On Oct. 9, the Cal Poly Pomona Symphonic Winds and the Wind Ensemble held their first concert performance of fall 2019 in the Recital Hall.
Symphonic Winds went first followed by the Wind Ensemble after a 10-minute intermission.
Mitchell Fennell served as the conductor for the Symphonic Winds by invitation from Rickey H. Badua. Symphonic Winds began the night’s event with Tielman Susato’s “‘La Morisque’ from The Danserye.” Their second number was both movements (“Westminster Hymn” and “Kensington March”) of Mark Camphouse’s “Three London Miniatures.” They concluded with both movements (“La Belle et le Capitaine” and “Belle”) of Frank Ticheli’s “Cajun Folk Songs.”
(Steven Everett | The Poly Post)
Fennell introduced the “Belle” movement of “Cajun Folk Songs” as being an inappropriate fit for its tragic subject matter.
Fennell had recently retired from his job as Cal State Fullerton’s director of bands and coordinator of wind studies.
The program lists information about each piece: what the original story of each piece is, why they were composed and who they were composed for and information about the composer of each piece.
Badua conducted the wind ensemble after the intermission ended. For the opening piece (“Canzon Septimi Toni á 8 from ‘Sacrae Symphony’” by Giovanni Gabrieli), the brass section was in front of the stage, forming a slight half-circle around the front-row seats to achieve a surround sound-like effect. They returned to their proper stage seats for the remainder of the program.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Prelude” and “Fugue” in G minor was the second number. That was followed by Robert Jager’s “Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann.” They concluded the night’s event with a performance of Percy A. Grainger’s “Shepherd’s Hey.”
Just before the performance of “Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann” to end the event, Badua asked the audience to text “concert” to (909) 245-3069 in order to receive text notifications of future CPP concert events.
The event had been rehearsed 12 times over the past seven weeks, according to Fennell.
Former music major at CPP Elizabeth Zita, now a fifth-year biotech major at Chapman University, attended the event to see old friends she knew in her days as a CPP student. She also knew Badua when she attended CPP.
Alexa Castelazo, a third-year applied mathematics major, played the B-flat clarinet on stage for the event. Her performance was heard in both the Symphonic Winds and the wind ensemble segment. She has played for one year in the CPP band, two of those years being in the wind ensemble. This event was the ninth concert she performed in.
“Being in (the) wind ensemble pushes me to strive for the highest and is transforming me into a better musician every day,” she said about her experience in the ensemble.
The Music Recital Hall was filled to approximately 80 percent capacity.
Although the majority of the instruments on stage were wind instruments such as clarinets, bassoons, trombones and tubas, there was a percussion section and a piano for the wind ensemble section. The Recital Hall itself enhanced the sound of the music as concert and recital venues should.