UC Davis Events Calendar

Erika Oba, flute; Stephanie Neumann, saxophone; Jacob Lane, piano and UC Davis graduate student of music
Program
Stephanie M. Neumann: Creek/to\Ocean
Kian Ravaei: California Suite
Julie Herndon: Shadow Prism
About the Program
"Of California Ecology" features new works based on different facets of California’s natural world. The trio will perform compositions by ensemble members, Julie Herndon, and Sl(e)ight Ensemble's 2020 call-for-scores winner Kian Ravaei. Drawing on the artists’ distinct backgrounds in jazz, band, and chamber music, the program is inspired by seismic activity, fungal biomes, waterways, and social ecology, among other natural phenomena. The result is a diverse set of works all created with the aim of bringing appreciation to California’s beautiful and delicate environment. This program was originally made possible with the support of InterMusicSF.
About the Ensemble
Founded in 2015, Sleight Ensemble is a group of composer/performers focused on the realization of new music in the San Francisco Bay Area. The ensemble’s performances have included concerts at The Center for New Music (S.F.), The Simm Series (S.F.), Octopus Literary Salon (Oakland), and The Musical Offering (Berkeley) and have featured collaborations with artists such as composer Stephen Parris, violinist Mia Bella D’Augelli, cellist Devon Thrumston, and composer/visual artist Jessie Austin. 

Chris Froh, percussion and UC Davis lecturer in music
Program
All new works by graduate student composers—
Paul Engle, Joseph Donald Peterson, Jacob Lane, Colin Minigan, Bryndan Moondy, and Adam Strawbridge

Program 
Harrison Birtwistle: Crowd Jennifer Ellis, solo harp
This piece is an exploration of resonance, and in the essential nature of the earliest harps. Crowd (etymologically related to the Celtic words crwth, cruit, and crot) was the English term used for instruments of the lyre class, and ultimately for a frame harp from pre-Christian to medieval times.
Maria A. Niederberger: PREMIERE
Yu-Hui Chang: Germinate  WEST COAST PREMIERE Commissioned by Boston Musica Viva (BMV), the oldest professional ensemble in the United States dedicated to contemporary music, wrote Germinate, for their 50th anniversary in 2019. Scored for flute, piccolo, bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion, Germinate is a tribute to BMV for its contribution to the music of our time, taking inspiration on how BMV helps generate new ideas and collaboration between numerous musicians.
Jonathan Harvey: Still Written for solo tuba and electronics, the soloist improvises around a series of eight chords, gradually building up a sustained background of reverberations.
Lee Hyla: Polish Folk Songs

Joseph D. Peterson, viola and UC Davis graduate student in music
Program
J.S. Bach: Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012, arranged for viola
Milton Babbitt: Play It Again Sam
Pablo Ortiz: le vrai tango argentin
 

Artists
Sandra McPherson, clarinet • Susan Lamb Cook, cello • John Cozza, piano 
Program
Works by Miguel Del Aguila, Jeffrey Hoover, Durwynne Hsieh, and others.
 

Dr. Faythe Vollrath, solo harpsichord and UC Davis lecturer in music. Immerse yourself in the Halloween season with the eerie and spooky sounds of the harpsichord. Spine-chilling chords and cackling runs bring alive a concert of things that go bump in the night, with black cats, Jeckyl and Hyde, and even compositions written by spirits. Featuring works by J.S. Bach, Dominico Scarlatti, James Dorsa, and Rosemary Brown. Program J.S. Bach: Prelude in B Minor, BWV 923, James Dorsa: Jekyll and Hyde, Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in G Minor, K. 30

Program: Lisa Graciano, Paul Miller, Patrick Liddell, Megan Hewitt, Richard Phillips. Bay Area Indonesian-Folk-Rock fusion group, Purnamasari grew out of the idea of supporting a new generation of artists from both sides of the world through music and dance. The concert takes place on the eve of the LUCE Foundation’s conference “Rethinking the History of Indonesian Music.” Purnamasari, led by Indonesian-born, San Francisco Bay Area singer-songwriter Lisa Graciano, integrates Indonesian gamelan instruments and ideas into original, yet accessible guitar-based songs and compositions. Purnamasari means Essence of the Full Moon and features performers experienced in both gamelan and Western music, mixing and extending traditional techniques. They create a unique musical fusion, using a variety of gamelan instruments and tuning systems, mixed with western instruments tuned to a pitch allowing interaction with the gamelan.

For the conference “Rethinking the History of Indonesian Music” six scholars will present 30-minute papers, followed by 10-minute prepared responses from local respondents, on topics related to the broad subject of music history in the geographical area currently identified as the Indonesian archipelago. The conference is part of a broader Luce Foundation project, titled “Toward a Music History of the Indonesian Archipelago,” which takes place over two years. With this open approach, the conference seeks to explore topics of indigeneity, colonialism, the evolving artistry of modern gamelan, and the rethinking of Indonesian history.

