Experiencing Latin American Music draws on
human experience as a point of departure for musical
understanding. Students explore broad topics—identity, the
body, religion, and more—and relate these to Latin American
musics while refining their understanding of musical concepts and
cultural-historical contexts.
Jeffrey Thomas, professor emeritus, and the American Bach
Soloists were honored by the website SF Classical Voice as
winners in their annual Best
of the Bay series.
Musicians representing UC Davis faculty, staff and students are
participating in a summer chamber music program called CalCap
which is being held at California State University, Sacramento.
Pete Nowlen, director of UC Davis Concert Bands, is the director
of CalCap which runs July 22 to August 3 in two one-week sessions
Among the musicians participating in the workshops are student
Oscar Santamaria, bassoonist, who performs with the UC Davis
Symphony Orchestra and Concert Band, and staff member Marjorie
Phillips from environmental toxicology who is a flutist.
The Department of Music, UC Davis, announces lecturer Caleb Lewis
to direct both the University Chorus and the Chamber
Singers beginning fall quarter, 2018. Originally from
Rome, Georgia, Lewis moved to Berkeley in 2017, where he worked
as a church musician, music teacher, and performer. While in
Berkeley, he also worked as assistant conductor of the San
Francisco Bach Choir and sang as a regular baritone soloist
and chorister with San Francisco Choral Artists.
“It will be an extraordinary journey!” said the ensemble’s
director Matilda Hofman. “I believe the ‘St. John Passion’ has
not been performed at UC Davis in decades, and the students are
all so excited to be part of this great work of art. It is an
exciting collaboration between the Early Music Ensemble, the UC
Davis Baroque Ensemble as well as members of the Davis High
School Baroque Ensemble.”
The UC Davis Green Big Band will perform a jazz rendition of
the operetta song “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise” by
Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II from the 1928 operetta
“The New Moon” in a modern arrangement by Manricks. Also on the
list are “Jazz Police” by Gordon Goodwin, written around 2003,
and “Groove Merchant” by Jerome Richardson, written in the late
1960s and arranged by Thad Jones.
Pianist Richard Glazier, an expert in the music of George
Gerswhin (and his era) who has performed Rhapsody in
Blue nationally and internationally, will appear
with the Concert Bands of UC Davis on Friday, June 1, for a
performance of a band-and-piano version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody
in Blue” at 7 p.m. in the Mondavi Center, under the direction
of faculty member Pete Nowlen.
Rimsky-Korsakov is widely considered to have been a master of
orchestration, and “Scheherezade” contains what many regard to
be the most striking and vivid musical depiction of a storm at
sea in all of the orchestral repertoire.
This year’s “Arts and Humanities Graduate Exhibition at UC Davis”
showcases the work and research of graduate students across
seven disciplines — art studio, design, art history, music,
theatre, creative writing and French — at the Manetti Shrem
Museum.
Music’s Sam Clark-McHale, Jonathan Favero, Ryan Suleiman and
Sarah Wald will be featured in this interdisciplinary show.
The Camellia Symphony Orchestra’s program on May 19 and 20 will
begin with the world premiere of Jubilant
Burbs by composer Pablo Ortiz, a longtime member
of the music faculty at UC Davis.
New compositions by UC Davis Associate Professor of Music
and composer Kurt Rohde and graduate student Addie Camsuzou
recently premiered in the Bay area. Writer Jessica Balik for San
Francisco Classical Voice caught a performance and wrote
favorably of the new works.
Rohde composed music for “Three Scented Candles” with text
by Scott Hunter and ’s texts, while Camsuzou created music
for “Opens Lark in its Constellation” with text by Luke
Munson.
ABS Artistic and Music Director Jeffrey Thomas earned star
status with his peerless work on the podium. The suites (like
other Baroque works) can turn busy and dutiful when they’re
played too much for speed and showiness.
Writing It wasn’t a dream made Rohde
realize that a similar collaborative project would likely be
fruitful for graduate students in both departments. On
Saturday, the musicians presented two new works from this
project.
Local philanthropist and lover of music Grace Noda (née Imamoto)
died on Wednesday, March 14, 2018, surrounded by family and
music. She was 98 years old. She leaves behind a legacy of
kindness to others.
A free concert featuring music by Greek composer Mikis
Theodorakis — perhaps best known in this country for his music
for the films “Zorba the Greek” (1964), “Z” (1969) and
“Serpico” (1973) — will be presented at 7 p.m. Friday, May 4,
in the Pitzer Center on the UC Davis campus.
A distinctive series of events featuring collaborative efforts
between a number of UC Davis composers, as well as writers and
musicians from UC Davis and elsewhere, will take place
during May. Included will be recent works by UC Davis faculty
composer and violist Kurt Rohde; poet Diane Seuss, visiting
from Michigan…”
Fries and Sulieman are one of six duos from the College of
Letters and Science music and English departments that have
collaborated on works for voice, piano and some electronics.
The pieces will be premiered by the Brooklyn Art Song Society
at the “Creative
Writing” concert May 10.
The [violin] concerto is known for its mix of Hungarian folk
melodies, Bulgarian dance rhythms, modern microtonality and
references to Medieval and Renaissance music — including the
composer’s use of scordatura (an alternate tuning of the violin
that was used by Baroque composer H.I.F. Biber in some of his
violin sonatas).