School of Music and Dance Presents “Nothing Gold Can Stay” at the Historic Balboa Theatre

The SDSU Wind Symphony and Symphony Orchestra will perform live in concert at the Balboa Theatre in downtown San Diego on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, 7:30 p.m. Tickets for “Nothing Gold Can Stay” are available for purchase through TicketMaster.

Part of the Arts Alive SDSU Discovery Series, the concert will be preceded by a Zoom panel discussion on Wed. Nov. 3, 2021 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Register through Zoom here.

The concert title, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” comes from the poem by Robert Frost capturing the beauty and bittersweet nature of our temporality, and the fact that all beautiful and wonderful things in our experience eventually come to an end.

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Conductor of Wind Symphony Shannon Kitelinger describes the concert saying, “Musical selections will include beautiful works of music written by composers in response to trauma, loss, and healing in their lives.

Director of Orchestras Michael Gerdes says the theme “grew from a discussion that he and Shannon Kitelinger had about a piece by John Mackey entitled ‘Places we can no longer go.’ The piece is about the composer’s grandmother and losing her to rapid-onset dementia. However, the piece is told in reverse order, with the music beginning in confusion and ending in coherence.”

The concert program musical selections will include:

• “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Steven Bryant

• “Places We Can No Longer Go” by John Mackey

• “Blue Cathedral” by Jennifer Higdon (inspired by Sunken Cathedral by Claude Debussy)

• “Firebird Suite” by Igor Stravinsky (related to the Phoenix myth associated with rebirth)

SDSU Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Nicole Shue says she has the “privilege of having musical conversations with every instrument on stage. I prepare by making pre-performance decisions about how my musical choices affect the other voices in the orchestra, and guiding the directions of our conductor Michael Gerdes. We’re excited and ready for a lovely audience in the incredible Balboa Theatre because it’s the circumstance of the moment: the people and the venue that we play for that really makes our music. I interpret ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’ as a tribute to time that has left us, we make golden memories every day throughout our lives, but we can never get back the day, the place, or the people that have passed by.”

The historic Balboa Theatre at 868 4th Ave. first opened to great acclaim in March 1924. Covid protocols are in place at the Balboa Theatre, and can be found here.

Arts Alive Discovery Series Panel Discussion

The concert will be augmented by an optional Arts Alive SDSU Discovery Series Zoom panel discussion taking place on Wed. Nov. 3, 2021 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The panel will feature Daniel Levitin, Neuroscientist and Cognitive Psychologist; Charles Edmund Degeneffe, MSSW, CRC, Department of Administration, Rehabilitation, and Postsecondary Education; SDSU Director of Orchestras Michael Gerdes; and SDSU Director of Bands Shannon Kitelinger. The public is welcome. Register through Zoom here.

Arts Alive Chair Eric Smigel says “As our fragmented community reassembles after sustaining so many traumas, I think we are recognizing the value of shared experiences, those human interactions that are fundamental to a university education. In a sense, this year’s Discovery Series is an opportunity for the SDSU community to rediscover one other through our collective engagement with the arts, humanities, and sciences.”

The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.