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By Dateline staff

Percussion Group Davis and the Empyrean Ensemble, both part of the Department of Music, are presenting free concerts Saturday and next week. Also, the Cal Poly Arab Music Ensemble presents a free concert next Friday.

The Empyrean Ensemble performance is a preview of the ensemble’s April 22 concert, a ticketed event at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

Percussion Group Davis

The student percussion ensemble is set to perform with the California State University, Sacramento, Percussion Group, for an evening of some of John Cage’s most iconic works — for instruments that include Chinese tom-toms, tin cans, transistor radio and amplified cactus.

The performance is in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the late composer’s birth.

The percussion event is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday (April 14) at Nelson Hall (the former University Club), in the Nelson Gallery Courtyard and the dance studio. Admission is free and open to the public.

Empyrean Ensemble

UC Davis’ ensemble in residence performs in the Shinkoskey Noon Concert series at 12:05 p.m. Thursday (April 19), in 115 Music Building. Admission is free and open to the public. The program:

• Laurie San Martin, associate professor — Conference of the Birds Unfeathered (instrumental version), based on Farid ud-Din Attar’s poem Conference of the Birds
• Sam Nichols, music department lecturer — A Song for Clarinet, Percussion, Violin, Cello and Electronics

Both are from a concert titled Songs, Whispers, Tales and Utterances — New Works for Voice, to be presented on Sunday, April 22, in the Mondavi Center’s Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. The composers are set to participate in a lecture and discussion program at 6:15 p.m., and the concert is scheduled to begin at 7.

The music program:

• Erin Gee — Mouthpiece VI for Voice and Ensemble
• Nichols — A Song for Clarinet, Percussion, Violin, Cello and Electronics
• San Martin — Conference of the Birds Unfeathered

Tickets for the April 22 concert are available through the Mondavi Center box office: online; by telephone, (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787; or in person, noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Arab Music Ensemble

The Arab Music Ensemble from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, performs the art and popular music of a wide range of Arabic-speaking societies while particularly focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean, with a repertoire ranging from the Ottoman era to the present.

The free concert is set for 3:30 p.m. Friday, April 20, in 115 Music Building. Admission is free and open to the public.

Cal Poly students sing and perform in a chamber music ensemble (takht) as well as in a larger orchestra (firqa). The traditional instruments include the oud (lute), kamanja (violin), qanun (zither), nay (reed flute), riqq or daff (tambourine), and darabukka or tabla (goblet drum).