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Alba Franco-Cancél Recital of Latin American Art Song
Alba Franco-Cancél
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11:10 a.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
The Music Department will host Alba Franco Cancél for a Latin American art song recital at 11:10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, in Room 218 of the Davidson Music Center (No. 45).
A soprano from Puerto Rico, Franco-Cancél will present a program with works from Argentina (“Milonga de dos hermanos” and “La rosa y el sauce” by Carlos Guastavino), Brazil (“Capim di Pranta” and “Engenho Novo” by Ernani Braga), Cuba (“Mírame” by Así Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes), Mexico (“Por ti mi corazón” by Manuel Ponce, and “Alma Mia” and “Te quiero, dijiste” by María Grever), Peru (“Huiracocha” by Clotilde Arias) and Puerto Rico (“Amanecer” and “Nostalgia” by Monsita Ferrer). She will be accompanied by Paul Woodring on piano.
Franco-Cancél has appeared in more than 30 operatic productions across Europe, Latin America and the U.S. She is also dedicated to contemporary repertory and concert work which spans oratorio and chamber music.
Beyond the stage, Franco-Cancél is co-founder of Duo Matices, a voice and piano ensemble committed to promoting Latin American art song. Their debut album “Matices” (2025) highlights Puerto Rican and Mexican repertory and features five world premieres, including rediscovered works by Monsita Ferrer. She is also a founding faculty member of the Colchagua Vocal Institute in Chile, which will launch in January 2026 as an intensive winter program devoted to Latin American art song in a retreat-style setting.
Franco-Cancél currently serves as director of vocal studies at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in voice performance from the University of Missouri and a vocology certificate from the University of Utah and the National Center for Voice and Speech.
Free admission, parking permit required
Sophie Shao Cello Master Class
11:10 a.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 216
The Music Department and Festival Mozaic will co-present Sophie Shao for a cello master class at 11:10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, in Room 216 of the Davidson Music Center (No. 45).
Cal Poly cello students will play some works, and Shao will coach them on their performance.
Winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions, cellist Shao is a versatile and passionate artist. Praised by the New York Times as “eloquent, powerful,” the LA Times as “impressive,” and the Washington Post as “deeply satisfying,” she has performed as a soloist to critical acclaim across the Asia, Europe and the U.S. She has appeared with the Houston Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, and Pacific Symphony.
Shao has also premiered notable works, including Howard Shore’s Mythic Gardens and Shih-Hui Chen’s multimedia concerto Our Son is Not Coming Home to Dinner. Shao has given recitals at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Middlebury College, the Phillips Collection, and Lincoln Center. Dedicated to chamber music, she founded “Sophie Shao and Friends” and regularly performs at festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Santa Fe, and Festival Mozaic. She has attended the Marlboro Music Festival, the Ravinia Steans Institute, and was a member of Chamber Music Society Two at Lincoln Center. Shao holds degrees from the Curtis Institute and the Yale School of Music and plays on an Honore Derazey cello (ca. 1855) formerly owned by Pablo Casals.
Free admission, parking permit required
Mustang Family Weekend Faculty Showcase
Idona Cabrinha, piano; Jennifer Jo, flute;
Janet Joichi, piano; Emily Lanzone, violin;
Stephen Nutt, tuba; Grace Seng, violin;
Chstiopher Woodruff, trumpet
6:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Cal Poly Music Department faculty members will be featured in a Faculty Showcase recital.
The event is part of Cal Poly’s Mustang Family Weekend and it will include instrumental applied faculty who are recognized across the region for their expertise in solo and chamber ensemble performance. They will present intimate works that highlight their artistic achievements.
New faculty member and Los Angeles-based flutist Jennifer Jo will make her Cal Poly debut with pianist Idona Cabrinha in a performance Astor Piazzolla’s “Night Club 1960” from “Histoire du Tango.”
Violinists Emily Lanzone and Grace Seng will play a movement from Sergey Prokofiev’s “Sonata for Two Violins,” Op. 56; pianist Janet Joichi will perform two movements from Frédéric Chopin’s “Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor,” Op. 35; and Christopher J. Woodruff, trumpet, and Stephen Nutt, tuba, will play a movement from Eugene Anderson’s “Baroque 'N Brass.”
For information on the faculty recitalists, visit the Music Department’s faculty website.
Music majors at Cal Poly are required to be enrolled in applied or private lessons each quarter. Many non-music majors who are enrolled in larger ensembles — including Cal Poly Symphony, Wind Bands and University Jazz Bands — also have lessons with faculty.
Presented on Halloween, there won’t be any tricks, but there will be many aural treats, and candy will be available.
tickets at the door ($10 general, $5 students)
Scott Yoo Strings Master Class
11:10 a.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
The Music Department and Festival Mozaic will co-present Scott Yoo for a strings master class at 11:10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in Room 218 of the Davidson Music Center (No. 45).
