2018–2019 Season Calendar (Remaining Events)

Fall Recital
Chico State Guitar Ensemble
Friday, December 14
5:00 p.m.
Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall
The Chico State Guitar Ensemble will present a varied program comprised of solos, duos, quartets, and works for large ensemble. The core of the program will feature the music of Gaspar Sanz, a prominent Spanish guitarist of the 17th century. The large ensemble will perform some of Sanz’s most outstanding solo pieces, skillfully arranged for contemporary guitar ensemble.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
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Unity in Motion
Dance Concert
Friday–Saturday, December 14–15
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
An evening of original works presented by the Department of Music and Theatre. This collaborative concert will showcase faculty and student choreography, guest performances, and feature dancers from all across campus. With a wide variety of styles and genres, this concert will certainly have something for everyone!
Cost: $10 Adult | $6 Senior, Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
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Spring 2019 Events
Our Town
Spring Opera Production
Friday–Saturday, January 25–26
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
“One of those rare new operas that seem destined to survive.” —Musical America
Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town, was coveted by both Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland for operatic treatment. Wilder turned both gentlemen down. Now, sixty-eight years later (and thirty years after Wilder’s death) the play has been made into an operatic masterpiece with music by Ned Rorem and a libretto by J. D. McClatchy. Come and revisit the nostalgia of the early 20th century fictional town, Grover’s Corner, set to glorious music.
Cost: $20 Adult | $18 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
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Mid-Century Modern, Vol. 2
Chamber Music Recital
Sunday, February 10
2:00 p.m.
Zingg Recital Hall
Rarely-heard, attractive and accessible works from the mid-20th century, including masterworks of Schulhoff, Muczynsky, Casella, and Martinu. Performers include CSU, Chico faculty and guest artists from the Towne Quartet. This recital is co-sponsored by the Department of Music and Theatre Arts and the Florestan Society Foundation, which promotes the art of music through live performance.
Cost: $20 Adult | $18 Senior | $10 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
Terry Riley's "In C"
New Music Symposium
Thursday, February 28
7:30 p.m.
Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall
An all-star ensemble of Chico State students and faculty join composer in-residence Terry Riley to perform his seminal work “In C.”
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
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Terry Riley and Gloria Cheng "In Conversation"
New Music Symposium
Friday, March 1
3:00 p.m.
Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall
Chico State welcomes Terry Riley, one of America’s most brilliant and innovative virtuoso composer and pianists, and Grammy Award-winning pianist Gloria Cheng for a conversation and performance exploring Riley’s life and work.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
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An Evening with Terry Riley and Gloria Cheng
New Music Symposium
Friday, March 1
7:30 p.m.
Zingg Recital Hall
World-renowned composer and pianist Terry Riley and Grammy Award winner Gloria Cheng together in an all-Riley program of composed and improvised piano works. Including works written over a period of 50 years, the performance's finale will feature a new piece for four hands composed especially for the duo.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
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The Coffee Cantata
Chico Bach Festival
Thursday, March 7
3:00 p.m.
Colusa Commons
Johann Sebastian Bach's Coffee Cantata for soprano and bass soloists is presented on the patio outside The Creekside Café (Colusa Commons), with complimentary coffee supplied by 6 Degrees coffee company. Come and hear the satirical side of Bach and enjoy a cup of joe.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
Organ Workshop
Chico Bach Festival
Saturday, March 9
11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre Stage
Guest organists Annette Richards and David Yearsley of Cornell University present a workshop for organists from Northern California employing the grand Centennial Organ. Sponsored in part by the American Guild of Organists, Northern California Chapter.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
Sinfonia Spirituosa Workshops/Masterclasses
Chico Bach Festival
Saturday, March 9
1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Zingg Recital Hall | Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall | Performing Arts Center 132
The professional members of Sinfonia Spirituosa will coach and offer tips and advice to local musicians, including CSU, Chico students and the Music Teachers Association of California. Contact David Scholz at dmscholz@csuchico.edu if interested in participating in a masterclass for strings, flute, bassoon, harpsichord, or guitar.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
Bach Laughs: Guest Lecture with David Yearsley, Cornell University
Chico Bach Festival
Saturday, March 9
3:00 p.m.
Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall
No composer’s image is sterner than Johann Sebastian Bach’s. Yet, his early admirers painted a more varied picture of the composer. Indeed, they went out of their way to applaud his comic talents, a fact mostly ignored by later commentators. This lecture takes a fresh look at, and listens to, the first Brandenburg Concerto (among other works), attending to the piece’s bizarre and brilliant musical ideas and gestures.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
Sinfonia Spirituosa Baroque Orchestra: The Spirit of Improvisation
Chico Bach Festival
Saturday, March 9
7:30 p.m.
Zingg Recital Hall
Dedicated to presenting bold, historically-informed performances on period instruments, the spectacular new Baroque ensemble Sinfonia Spirituosa draws its performers from across the United States and Canada. Through vibrant, collegial exchange, they aspire to faithfully bring to life the broad spectrum of color, affect, and rhetoric inherent in the music of the Baroque era, and their unique and varied instrumentation allows for programming which displays an astonishingly wide variety of national styles.
Cost: $15 Adult | $13 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
Organists Annette Richards and David Yearsley of Cornell University: Bach and Sons
Chico Bach Festival
Sunday, March 10
2:00 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre Stage
Johann Sebastian Bach was the greatest—and one of the most prolific—organists of his, or perhaps any other time? He was prolific in the making of sons, too, yet his boys left behind precious little organ music even though they were renowned as players of the king of instruments. This program on the Centennial Organ brings together two generations of Bach’s, pairing masterpieces by the father with works by the sons.
Cost: $15 Adult | $13 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
Low and Behold
Low Brass Choir and Alumni
Saturday, March 30
7:30 p.m.
Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall
Audiences are continually thrilled by the vast variety of music presented at a concert by the CSU, Chico Low Brass Choir—and this year will be even more exciting as CSU, Chico alumni return to join forces with the current ensemble! The audience will hear the thunder of Edvard Grieg, the soothing sounds of Johannes Brahms, the hard swing of Stan Kenton, the toe-tapping animation of John Philip Sousa, and much, much more. In addition, there will be the LBC’s own distinctive humor with delights for everyone in attendance.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
The River Bride
Theatre Production
Thursday—Saturday, April 4—6
7:30 p.m.
Saturday—Sunday, April 6—7
2:00 p.m.
Wismer Theatre
Helena loves Duarte, but in three days he is going to marry her sister, Belmira. Then village fishermen pull a handsome, mysterious stranger out of the Amazon—a man with no past, but with a tantalizing future to offer the two sisters. Upon premiering in Ashland at the 2016 Shakespeare Festival, this play, by Marisela Treviño Orta, garnered a review by the Siskiyou Daily calling it “a hauntingly and beautifully constructed theatrical experience.”
Cost: $20 Adult | $18 Senior | $8 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION
Springtime is Swingtime
Jazz X-Press
Saturday, April 13
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
The Jazz X-Press definitely has the Spring Fever and they’re itching to play some swinging jazz in a night of great swing music. After all, “it doesn’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” Come get some swing in your spring with the Jazz X-Press!
Cost: $18 Adult | $16 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION
20th Kruschke Piano Competition
Piano Competition
Saturday, April 20
12:00 p.m.
Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall
Witness outstanding California pianists as they vie for the Earl and Marilyn Kruschke Prize at the Competition finals. Please visit www.csuchico.edu/mus/organizations/kruschke.shtml for more information.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
Art and Music
Symphonic Winds
Saturday, April 20
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
Join the band as they tour some works of visual art in the Louvre and some works from the Kansas City Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, with the pictures that inspired the music.
Cost: $18 Adult | $16 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION
Doubles
Jazz II and Concert Band
Tuesday, April 23
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
The Concert Band and Jazz II have a special evening of music planned for you. This evening will include everything from overtures and marches, to big band swing and fusion. Also performed will be music by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Count Basie, Sammy Nestico, and perhaps some original compositions by Chico’s own.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
And the Earth Sings
Choral Ensembles
Saturday, April 27
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
Celebrate Earth Day with Chico State’s Acappella Choir, Chamber Singers, and University Chorus. From the wind in the trees to the sounds of birds in spring, there is music all around us. Let the seas roar and the mountains break forth with singing!
