UC Davis Events Calendar

Each year since 2008, around Memorial Day, a transnational jam session happens on both sides of the wall at the Tijuana-San Diego border. This Fandango Fronterizo Festival inspired Grammy-winning musician and composer Arturo O’Farrill to launch a three-part project (album, book and film) under the title Fandango at the Wall to explore the close connections between Mexico and the United States. For this concert O’Farrill and his special guests tear down musical walls, exploring jazz, classical, Broadway, hip hop and son jarocho. 

Trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis is committed to the idea that optimism and progressive musical thought can—and should—coexist in modern New Orleans jazz. The Uptown Jazz Orchestra stretches big band boundaries, playing with a spirit of joy and fun that could only come from the Crescent City. Their repertoire consists of material that spans more than 100 years of American music, with influences from Louis Armstrong to Count Basie, James Brown to J Cole. Prepare for a big party, with second line numbers and audience participation that creates a spirit of celebration at every performance. 

Evolve  is a new performance experience that explores the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color. Combining pre-recorded videos and live monologues from  The New Black Fest’s Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments, a show written by African American men and women about their experience with racial profiling, and Cop Out: Beyond Black, White & Blue, based on interviews with police officers, Evolve seeks to stimulate conversation in a new way and help us to bridge a seemingly intractable divide.

This 2-hour performance will be followed by a 45-minute, post-show discussion / Q&A with the Red Door Project. 

Legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz called the Liszt Transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies “the greatest works for the piano.” Who better than pianist Christopher Taylor, an innovative musician acclaimed as "seemingly possessed of superhuman powers" (Los Angeles Times), to tackle these demanding, illuminating works over four concerts. In Taylor’s last Mondavi Center appearance, he performed J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations in their entirety on a rare dual-manual Steinway piano. 

Sunday, November 6, 7:30pm
Symphony No. 1   
Symphony No. 2   
Symphony No. 5   

Sunday, November 7, 2pm
 Symphony No. 4 
Symphony No. 3  
 
Friday, April 22, 7:30pm
Symphony No. 6   
Symphony No. 7

Sunday, April 24, 2pm
Symphony No. 8   
Symphony No. 9  

Legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz called the Liszt Transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies “the greatest works for the piano.” Who better than pianist Christopher Taylor, an innovative musician acclaimed as "seemingly possessed of superhuman powers" (Los Angeles Times), to tackle these demanding, illuminating works over four concerts. In Taylor’s last Mondavi Center appearance, he performed J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations in their entirety on a rare dual-manual Steinway piano. 

Sunday, November 6, 7:30pm
Symphony No. 1   
Symphony No. 2   
Symphony No. 5   

Sunday, November 7, 2pm
 Symphony No. 4 
Symphony No. 3   

Friday, April 22, 7:30pm
Symphony No. 6   
Symphony No. 7

Sunday, April 24, 2pm
Symphony No. 8   
Symphony No. 9  

Eliza Jane Schnieder is a voice actor and dialect coach whose work has been featured on South Park, King of the Hill and numerous other animated shows and movies. She has taught and recorded dialects from all 50 states and around the English-speaking world. After having her wrist broken by a cop while protesting the first Gulf war, Schneider quit her “dream” job on television and set off across the country in search of … something she could not define. Almost 10 years and thousands of interviews later, she invites us on her journey in Freedom of Speech.  The piece sets up a dialogue between the disconnected: urban and rural; rich and poor; New York and the South, all while taking the audience on Schneider’s wild ride from Arizona to Alabama to Alaska, stopping off in beauty parlors, swimming holes, bars, street corners, and churches, asking everyone she met, simply, “What’s going on?” Dubbed by the press as “Wildly funny and genuinely poignant” Freedom of Speech blends the immediacy of a documentary with the intimacy of Schneider’s hilarious personal narrative to capture a muffled underlying voice of America that we won’t hear anywhere else. 

During her father's last years suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, singer and composer Liz Queler discovered a new and unexpected refuge in the words of the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. Still Will Be Heard is the culmination of that burst of inspiration and renewed creativity. This music theater piece features 17 of Millay’s poems set to Liz and her partner Seth Farber's eclectic blend of folk, rock, jazz and bluegrass music. The songs, interspersed with spoken words culled from the writings of both women, take us on a journey by turns playful, dark, fierce and beautiful. 

Inuit soul music. Tribal funk. However you describe it, a Pamyua performance is a joyful expression of Indigenous culture. Formed in 1995, the group has created its own genre that merges traditional Inuit drumdance melodies with R&B vocal styles. Proud to represent Indigenous culture, the group believes unity is possible though music and dance and the members interpret Inuit traditions masterfully with joy and sincerity. The response to this message is tremendous as the group is a symbol of pride for Alaska’s indigenous people and to all who see them perform. 

