Three of Cal Poly’s musical forces — the University Singers, PolyPhonics and the Cal Poly symphony — will team up for an end-of-the-year spring concert, “An American Tapestry” held in the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center this Saturday. Headed by Director of Choral Activities Tom Davies and Symphony Director David Arrivée, the collaboration will feature pieces by Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, two classic American composers.
Because the symphony has performed several American-themed pieces throughout the year, Arrivée wanted to wrap up the season on the same idea.
“This year, the symphony has had an over-arching theme where everything is kind of like, trying to find an American style of composition. We thought we should end the year that people recognize now as, ‘That’s American,’” Arrivée said. “I said, ‘Could we possibly make this concert fit into our theme for the whole year?’ And Tom said, ‘Absolutely.’ We just kind of brainstormed things that would kind of represent music that sounds uniquely American.”
The two stumbled upon Copland and Bernstein, both regarded as staples in 20th century American music. Although the two composers have contrasting styles — classic hymn tunes to musical theater — they seemed to fit together to create an eccentric blend that embodies the American style.
“Leonard Bernstein has written an awful lot of music that is in the musical theater genre. So we came up with the idea of maybe something from ‘West Side Story,’ so we found a suite of pieces from West Side Story that are for voices and orchestra. And then we also thought, who else besides Leonard Bernstein can we have in this program? Well Aaron Copland is probably the dean of American composers — he’s probably one of the most important composers and influences on American composers,” Davies said.
The concert will feature a variety of pieces from each composer, the “West Side Story” selections and two folk pieces from Copland’s opera “The Tenderland.” The choir will also sing James Agee’s poem “Sure On This Shining Night” to the compositions by Samuel Barber & Morton Lauridsen. Davies said this piece also adds to the American theme.
“There are a lot of wonderful composers from our country. There’s a lot of good things going on here,” Davies said.
Students are excited about the eclectic mix of songs. Mathematics senior Mark Stolan, a member of the PolyPhonics choir, said he enjoys the distinct styles.
“The best thing I like is the wide range of songs you get. There are definitely a lot of older songs … you get a taste of all different music all at once, and they’re all American composers, so its gives it a nice touch,” Stolan said.
Unlike some concerts with long selections, this one features shorter pieces that will keep the concert more interesting, Stolan explained.
“The show is definitely going to move a lot. One of the negatives we sometimes get is that they do big long selections, and you have to sit and absorb it all. But because of the way we’ve set up this concert, there’s a big collection,” Stolan said.
The Cal Poly choir and symphony don’t team up every year, though. The two entities have been collaborating every other year for a concert featuring only students. This unique experience has allowed members of the choir and symphony to work with other conductors. PolyPhonics choir member and senior music major Rory Fratkin said he’s enjoyed the change of pace.
“We’re able to have Dr. Arrivée come and work with us more often — we get to work with Dr. Arrivée for half the concert. Its always a nice change when you get to perform with and for another conductor,” Fratkin said.
The concert will also feature about 15 vocal solos throughout the pieces, which, Fratkin said, is a high number.
“This concert features more soloists than we’ve done before. We’re actually featuring about 20 students as soloists, which is way more than normal. So it’ll be really neat for the audience to hear all these different colors and tones from voices throughout the night,” Fratkin said.
One of the more popular pieces students are looking forward to is Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, which features three selections — all sung in Hebrew. Fratkin said he feels this traditional piece will be a crowd pleaser.
“It’s borderline experimental. It’s very avant garde sounding. It’s a big piece, it gets really loud at moments; it gets very quiet and beautiful at moments,” Fratkin said. “It’s a really neat piece that has a little bit of everything in it. Peace, war and love — contrasting sounds happening side by side.”
Music freshman and PolyPhonics member, Katelyn Holliday said the Chichester Psalms have been the most challenging.
“That music is definitely demanding for all the singers and the symphonies. But it’s a beautiful piece. There’s a lot of movement. And we sing it in Hebrew, of course,” Holliday said.
The challenging pieces aside, the students have been preparing since the start of spring quarter and are ecstatic to finish off the year. And the professors are too.
“Really when it comes down to it, people should come because the music is good and they want to experience the live performance of it. And the hall is amazing,” Arrivée said. “You’ve got the energy of the audience, you’ve got all these students on stage who are totally into presenting the music, and it’s pretty awesome.”
The concert begins at 8 p.m. in the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available for presale online, over-the-phone at (805) 756-2787, and at the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Ticket Office for $17 for general admission, $16 for seniors. At the door tickets are $20 and $19 for general admission. Tickets are $10 for students.