The Department of Music and the Mondavi Center for the Performing
Arts at UC Davis present the Taproot New Music
Festival, November 6–9, 2025.
Overview
The Taproot New Music Festival will take place on the campus
of UC Davis during the week of November 3, 2025, and will
culminate in performances at the end of that week
(November 6–9, 2025). Selected visiting composers will
travel to Davis for the festival: they’ll have new pieces
performed, and will participate in seminars and workshops
facilitated by the visiting artists and UC Davis composition
faculty. The festival will feature Ensemble Dal Niente as
visiting ensemble. UC Davis’s own Empyrean Ensemble and UC Davis
Symphony Orchestra will also join the festival line-up.
Featured Ensembles
Dal Niente
Michael Lewanski, conductor
Ensemble Dal Niente performs, develops, and sustains new and
experimental music for small to large chamber ensemble. Dal
Niente is dedicated to growing relationships with artists,
composers, and listeners; advancing distinct and challenging
musical voices; and sharing that work with their Chicago, United
States, and international communities. Four composers will
work with Dal Niente:
Sam Nichols, director
Prof. of Teaching, Department of Music
Matilda Hofman, conductor-in-residence
Continuing Lecturer, Department of Music
Ensemble-in-residence at UC Davis, the Empyrean Ensemble presents
engaging and eclectic programs, inviting audiences to experience
new musical sensations delivered with high artistry by its
extraordinary players—among the finest new music performers in
California. Four composers will work with Empyrean:
Parker Callister
Mary Denney
Yingting Liu
Bryndan Moondy
UC Davis Symphony Orchestra
Christian Baldini, music director and conductor
Professor of Music, Department of Music
The UC Davis Symphony Orchestra is a high achieving university
student and community orchestra in residence at the Mondavi
Center. The orchestra is equally committed to performing the most
provocative music of the orchestral repertoire and the work of
living composers at UC Davis and from afar. One participating
composer will work with the orchestra:
Peter Chatterjee
Mission
The Taproot New Music Festival brings together a diverse group of
composers and performers, both local and visiting, and gives them
the chance to hear new work, and to make lasting connections. A
biennial festival at UC Davis, it features concerts and other
events, and also creates the opportunity for our students to work
alongside exceptional artists. Actively inclusive and
participatory, Taproot broadcasts a unique vision of how to
sustain a musical community.
