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Cal Poly Symphony Fall Concert: 'The Butterfly Lovers' with Chen Zhao
Chen Zhao
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7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center
The Cal Poly Symphony will host guest violinist Chen Zhao for a series of events culminating in its “Butterfly Lovers Concert” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, in the Performing Arts Center.
At 11:10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, Chen will join Cal Poly Political Science Professor Helene Shanruo Ning Zhang to present “The Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto: A Talk About Chinese Music and Culture.” Zhang’s professional expertise is in Chinese political culture and international relations, and she also grew up in a musical family in China. As a devoted admirer and amateur student of music, she will share her knowledge about the cultural and symbolic significance of the “Butterfly Lovers’ Concerto” in China as well as the political backdrop of its composition, production and reception in the past few decades.
At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, a Chamber Music Recital will be presented with Chen and Music Department applied faculty members and students, featuring Johannes Brahms’ String Sextet No. 2 in G Major.
The Cal Poly Symphony’s “Butterfly Lovers Concert” on Nov. 16 will feature three exciting collaborations: a side-by-side performance with the San Luis Obispo Youth Symphony, a world premiere by composer Julie Herndon and a performance with Chen.
The concert will open with Jean Sibelius’ nationalistic tone-poem “Finlandia,” performed side-by-side with the San Luis Obispo Youth Symphony Concert Orchestra. Written in 1899, “Finlandia” depicts the struggle for national identity of the Finnish people, at that time subjects of the Russian Empire.
The program will continue with “DIRT,” a new work by Cal Poly faculty member Herndon. “‘DIRT’ imagines the life cycle of dirt particles as they morph from lithosphere to hydrosphere, from biosphere to aerosphere; rock to water, skin to air,” said Herndon. The performance will incorporate recordings that the composer made underground, underwater and in the air.
The orchestra will then present two pieces that explore the complex and sometimes problematic musical relationship between Europe and China. First, it will perform selections from Giacomo Puccini’s opera, “Turandot.” Composed in the early 1920s, when it was commonplace for European composers to evoke an exoticized — and imaginary — “East” through music, “Turandot” combines the composer’s lush and coloristic writing with borrowed material, such as the Chinese folk song “Mo Li Hua” (茉莉花), all in service of a passionate and disturbing story set in Imperial China.
The second work to explore this theme is “The Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto,” which will close the concert. Written in 1959 by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang, this work reflects the composers’ desire to merge elements of the European musical tradition, such as the genre of violin concerto and the symphony orchestra, with musical elements of their native country. Instruments are instructed to play in a way that imitates traditional Chinese instruments, and melodies from Shaoxing Opera are incorporated into the work.
A native of Shanghai, Chen showed an early interest in music, playing a makeshift violin — a chopstick and pencil box — until his parents gave him a 1/8-size violin on his fourth birthday. He gave his first public performance at the Shanghai Children’s Palace at age six, went on to study at top universities in China and the U.S., and joined the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) at age 25. With the SFS, he has appeared in all the “Keeping Score” documentary films and has recorded major works with Michael Tilson Thomas.
Chen has toured throughout the Asia, Europe and the U.S. performing in the world’s most prestigious concert halls, and has performed as a soloist with the SFS, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Chamber Orchestra and the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. He is a passionate chamber musician and educator, and has mentored and coached hundreds of young violinists in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of whom are now active soloists, chamber music and orchestral players performing with orchestras across the U.S. He holds a violin professorship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and serves as an orchestral excerpt and training coach for both SFCM Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. During the summer months, he serves as an artist-in-residence at the Round Top and Pacific Crest Music Festivals, and plays principal second violin with the Lake Area Music Festival Orchestra.
The Nov. 14 presentations will take place in Room 218 of the Davidson Music Center (No. 45) on campus, and are free and open to the public. Parking information is available on the Cal Poly’s Parking Services website.
Concert tickets ($17 and $22 general, $12 students)
Cal Poly Symphony Winter Concert: Student Soloist Showcase and the Movies
Friday, March 14, 2025
7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center
Every fall the symphony holds auditions for student soloists and composers of any major. The prize for several of them is the opportuntiy to peform on the symphony's winter concert. Come hear this year’s winners and celebrate musical talent from across the university.
The orchestra will also perform music from the movies! Fantasy and adventure are the theme this year, and highlights include music from "The Lord of the Rings," "Pirates of the Caribbean" "Harry Potter" and more.
Tickets ($17 and $22 general, $12 students)
Cal Poly Symphony Spring Concert: Famous Last Works
Saturday, June 7, 2025
7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center
There is a certain mystique surrounding a composer’s last work. Was it the last spark of inspiration as death closed in? Did the composer foretell their own demise as they completed it? Some pieces are known precisely because of this special place in their creator’s life, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony stands out among them all.
Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony in St. Petersburg on October 28, 1893, nine days before he died from cholera. Puzzled, no doubt, as the last movement faded to silence over a dying pulse, the first audience was reserved in its enthusiasm. When the symphony was performed again after the composer’s death, with the hall draped in black cloth and a bust of Tchaikovsky looking on, the tragic end of this music took on new meaning. To this day, we hear this unconventional symphony through the lens of its composer’s death.
Two other works on the program share this special place in their composers’ lives.
Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his "Symphonic Dances" at Orchard's Point, an estate on Long Island, as he recuperated from minor surgery and fatigue. Completed in 1940, it was his last major composition. We will perform the first movement from this collection.
Richard Strauss did not even live to see the premiere of his "Four Last Songs," written in 1948 when he was 84 years old. The symphony will perform the last song, “Im Abendrot,” set to a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff. Cal Poly’s very own Amy Goymerac will be the featured soprano soloist.