One of the most important priorities of the music department
today is establishing a fund to cover the otherwise out-of-pocket
expenses for individual music lesson instruction for UC Davis
students. These students gain necessary one-on-one instruction
from a career professional in their field and use those skills in
individual and group performances—including the UC Davis Symphony
Orchestra, Choruses, Percussion Ensemble, Baroque, Early Music,
and more. We seek everyone’s support in this endeavor.
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.
“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.
Scott Linford, assistant professor of music, has produced and
recorded a new album—Ears
of the People: Ekonting Songs from Senegal and The
Gambia—as 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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
