Music

News

Announcement

Professor San Martin awarded guest composer at Sao Paolo Composer Festival

The São Paolo Contemporary Composers Festival has invited Professor Laurie San Martin to be a Guest Composer at the coming 2025 festival.

Announcement

Laurie San Martin’s “Night Owls” performed by Ensemble Ari

Professor Laurie San Martin’s work “Night Owls” will be performed by Ensemble Ari. This work was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition and is written for Ensemble ARI.

Announcement

Rohde Awarded Commission from the Koussevitsky Foundation in the Library of Congress

Professor Kurt Rohde—a musician who plays viola, teaches, and composes—received a 2024 commission from the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation in memory of Andrew W. Imbrie (1921–2007) to write a new work for Brightwork New Music.

Announcement

Professor Mika Pelo Composition Premieres in Sweden

In 2023 Professor Mika Pelo was selected for a composer residency by the Peterson-Berger Foundation at Sommarhagen, the home of the late Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. As part of the residency, Pelo composed a new work, Akvareller (“Watercolors”). 

Upcoming Events

Event

Stacey Pelinka, flute

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Stacey Pelinka, flute and UC Davis lecturer in music

Program

Jimmy López: Warped Symmetry

Jessie Cox: Afronaut

Free

This Shinkoskey Noon Concert is made possible with support from the Joy S. Shinkoskey Series of Noon Concert Endowment.

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

Pushback Collective: Graduate Student Compositions

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Ally Smither, soprano
Ben Roidl-Ward, bassoon

Program

To be announced.

Free

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

Dvorak Wind Serenade

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Program

Antonín Dvořák: Serenade in D Minor, op. 44, B. 77

Morton Gould: Benny’s Gig
feat. Ann Lavin, clarinet,
and Michael Schwagerus, double bass

Free, a Shinkoskey Noon Concert​

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

Orange Road Quartet: Works by Graduate Students

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Miguel Calleja and Holly Workman, violin
Nicky Moore, viola
Jordan Bartow, cello

Program

To be announced.

a Shinkoskey Noon Concert

Free

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

Andy McKee, solo guitar

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Andy McKee, solo guitar

Andy McKee is among the world’s finest acoustic guitarists. His youthful energy and attention to song structure and melodic content elevates him above the rest. He entertains both the eye and the ear as he magically transforms the steel string guitar into a full orchestra via his use of altered tunings, tapping, partial capos, percussive hits and a signature two-handed technique. 

Program

To be announced from the stage.

Free

This Shinkoskey Noon Concert is made possible with support from the Joy S. Shinkoskey Series of Noon Concert Endowment.

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

Music Forum: Tekla Babyak
Neuroqueer Listening: My Erotic Experience of Music as a Disabled Woman

Room 266, Everson Hall

Tekla Babyak holds a PhD in Musicology from Cornell University. Based in Davis, CA, she is an independent scholar and disability activist with multiple sclerosis (MS). Her research focuses on analysis and aesthetics in European musical Romanticism. Recent publications have appeared in 19th-Century Music and Joseph Joachim: Identities/Identitäten.

Room 266, Everson Hall
Event

Barbara K. Jackson
Rising Stars of Opera

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

UC Davis Symphony Orchestra
Christian Baldini, music director and conductor

San Francisco Opera Center
Carrie-Ann Matheson, artistic director

Since its inception in 2010, Rising Stars of Opera has featured vocal artistry, stirring arias and a glimpse at the opera stars of tomorrow; and every ticket has been free to the public thanks to Barbara K. Jackson.

Rising Stars of Opera features several singers from the highly regarded San Francisco Opera Center performing a wide range of great arias with full orchestral accompaniment from our own UC Davis Symphony Orchestra.

Program

To be announced.

Free, limit four (Reserved Seating)

Mondavi Center, Davis, CA
Event

Empyrean Ensemble
Season 37

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Empyrean Ensemble
Sam Nichols, director • Matilda Hofman, resident conductor

Musicians Playing
Tod Brody, flute*
Peter Josheff, clarinet*
Michael Seth Orland, piano*
Chris Froh, percussion*
Hrabba Atladottir, violin*
Thalia Moore, cello*

*core member

Program

Pierre Boulez: Dérive 1

Laurie San Martin: New Work (World Premiere)

Maurice Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Piano, M. 77

Free, no tickets required

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA

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