Cal Poly Band and Orchestra Festival Finale

The festival and concert are being produced in collaboration with the San Luis Obispo County Band Directors Association. Eighteen middle and high school bands and string orchestras will participate in the festival, which will offer performance adjudications and professional clinics. 

The capstone for the day’s events is the Cal Poly Wind Orchestra and Wind Ensemble’s concert of new works for concert band. Student musicians are looking forward to the performance.

“The music on our program is incredibly varied,” said flutist Nathan Coelho, a first-year music major from Lincoln, California. “Each piece is so well-composed, illustrating specific characters and ideas.”

“Lincolnshire Posy” by Percy Grainger presents a bouquet of six tunes collected by the composer from British folk singers. The work has long been considered among the most important works in the wind band canon. The Australian-born Grainger (1882-1961), who became an American citizen, was a megastar of the European, North American and Australian stage, attracting sell-out audiences for his concert piano performances. His most famous work, an arrangement of the folk song “Country Gardens,” broke its publisher’s sales records for 75 consecutive years.

“Sunflower Studies,” a new work by Nicole Piunno, is inspired by the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh. The five-movement, symphonic-scale work for wind ensemble premiered in 2023. 

“Bugs” by Roger Cichy depicts the unique personalities of five insects and arachnids. 

“It’s been so fun exploring the variety of colors and sounds evoking insects, spiders and flowers,” said first-year music major Gillian Kingery of Rocklin, California. “As a percussionist I’ve been able to work out the techniques of playing all the ‘toys’ called for in these pieces!” 

The concert will be conducted by Director of Bands Christopher J. Woodruff, Associate Director of Bands Nicholas P. Waldron, and student conductor Ari Maman, a third-year music major from Beverly Hills, California.