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 Festival January 30–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 four-time 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.
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:Unequal
Freedom, an Exploratory Concerto for Haegeum,
Electronics, and Orchestra
with Soo Yeon Lyuh
Premiere
Lisa Coons:The Space Between
(2019)
with director and choreographer Mark DeChiazza
(West Coast Premiere; second performance of the work)
Composer Lisa Coons uses her own experience of social silencing
as a springboard for The Space Between, a fully staged,
choreographed work for Spektral Quartet that unravels the social
hierarchies of human interaction, and ultimately, invites
musicians to explore the roots and motives of communication
through the spectacle of music and theatre. Choreographed by
director and designer Mark DeChiazza, the work is seamlessly
interwoven in a style unique to Coons, and organically mixes
moments of improvisation with written material: a musical gesture
might be the start of a conversation between musicians that is
mirrored through physical movement. Or, a physical movement might
disrupt, provoke, or engage the music of another player. The
simple act of watching the violist of a string quartet cradle the
head of the cellist, or of one violinist muting the performance
of their fellow violinist is also shocking, and through the
unexpected drama created by physical interaction, Coons and
DeChiazza compel both the performers and the audience to consider
the ways in which we navigate communication, conflict, and
connection.
Steve Reich’sMusic for 18 Musicians
(1974–76)
with members of the Empyrean Ensemble
Hrabba Atladottir, violin
Michael Seth Orland, piano Hannah Addario-Berry,
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,
with two
to-be-announced pianists,
UC Davis Lecturer in Music Ann
Lavin, clarinetist,
UC Davis Graduate Student in Music Joseph Vasinda,
clarinetist,
and Stephen Bingen,
audio engineer
New Taproot music festival offers a lineup of new music groups
and commissioned works over four days. “The festival is
rooted in this place and produces unique works,” said Sam Nichols, festival coordinator, composer and
music department faculty member. “The different groups and people
come together and meet one another and share. We didn’t just want
groups parachuting in and performing what they might perform
elsewhere and then leave.”
