This Sunday, the Cal Poly symphony will accompany four solo musicians in Harman Hall in the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center (PAC) — a dream come true for any aspiring musician.
Traditionally, the music department selects a small group of soloists to perform at the symphony’s annual winter concert. The students, who audition in front of a group of faculty members, must play the piece they would play in Harman Hall.
If selected, they are put in the spotlight, accompanied by the symphony in the background.
So what talent did the music department choose this year? Celloist and materials engineering senior Jake Wise, trombonist and music senior Maritza Spieller, vocalist and child development and music senior Theresa Riforgiate and vocalist and music senior Patricia Rosas make up the talented four who were selected.
Symphony conductor David Arrivée said the standards for selection to perform are straightforward.
“We figure out, firstly, is it something that works with the symphony, and will they sound great on that solo,” Arrivée said.
Arrivée said the faculty has selected different numbers of soloists throughout the years. When it comes down to it, it all depends if those auditioning can sell the performance.
“We had quite a few people – around 20 people,” Arrivée said. “And out of that, we thought these four will do a fantastic job. The bar is kind of high. Many people sound good, in fact many sound great, but to sell a performance in the PAC, that bar is pretty high.”
Patricia Rosas, who had auditioned every year for the soloist showcase, recalled her experience in auditioning this year.
“I put on these pants and this ruffly shirt and a vest and really dressed the part,” she said. “I thought that would help calm my nerves a little bit. So I walked in and gave it all I could. And I walked out knowing I did the best I could.”
Rosas will sing a German aria “Chacun à son goût” from Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus” and said the piece is often referred to as a “pants role.”
“I’m the voice type that’s called a mezzo soprano, and that’s generally the lower range of the female voice,” Rosas said. “Back in the day, they used to castrate men, so the voice would have the high notes of a young singer but the strength of a male voice. So they’ve reassigned mezzo soprano to women singers singing these “pants roles.””
Rosas said she’s ecstatic to sing with the symphony.
“This is my first time singing solo with symphony with the PAC,” she said. “So this is like a life accomplishment. I’m beyond thrilled.”
Jake Wise will also perform and will play Gabriel Fauré’s “Elegy for Cello and Orchestra.” Wise said he didn’t originally plan on playing this piece, but his private teacher suggested playing it instead of his original pick.
“I had originally wanted to do part of a much larger piece — a full concerto, which turned out to be too much of a task just to get ready for this concert,” Wise said.
Wise said learning the piece wasn’t too hard to manage — it was the emotional strength behind the piece he had to tap into.
“It’s a beautiful piece full of emotion, and it didn’t take that long for me to learn — at least the technical skills involved weren’t too advanced for me to learn in time,” he said. “But learning how to put the emotion and passion into the piece — that was the real challenge.”
Although the soloists are the featured players, the concert doesn’t end when the last note is played or sang. Arrivée said the concert is almost two separate shows — one highlighting the soloists, and the other highlights the symphony and Cal Poly Open House theme.
“For the remainder of the program, we try to tie into what the theme will be for Open House,” Arrivée said. “The theme this year is Polywood, and that’s such a no brainer. There’s great movie music.”
Arrivée has selected six iconic movie scores for the symphony. However, the movie scores won’t be revealed until the night of the show. This is because the pieces are so recognizable, Arrivée is going to give out an in-concert quiz for the audience to guess the notable tunes.
Since Cal Poly Open House happens approximately three weeks after spring break, Arrivée said the symphony tries to use some of the same repertoire in the winter concert that they use for Open House due to time restraints. Yet he said the preparation has run quite efficiently so far.
“This one has come together pretty smoothly,” Arrivée said. “Most movie music does. When people are making the music, the orchestra is going to play it maybe twice. They’ll site read it, then they’ll record it and then it’s done.”
Arrivée said this year’s winter concert is a pleasant change for the symphony, who played a more serious repertoire in the fall.
“I had the promise out there that we’d play more fun music in the winter,” Arrivée said. “It’s a nice change of pace.”
The show begins at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 6. Tickets are $10 and $12 for general admission, $8 and $10 for seniors and $6 for students and may be purchased online at pacslo.org, at the Performing Arts Center box office or by phone at (805) 756–2787.