Jeremy Borum (B.A. music ‘01) recently orchestrated a rock opera titled The Witches Seed by composer Stewart Copeland, which received its first performance in an abandoned rock quarry in Italy this summer. Copeland began his career as the drummer for the British rock band The Police, and now enjoys a career composing for concert, film, and the video game industry. Borum and Copeland have collaborated on many projects over the years.
UC Davis alumnus Cesar Favila (B.A. music, ‘06)—now assistant professor of musicology at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music—has been given the Susan McClary and Robert Walser Fellowship in Music Studies from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).
Professor of Music, emeritus, Christopher Reynolds has been elected a member of the Musicology and Art History section of the Academia Europaea (Academy of Europe). The purpose of the Academy of Europe—an academy of sciences and humanities—is for the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship ”for the public benefit and for the advancement of the education of the public of all ages.”
The fellowship will support Díaz’s research of four communities in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, which were formed by the descendants of emancipated Africans who resettled from Brazil to West Africa during the 19th century.
Undergraduate music major (focusing on vocal performance) Tiara Abraham has won second place in the Sacramento Master Singers Youth Scholarship competition. For it she sang one of only a few Vincenzo Bellini art songs, ”Per pietà, bell’idol mio,” in the collegiate category, age 20–22.
Lecturer in music and alum Christopher Castro (Ph.D., composition and theory, ‘18) has accepted the position of assistant professor of composition at Chapman University’s College of Performing Arts, Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music. He joins the faculty in August 2022 and will teach composition and theory.
