Music

In a continuance of the Bay Area’s West Edge Opera “Aperture” series, frequent collaborators and UC Davis alums Ryan Suleiman (Ph.D. music, ‘20) and Cristina Fríes (M.A. creative writing, ‘19) have once again received positive reviews for an excerpt of their new opera project, The School for Girls Who Lost Everything in the Fire.

The opera is about three homeless girls held hostage after a terrible fire with elements of coming-of age amid fear of the unknown adult world.

The British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE) has awarded a commendation to Juan Diego Díaz in its 2022 “Early Career Prize” for his 2020 article, “The Musical Experience of Diasporas: The Return of a Ghanaian Tabom Master Drummer to Bahia,” Latin American Music Review.

On Saturday, April 9, 2022, at 1:00 pm (Pacific Time), Professor Christian Baldini will conduct the Porto Alegre Symphonic Orchestra in Brazil. On the program is a double marimba concerto (Fantasia Brasileira) by composer Rosauro Ney, as well as Jean Sibelius’s Second Symphony. Founded in 1950 under the leadership of maestro Pablo Komlós, the Porto Alegre Symphonic Orchestra (OSPA) is the longest, uninterrupted performing orchestra in Brazil.

Access this performance.  

Daniel Godsil (PhD, composition, ‘21) is now in a tenure-track position teaching in the Department of Music at Columbia College (Sonora, CA), which is located in California’s Sierra Mountains. As an instructor, he teaches music theory and musicianship as well as piano, guitar, chorus, orchestra, and other ensembles. Born and raised in central Illinois, Godsil holds an MFA in music composition from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he studied with John Fitz Rogers, John Mallia, and Jonathan Bailey Holland.

Composition student Emily Joy Sullivan’s Bassoon Quartet was performed at Denison University’s TUTTI Festival. The work was included in a program on March 25 that focused on woodwinds.

TUTTI is a week-long festival celebrating new music and art, bringing artists across disciplines to Denison and the central Ohio community. This year’s festival features Chicago-based Fifth House Ensemble, Denison’s Ensemble-in-Residence ETHEL, and other artists in a multitude of concerts.

Alumnus Gabriel José Bolaños (Ph.D., composition, ‘15) is the recipient of the 2022 Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award for his work nosotros hemos puesto los muertos for bass flute, violin, cello, and double bass. 

The UC Davis Symphony Orchestra will premiere two works, including one responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and a much-loved symphony by Antonín Dvořák for its concert on March 5. The concert takes place at 7 p.m. at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

Pierpaolo Polzonetti, Jan and Beta Popper Professor of Music, has been receiving media attention for his new book Feasting and Fasting in Opera: From Renaissance Banquets to the Callas Diet (University of Chicago Press, 2021). Recently he discussed the book on BBC Radio’s “Music Matters: Art centres, Giovanni Antonini, Opera and Food.”  

The book is getting coverage in TLS (The Times Literary Supplement), in a book review by Larry Wolff, and Library Journal called the work “a fascinating study.”

Tiara Abraham, 16, a senior at UC Davis, majoring in vocal performance at the Department of Music, has received a 2022 YoungArts award in Classical Voice.

YoungArts identifies the most accomplished young artists in the visual, literary, and performing arts, and provides them with creative and professional development opportunities and support throughout their careers. 

The Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA) has announced that alumna Angelica Cortez (B.A., music, ‘12) has been named executive director of the organization.