CSUSB Music Department: String & Orchestral Program

Today is the day! 😍 Edgar Villegas' Senior Violin Recital is this evening at 7:00 p.m. in the Performing Arts Building Recital Hall 🎻❤️✨ Come out and support if you are able! Recital admission is free, parking is $10.

Congratulations to Anna Caracosa on a gorgeous recital this evening, we are so proud of you!!! 🎻🩷✨

Congratulations to Annabelle Su on a lovely recital this evening, we are so proud of you!!! 🎻💜✨

Two of our CSUSB string majors and Symphony Orchestra members, Annabelle Su (Principal Cellist), and Anna Caracosa (Concertmaster), have senior recitals this week! 🎻💜💙✨ Annabelle's recital is this evening at 6:00 p.m. and Anna's recital is Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Come out and support if you are able! Recital admission is free, parking is $10.

The CSUSB String & Orchestral Program had the pleasure of being the first to rehearse in our new large ensemble space in our brand new Performing Arts Center 🎭😍 yesterday! Symphony Orchestra rehearsal was first (not pictured), immediately followed by a masterclass with guest artist Clive Greensmith featuring students from the cello studio of Dr. Esther Back and the string chamber music studio of Dr. Lucy Lewis. Many thanks to Dr. Back for setting up that opportunity for our students, and congratulations to all who performed! 🎻😊👏🏻🎉🩵

2nd weekend hosting the SBCMEA Middle and High School Honor Orchestras complete! 😍😁🎻🎉☀️ Had additional faculty on campus today, a couple of them our current string majors/alumni, to help out with sectionals. Congratulations to organizers Tamryn Narvaez and Darren Haynes for putting on such a wonderful event, and to all the students and faculty for all your hard work, everyone was looking and sounding great today! 🎻🎵🩵☀️

🌟Today is the day🌟 for our second Holiday Gala “Sounds of the Season” show! We had so much fun last night, and tickets are going fast for tonight! Come out and join us for a wonderful evening of holiday music making! 😍🎄🎵❄️✨❤️

It's Holiday Gala Week at CSUSB!!! 😍🤩 You are warmly invited ❤️✨ to join us for our Annual CSUSB Holiday Gala 🎁🎄❄️🎵 Concerts, taking place both 📌Wednesday, December 3, and 📌Thursday, December 4 at 7:00 p.m. in the📍Performing Arts Building Music Recital Hall, PA-102.

This year’s Holiday Gala theme is Sounds of the Season 🔔🎶🎁🎄✨, and we hope you will enjoy feelings of warmth and nostalgia 🥰 as we feature a spread of repertoire that includes classics such as the "Dance of the Reedflutes 🪈," “Chinese 👹 Dance,” “Arab 🐍 Dance,” and “Trepak 💂🏼” from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker 🩰🐭🍭 Suite, an arrangement of the beloved Christmas Carol Away in the Manger ✨, a fun arrangement of Grandma 👵🏻 Got Run Over❗️by a Reindeer, Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh 🛷❄️ Ride, the nostalgic “Somewhere in My Memory ✨” from the Home Alone score by John Williams, several orchestral holiday 🎄📯 medleys, selections from The Polar Express 🐻‍❄️🚂❄️✨, and more!

Our performance tonight is the beautiful culmination of several weeks of dedication, passion, and collaboration ❤️ amongst our faculty, staff, and students, and we are delighted to be showcasing our CSUSB Piano 🎹 & Flute 🪈 Ensembles under the direction of Wen-Ting Huang, CSUSB Saxophone 🎷 Ensemble under the direction of Edgar Melendez, and our CSUSB Symphony Orchestra 🎶✨under the direction of Lucy Lewis. Our featured soloists 🌟 for the evening include CSUSB alumni Maya Orendain, flute 🪈, Priscilla Ibarra, violin 🎻, Susan Felix 🎻, violin, Jammie Hampton, soprano 🎤, Denise Tillman, soprano 🎤, Daniel Ramon, tenor 🎤, & Keinan Hernandez, baritone 🎤, & guest artists Laura Griffin-Casey, harp 🪉, and David Cerna, piano 🎹.

After the performance, please join us for a light reception with sweet refreshments 🍪🥮🍬and hot drinks ☕️, we would love to visit with you! 😍

Tickets 🎟️ may be purchased at this link 🔗: https://www.purplepass.com/organizer/52870

Happy Holidays 🎁🎄🎵❄️❤️🌟everyone, we look forward to seeing you! 😍🥰😊❤️

Today is the day!!! 🤩🎉 You are cordially invited to our ⭐️first CSUSB Symphony Orchestra performance⭐️ for the 2025-2026 season. A highlight for this concert is being able to feature our very own clarinet professor Margaret Worsley, performing the first movement of Rancho Cucamonga composer, David Stern’s, Clarinet Concerto, a work that is infused with open, earthy harmonies, and sensitive melodic writing. We are also delighted to be performing Gustav Mahler’s “Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen'” from his Kindertotenlieder, featuring CSUSB Alumna Kimberly Benavides, soprano. In keeping with the spirit of the autumn 🍁 season and upcoming Halloween 🎃 holiday, we are performing a screening of the 1928 American silent horror film adapted and directed by Melville Webber and James Sibley Watson (based on the 1839 short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe), orchestrated by CSUSB Alumni Corbin McCasland, bassist and composer. We will cap off our program with a performance of Henry Mancini’s Theme from Pink Panther 🩷, featuring CSUSB music major Jaden Garcia, tenor saxophone, and lastly, John Williams’ Selections from E.T. ✨

🎟Tickets may be purchased at this link:
https://www.purplepass.com/events?event_name=CSUSB%20music

Parking is $10, and the performance will take place in the CSUSB Performing Arts Building Recital Hall. We look forward to seeing you! 😍🥰😊❤