Cost: $15 Adult | $13 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION
Disney's Beauty and the Beast
Spring Musical
Thursday—Saturday, May 2—4
7:30 p.m.
Saturday—Sunday, May 4—5
2:00 p.m.
Laxson Auditorium
Step into the enchanted world of Broadway’s modern classic, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, an international sensation by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman that has played to over 35 million people worldwide in 13 countries. Based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature, the stage version includes all of the wonderful songs written by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, along with new songs by Menken and Tim Rice. The original Broadway production ran for over 13 years and was nominated for 9 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Cost: $20 Adult | $18 Senior | $8 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION
Guitarchestra!
Chico State Guitar Ensemble
Friday, May 10
7:30 p.m.
Zingg Recital Hall
For their annual spring concert, the Chico State Guitar Ensemble will highlight new original works composed for guitar ensemble by contemporary guitar composers. This program will feature several pieces by Mark Houghton, drawn from his inventive and crafty series of guitar ensemble works titled Guitarchestra! As usual, the evening will include a balance of solo’s and small ensembles, following the general theme of new music for guitar.
Cost: $15 Adult | $13 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION
2018-2019 Season (Past Events)
Mid-Century Modern, Vol. 1
Chamber Music Recital
Sunday, September 9
2:00 p.m.
Zingg Recital Hall
This concert will showcase rare, attractive and stimulating works from the mid-20th Century, including masterworks of Ravel, Kodály, Prokofiev, and Jacob. Performers include guest artists from the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and Professor Emeritus Russell Burnham on clarinet. This recital is co-sponsored by the Department of Music and Theatre Arts and the Florestan Society Foundation, which promotes the art of music through live performance.
Cost: $20 Adult | $15 Senior | $10 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
Heroic Music for Trumpet and Organ
Centennial Organ Concert
Saturday, September 15
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre Stage
Ayako Nakamura, trumpet
David Rothe, organ
The program will include selected movements from Heroic Music by Telemann, Toccata by Martini, Prayer of St. Gregory by Alan Hovhaness, Elegy by Alexander Arutiunian (arranged for flugelhorn and organ), and some solo organ music by Bach and Buxtehude.
Cost: $15 Adult | $13 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION
Candide by Leonard Bernstein
Fall Opera Gala
Saturday, September 22
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
“Leonard Bernstein’s music is lush, lovely, and electric. When it isn’t voluptuous as velvet, it is as frostily pretty as a diamond bell. It is easily the best score Mr. Bernstein has written for the theatre.” –New York World Telegram and Sun
Department of Music and Theatre students, faculty, and alumni present a semi-staged concert version of Candide for the 2018–19 Opera Gala. Leonard Bernstein’s comedic operetta is based on Voltaire’s satire of innocence, optimism, and the unexpected lessons of life. With a book from Hugh Wheeler and lyrical contributions from the incomparable Stephen Sondheim, Candide is a masterpiece for the ages.
2018 is the worldwide celebration year of the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein the composer, conductor, educator, musician, cultural ambassador, and humanitarian.
Cost: $20 Adult | $18 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION
Remembering 1968: The 50th Anniversary of a Tumultuous Year
History Roundtable
Tuesday, September 25
7:30 p.m.
Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall (PAC 134)
The year 1968 retains its mythic hold on the political and cultural imagination. It was marked by the Tet Offensive, barricades in Paris, the Prague Spring, and the American Indian Movement, as well as the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the Tlatelolco massacre, and the election of Richard Nixon. In this roundtable, historians assess the impact of this scarring and transformative year from a local, national, and global perspective.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
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The Daniel Hiestand Memorial Concert: Classically Band
Ensemble Concert
Saturday, October 6
7:30 p.m.
Laxson Auditorium
Featuring the 2018 Marine Band’s March Mania Contest winner, Commando March, the Chico State Bands and Alumni invite you to join them as they honor the late Daniel Hiestand and support the scholarship in his name. The Chico State Wind Ensemble will open the first half of the concert with the Alumni Band rounding out the second half of the concert.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
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Wendy Warren - New England Bound: Slavery on the Edge of an Empire
Joanna Dunlap Cowden Memorial Lecture
Monday, October 8
7:30 p.m.
