We are now accepting applications from composers to participate
in the Taproot New Music Festival. Between 6–8 composers
will be selected and 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 a visiting ensemble as well as UC Davis’s own Empyrean
Ensemble. The deadline to submit is April 15,
2025.
There is important
information—particularly for first-year music students—to
read through regarding Music 6 (Theory) and Music 16
(Musicianship), including placement.
One of UC Davis’s highest priorities is the safety of its
students and all members of its community. UC Davis
prohibits all forms of sexual harassment and sexual violence,
including sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, and
stalking. Such conduct violates University policy and may
violate California law.
Professor of Music Pierpaolo Polzonetti has been awarded a Seed
Grant for International Activities from Global Affairs at UC
Davis and the Eivind Lange and Mary Puma Engagement and Research
in Italy Fund. Polzonetti will use the grant for a project
that centers on the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy.
He’s calling the project the “Umbria Jazz Feast,” as it
investigates the perceptions and identity of jazz as it
intersects with the cuisine, art and culture of locals,
tourists, and migrants from the Global South.
The inaugural Research Award from the UC Davis Emeritus/ae
Association (UCDEA) has awarded Professor of Music Henry
Spiller, emeritus, of the Department of Music, for his
project ”Between Two Worlds: Sundanese Music Theory
according to Jaap Kunst and R.M.A. Kusumadinata.” The award
includes a $5,000 grant, and Spiller will give a lecture on the
topic as part of UCDEA’s upcoming “Brain Food” lecture series.
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.
Ghost Ensemble
Sky Macklay, oboe
Ben Richter, accordion
Lucia Stavros, harp
Martine Thomas, viola
T.J. Borden, cello
James Ilgenfritz, bass
Ghost Ensemble is a mixed chamber ensemble dedicated to
experimental music that expands perceptual horizons to
foster individual and community transformation. Performances
(such as this one) often incorporate “Deep
Listening,” a practice pioneered by ensemble mentor
Pauline Oliveros that encourages a heightened awareness of
sound, space, and community.
Program
Four world premieres by graduate student composers in music—
Bryndan Moondy: “the meadow where time is carried”
Peter Chatterjee: Lullabies
Max Gibson: GOVERNOR RUDDER’S CONSTELLATORY
ODYSSEY
An educator with 14 years of experience, Afro-Cuban female
author Eva Silot Bravo is an interdisciplinary and
independent scholar, former diplomat and international negotiator
in the United Nations, representing Cuba and developing
countries. The focus of her presentation is her recently
published non-fiction academic book: Cuban
Fusion: The Transnational Cuban Alternative Music
Scene, on Cuban music and transnationalism.
Student chamber ensembles, the Samba School directed by faculty
member Brian Rice, and also the Bluegrass and Old Time String
Band directed by faculty member Scott Linford will perform
works in progress.
Althea SullyCole studied her primary instrument, the
kora — a 21-stringed West African harp — under korists
Yacouba Sissoko and Edou Manga. She is a multi instrumentalist,
vocalist, and ethnomusicologist from New York
City. From 2024 to 26, Althea will be performing research
on an Award for Faculty from the National Endowment for the
Humanities, which, among other things, will fund fieldwork in
Mali and Guinea in support of her scholarship on historical
collections of musical instruments from the Mandé region of
West Africa.
Howard Levy — two-time Grammy Award Winner (Pop Music
Performance and Instrumental Composition) — is an acknowledged
master of the diatonic harmonica, a superb pianist, innovative
composer, educator and producer. At the age of 19, he
discovered how to play the diatonic harmonica as a fully
chromatic instrument by developing techniques on it that had
never existed before. This enabled Howard to take the harmonica
out of its usual role as a Folk and Blues instrument, and into
the worlds of Jazz, Classical, Middle Eastern music, and
more. His discovery unlocked infinite possibilities for
the harmonica world.
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.
