Eight composers from as close as Davis and as far away as Ankara, Turkey have been invited to participate in the Taproot New Music Festival at UC Davis from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2. These composers will have their works premiered by Quince Ensemble, Spektral Quartet, and the UC Davis Empyrean Ensemble. 

Selected composers are:

Inga Chinilina (Brown University)
Emre Eröz (Bilkent University, Turkey)
inti figgis-vizueta (Brooklyn, New York)
Daniel Godsil (UC Davis)
Eren Gümrükçüoglu (Duke University)
Maija Hynninen (UC Berkeley)
Aida Shirazi (UC Davis)
Yuting Tan (University of Chicago)

Taproot grew out of a composers workshop and performance festival started in 2010 and held every two years. The goal of the festival is to bring together a diverse group of composers to nurture musical and professional development and relationships.

Also performing as part of the festival, the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra will present new works by Christian Baldini, orchestra music director and conductor and professor of music, and Jean Ahn, who participated in a previous festival. The festival will also include a performance of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians with undergraduate students performing with members of the Quince and Empyrean ensembles.