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

Michael Spiro and Friends

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Internationally recognized percussionist, recording artist, and educator known specifically for his work in the Latin music field.

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

Valente Lecture: Jayson Beaster-Jones
"Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Bollywood’s Rock Band Aesthetic"

Room 266, Everson Hall

The soundtrack to the film Dil Chahta Hai (2001) was arguably the first hit soundtrack in Bollywood created by a rock band. In this presentation, Prof. Beaster-Jones illustrates how the collaborative approach for this Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy soundtrack generated momentum for a new kind of Indian film song.

He highlights the changing tastes of India’s urban youth audiences in the twenty-first century and shows how Dil Chahta Hai paved the way for the rock and EDM-oriented compositions of Hindi-language cinema that came to dominate the first decades of the twenty-first century. This influence, he argues, makes Dil Chahta Hai among the most influential soundtracks in Indian cinematic history.

Room 266, Everson Hall
Event

Latin Percussion Workshop with Michael Spiro

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Michael Spiro

Michael Spiro is an internationally recognized percussionist, recording artist, and educator, known specifically for his work in the Latin music field. He has performed on hundreds of records, co-produced several instructional videos for Warner Bros. Publications (featuring such renowned artists as David Garibaldi, Changuito, Giovanni Hidalgo, and Ignacio Berroa), and produced seminal recordings in the Latin music genre, including Orquesta Batachanga, Grupo Bata-Ketu, and Grupo Ilu-Aña.

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

“Arts @ Shields” Pop-up Performance
Music for Percussion

Grand Staircase Mezzanine, Peter J. Shields Library

Mayumi Hama, marimba
with students of the UC Davis Percussion Ensemble

TBA

Program

To be announced from the stage.

Free

Peter J. Shields Library, Davis, CA
Event

Le Jazz Hot Quartet
Members of the Hot Club of San Francisco

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Le Jazz Hot (quartet, trio, or sometimes a duo) plays in the style and spirit of Django Reinhardt—never failing to dazzle and delight!

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

Percussion Ensemble of UC Davis
Featuring Mayumi Hama

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Mayumi Hama, marimba
Chris Froh, marimba and UC Davis lecturer in music
with students of the UC Davis Percussion Ensemble

Program

Keiko Abe: Variations on Japanese Children’s Songs

Emmanuel Sejourné: Khamsin

Eric Whitacre: Sleep

Keiko Abe: Conversation in the Forest I

 — Intermission — 

Yoshio Hachimura: Movement I from Ahania 

Toshiya Sukegawa: “He Who Runs Swiftly” from 5 Pieces After Paul Klee 

Zoë A. Wallace: History Teaches PREMIERE

Joseph Donald Peterson: Dovetailing PREMIERE

Guang Yang: Wooden Skeleton’s Whimsicals PREMIERE

Conlon Nancarrow: Study No. 5 PREMIERE

Free

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

Jazz Combos of UC Davis
Winter Quarter

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Otto Lee, director and UC Davis lecturer in music

Program

To be announced.

Free

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

Concert Bands of UC Davis
featuring Michael Hernandez, soprano saxophone

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

UC Davis Concert Band
Pete Nowlen, director

Campus Band
Garrett Rigsby, director

“The Song of Creation” (pictured) is a painting by San Francisco-based artist Tino Rodriguez, and serves as the main inspiration for the concerto featured on this program by Juan Sebastián Cardona Ospina, titled “Eyes to Look Otherwise.” The concerto is dedicated to the featured soloist, saxophonist Michael Hernandez. Hernandez commissioned the work as part of his “Latinx Storytellers” project.

Program

Campus Band

Mattea Williams: One Magnificent Light

Quincy Hilliard: Out of Darkness

Alex Shapiro: Lights Out

Joe Hisaishi / arr. Kazuhiro Morita: Selections from Princess Mononoke

UC Davis Concert Band

Kevin Charoensri: Rising Light

Jennifer Jolley: Lightway

Juan Sebastián Cardona Ospina: Eyes to Look Otherwise
with Michael Hernandez, soprano saxophone
   Inspired by three paintings of Tino Rodriguez
   Commissioned by the Latinx Storytellers Project

Dennis Llinás: Un Cafecito

$12 Students and Children, $24 Adults (Open Seating)

Mondavi Center, Davis, CA

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