Music

Miguel Petris (B.A. music, ’21) was recently selected for a prestigious internship with Silkroad—the arts, education, and social-impact nonprofit organization founded by Yo-Yo Ma in 1998. The Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble is only one of the initiatives of the organization. Silkroad’s mission is also to create new music, and foster educational and social initiatives. Silkroad “brings music, hope and healing to underserved, culturally rich, urban, rural, indigenous, and refugee communities.”

Professor Carol A. Hess was named an honorary member by the American Musicological Society on Sept. 15. The society recognizes recipients for their extraordinary contributions to the study and teaching of music.

Tito Talamantes, who directs the UC Davis Mariachi Ensemble, was featured by Fox 40 News. Talamantes now directs the Advanced Mariachi Ensemble at Cesar Chavez High School in Stockton, where he began as a student.

A trio of alumni from the UC Davis Department of Music have recently gained recognition for their performances and achievements. 

Angelo Moreno (BA, music, ‘98; MA, orchestral conducting, ‘02) led the acclaimed Davis High School Baroque Ensemble on a successful European concert tour. The tour included performances in the United Kingdom (London, Greenwich), Belgium (Bruges, Mechelen), and Paris. 

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.

Graduate student composer Max Gibson along with collaborator Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambaksh (Librettist) will see the premiere of their short opera Leonard as part of Jewellery Quarter Festival in late July. The work was commissioned by the Birmingham Opera Company in the United Kingdom. 

Professor Laurie San Martin (B.A., music, ‘91) was guest faculty at the 14th Cortona Sessions for New Music in Italy. In addition, three compositions by San Martin were performed in concert during her residency June 12-25. 

Professor Mika Pelo has been selected for a composer residency by the Peterson-Berger Foundation at Sommarhagen, the home of the late Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. Pelo will be in residence July 28 – Aug. 18.

Three members of the UC Davis Department of Music faculty gave presentations at the recent Music Teachers’ Association of California’s annual conference. Susan Lamb Cook, artist affiliate in cello, Heidi Moss Erickson, voice, and Natsuki Fukasawa, piano, participated in the 2023 convention held in Santa Clara.

Professor Pierpaolo Polzonetti has received the 2023 Library Travel Grant conferred by the Cuban Research Institute (CRI) and the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC) to conduct research in the Díaz-Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection at the Florida International University, Miami.