‘Cal Poly Humboldt Recital Series: Welcome to Spring Semester’: Classic and Eclectic

Press release from Cal Poly Humboldt: 

cal poly humboldt logo stacked grey and greenThe Department of Dance, Music, and Theatre at Cal Poly Humboldt presents “The Cal Poly Humboldt Recital Series: Welcome to Spring Semester”—an evening of wide ranging music, with performances by faculty and alumni. The evening’s program is classic and eclectic—performances range from trio sonatas to tangos and video game scores. Join us Saturday, February 4th at 8:00 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Concert tickets are $15 General, $5 Children, and $5 for Cal Poly Humboldt students with ID. Tickets may be purchased at the door or in advance at centerarts.humboldt.edu including tickets to our paid livestream ($7). From the “All Events” drop down menu select “School of Dance, Music, and Theatre” and select your event. At press time, the wearing of facemasks is not mandatory, but it is strongly encouraged.

The evening begins with a trio sonata featuring Cindy Moyer, violin, Karen Davy, violin, Garrick Woods, cello, Greg Granoff, harpsichord. You would be forgiven if you are confused as to why a trio sonata features 4 performers. Trio Sonatas were the most common chamber ensemble in the Baroque period. While there are four performers, the cello and harpsichord share the same bass line, meaning that there are 3 independent melody lines, plus some chords played on the harpsichord. 4 players, three melodies, hence, a trio!

Richard Rios, vibraphone and MJ Fabian, vibraphone, will perform Settle, by Sarah Hennies. Hennies is a composer whose work is concerned with a variety of musical, sociopolitical, and psychological issues, including queer & trans identity, psychoacoustics, and the social and neurological conditions underlying creative thought.

Ryan McGaughey, piano, will perform Nikolai Kapustin’s – Prelude No. 23, from 24 Preludes in Jazz Style. Ryan spoke a little on the piece, “There is nothing like the music of Kapustin. Perfectly mixing both classical and jazz elements, his music completely stands out as something you’ve never heard before…The Prelude no. 23 from Kapustin’s 24 Preludes in Jazz Style, is a piece that I’ve always liked. It sounds like an opening song of a 60’s TV series and it is just a lot of fun.”

Ryan McGaughey will be joined by MJ Fabian on vibraphone to perform Corridors of Time by Yasunori Mitsuda.

Mitsuda is a Japanese composer, musician, and sound producer. He is best known for his work in video games, primarily for the Chrono, Xeno, Shadow Hearts, and Inazuma Eleven franchises, among various others. The piece Corridors of Time was composed for the 1995 video game Chrono Trigger, in which a group of adventurers travel through time to save the world. In the game, Corridors accompanies their journey to a lost ancient city, similar to Atlantis.

Cindy Moyer and MJ Fabian will then join for the next piece entitled, A Little prayer. “I discovered Evelyn Glennie’s A Little Prayer as I was doing an internet search for music for violin and marimba,” Says Moyer. “It’s one of the most beautiful, simple, little pieces ever written. In its original version, it was composed for solo marimba, but it’s been arranged for all sorts of ensembles including junior high school band. MJ Fabian created the arrangement for the concert.”

The first half of the concert concludes with Ryan McGauphey performing Kingdom Hearts Piano Collections: Field and Battle “Musique pour la tristesse de Xion.” Ryan spoke of the piece “ It is a pianistic arrangement of music associated with the character, Xion, from the long running video game series, Kingdom Hearts. The music itself was composed by one of my favorite living composers, Yoko Shimomura, and this beautiful piano arrangement was made by Sachiko Miyano. The story of the character Xion, is a sad and tragic one. It’s a story of one’s purpose, the reason for existing, wanting something that can never come to be, and eventually fading away and being completely forgotten. This piano arrangement depicts Xion’s story very well.”

Following intermission, Trio in Eb major, K. 498 by W.A. Mozart will be performed by Virginia Ryder, clarinet, Karen Davy, viola, and John Chernoff, piano.

MJ Fabian will perform a composition of his own, Four Lacunae, on the vibraphone.

Ryan McGauphey tells the story of the next performance, “The video game, Undertale, is a beloved video game released in 2015 that was influenced by the weird, quirky and wacky 1989 video game, EarthBound. The soundtrack of Undertale was written by the young 31 year old, Toby Fox. The music from the entire Undertale soundtrack was turned into a book of special hand-crafted piano collections by David Peacock. The Undertale Piano Collections take the main ideas from the original tracks in Undertale and turn them into very pianistic pieces. The piece I will play from the Undertale Piano Collections combines three tracks from the Undertale soundtrack: Hopes and Dreams, Save the World, and His Theme.”

The evening concludes with a performance by the Vipisa Trio. The Vipisa Trio features Virginia Ryder, clarinet, Cindy Moyer, violin, and John Chernoff, piano. They will perform three pieces by Ilya Mishchenkov. Cindy Moyer recalled, “Several years ago, a student ensemble playing Ilya Mishchenkov’s Railway Station Tango, for Clarinet, violin, and Piano, introduced me to this young Russian composer. When I went exploring further, I found that he has a number of pieces for the same combination of instruments. We are playing two fun tangos—The Railway Station Tango and Amanecer Tango—plus a beautiful, slow piece entitled Dream.”

Date: Saturday, February 4th, 2023

Time: 8:00 p.m.

Location: Fulkerson Recital Hall, Cal Poly Humboldt, Arcata CA 95521

Price:  $15 General, $5 Child, $5 for Cal Poly Humboldt students with ID

Ticket Purchase: centerarts.humboldt.edu

Contact: Cal Poly Humboldt School of Dance, Music, and Theatre, 707-826-3566, [email protected]

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