The Department of Music at the University of California, Davis,
and the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
present the Taproot New Music FestivalJanuary
28–February 2, 2020.
Featured Ensembles
Quince
Ensemble
Comprised of vocalists Liz Pearse (soprano), Kayleigh Butcher
(mezzo soprano), Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (soprano), and Carrie
Henneman Shaw (soprano), Quince thrives on unique musical
challenges and genre-bending contemporary repertoire.
Spektral
Quartet
The twice-Grammy nominated Spektral Quartet actively pursues a
vivid conversation between exhilarating works of the traditional
repertoire and those written this decade, this year, or this
week. Spektral Quartet includes Clara Lyon (violin), Maeve
Feinberg (violin), Doyle Armbrust (viola), and Russell Rolen
(cello).
Empyrean
Ensemble
UC Davis Music Professor Mika Pelo, director
Ensemble-in-residence at UC Davis, the Empyrean Ensemble presents
engaging, thought-provoking, eclectic programs, enabling
audiences to experience new musical sensations delivered with
high artistry by its seven extraordinary core players—the finest
new music performers in California.
Empyrean Ensemble will premiere two new works
by Taproot Festival Participating Composers
Inga Chinilina and Yuting Tan, and both
Quince and Spektral Quartet
will perform a work to be announced.
Empyrean Ensemble Mika Pelo, director
UC Davis Professor of Music
Two new string quartets by Taproot Festival
Participating Composers, a new quartet by
a UC Davis Graduate Student in Music,
and a new quartet by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir.
Christian Baldini, music director and
conductor
UC Davis Professor of Music
Ravel:Pavane pour une infante
défunte
The haegeum is a two-stringed fiddle
of Korea. The physical nature of the haegeum allows it to
produce a diverse variety of timbres making it a popular
instrument for court, folk, and contemporary music. It is even
being used in Korean pop music.
Jean Ahn:The Woven Silk for
Haegeum and Orchestra
with Soo Yeon Lyuh
Christian Baldini: New Work for Haegeum and
Orchestra
with Soo Yeon Lyuh
Steve Reich’sMusic for 18 Musicians
(1974–76)
with members of the Empyrean Ensemble
Hrabba Atladottir, violin
Michael Seth Orland, piano to be announced, cello
voices of the Quince Ensemble,
Liz Pearse | Kayleigh Butcher
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett | Carrie Henneman Shaw
UC Davis Lecturer in Music Chris Froh and
undergraduate percussion students,
marimbas, xylophones, and vibraphones,
UC Davis Lecturer in Music I-Hui Chen, piano,
two to-be-announced pianists,
UC Davis Lecturer in Music Ann
Lavin, clarinetist,
and Stephen Bingen,
audio engineer
