chips of marble, shifting grayscale landscapes and sensual James Joyce settings, alongside the biting humor of Dorothy Parker.
The concert centerpiece will be 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.
Committed to performing and commissioning repertory for their instrumentation, Departure Duo has premiered dozens of new works resulting from in-depth collaborations, including commissions from Katherine Balch, Sarah Gibson and Mikhail Johnson. Guo and Kass have cataloged more than 170 pieces as part of their “30x’30” project with the goal of finding 30 hours of soprano and string bass repertory by 2030.
Departure Duo has sold out performances at Spoleto Festival USA (Charleston, South Carolina), with recent appearances at Constellation’s Frequency Series (Chicago, Illinois), Sequence at km28 (Berlin, Germany), and Yellow Barn (Putney, Vermont).
The duo has been in residence at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Brandeis University and UC Santa Barbara, with upcoming residencies at Stanford University and Northwestern University.
Free admission, parking permit required
W. Terrence Spiller: All-Chopin Piano Recital
Friday, April 25, 2025
7:30 p.m. Performing Arts Center Pavilion
Pianist and music Professor Emeritus W. Terrence Spiller will give a recital of works by Frédéric Chopin.
Spiller will cover a broad swath of Chopin’s works, including dances and a nocturne, and will conclude with his ground-breaking cycle of piano miniatures, “Preludes, Op. 28.”
The other works include “Tres Valses brillante,” Op. 34; “Berceuse in D-flat Major,” Op. 57; “Nocturne in F-sharp Minor,” Op. 48, No. 2; and “Polonaise in F-sharp Minor,” Op. 44.
Spiller stepped down from full-time teaching in the Music Department in March 2021, and fully retired from Cal Poly in 2023. From 2016-24 he presented recitals of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano sonatas.
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Cello Fest May 1-4
The Cal Poly Music Department will present its first-ever Cello Fest from Thursday through Sunday, May 1-4, with presentations and performances on campus, and at San Luis Obispo United Methodist Church and Temple Ner Shalom. Cal Poly faculty member and cellist Megan Chartier is organizing the events to highlight Cal Poly’s large studio of skilled student cellists. Highlights include a student concerto performance, a junior recital and the world premiere of a student composition by the Cal Poly Cello Ensemble. There will also be a faculty lecture-demonstration, a guest artist master class and a faculty recital.
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 by Chartier 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.
Sung has also been a soloist with the San Francisco Philharmonic, Colburn Chamber Orchestra, Merced Symphony, Saratoga Symphony, Stanford University Summer Symphony, Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra, National Taiwan University of Education Orchestra, KAMSA Youth Orchestra and the Aspen Academy of Conducting Orchestra. He has participated in the New York String Seminar, Piatigorsky Seminar and has performed at the National Repertory Orchestra, Taos, Tanglewood, Mendocino, Scotia, Kent/Blossom, Sarasota, Aspen, Mozaic, National Orchestra Institute, Pacific, Verbier, Napa Valley and the Mainly Mozart Festivals as well as the Sun Valley Symphony.
He was a member of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra and was assistant principal of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Sung has served as acting/guest principal of the Sydney Symphony and the National Arts Centre Orchestra and has performed extensively with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony.
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 with Music Department faculty member and pianist 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
Wong is principal cellist of the Cal Poly Symphony, and recently performed the Schumann Cello Concerto with the group as a Cal Poly Solo Competition winner. She has been accepted to participate in the prestigious Brevard Music Center Summer Institute in North Carolina this summer.
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
Cal Poly’s Cello Ensemble will present its first full-length concert with a wide variety of genres and composers. Sarah Chang, a senior chemistry major and music minor, will perform the Elgar Cello Concerto with cello accompaniment; and Noah Bettelheim, a first-year music major will lead the ensemble in the world premiere of his work “Tiris,” which was commissioned for this concert. The ensemble’s 12 students are from a variety of majors.
- "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
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 an expressive solo cello program with works by Aaro Kline, Ernst Bloch, Rudolf Matz and Max Reger. The South Florida Classical Review described Chartier as “unafraid to display gutsy abandon.” She has been principal cellist of Opera San Luis Obispo since 2021, and is a member of Ensemble for These Times, a contemporary chamber ensemble based in San Francisco.
Free admission
Tyler J. Borden and Mari Kawamura: ‘Morton Feldman, Patterns in a Chromatic Field’
Sunday, May 11, 2025
6 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Cellist Tyler J. Borden and pianist Mari Kawamura will present a program of works by Morton Feldman.
Borden and Kawamura will play a brief selection of Feldman’s early works, and the concert will culminate with his massive 80-minute “Patterns in a Chromatic Field.”
Written in the last decade of his life (1977-87), “Patterns in a Chromatic Field” is known for long durations and unpredictable repetition. Microtonal shadings ring against the equal tempered piano, creating complex rhythmic constellations that drift slowly through the air.
“Feldman drew inspiration from philosophy, visual art, as well as from his musical peers. These influences manifested most clearly in his approach to notation, which often deliberately engages ambiguity in its manner of operation,” said Borden and Kawamura. “We will highlight different ways that this ambiguity catalyzes performer interpretation and invites contemplation on the nature of the listener’s perception.”
Borden is based in Brooklyn, New York. Hailed for his “technically polished playing” (Jan Jezioro, Artvoice) as well as his “astounding performances of superlatively difficult modernist solo works” (Edge of the Center), he is dedicated to the performance of modern and experimental music.
Kawamura is a concert pianist who is drawn to music which utilizes the entirety of the piano as an expressive device, equally enjoying m
Free admission