Cal Poly Symphony to Feature Student Soloists and Stockdale High School Symphony Orchestra at Winter Concert March 16

SAN LUIS OBISPO — The talents of student soloists will be showcased and celebrated at the Cal Poly Symphony’s Winter Concert at 8 p.m. Friday, March 16, in Harman Hall in the Performing Arts Center’s Christopher Cohan Center. In addition, the Stockdale High School Symphony Orchestra from Bakersfield will perform as a featured guest ensemble.

The Student Soloist Showcase will include performances by five instrumentalists and one vocalist, all winners of the Cal Poly Music Department’s Solo Competition in November.

The student instrumentalists are Tyler Stockton, who will perform Launy Grøndahl’s Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, first movement; Titus Shanks, who will play Édouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto, first movement; L. Shaun Fairfield, guitar, who will play Radamés Gnattali’s “Suíte Retratos,” No. 1; Charlie Huang, who will perform Julius Rietz’ Clarinet Concerto, second movement; and Namjoon Joo, who will play Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto, third movement. 

Vocalist Lauren Hartog will sing “Must the Winter Come So Soon?” from Samuel Barber’s opera, “Vanessa.”

All of the soloists are music majors except Huang, who is a computer engineering major, and Joo, who is a computer science major, both in the College of Engineering.

After intermission, the Stockdale High School Symphony Orchestra will perform a set of pieces. Then, more than 100 string players — students from the Cal Poly Symphony and Stockdale High School Symphony orchestras — will take the stage to perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.” This monumental work, based on a hymn by the Elizabethan composer Thomas Tallis, is written for double string orchestra and string soloists.

The program concludes with the Cal Poly Symphony’s performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol.”

Tickets to the concert are $12 or $14 for the public, and $9 or $12 for students. Event parking is sponsored by the PAC. Tickets are sold at the Cal Poly Ticket Office between noon and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. To order by phone, call 805-SLO-4TIX (805-756-4849). 

The Music Department offers a 10 percent discount to patrons who buy season tickets to four of its events through the Cal Poly Ticket Office; a 15 percent discount is given on tickets to five or more events.

The concert is sponsored by Cal Poly’s Music Department, College of Liberal Arts and Instructionally Related Activities program. For more information, call the Music Department at 805-756-2406 or visit its calendar website at music.calpoly.edu/calendar/.

Contact: Michele Abba
805-756-2406; mabba@calpoly.edu

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