UC Davis Events Calendar

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.

Program
New songs by UC Davis graduate student composers—
Peter Chatterjee,
Trey Makler,
Dean Kervin Boursiquot,
Joseph Vasinda,
Emily Joy Sullivan

Chris Froh, solo percussion and UC Davis lecturer in music

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

Pete Nowlen, coordinator
Program
To be announced.

Program 
Mike Marshall, mandolin, 
Andy Connell, clarinet and saxophone, 
Colin Walker, 7-string guitar, 
Brian Rice, pandeiro and UC Davis lecturer in music About the Artists
Mike Marshall and Choro Famoso bring a bright energy and virtuosity to their concerts, maybe matched only by the Brazilians themselves. Choro is an important musical tradition of Brazil with characteristic Afro-Brazilian rhythms and European popular dance tunes. Mike—already known throughout the world for pushing on the boundaries of many music genres—became smitten with Choro on his first adventure in Brazil.

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

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

Portia Njoku, tuba and UC Davis lecturer in music
with a guest pianist to be announced
Program
To be announced.

These new pieces for solo violin, or solo violin and electronics, were created as part of the graduate student workshop, in which graduate students met weekly with Icelandic violinist Hrabba Atladottir each week during Fall Quarter, refining their compositions.
Program
James Larkins,
Jacob Lane,
Paul Engle,
Orkun Akyol,
Peter Chatterjee
About the Artist
Icelandic violinist Hrabba Atladottir has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in several Northern California ensembles, including UC Davis’s Empyrean Ensemble, The New Century Chamber Orchestra, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, ECO, and the SF Contemporary Music Players. Before coming to California, she spent time in New York, where she played on a regular basis with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra among others. She studied violin with Professor Axel Gerhardt at Künste University, Berlin. After her studies in Germany she participated in a world tour with the Icelandic pop artist Björk and a tour with violinist Nigel Kennedy. She also freelanced in Germany, regularly playing with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Oper, and Deutsche Symphonieorchester.

In addition to performing works by our own graduate student composers on this program, PinkNoise—known for its contemporary improvisational performance practice—will perform its own program, featuring the open-instrumentation work “Black as a Hack for Cyborgification” by Jessie Cox, alongside other works, on Friday, April 14th, at 5:00 pm.
Program
Zoë A. Wallace, 
Max Gibson,
Alex Minigan,
Orkun Akyol,
Trey Makler
About the Ensemble
PinkNoise is a New York-based chamber ensemble dedicated to musical improvisation and compositions in acoustic and electronic mediums as a reaction and response to the conditions of our community and our society. Our mission is to reveal how improvisation in musical performances lies at the intersection of historical and contemporary works, and how it is a synthesis of multifarious cultures and styles from the past and the present that connect us to our conscience in society. We also believe in performing new works by composers in acoustic and electronic mediums and collaborating with visual artists and writers to present music as a collaborative and interdisciplinary art form.
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Each member of the ensemble is a performer, composer, and creator committed to inverting, translating, reflecting, and transcending the boundaries of both old and new music to present a kaleidoscopic range of performances that connect us to our sensibilities and conscience.
​
PinkNoise is a recipient of grant awards from the Amphion Foundation and the Fritz Reiner Center for Contemporary Music. 

Program
Jessie Cox: Black as a Hack for Cyborgification
About the Ensemble
PinkNoise is a New York-based chamber ensemble dedicated to musical improvisation and compositions in acoustic and electronic mediums as a reaction and response to the conditions of our community and our society. Each member of the ensemble is a performer, composer, and creator committed to inverting, translating, reflecting, and transcending the boundaries of both old and new music to present a kaleidoscopic range of performances that connect us to our sensibilities and conscience.
 

Program
To be announced.

Cindy Behmer, oboe,
Cathie Apple, flute,
Timothy Stanley, cello,
Dr. Faythe Vollrath, harpsichord and UC Davis lecturer in music,
Program
Elliot Carter: Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord,
Manuel de Falla: Harpsichord Concerto

Program
To be announced.
About the Artist
Wendy Richman has been celebrated internationally for her compelling sound and imaginative interpretations in a wide range of genres. Her debut solo album, vox/viola (New Focus Recordings, 2020), features nine commissioned works for singing violist by leading contemporary composers. She is a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, with whom she performs regularly in New York City and around the world, and she has performed regularly with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the period instrument ensemble Tesserae. Dr. Richman is a faculty member at both UCLA and California State University-Northridge (CSUN), where she teaches a variety of academic music courses and applied viola, and she is a sought-after clinician at universities and conservatories across the country.

Program
Zoë A. Wallace
Max Gibson
Jacob Lane
Bryndan Moondy
Joseph Donald Peterson
Joseph Vasinda
Emily Joy Sullivan

Lillian Gordis, harpsichord, with Jérôme Hantaï, viola da gamba. Program to be announced.

Michael Goldberg, solo guitar and UC Davis lecturer in music
Program
To be announced.