Music 2A, 6A, and 16A must be taken concurrently for a total of 7
units. This set of courses comprises first-year theory
requirements for music majors and begins once a year, in the
fall quarter.
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.
Undergraduate music major (focusing on vocal performance)
Tiara Abraham has won second place in
the Sacramento Master Singers Youth Scholarship competition. For
it she sang one of only a few Vincenzo Bellini art
songs, ”Per pietà, bell’idol mio,” in the collegiate
category, age 20–22.
Professor Pierpaolo Polzonetti is the author of the recently
published book Feasting and Fasting in Opera: From
Renaissance Banquets to the Callas Diet. Published by
the University of Chicago Press, the book is filled with
engaging insights drawn from Polzonetti’s research about opera —
from its origins as entertainment during 16th-century banquets to
20th-century opera star Maria Callas’s diet.
Andrew “Andy” Frank, who joined the faculty at UC Davis in 1972,
passed away in April, 2022. A consummate artist, Andy was in his
beloved music studio until the very end, composing, revising, and
revisiting cherished musical and literary masters of the present
and past.
Lecturer in music and alum Christopher Castro (Ph.D., composition
and theory, ‘18) has accepted the position of assistant professor
of composition at Chapman University’s College of Performing
Arts, Hall-Musco
Conservatory of Music. He joins the faculty in August
2022 and will teach composition and theory.
Experience new works by student filmmakers at the 2022
Film Fest @ UC Davis. Now back in person, the festival will be
held May 16 and 17 at the Varsity Theatre in downtown Davis.
“We are so grateful to be able to present this year’s festival in
person after two years of being virtual,” said Christine Davis,
publicity director for Film Fest. “Returning to an in-person
event adds excitement and enthusiasm for the screenings as the
filmmakers experience an audience’s reaction to their
work.”
Karlton Hester Jazz Trio (“Hesterian
Musicism”)
Karlton Hester, saxophone and UC Santa Cruz Professor of
Music
David Smith, bass
Motoko Honda, piano
Hesterian Musicism is the creative process through which
Karlton Hester’s compositional and performance styles merge to
give rise to aesthetic environments where other musicians,
kinetic and visual artists, and poets, can meet to produce
new art forms through imaginative effort.
Program
(all compositions by Karlton Hester)
QE Depth of Awareness (Electroacoustic composition
#1)
Quantum Spirit Dance Mix (Electroacoustic composition
#2)
The Freedom Principle (Spontaneous Composition)
Free Hesteria
Saturnday Head
Byrd Math
Hesterian Musicism is the creative process through which
Karlton Hester’s compositional and performance styles merge to
give rise to aesthetic environments where other musicians,
kinetic and visual artists, and poets, can meet to produce
new art forms through imaginative effort. Its philosophical basis
involves intrinsic freedom of expression, focused and disciplined
spontaneity, and a structural basis that explores the creative
components of diverse sources from the whole earth. Contemporary
Trans-African Experiments create ways in which to search for
universal musical concepts that can be examined for their
inherent capabilities as commonage. Hester’s
interdisciplinary experimental approaches re-contextualize
African American music as prioritized global music that aligns
with emerging discourses regarding Afrofuturism and aspires to
have both students and general listeners engage music and
research with a variety of perspectives on issues that encourage
discussion beyond colonial musical and sociocultural
contexts.
Free
a Shinkoskey Noon Concert
Campus community (students, staff, or faculty) must show
a cleared Daily Symptom
Survey at the door.
Others [age 12 and older] must show proof of COVID
vaccination or a negative COVID test result at the door.
Karlton E.
Hester, Ph.D., composer-flutist-saxophonist,
began his career as a composer and recording artist in Los
Angeles where he worked as a studio musician and music educator.
He received his Ph.D. in composition from the City University of
New York Graduate Center and is currently Director of
Jazz Studies (and member of the Digital Arts and New Media
faculty) at UC Santa Cruz. A performer on both flute
and saxophone, he is founding music director of the Fillmore Jazz
Preservation Big Band (in San Francisco), director of Hesterian
Musicism, and served as the Herbert Gussman Director of Jazz
Studies at Cornell University from 1991 to 2001. Hester
specializes in premeditated, spontaneous, and electro-acoustic
composition. His compositions span a wide range; from numerous
solo cycles for various woodwinds to chamber configurations,
music videos and electro-acoustic symphonic works written in an
eclectic array of styles.
Program will include two new works by UC Davis graduate
students in music as well as “In C” by Terry Riley, often noted
as the first minimalist music composition.
