Music

News

Announcement

Pablo Ortiz Work Premieres in Argentina

“Requiem for Gerry” by Professor Pablo Ortiz will premiere at the Teatro Colón on March 22. The work was commissioned as a tribute to the late Gerardo Gandini, founder and director of the Columbus Theater Experimental Center.

Announcement

New Album Produced by Scott Linford: “Ears of the People: Ekonting Songs from Senegal and the Gambia”
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

New Album Produced by Scott Linford: “Ears of the People: Ekonting Songs from Senegal and the Gambia”

Scott Linford, assistant professor of music, has produced and recorded a new album—Ears of the People: Ekonting Songs from Senegal and The Gambiaas part of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, a nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. The album features nine master players of the ekonting, a three-stringed instrument made from a gourd and papyrus reed by people of the Jola ethnic group.

Announcement

Lifetime Achievement Award for Jessie Ann Owens
Renaissance Society of America

Jessie Ann Owens, wearing glasses and a maroon collared shirt, smiling with a warm wooden background.

Distinguished Professor of Music, emeritus, Jessie Ann Owens, has been awarded the prestigious Paul Oskar Kristeller Lifetime Achievement Award by the Renaissance Society of America. The board of directors of the society gives the award annually to an individual with “uncompromising devotion to the highest standard of scholarship, accompanied by exceptional achievement in Renaissance studies.”

Announcement

Carol Hess Publishes Book on Copland and Receives NEH Open Book Award

Book cover and Carol Hess

Professor Carol A. Hess has published a new book, Aaron Copland in Latin America: Music and Cultural Politics (University of Illinois Press). In it she gives an in-depth examination of the composer’s exchange of music and ideas with Latin American composers. 

Upcoming Events

Event

Hrabba Atladottir, solo violin: “Works by Graduate Students”

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

These new pieces for solo violin, or solo violin and electronics, were created as part of the graduate student workshop, in which graduate students met with Icelandic violinist Hrabba Atladottir each week during Fall Quarter, refining their compositions.

Program

James Larkins: Toccata

Jacob Lane: Tempo Sonata

Paul Engle: for Hrabba in Pitzer

Orkun Akyol: thousand regrets

Peter Chatterjee: Egret

Free

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

PinkNoise: “Works by Graduate Students”
Artists-in-Residence

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

PinkNoise
Johnna Wu, violin
Simon Kanzler, electronics
Roberta Michel, flutes
Kaichi Hirayama, clarinets
Iva Casian Lakos, cello
Chi-Wei Lo, piano

In addition to performing works by our own graduate student composers on this program, PinkNoise—known for its contemporary improvisational performance practice—will perform its own program, featuring the open-instrumentation work “Black as a Hack for Cyborgification” by Jessie Cox, alongside other works, on Friday, April 14th, at 5:00 pm.

Program

Zoë A. Wallace: Phantasmagoria

Max Gibson: bread and butter, bones and nutters, on the river styx

Colin Minigan: Pod Meadow

Trey Makler: magical girl transformation: seven minutes in heaven!

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

PinkNoise: “Black as a Hack for Cyborgification” and Other Works
Artists in Residence

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

PinkNoise
Johnna Wu, violin
Simon Kanzler, electronics
Roberta Michel, flutes
Kaichi Hirayama, clarinets
Iva Casian Lakos, cello
Chi-Wei Lo, piano

PinkNoise is a New York-based chamber ensemble dedicated to musical improvisation and compositions in acoustic and electronic mediums. They will present improvisations involving live electronics interspersed among a program exploring sonic and dramatic space featuring “Black as a Hack for Cyborgification” by Jessie Cox with the UC Davis Percussion Ensemble, “2.5 Nightmares for Jessie” by Natacha Diels, “The people here go mad. They blame the wind” by Clara Iannotta and “random/control” by Simon Kanzler. 

Program

Jessie Cox: Black as a Hack for Cyborgification (2020)

Black as a Hack for Cyborgification was commissioned by the PinkNoise Ensemble in April of 2020. The open instrumentation project, written by Swiss artist and percussionist Jessie Cox, uses Afrofuturism and other contemporary influences as a basis for the work. The score—marked with different sections with titles such as Venus, Earth, Jupiter, the North Star, and the Sun—is a sort of map where different performers can borrow (or hack!) bits and pieces from different areas of the map and combine them. Jessie’s music has been performed by other renowned contemporary ensembles, including Ensemble Modern, the LA Phil, Sun Ra Arkestra, and the JACK Quartet.

Natacha Diels: 2.5 Nightmares for Jessie (2014)

Clara Iannotta: The people here go mad. They blame the wind (2013–14)

Simon Kanzler: random/control (2021)

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

Picnic Day: “Sound + Humans = Magic”
SoundLab

The Sound Lab – Art Annex, 221 Cushing Way, Davis, CA 95616

Experience “Magic” created by students (“Humans”), and (“Sound”) produced using a variety of analog and electronic instruments. Students will perform live electronic music starting at 10:00 am, with the audience outside, on the (North) Mrak Hall lawn. Starting at 11:00 am, visitors are welcomed into the Sound Lab to get hands-on experience with some of their synthesizers and other sound-producing tools.

Free

Art Annex, 221 Cushing Way, Davis, CA 95616
Event

Picnic Day: Music Student Performance

Music Courtyard, Ann E. Pitzer Center

** Please note this event takes place in the outdoor music courtyard between the Music Building and the Ann E. Pitzer Center. **

Program

A few of our student groups, including our Bluegrass and Old Time String Band, Mariachi Ensemble, Afro-Cuban Ensemble, and Capoeira Ensemble, will perform, celebrating the many musics of the world!

Free

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

Student Recital: Crisia Regalado, voice
Junior Recital

with Karen Rosenak, piano

Program

Alessandro Scarlatti: “O cessate di piagarmi” from Pompeo

Tommaso Giordani: Caro mio ben

George Frideric Handel: “Và godendo” from Xerxes

Franz Schubert: An die Musik and Seligkeit

Richard Strauss: Allerseelen

Gabriel Fauré: Après un rêve and Le Secret

Giacomo Puccini: “Chi il bel sogno di Doretta” from Rondine

Gioachino Rossini: “Una voce poco fa” from Il barbiere di Siviglia

Free

Event

“A New Life for the Harpsichord”

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

Cathie Apple, flute • Cindy Behmer, oboe and UC Davis lecturer in music

Sandra McPherson clarinet • Amy Lindsay, violin • Timothy Stanley, cello

Faythe Vollrath, harpsichord and UC Davis lecturer in music

Left abandoned and untouched for centuries, the rediscovery of the harpsichord in the early 20th century not only led to new views on Baroque music, but inspired contemporary composers to write for this revitalized, but old instrument. The following pieces are some of the most important works of this early contemporary literature. 

Program

Manuel de Falla: Concerto for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin and Cello (1926)

Libby Larson: Kathleen, As She Was (1989)

Elliott Carter: Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord (1952)

a Shinkoskey Noon Concert​

Free

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
Event

Valente Lecture: Ruthie Meadows
Ruthie Meadows

Room 266, Everson Hall
Everson Hall, Davis, CA

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