When many people think of African music, the first ideas that
come to mind are often of rhythm, drums, and dancing. These
perceptions are rooted in emblematic African and
African-derived genres such as West African drumming, funk,
salsa, or samba and, more importantly, essentialized notions
about Africa which have been fueled over centuries of contact
between the “West,” Africa, and the African diaspora. These
notions, of course, tend to reduce and often portray Africa and
the diaspora as primitive, exotic, and monolithic.
Professor Kurt Rohde’s composition
One Wing is featured on a new
recording by the Left Coast Chamber
Ensemble. Rohde’s work is inspired by Olivier Messiaen’s
chamber work Quartet for the End of Time which is also
on the recording.
An “Aggie for life,” alumnus Bill Hollingshead (B.A.,
political science, ’60) died in early February. He and his wife
Dianne were longtime patrons of the Department of Music. Bill’s
patronage to UC Davis is showcased in article on the College of
Letters and Science website.
Graduate student composer Trey Makler was recently
interviewed by CapRadio’s classical music director Kevin
Doherty in regards to his composition Spaceman/Watchman.
Featuring text by creative writing graduate students Jordan
Dahlen and Sawyer Elms, the work was included in the recent
concert New Words and New Music with Voice.
Graduate student composer Emily Joy
Sullivan will be given the premiere performance of her
song cycle Giver of Stars by Kelci Kosin, soprano,
and Cara Chowning, piano (both of Ball State University) at the
annual Music for Women Festival, hosted by the Mississippi
University for Women. Giver of Stars features the
poetry of Amy Lowell, who is a poet, performer, editor,
and translator and has devoted her life to the cause of
modern poetry.
On Thursday, March 11, 2021, at 7:30 pm Eastern Time, The Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center will stream a previous
performance of new chamber works. Chris Froh, percussionist and
UC Davis lecturer in music, is featured in Toru
Takemitsu’sRain Tree for Percussion
Trio (1981).
The California Choral Directors
Association (CCDA) has awarded UC Davis alumna Susanna
Peeples with a 2021 Early Career Choral Conductor award. The
award was given at this year’s CASMEC conference (virtually, of
course). Peeples graduated from UC Davis in 2009 and earned her
master of music degree (in music education) from the University
of the Pacific. She teaches choir, piano, and guitar, at Granite
Bay High School, where she was named that school’s Teacher of the
Year by her peers in 2020.
The Society for American Music has chosen UC Davis
Associate Professor of Music Beth Levy as their Vice President.
They have also elected members at large Mark Burford and Marian
Wilson Kimber.
Her book Frontier Figures: American Music and the
Mythology of the American West (UC Press) was published
in 2012. Her other interests include eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century aesthetics, reception history, and
representations of music in literature.
UC Davis graduate student Josiah Tayaq
Catalan has been awarded the 2021 commission for a new
work, which will be composed for solo piano. The commission
provides for a “private score reading and feedback session with
the Contemporary Players and SF Search panelists, a premiere of
the commissioned work on [their] at the
CROSSROADS series concert held in San Francisco on
April 10, 2021, plus an archival recording.”
A new work by Aida Shirazi, doctoral student in music
composition, will be premiered by the Camellia Symphony
Orchestra, under the direction of Associate Professor
Christian Baldini on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. (PST).
Works by Aida Shirazi, a doctoral student in music composition,
are featured on several recent and upcoming live or recorded
online concerts.
Her “albumblatt” will be part of a concert by pianist Sarah
Cahill broadcast on BBC Radio on Nov. 20. It is part of Cahill’s
“The Future
is Female” project that commissioned works by women composers
from around the world.
Tiara started at Davis this quarter and is pursuing a degree in
music, though she first started to sing when she was about four
years old.
“When I turned seven, I realized that I loved music and I loved
to sing, and it was something I was truly passionate about, so
I found a voice teacher who was willing to train me and I began
to learn the right techniques and healthy habits early on,”
Tiara said.
Two UC Davis alumni are among 20 composer-librettist
pairs preparing a new opera for consideration to be
performed at West Edge Opera’s “Aperture” project. “Aperture” is
an online performance space for new opera works,
which launches in November of 2020.
Ryan Suleiman,
composer (PhD, Music, ‘20), and Cristina Fríes,
librettist (M.A., Creative Writing, ‘19), have titled their new
work School for Girls Who Lost Everything in the
Fire. The piece is a social tale about a group of
orphaned girls finding the hope to rebuild their lives in a
Catholic school in the aftermath of destruction amid mysterious
phenomena.
“Broken,” a composition by Mika Pelo, associate professor of
music, was given its premiere performance by celebrated
pianist-composer Rolf Hind on October 7 at King’s
Place in London. The concert, “Is it too soon to talk about all
this?,” featured a series of short works.
Ryan Suleiman, a
doctoral student in music composition at UC Davis, has long
been concerned with the environment, nature and climate change.
Over the past few years, Suleiman has written works
titled Drought, Skies of
Smoke and Burning. In
the spring he reached out to other musicians to see what they
had to say about music that explores the natural environment,
with an emphasis on climate change, for a series of YouTube
interviews.
Professor Emeritus Albert J. McNeil was a
transformative force in the music department during his 21 years
as a faculty member (1969–90). UC Davis is celebrating McNeil’s
100th birthday.
The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble begins its all-online concert
season with a program titled Soft-Spoken. It
features flutist and UC Davis lecturer in music Stacey Pelinka in Soft-Spoken, a world
premiere from the multi-talented artist David Dominique,
Zeppelin, a flute and cello duo by UC Davis professor of
music Laurie San
Martin, and Kurt Rohde’s (also a UC
Davis professor of music) remixes of songs by Hildegard
(Ave Maria) and Joni Mitchell (Blue),
as well as trios by Beethoven and Albert Roussel.
Aida Shirazi (PhD student in composition
at UC Davis) spoke to NPR Capital Public Radio’s Jennifer
Reason
in a September 1, 2020 interview. Aida began by relating her
grandfather’s musical interest and influence and her initial
music study in Iran, which included several female students
in a bachelor’s program despite Iran’s government
restrictions on women.
