Music

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).

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

Professor Kurt Rohde—a musician who plays viola, teaches, and composes—received a 2024 commission from the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation in memory of Andrew W. Imbrie (1921–2007) to write a new work for Brightwork New Music. The commission is made possible by a gift from Barbara Cushing Imbrie and Andrew Philip Imbrie, and is sponsored by Brightwork New Music.

In 2023 Professor Mika Pelo was selected for a composer residency by the Peterson-Berger Foundation at Sommarhagen, the home of the late Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. As part of the residency, Pelo composed a new work, Akvareller (“Watercolors”). The composition was premiered on August 11, 2024, with violinist Hrabba Atladottir and pianist Martin Hellström during the summer “Music Days” at Sommarhagen. The piano used in the performance belonged to Peterson-Berger.