Cal Poly string students will play some works, and Yoo will coach them on their performance.
Yoo is music director of Festival Mozaic, chief conductor and artistic director of the Mexico City Philharmonic, and host and executive producer of the PBS series “Now Hear This,” the first American prime-time television program about classical music in 50 years. He has conducted major orchestras across the U.S. and abroad, including the London Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, with appearances at Carnegie Hall and other leading venues in Europe and Asia.
An acclaimed violinist, Yoo has performed as soloist with the Boston, San Francisco, and Dallas Symphonies, among others, and is a frequent guest at top chamber music festivals nationwide. Winner of the Josef Gingold International Violin Competition, Young Concert Artists Auditions, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he studied at Harvard and trained with legendary teachers such as Dorothy DeLay and Michael Tilson Thomas. He also founded the Medellín Festicámara, a program uniting world-class artists with underprivileged youth, and continues to champion music’s power to connect and inspire worldwide.
Free admission, parking permit required
W. Terrence Spiller Piano Recital
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Friday, Jan. 9, 2026
7 p.m., Spanos Theatre (note earlier start time)
W. Terrence Spiller, Music Department professor emeritus, will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s famous “Turkish Rondo” sonata, followed by short works by Felix Mendelssohn. Preludes by Claude Debussy and Sergei Rachmaninoff will be on the second half of the concert.
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Bach Week
Jan. 22-24, 2026
Instrumental Master Class and Continuo Workshop
Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026
11:10 a.m.-1 p.m., Cal Poly Davidson Music Center, Room 218
For the first half, guest artists Anna Washburn, violin, and Leif Woodward, cello, will coach Cal Poly students in instrumental repertoire from the Baroque era, with a focus on historically informed performance. During the second half Woodward will coach students in effective continuo playing, which is the foundation of all Baroque music.
Free admission, parking permit required
Vocal Master Class
Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026
3:10 p.m., Cal Poly Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Bach Week guest artist Rebecca Myers will coach several Cal Poly voice students in repertoire from the Baroque era.
Free admission, parking permit required
Akademie Lecture — Opera's Virtuous Cousin: The Rise of the Oratorio
Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026
7:30 p.m., Cal Poly Davidson Music Center, Room 218
What do you call an opera that goes to church? This talk by Cal Poly Music Professor Alyson McLamore examines how Baroque composers seized features from the new, wildly popular genre of opera and repurposed them as a way to tell sacred stories.
Free admission, parking permit required
Chamber Concert: Meera Kahe
Friday, Jan. 23, 2026
7:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church of San Luis Obispo
Tesserae Baroque will present the West Coast premiere of "Meera Kahe," a new cantata by Reena Esmail, featuring baroque violin (Vijay Gupta), baroque flute (Christopher Matthews), baroque cello (Leif Woodward), harpsichord (Ian Pritchard), tabla (Ravindra Deo) and Hindustani vocalist Saili Oak. Esmail’s cantata, which sets the iconic Hindi texts of 16th-century Indian saint-poet Mirabai, will be coupled by music of the French Baroque including works by Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and François Couperin.
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Special ticket price for both Jan. 23 and 24 concerts ($40 general, $20 students)
Finale Concert: Oratorio
Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026
2 and 7:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church of San Luis Obispo
Members of Cal Poly’s Chamber Choir, Symphony and faculty will join with guest artists to perform J.S. Bach’s "Christmas Oratorio" (Part 1) and Handel’s monumental “Israel in Egypt.”
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Special ticket price for both Jan. 23 and 24 concerts ($40 general, $20 students)
W. Terrence Spiller Piano Recital: Suites and Dances
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Friday, April 24, 2026
7:30 p.m. Performing Arts Center Pavilion
W. Terrence Spiller, Music Department professor emeritus, will perform dance suites by Johann Sebastian Bach and Béla Bartók for the first half, and the second half will feature dances by Frédéric Chopin and Maurice Ravel, and conclude with dance-inspired works by Isaac Albéniz.
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Nic Gerpe: Contemporary Music for Solo Piano
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Islands evoke myriad vivid impressions and captivate our imaginations. As places of stunning beauty, mystery and isolation, countless associations come with the very mention of the word. Islands conjure a range of emotions and flights of fancy, from images of wild, exotic natural wonders, to metaphorical and spiritual connections. In this program, Nic Gerpe will present a range of colorful and evocative pieces which explore the many aspects and connotations of islands, from the imaginary landscapes of Almeida Prado’s "Ilhas" to Thomas Osborne’s poetic and virtuosic "And The Waves Sing Because They Are Moving." The program will also include captivating works by Donnacha Dennehy, Salina Fisher and Christopher Cerrone.
Free admission, parking permit required