Last we hosted Veronica Swift in 2019, she captivated Mondavi Center audiences with four thrilling nights of jazz standards. At just 25 years old, Swift has built a résumé that even many late-career jazz singers would envy: tours as a featured vocalist with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Chris Botti; a guest collaboration with Michael Feinstein; engagements at A-list clubs like Birdland, Jazz Standard, Dizzy’s Club and Jazz Showcase; and gigs at top festivals including Monterey, Montreal and Telluride, where she’s headlined. Her latest release, This Bitter Earth, shows immense growth from an artist that already appeared to be at the top of her game. Enjoy the rise of this meteoric talent as she makes her Mondavi Center return.

Joy to the World: A Christmas Musical Journey takes audiences through Damien Sneed’s original arrangements of gospel, jazz and classical favorites. Featuring a cast of 10 singers and musicians performing well-known holiday classics such as “Silent Night,” “This Christmas,” “O Come O Come Emmanuel,” “The Little Drummer Boy,” “The Christmas Song,” “Joy To The World,” excerpts from Handel’s Messiah and many others. Sneed has worked with legends including Aretha Franklin, Wynton Marsalis, Jessye Norman, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Lawrence Brownlee, and was the creative mind behind We Shall Overcome, A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. presented in the 2018–19 season. 

A major artistic presence in its home base of San Francisco, the Alexander String Quartet is equally beloved in its second home, the Mondavi Center. This year the quartet appears with new violist David Samuel joining cellist Sandy Wilson, and violinists Fred Lifsitz and Zakarias Grafilo. All Alexander String Quartet performances will take place in Jackson Hall.

Robert Greenberg 
Greenberg has performed, taught and lectured extensively across North America and Europe. He is currently music historian-in-residence with San Francisco Performances, where he has lectured and performed since 1994.

The Chamber Music of Antonin Dvořák 
No nineteenth century composer wrote chamber music more joyful, more melodically brilliant, more accessible, and more compositionally sound than did the Bohemian born and bred Antonin Dvořák  (1841-1904). Protégé of Johannes Brahms, father of nine children (all with his first and only wife); beloved teacher, conductor, violinist, and pianist, Dvořák was perhaps, along with Joseph Haydn, the nicest, kindest, least neurotic person ever to become a major composer. Like Haydn, Dvořák created a body of musical work remarkable for its straightforward expressive content, its humor, humanity, grace and technical polish.  

Sunday, December 5, 2pm: 
D Minor String Quartet, Op. 34 (1877) 
E-flat Major String Quartet, Op. 51 (1879) 
 
Sunday, January 30, 2pm: 
Cypresses for String Quartet (1865/1887) 
Bass Quintet, Op. 77 (1875/1878)* 
 
Sunday, May 15, 2pm: 
Bagatelles, Op. 47 for two violins, cello, harmonium or piano (1878)* 
Piano Quartet, Op. 87 (1889)* 
*guest artists to be announced at a later date  

J.S. Bach: Complete Brandenburg Concertos 

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) returns to the Mondavi Center to perform Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, works that unfailingly provide spiritual fulfillment for music lovers of all faiths and beliefs, inspiring strength at year’s end and a vision of the brightest future. The artistic core of CMS is a multigenerational, dynamic repertory company comprised of an evolving and unparalleled roster of performers. Demonstrating the belief that the future of chamber music lies in engaging and expanding the audience, these expert chamber musicians draw more people to the genre than any other organization of its kind. 

Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23
Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 (Enigma Variations) 

Celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra returns to the Mondavi Center with music director Vasily Petrenko leading a program of English and Russian. Britten rewrote the Four Sea Interludes to stand on their own from Peter Grimes, his masterful opera. Pianist Olga Kern joins the RPO as soloist on Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, one of the most beloved classical works. The Enigma Variations, 14 musical sketches of the composer’s friends, was the work that brought Elgar worldwide acclaim.

Virtuosic, next-gen circus ensemble Circa return with a new love letter to humanity. Following their global smash-hit Humans, which appeared at the Mondavi Center in 2019, Humans 2.0 takes full advantage of the proscenium stage to realize the vision of Circa’s Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz. With music by composer Ori Lichtik, lighting by Paul Jackson and ten of Circa’s finest ensemble members, this new work continues pushing the boundaries of what circus and acrobatics can be. Intimate, joyous and searching, Humans 2.0 sees the performers find redemptive power in strength and fiercely celebrate what it means to be human – a message of hope as the world reels from pandemic fallout.

A major artistic presence in its home base of San Francisco, the Alexander String Quartet is equally beloved in its second home, the Mondavi Center. This year the quartet appears with new violist David Samuel joining cellist Sandy Wilson, and violinists Fred Lifsitz and Zakarias Grafilo. All Alexander String Quartet performances will take place in Jackson Hall.

