Cal Poly Choirs: 'If Music Be the Food of Love'

The Cal Poly Choirs will present “If Music Be the Food of Love” as this year’s Winter Concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at in the Performing Arts Center’s Christopher Cohan Center.

Conducted by Music Professor Thomas Davies, PolyPhonics and The University Singers will be joined by student soloists.

“The subject of ‘music and love’ has existed since the beginning of musical composition,” said Davies. The Cal Poly Choirs will highlight this partnership in a program of works by such greats as George Frederick Handel, Felix Mendelssohn, Claude Debussy, and Benjamin Britten, as well as music by contemporary celebrated composers Morten Lauridsen, Imant Raminsh, David Dickau and Stephen Chatman.

A new work by Music Professor Meredith Brammeier titled “In Commendation of Music,” after a poem by William Strode, will have its world premiere.

PolyPhonics will present the “Trois Chanson” by Claude Debussy, who took three love poems by Charles D’Orleans and set them in a madrigal style. The patron saint of music, St. Cecilia, will also be represented in Britten’s “Hymn to St. Cecilia,” as well as a lyrical rendition of the program title, “If Music Be the Food of Love,” set to music by Jean Belmont-Ford. 

The University Singers will open with a second version of the same poem, “If Music Be the Food of Love,” set to music by Minnesota composer David Dickau. The ensemble will also perform Mendelssohn’s “Mailied” (“Song of May”), Stephen Chatman’s “Music, When Soft Voices Die,” and Handel’s chorus, titled “Music, Spread Thy Voice Around,” taken from his oratorio “Solomon.” 

Student soloists will include music majors Olivia Tenney, Brittney Zearfoss, Sarah Nulton and Scott Nelson. They will all be giving senior recitals in winter and spring quarters.

Susan Azaret Davies and Paul Woodring serve as accompanists for the Cal Poly Choirs.

Tickets at the Performing Arts Ticket Office.