Maryam Farshadfar, piano and Shawyon Malek-Salehi, violin About the Artists
Maryam Farshadfar, piano (Ph.D., ethnomusicology, University of Montreal) and Shawyon Malek-Salehi, violin (B.A., music, UC Davis, ‘14) present this lecture-recital, which discusses the history of piano and violin in Iran, and the influence of Persian culture on Western composers from the late 19th century to the present. The recital includes performances of a variety of lesser known pieces by Western and Persian composers, including pieces by Samin Baghcheban, Gena Branscombe, Henry Cowell, and others.
Program
To be announced.

Performing Groups
Mariachi UC Davis • Tito Talamantes, director
Gamelan Ensemble • Henry Spiller, director
Samba School • Brian Rice, director
Bluegrass and Old Time String Band • Scott Linford, director
Program
To be announced.

Chris Froh, director and UC Davis lecturer in music
Program
To be announced.

Otto Lee, director and UC Davis lecturer in music
Program
To be announced.

Otto Lee, director and UC Davis lecturer in music. 
UC Davis's own Jazz "Big Bands" present songs from the Great American Songbook as well as a few contemporary works and sometimes feature student vocalists too. Tunes by Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and many others are often presented.
Program
To be announced.

Pete Nowlen, coordinator
Program
To be announced.

Kineko Barbini, violin, I-Hui Chen, piano and UC Davis lecturer in music
Program
To be announced.

Warp Trio: LiKWUiD, spoken word, Josh Henderson, violin, bass, guitar, Ju-Young “J.Y.” Lee, cello, Mikael Darmanie, piano, Rick Martinez, drums. About the Band: Black Voices is an original concert program that integrates classical, jazz, hip-hop, and spoken word—sounds and poetry created by African-American artists—in an effort to lift up lesser-known contributions that define the multifaceted culture of the United States. Featuring the award-winning artist LiKWuiD, the program utilizes poetry of Langston Hughes, Ntozake Shange, and the Sacramento-based Maya Angelou. It also features original spoken word material, set against music by Duke Ellington, William Grant Still, Harry Burleigh, and original compositions by Warp Trio members. 
Program
Harry Burleigh: Southland Sketch No. 1, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Deep River, Jessie Montgomery: Rhapsody No. 1 for Solo Violin, Abel Meeropol / Billie Holiday: Strange Fruit, Thelonious Monk: Ruby My Dear, Duke Ellington: Black and Tan Fantasy

Artists: LiKWUiD, spoken word, Josh Henderson, violin, bass, guitar, Ju-Young “J.Y.” Lee, cello, Mikael Darmanie, piano, Rick Martinez, drums About the Band Warp Trio is an Internationally touring cross-genre chamber music experience. Every chamber music program needs this kind of energy. While the beginning and ending compositions by Haydn and Brahms provided expected pleasures, it was the Warp Trio’s own jazz/tango/classical works that gave the concert a kick in the pants. —Cape Code Times
Program
Joseph Vasinda,
Emily Joy Sullivan,
Adam Strawbridge,
Dean Kervin Boursiquot,
Colin Minigan

The Bacchetto / Sabey Duo is a collaborative project of San Francisco-based composer-performers Nick Bacchetto and Ben Sabey. The duo creates new works for piano and live electronics using MIDI Polyphonic Expression instruments controlling analog modular synthesis, which is spatialized into any speaker configuration via the new Dolby Atmos renderer.
Program
Benjamin Sabey: Dark Sea (approx. 35')
Nick Bacchetto: Dissolutions (approx. 35')
About the Artists 
Ben Sabey is a composer of chamber, orchestral, and electronic music, lately specializing in expressive polyphonic control of analog synthesis and spatialization.
Nick Bacchetto is a composer and pianist whose creative works derive from a tension between algorithmic and intuitive composition, and explore concepts such as fractal geometry and natural selection.
a Shinkoskey Noon Concert​

Sam Nichols, director
Preconcert Discussion from 6:15–7:45 pm with Empyrean director Sam Nichols.
Program
Philip Acimovic (Ph.D. composition ‘18): New Work WORLD PREMIERE. Annea Lockwood: Immersion. Composed by New Zealand-born American composer Annea Lockwood, Immersion (1998) for marimba and two tam-tams was written for Dominic Donato and Frank Cassara and arranged for the Talujon Percussion Quartet in 2001. It grew out of a fascination with the rich beating frequencies generated by long cluster rolls in the low register of the marimba and the interaction between the marimba and a quartz bowl gong tuned to F. Pablo Oritz: New Work WORLD PREMIERE with video by Daniel Godsil (Ph.D. composition ‘21) and UC Davis students. Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together (Part I) with Christian Kiefer, voice. Composed for a flexible number of  collaborative performers, Frederic Rzewski’s Coming Together was written in response to the 1971 uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility. Steve Reich: Pendulum Music performed in the Noda Lobby. The program ends with Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music (1968) in a performance staged by Alysa Banks (B.A., human development, with minors in music and sociology ’21), in the lobby of the Pitzer Center.

Program
To be announced.