Carol A. Hess, Distinguished Professor of Music, has taken a deep dive into musical diplomacy with her most recent book, “Aaron Copland in Latin America,” published this year.
“Black mustard” is what people call the thick oil that is often visible — particularly at sunset — on the surface of Newtown Creek, which borders Queens and Brooklyn in New York City. The estimated 30 million gallons of oil is one of many toxins in the creek, an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. This would seem an unlikely place to not only inspire, but to also be the venue, for an opera, but it is. The opera "Newtown Odyssey," by UC Davis professor Kurt Rohde, visual artist Marie Lorenz and writer Dana Spiotta, is being premiered this weekend.
Nicolás Alberto Dosman has joined the UC Davis Department of Music as director of choirs and assistant professor of teaching. He will lead the Concert Choir, a large mixed ensemble, and the Chamber Singers, a select ensemble of 16 to 24 students. He will lead his first concert at UC Davis on Dec. 8.
Albert J. McNeil, UC Davis professor emeritus of the Department of Music and an original faculty member and chair of the Department of African American and African Studies, died on Nov. 29. He was 102. At UC Davis from 1969 to 1990, McNeil transformed the University Chorus from an occasional course to a full public performance group and also created the Chamber Singers.
As part of an ongoing study stretching from Davis to Germany and across the many islands of Indonesia, the UC Davis Department of Music is holding a second conference on Indonesian music. “Rethinking The History Of Indonesian Music” on Nov. 5 brings together scholars from around the globe and is organized by Professor Henry Spiller and Professor Emerita Anna Maria Busse Berger.
The culmination of two or more years and a lifetime of experience and exploration by UC Davis students, “The Arts & Humanities Graduate Exhibition” offers new ways to understand the world, ourselves and the issues we face. We spent time with three students from art studio, music and design to learn about their journeys of creating works that are in the exhibition.
UC Davis College of Letters and Science graduate students will share their work with the public as the multidisciplinary “Arts and Humanities 2022 Graduate Exhibition” returns to theJan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art following two years of virtual exhibitions.
A public opening event with a poetry reading, music and dance will take place June 2 from 6 to 9 p.m.
When he was a college student, Pierpaolo Polzonetti was hired by an opera-loving cookbook author to research composer Giuseppe Verdi’s favorite recipes. There weren’t any, but it led Polzonetti to a fascination with what he dubs “gastronomic signs” in opera. Many years later, the result is the recently published book Feasting and Fasting in Opera: From Renaissance Banquets to the Callas Diet by Polzonetti, the Jan and Beta Popper Professor of Music at UC Davis.
A moving musical work with contributions from UC Davis music and Native American studies studentswillexplore California’s complicated relationship with water, drawing on Native origin stories in which water is an important player. It will be performed in several locations in the UC Davis Arboretum along Putah Creek.
Award-Winning Authors, Faculty Readings, Interdisciplinary Student Works on Tap
The UC Davis Creative Writing Series kicks off 2021 with readings by acclaimed visiting writers Jess Arndt and Carmen Maria Machado, a collaboration between music and writing students, and a showcase of new works by faculty members. All events are at 4:30 p.m., free and accessible on Zoom unless otherwise noted.
The Creative Writing Program is part of the English department in the College of Letters and Science.