Zingg Recital Hall
While most histories of slavery in early America confine themselves to the Southern colonies and the Caribbean, Professor Wendy Warren of Princeton University explains how the Atlantic slave trade drove the colonization of New England. She also brings to light the lives of the thousands of reluctant Indian and African slaves who found themselves forced into the project of building the Puritans’ “city on a hill.”
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
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Our House
Theatre Production
Thursday–Saturday, October 18–20
7:30 p.m.
Saturday–Sunday, October 20–21
2:00 p.m.
Wismer Theatre
Are news and entertainment interchangeable? A cocksure TV bigshot faced with dwindling ratings installs America’s favorite news anchor as host of a popular reality show. Meanwhile, in Middle America, a houseful of roommates bickers over highstakes real-world conflicts: Merv doesn’t clean the bathroom. Someone ate Alice’s yogurt. And the rent is long past due. When reality collides with reality TV, the resulting drama holds the nation riveted. Our House, by Theresa Rebeck, is a deliciously scathing new comedy that takes on a media-obsessed culture intent on turning even the most sobering crisis into sexy entertainment. A darkly comic look at America’s obsession with “reality” television.
Cost: $20 Adult | $18 Senior | $8 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
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...And This One Time at Jazz Camp
Jazz X-Press
Saturday, October 27
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
Jazz X-Press celebrates the fall with a week of jazz. As usual they will be reaching out to the NorCal schools and alumni will be teaching everywhere with clinics and performances. They’ll be creating a jazz camp full of learning for upcoming young jazzers. The week’s culmination will be a concert with the Jazz X-Press, guest high schools, and some amazing guest artists.
Cost: $18 Adult | $16 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
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All Music was Once New
Symphonic Winds
Saturday, November 3
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
Many styles and colors of music will be the emphasis of this Band Concert, including several 21st century compositions.
Cost: $18 Adult | $16 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION
Double Your Pleasure
Jazz II and Concert Band
Wednesday, November 7
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
The Concert Band and Jazz II have a special evening of music planned with everything from overtures to big band swing and maybe a guest soloist or two.
Cost: Free (seating restrictions apply)
For more information, please call 530-898-5152.
On Wings of Song
Choral Ensembles
Saturday, November 10
7:30 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
CSU, Chico’s Acappella Choir, Chamber Singers, and University Chorus invite you to an evening of soaring melodies and heavenly harmonies. This choral concert is sure to transport the listener through a magical musical journey on the wings of song!
Cost: $15 Adult | $13 Senior | $6 Youth & Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Musical Theatre Production
Thursday–Saturday, November 29–December 1
7:30 p.m.
Saturday–Sunday, December 1–2
2:00 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
When Charlie Brown complains about the overwhelming materialism he sees among everyone during the Christmas season, Lucy suggests that he become director of the school Christmas pageant. Charlie Brown accepts, but this proves to be a frustrating endeavor. When an attempt to restore the proper holiday spirit with a forlorn little Christmas fir tree fails, he needs Linus’ help to discover the real meaning of Christmas. The beloved and classic animated television special “A Charlie Brown Christmas” comes to life in this faithful stage adaptation, in which Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts Gang discover the true meaning of Christmas.
Cost: $15 Adult | $12 Senior | $5 Youth | $8 Chico State Student
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
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A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
is presented by arrangement with
TAMS-WITMARK
www.tamswitmark.com
Glorious Sounds of the Season
Festive Fundraiser
Friday–Saturday, December 7–8
7:30 p.m.
Sunday, December 9
2:00 p.m.
Harlen Adams Theatre
This festive concert, a Chico Holiday tradition, features music for the season. Faculty, students, and community members perform holiday favorites in a kaleidoscopic fashion throughout the hall. Performers include the 200-voice Choral Union, the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Acappella Choir, the University Chorus, the Chamber Singers, several chamber ensembles, the University Organ, as well as the Children’s Choir of Chico. This is a sell-out event, so get your tickets early and support student scholarships!
Cost: All Tickets $20
Purchase tickets at the University Box Office, 530-898-6333, online, or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION

RELATED LINKS

2018–2019 Season Calendar (Remaining Events)