Prospective graduate students are now welcome to go
online and submit
their applications to UC Davis for the 2020–21 academic
year. Music deadlines are as follows:
When doctoral music composition students at UC Davis hear their
music played for the first time, they hear it played by
professionals who are champions of new music with years of
performance experience.
“There’s no shortage of performance opportunities, especially
for a research program, and that’s something that’s attractive
to students.” —Professor Kurt Rohde
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.
Music student Lauren Risha has had her paper—”‘In the Hands
of a Noblemen’: Enlightenment Values and Collective Morality in
Mozart’s Don Giovanni‘”—published in the 2019–20 UC
Davis Prized Writing publication. This year’s collection is the
30th anniversary of the annual publishing by the University Writing Program.
UC Davis Professor of Music Kurt Rohde
has been appointed the new Artistic Director of
the Composers Conference. The Composers
Conference, guided for nearly 50 years by Pulitzer
Prize-winning composer Mario Davidovsky, who recently passed
away, offers a unique opportunity for emerging composers,
professional musicians, amateur chamber players, and
conservatory-level instrumentalists and singers.
Empyrean Ensemble Mika Pelo, director
UC Davis Professor of Music
Honoring Larry Austin—
Austin:Threnos for Bass Clarinet
and Electronics (Peter Josheff, bass clarinet)
Austin:Redux for Violin and
Electronics (Hrabba Atladottir, violin)
Larry Austin was a faculty member in the music department at UC
Davis between 1958–72 during some formative years for the
department. Austin was an award-winning composer who
founded SOURCE: Music of the Avant Garde and
gained widespread recognition through a televised performance and
recording of his Improvisations for Orchestra and Jazz
Soloists by the New York Philharmonic conducted by
Leonard Bernstein. Austin was also very well connected and
was friends with some of the most important composers in those
days. For example, he invited Karlheinz Stockhausen to teach
at Davis while on sabbatical. Larry Austin was a very original
composer, avoiding the current trends of his day, writing truly
unique music. Austin taught for many years at the University of
Northern Texas and passed away in 2018.
Preview of Taproot New Music Festival Participating
Composers—
Inga
Chinilina:Sky Everyday for Bass
Clarinet (Peter Josheff)
Yuting
Tan:Moon On Water for Violin
(Hrabba Atladottir)
Two young composers have been invited to write pieces for the
Empyrean Ensemble for the Taproot New Music Festival in 2020:
Inga Chinilina and Yuting Tan. At this concert we will hear two
older (already written) pieces by these talented composers.
Empyrean’s Peter Josheff—
Peter Josheff:September for
Violin (Hrabba Atladottir)
Last, but not least, we’ll hear a piece by our very own Peter
Josheff, a founding member of the Empyrean Ensemble and an
accomplished composer.
