Matilda Hofman, a lecturer in music at UC Davis, has been named the new Artistic Director of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble beginning with their 2023–24 season. Left Coast is based in the Bay Area and has gained a reputation for bringing to light treasured works alongside new creations by living composers. Hofman, who chose the repertoire for Left Coast’s upcoming season, has been their conductor as well as the resident conductor for UC Davis’s contemporary music ensemble, Empyrean.

The ensemble will participate, for example, in the first-ever statewide California Festival, which features works written only in the last five years. Left Coast will conclude its season with another inaugural project called Pathways, which pairs emerging California composers with mentor composers in a workshop and performance setting.

Hofman co-directed Left Coast’s previous season with the ensemble’s longtime artistic director Anna Presler, who assures audiences Hofman will bring “wonderful musicianship, intelligence, energy, and spirit to the organization.”