The Central Coast Choral Festival and PRHS have a long and beautiful history since the festival began in the 90's. Choirs from all over the state of California descend upon Cal Poly's campus in their concert attire to share their love of music and perform in front of a panel of adjudicators. The festival spans two days and includes seven performance sessions, where choirs perform with other choirs that are ranked at a similar level of performance/musical skill.
Forte's session included advanced choirs from Valencia, Clovis, and Visalia. Prior to Forte's performance, the group was able to take a campus tour and got some performance jitters out with lunch and bowling (all of which were sponsored by Cal Poly).
Central Coast Choral Festival is an event where choirs perform challenging and technical pieces from composers of all time periods. Forte performed three pieces that took nearly three months of hard work to learn. These pieces include:
Do Not Stand and Weep - Arranged by Greg Gilpin. This peaceful, yet eerie piece was accompanied by piano played beautifully by Michael Witman and based on the poem written by Mary Elizabeth Frye.
Nova Radasts' Stala - A piece commissioned by Kitka, an Eastern European women's ensemble, and traditionally sung for centuries with puppet show performances. Forte students learned correct pronunciation of Belarusian lyrics and produced a more forward and bright sound traditionally heard in Eastern European music. One verse was sung by Forte Quartet members Eve Iacovelli Barajas, Danika Nutile, Erin Rowins and Frank Giardina.
Faith is the Bird that Feels The Light - A bright and very technical spiritual arranged by Elizabeth Alexander. This piece featured two soloists: Lilliana Line and Danika Nutile.
During the performance, a panel of adjudicators provide audio comments and grade the choir on multiple categories including tone, presentation, articulation and blending. Forte was pleased to receive "A's" for our overall score from each judge.
For more information regarding the PRHS CHoir program, please contact Gaylene Ewing at [email protected].