Cal Poly Chamber Choir and Cantabile Concert: Sacred Sounds

*Note Special Location*

Two Cal Poly choirs — Cantabile and Chamber Choir — will present a concert titled “Sacred Sounds” featuring sacred choral music from the last 600 years in Mission San Luis Obispo.

The concert, which was rescheduled from a weekend day, will feature a vast array of music from the sacred choral tradition, spanning more than 600 years.

The Chamber Choir will perform Guillaume Dufay’s “Nuper rosarum flores,” which is the oldest piece in the concert and also one of the most famous in vocal music history. It was composed in 1436 for the consecration of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy, the fourth largest church in the world. The piece represents a triumph of mathematical proportion and musical aesthetic, considered by some to be among the first in the Renaissance style of the 15th and 16th centuries.

The choir will also give a rare performance of Tomás Luis de Victoria’s “Missa O quam gloriosum” in its entirety. It has become the most loved and performed of the composer’s masses. The modern works to be presented include Arvo Pärt’s hauntingly beautiful “Magnificat” as well as a modern gospel setting of “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” arranged by Zanaida Stewart Robles.

Cantabile, a 70-voice treble chorus, will sing several movements from Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s celebrated “Stabat Mater,” featuring solos by Music Department voice instructor Kaitrin Cunningham; graduating senior music major Melissa Scarpelli of Chico, California; and Erika Foreman (Music, ’23) of Santa Barbara, who is will earn her master’s in business administration in June. Knut Nystedt’s “Hosanna” and Ola Gjeilo’s “Song of the Universal,” which is set to text by Walt Whitman, are the contemporary works the group will perform. 

A small string ensemble of Cal Poly students and local professionals will join Cantabile for its set.

The choirs are conducted by Scott Glysson, Cal Poly director of choral activities and vocal studies, and will be accompanied by staff accompanist Paul Woodring.

The concert is sponsored by Cal Poly’s Music Department, College of Liberal Arts and Instructionally Related Activities program.