Robert Greenberg 
Greenberg has performed, taught and lectured extensively across North America and Europe. He is currently music historian-in-residence with San Francisco Performances, where he has lectured and performed since 1994.

The Chamber Music of Antonin Dvořák 
No nineteenth century composer wrote chamber music more joyful, more melodically brilliant, more accessible, and more compositionally sound than did the Bohemian born and bred Antonin Dvořák  (1841-1904). Protégé of Johannes Brahms, father of nine children (all with his first and only wife); beloved teacher, conductor, violinist, and pianist, Dvořák was perhaps, along with Joseph Haydn, the nicest, kindest, least neurotic person ever to become a major composer. Like Haydn, Dvořák created a body of musical work remarkable for its straightforward expressive content, its humor, humanity, grace and technical polish.  

Sunday, December 5, 2pm: 
D Minor String Quartet, Op. 34 (1877) 
E-flat Major String Quartet, Op. 51 (1879) 
 
Sunday, January 30, 2pm: 
Cypresses for String Quartet (1865/1887) 
Bass Quintet, Op. 77 (1875/1878)* 
 
Sunday, May 15, 2pm: 
Bagatelles, Op. 47 for two violins, cello, harmonium or piano (1878)* 
Piano Quartet, Op. 87 (1889)* 
*guest artists to be announced at a later date  

Led by consummate trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and comprised of 15 of the finest soloists, ensemble players and arrangers, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has been hailed as “the greatest large jazz ensemble working today” by the Chicago Tribune. Over his many cherished appearances at the Mondavi Center, Marsalis has compelled and charmed audiences while presenting the full vigor and vision of America’s music, as interpreted by some of our finest living musicians. The Orchestra will draw from a repertoire that includes classic Blue Note Records selections and tunes made famous by John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis and more. 

Becca Stevens’s music is grounded in folk and jazz, but moves in unpredictably fascinating directions. Smart lyrics and funky beats topped with her remarkable vocal gifts are hallmarks of her most recent album, WONDERBLOOM, a record that  Jazz Magazine  described as “sophisticated and sensual pop” and  The Mail on Sunday, as “Glamorous… semi-electric pop Prince might approve of”. Stevens’s many collaborations reflect her wide-ranging interests, from her vocal trio Tillery with Gretchen Parlato and Rebecca Martin, to fascinating work with David Crosby, Jacob Collier, Michael League (Snarky Puppy), Brad Mehldau, Esperanza Spalding, Attacca Quartet, Laura Mvula, José James, Cory Wong, Vince Mendoza, and Timo Andres. 

Opera is an artistic medium that articulates and confronts human passions with powerful immediacy. This conviction is what drives Heartbeat Opera’s desire to rejuvenate opera and to transform its recognized masterpieces from venerated relics into freshly challenging encounters.  

In this stunning adaptation of Beethoven’s Fidelio, a black activist is wrongfully incarcerated.  His wife, Leah, disguises herself to infiltrate the system and free him. But when injustice reigns, one woman’s grit may not be enough to save her love.  Fidelio’s live cast of five singers and seven musicians are joined by a prerecorded virtual chorus of more than 100 incarcerated singers from six prison choirs in the United States. The result is “Imaginative, vital and heartbreaking” (The New Yorker).  This daring work pits corruption against courage, hate against hope.  

Opera is an artistic medium that articulates and confronts human passions with powerful immediacy. This conviction is what drives Heartbeat Opera’s desire to rejuvenate opera and to transform its recognized masterpieces from venerated relics into freshly challenging encounters. 
 
In this stunning adaptation of Beethoven’s Fidelio, a black activist is wrongfully incarcerated.  His wife, Leah, disguises herself to infiltrate the system and free him. But when injustice reigns, one woman’s grit may not be enough to save her love. Fidelio’s live cast of five singers and seven musicians are joined by a prerecorded virtual chorus of more than 100 incarcerated singers from six prison choirs in the United States. The result is “Imaginative, vital and heartbreaking” (The New Yorker). This daring work pits corruption against courage, hate against hope.  

In a cultural landscape filled with endless pundits and talking heads, Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of our most insightful social commentators. Her essays and interviews offer her acerbic views on current events and the media as well as pet peeves including tourists, baggage-claim areas, after-shave lotion, adults who roller skate, children who speak French or anyone who is unduly tan. The New York Times Book Review calls Lebowitz an “important humorist in the classic tradition.” Purveyor of urban cool, Lebowitz is a cultural satirist whom many call the heir to Dorothy Parker. Martin Scorsese directed a documentary about Lebowitz for HBO titled Public Speaking. A new limited documentary series, Pretend It’s a City, also directed by Martin Scorsese, premiered on Netflix in 2021.