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Cal Poly Symphony Winter Concert: Student Soloist Showcase and the Movies
Composer and soloists: Srinivas Sundararaman,
Emiko Wong, Ari Maman, Matthew Anderson,
Ayden Gregory, Julianna Hornung, Mary Thomas
(click image above for full-size file)
7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center
The Cal Poly Symphony’s Winter Concert will showcase student soloist winners! Musical selections from the movies “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Star Trek: Into Darkness” will also be on the program.
The concert will be the capstone of the all-day Cal Poly Band and Orchestra Festival which is being produced in collaboration with the San Luis Obispo County Band Directors Association. Middle and high school bands and string orchestras will participate in the festival, which will offer performance adjudications and professional clinics.
The student soloists were winners of the symphony’s Solo Competition in November: four instrumentalists, a pair of vocalists and one composer.
The instrumentalists are music major Emiko Wong, who will play the first movement of Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A Minor; forest and fire sciences major Matthew Anderson, who will perform Geraldine Green’s Bass Clarinet Concerto, first movement; business administration major Ayden Gregory who will perform Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor, first movement; and music major Ari Maman, who will play Alexander Glazunov’s Alto Saxophone Concerto in E-flat major, first section.
The vocalists are Julianna Hornung, who will sing Franz Liszt’s “Oh, quand je dors,” arranged by Felix Mottl; and Mary Thomas who will perform Franz Schubert’s “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” arranged by Max Reger. Both are sopranos and music majors.
The orchestra will also perform “The Journey to Safe Haven” by student composer and computer engineering major Srinivas Sundararaman.
The symphony is directed by music Professor David Arrivée.
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.