Music

From concerts to rehearsals, to lectures on musical literature, the Ann E. Pitzer Center is a home for music at UC Davis. On Oct. 1, the center marks its tenth year of operation with a concert that also opens the music department’s 2026–27 season. 

Chair of the music department, Sam Nichols, says, “With this opening Shinkoskey Noon Concert, which is part of one our longest running offerings to the community, we want to convey a sense of gratitude for everyone that made the Pitzer Center come to life, and all the vibrant music activities that now take place in it.”

It was a warm yet breezy week in New York City and the sidewalks were full of tourists, many coming for nearby World Cup festivities, others to celebrate Pride, Juneteenth and, especially, the city’s own Knicks basketball team’s historic win. But for students visiting from UC Davis, highlights of the week were largely concentrated in Midtown Manhattan and the Theater District.

Jon Anderson began his lectureship in horn performance at Sacramento State University's School of Music.

The American Musicological Society (AMS) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2026–2027 academic year graduate research and dissertation fellowships. Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Fellowships provide funding for the final year of Ph.D. dissertation work and are awarded on the basis of academic merit. Fellows receive a twelve-month stipend, currently set at $25,000. They may also elect to accept the award on a non-stipendiary basis (thus freeing scarce resources for others).

In his newly released documentary film, Umbria Jazz Feast, UC Davis Professor of Music, Pierpaolo Polzonetti, investigates the perceptions and identities of jazz as it intersects with the cuisine, art, and culture of locals and visitors in Perugia, a medieval town in central Italy. A musicologist specializing in music and food, Polzonetti focused on how the festival enabled a synesthetic experience; that is, one in which different senses are simultaneously engaged.  

Rita Sahai, Lecturer in Music and Director of the UC Davis Hindustani Vocal Ensemble, has been selected as a recipient of a Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award, which is given annually by the Welfare Society of India to accomplished Indians living abroad. Sahai will be presented the award in London on August 14, 2026, by some of India’s highest ranking government officials, as well as members of India’s Supreme Court.

UC Davis Department of Music Professor Juan Diego Díaz has been awarded the Helen Roberts Prize by the Society of Ethnomusicology for the most significant article in the field of ethnomusicology published in the previous year. Diaz received his prize for his article “From Claves Ethnotheory to Clave Theories: A Path Toward Decolonizing Music Analysis,” which was published in the journal Ethnomusicology, the flagship journal in Ethnomusicology. 

UC Davis Department of Music undergraduate student Zoe Plateau and music alumni Annamarie Bosco, Andrew Hudson, Larry Lozares, Avery Snyder, Ben Saetern, Natalie Laurie, Katie Gorden, Asa Stern, Laura Zhang and Oscar Santamaria were participants in this year’s CALCAP Chamber Music Workshop held at California State University, Sacramento. 

Words matter, and to Pablo Ortiz — Distinguished Professor of Music at UC Davis — they are vital to his music.

Professor Laurie San Martin’s work “Night Owls” will be performed by Ensemble Ari. This work was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition and is written for Ensemble ARI.

Performance schedule:

• ​Oct. 27, 2024, 3 p.m. at St. Mary’s College
• Nov. 4, 2024, 1 p.m. at San Francisco State University 
• Nov. 6, 2024, 12 p.m. at Santa Clara University