Music

Keys to Transposition teaches a step-by-step, strategic approach built on key and starting from scales, arpeggios, and common patterns. It has several “failsafes” to prevent students from going wrong, and each unit includes excerpts from the orchestral, solo, and chamber repertoire, starting with passages with no accidentals and few leaps and gradually adding difficulty. Each standard key also includes at least one duet excerpt.

Experiencing Latin American Music draws on human experience as a point of departure for musical understanding. Students explore broad topics—identity, the body, religion, and more—and relate these to Latin American musics while refining their understanding of musical concepts and cultural-historical contexts.

Jeffrey Thomas, professor emeritus, and the American Bach Soloists were honored by the website SF Classical Voice as winners in their annual Best of the Bay series. 

Two one-act chamber operas by Professor Kurt Rohde were cited by the website SF Classical Voice as winners in their annual Best of the Bay series. 

Musicians representing UC Davis faculty, staff and students are participating in a summer chamber music program called CalCap which is being held at California State University, Sacramento. Pete Nowlen, director of UC Davis Concert Bands, is the director of CalCap which runs July 22 to August 3 in two one-week sessions

Among the musicians participating in the workshops are student Oscar Santamaria, bassoonist, who performs with the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra and Concert Band, and staff member Marjorie Phillips from environmental toxicology who is a flutist.

The Department of Music, UC Davis, announces lecturer Caleb Lewis to direct both the University Chorus and the Chamber Singers beginning fall quarter, 2018. Originally from Rome, Georgia, Lewis moved to Berkeley in 2017, where he worked as a church musician, music teacher, and performer. While in Berkeley, he also worked as assistant conductor of the San Francisco Bach Choir and sang as a regular baritone soloist and chorister with San Francisco Choral Artists.

This year’s “Arts and Humanities Graduate Exhibition at UC Davis” showcases the work and research of graduate students across seven disciplines — art studio, design, art history, music, theatre, creative writing and French — at the Manetti Shrem Museum.

Music’s Sam Clark-McHale, Jonathan Favero, Ryan Suleiman and Sarah Wald will be featured in this interdisciplinary show.

New compositions by UC Davis Associate Professor of Music and composer Kurt Rohde and graduate student Addie Camsuzou recently premiered in the Bay area. Writer Jessica Balik for San Francisco Classical Voice caught a performance and wrote favorably of the new works. 

Rohde composed music for “Three Scented Candles” with text by Scott Hunter and ’s texts, while Camsuzou created music for “Opens Lark in its Constellation” with text by Luke Munson. 

Grace Noda
January 14, 1920 – March 14, 2018

Local philanthropist and lover of music Grace Noda (née Imamoto) died on Wednesday, March 14, 2018, surrounded by family and music. She was 98 years old. She leaves behind a legacy of kindness to others.

A Friend to UC Davis