Get a 20% discount when purchasing to four or more Music Department events sold through the Cal Poly Ticket Office. Cal Poly faculty and staff receive 20% discount for any Music Department event sold through the ticket office. Prices are inclusive of all fees.
Mustang Family Weekend Faculty Showcase
Christopher J. Woodruff, trumpet
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5 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 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.
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.
tickets at the door ($10 general, $5 students)
Elizabeth Dorman Lecture-Recital: 'J.S. Bach: The Goldberg Variations'
Elizabeth Dorman, piano
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11 a.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Guest artists Elizabeth Dorman will present a free lecture-recital titled 'J.S. Bach: The Goldberg Variations' in advance of her performance with the Cal Poly Symphony on Oct. 10.
Read more about Dorman's performance with the Cal Poly Symphony.
Free admission, parking permit required
Vocal Faculty Recital
Kaitrin Cunningham, Jennifer Freye
Amy Goymerac, Lorenzo Johnson Jr.
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7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
The Cal Poly vocal faculty will present an evening of art song, opera and familiar favorites. Kaitrin Cunningham, Jennifer Freye, Amy Goymerac and Lorenzo Johnson, Jr. will be joined by the inimitable Paul Woodring on piano.
Tickets at the door ($10 general, $5 students), parking permit required
W. Terrence Spiller Piano Recital
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Friday, Jan. 29, 2027
7 p.m., Spanos Theatre
Pianist and Cal Poly music Professor Emeritus W. Terrence Spiller will present a recital of works by three generations of German composers. The program will start with three Preludes & Fugues from J.S/ Bach’s "The Well-Tempered Clavier," Book I, followed by Paul Hindemith’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in G Major and concluding with Johannes Brahms' "Two Rhapsodies," Op. 79.
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Michiko Owagawa: Pancake Moon
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7:30 p.m., Frost Center Expressive Technology Studio (No. 181, Room 104)
Seating is limited to the first 50 attendees
Pancake Moon grows out of bricolage — assembling whatever is close at hand toward a purpose, a method Owagawa came to recognize through research on Teiji Ito. The instruments are a result of need, rather than training: shō, a synthesizer that extends the shō's Pythagorean tuning (A=440=1), and a secondhand Farfisa piano organ. Two field recordings anchor the work — Ashimoto no Uchu, built from the cranes, heavy transport, and U6 trains of her daily life in Berlin, and Shizukana Hikari, recorded at night in Joshua Tree, a landscape that feels like another planet yet strangely familiar. Both were less chosen than recognized. She keeps the structure deliberately soft, a space where present and past loosen and materials drift without fixed coordinates. The material is deeply personal, yet abstracted through instruments; her hope is that it becomes a mirror, opening not my experience but the listener's.
Free admission, parking permit required
Cal Poly Cello Fest
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Cello Fest: Amos Yang Cello Masterclass
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2027
7:30 p.m., Cal Poly Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Amos Yang, assistant principal cellist of the San Francisco Symphony, will coach Cal Poly cello students in solo cello repertory. Yang has been assistant principal cellist with the San Francisco Symphony since 2007. He was previously a member of the Seattle Symphony. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, the Far East and the U.S. appearing at the Aspen Music Festival, the American Academy in Rome, Wigmore Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. Yang has collaborated with the Ying Quartet, Turtle Island String Quartet, pianists Ann Schein and Melvin Chen, violinist Earl Carlyss, and composer Bright Sheng. Yang serves on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Academy Orchestra.
Free admission, parking permit required
Cello Fest: University Hour Presentation
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Friday, Feb. 26, 2027
11 a.m., Cal Poly Davidson Music Center, Room 218
This special Cello Fest University Hour presentation will explore aspects of cello performance, pedagogy and repertory through discussion, demonstration and performance.
Free admission, parking permit required
Cello Fest: Megan Chartier Faculty Recital with Margaret Halbig
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Thursday, Feb. 26, 2027
7:30 p.m., Cal Poly Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Cellist Megan Chartier will present an evening of expressive and virtuosic music spanning the solo and collaborative cello repertory. Highlights include Gaspar Cassadó's Suite for Solo Cello and Rachmaninoff's sweeping Sonata for Cello and Piano, performed with guest pianist Margaret Halbig, principal vocal coach at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Chartier's colleague in San Francisco’s contemporary chamber ensemble, Ensemble for These Times.
Tickets at the door ($10 general, $5 students)
Cello Fest: Cello Ensemble Concert
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Saturday, Feb. 27, 2027
7:30 p.m., Cal Poly Davidson Music Center, Room 218
A highlight of Cello Fest, this concert features the 16 cellists of the Cal Poly cello studio in a varied program of solo, chamber and cello ensemble repertory. Showcasing the artistry, versatility and collaborative spirit of the instrument, the performance celebrates both individual musicianship and the vibrant community of cellists at Cal Poly.
Free admission
Duo Refracta: On Surfaces and Structures
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Duo Refracta — Michael Jones, percussion, and Shaoai Ashley Zhang, piano — will present contemporary works for piano and percussion. Igor Santos’s "Carve," which explores the sonic result of “carving” into a surface as an act of memory, Timothy McCormack’s "traces that time leaves on built form," a hushed, but frantic exploration of depth and surface, and a world premiere by Akari Komura. The program closes with Sarah Hennies’s epic, 33-minute-long "Unsettle," a piece which moves through cycles of establishing forms and then undoing them, showcasing the unconventional virtuosities with which they are created and dissolved.
Free admission, parking permit required
Adam Moezinia Demo and Workshop
11 a.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 216
Guitarist Adam Moezinia will present a demonstration and workshop with Cal Poly students that focusses on jazz, folk and world music fusion. He will be joined by bassist Emiliano Lasansky and drummer Marcello Carelli of his group, The Folk Element Trio.
Moezinia moved to New York City in 2010 to study at Juilliard, and since then has played with many greats in the jazz idiom including Cecile McLorin Salvant, Freddy Cole, George Coleman and Mike LeDonne. He has performed in Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, The 1905, the Black Cat, among other venues.
Free admission, parking permit required
Emily Lanzone Violin Faculty Recital
6:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Tickets at the door ($10 general, $5 students), parking permit required
Open House Concert
Saturday, April 10, 2027
7:30 p.m. Performing Arts Center Pavilion
Experience the vibrant musical community of Cal Poly at the annual Open House Concert, featuring performances by a diverse array of Music Department student ensembles. This fast-paced showcase highlights the talent and creativity of Cal Poly musicians through performances by the Choirs, Symphony, Wind Bands, Arab Music Ensemble, and Jazz ensembles. Designed especially for prospective students and their families, the concert offers a glimpse into the many opportunities available to student musicians from every academic major. Whether performing classical masterworks, jazz standards, global traditions, or contemporary repertoire, Cal Poly students demonstrate how music remains an integral part of the university Learn By Doing experience. Join us for an inspiring celebration of artistic excellence, collaboration, and the unique ways students can stay engaged in music while pursuing any field of study.
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)
Sarra Hey-Folick Faculty Clarinet Recital
7:30 p.m., Davidson Music Center, Room 218
Tickets at the door ($10 general, $5 students), parking permit required
Cal Poly PolyRhythmics Percussion Concert
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Thursday, May 6, 2027
7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center Pavilion
PolyRhythmics, Cal Poly's percussion ensemble, will give its annual performance! Music Department faculty member John Astaire is the ensemble's director.
Tickets ($22 general, $12 students)