Brain-body music with Grace Leslie Thursday at Mondavi
Thursday, May 19, 7:30 p.m., Vanderhoef Studio Theatre
Piece 1: Vessels (2015-2020)
Pieces 2-3: from Fais de moi un instrument (2021)
As a Stanford student, Grace Leslie imagined a new kind of electronic music, engineered to harmonize the brain with the nervous system. Leslie has continued to develop this Brain-Body music as director of the Brain Music Lab at Georgia Tech, and as an active electronic musician committed to harnessing the expression granted by new music technology to understand the link between music and emotion. Vessels and Fais de moi un instrument are brain-body performances that combine flute and electronics improvisation that is triggered by electrical readings of Leslie’s brain, heart and skin.
This performance is being presented as part of (Science, Humanities and Arts: Process and Engagement), an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded program in which Ƶ students encounter the humanities, arts, and sciences integrated to express and examine the power each holds as a means of responding to our world.
In addition, there will be a post performance Q&A with Grace Leslie, 9 – 9:30 p.m. directly following the performance. The panel will include Grace Leslie and SHAPE faculty Gözde Goncu Berk and Mitchell Sutter.
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Noon concert: ‘A Hesterian Musicism Approach to Afrofuturism’
Thursday, May 19, 12:05 – 1 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Free, A Shinkoskey Noon Concert
The Karlton Hester Jazz Trio (“Hesterian Musicism”) includes Karlton Hester, saxophone and UC Santa Cruz Professor of Music; David Smith, bass; and Motoko Honda, piano.
The program will feature QE Depth of Awareness (Electroacoustic composition #1), Quantum Spirit Dance Mix (Electroacoustic composition #2), The Freedom Principle (Spontaneous Composition), Free Hesteria, Saturnday Head, and Byrd Math.
Find a direct link to the livestream .
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Hester will then give a lecture, 4 – 5:30 p.m. in Room 266, Everson Hall, following the performance. Find more information .
Hester, composer-flutist-saxophonist, began his career as a composer and recording artist in Los Angeles where he worked as a studio musician and music educator. He received his Ph.D. in composition from the City University of New York Graduate Center and is currently Director of Jazz Studies (and member of the Digital Arts and New Media faculty) at UC Santa Cruz. A performer on both flute and saxophone, he is founding music director of the Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band (in San Francisco), director of Hesterian Musicism, and served as the Herbert Gussman Director of Jazz Studies at Cornell University from 1991 to 2001. Hester specializes in premeditated, spontaneous, and electro-acoustic composition. His compositions span a wide range; from numerous solo cycles for various woodwinds to chamber configurations, music videos and electro-acoustic symphonic works written in an eclectic array of styles.
Hesterian Musicism is the creative process through which Hester’s compositional and performance styles merge to give rise to aesthetic environments where other musicians, kinetic and visual artists, and poets, can meet to produce new art forms through imaginative effort. Its philosophical basis involves intrinsic freedom of expression, focused and disciplined spontaneity, and a structural basis that explores the creative components of diverse sources from the whole earth. Contemporary Trans-African Experiments create ways in which to search for universal musical concepts that can be examined for their inherent capabilities as commonage. Hester’s interdisciplinary experimental approaches re-contextualize African American music as prioritized global music that aligns with emerging discourses regarding Afrofuturism and aspires to have both students and general listeners engage music and research with a variety of perspectives on issues that encourage discussion beyond colonial musical and sociocultural contexts.
Jazz Combos of Ƶ perform
Thursday, May 19, 5 – 7 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Free
Program to be announced.
Find a direct link to the livestream .
Theatre and Dance presents ‘Outside the Lines, Spring 2022’; new works, choreography
Thursday, May 19 – 21, 7 – 8:30 p.m., Wright Hall
The Department of Theatre and Dance will present the spring 2022 edition of Outside the Lines on May 19-21 in the Main Theatre, Wright Hall.
The program includes new works by doctoral student Diego Martinez-Campos, graduate students Ann Dragich and Edward Talton-Jackson, and undergraduate students. The choreography has been developed under the guidance of Professor David Grenke.
Content warning: contains adult situations.
Adult tickets are $10, faculty/staff tickets are $8, and student/senior tickets are $5. Tickets may be purchased at the Ƶ Ticket Office, located on the north side of Aggie Stadium, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, by phone 530-752-2471 during the same hours, or .
The Department of Theatre and Dance is part of the Ƶ College of Letters and Science. For information about other department productions, visit .
Student recitals highlight weekend
Senior Recital: Mars Lewis, Percussion
May 20, 5 – 6 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Free
The program includes Selections from Conversation, Aphasia , Canaries, Canned Heat, and The Wave.
Find a direct link to the livestream .
Senior Honors Recital: Tiara Abraham, Soprano
May 22, 3 – 4 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Free
with Karen Rosenak, piano
The program includes “I know that my Redeemer liveth” from Messiah, “Mein Gläubiges Herze” from Cantata BWV 68, The Lord’s Prayer, Go Down Moses, üԲܲ, Will There Really Be a Morning, Untitled, Cuatro madrigales amatorios, Nuit d’étoiles, “Ma rendi pur contento” from Sei Ariette, “Nana” from Siete Canciones populares Españolas, and “If I” from Four Dickinson Songs.
Find a direct link to the livestream .
Ƶ Symphony Orchestra Saturday: Twilights
Saturday, May 21, 7 p.m., Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
Christian Baldini, director and conductor
The program includes Rienzi Overture; “Mein Herr Marquis” from Die Fledermaus with Tiara Abraham, soprano (winner of the 2022 Concerto Competition); Allegro con brio from Concertino, op. 77 with Alex Rossi, tuba (winner of the 2022 Concerto Competition); Die Dämmerungen; and Overture to Der Freischütz
Find more information and purchase tickets .
Coming Up Next Week
Graduate Student Ensemble Tuesday
May 24, 12 – 1 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Free
The program includes Bootstrapping, Nightingale, Hiding Place, Frame No. 1, In C, and Confetto.
Musicians include Paul Engle, Joseph Donald Peterson, Emily Joy Sullivan, Devin Romines, Joseph Vasinda and Leanny Muñoz.
Find a direct link to the livestream .
Weekday recitals
Senior Recital: Olga Tatar, Violin
May 24, 2 – 3 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Free
with Karen Rosenak, piano, and others
The program includes Adagio from Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, äٰ, Selections from Romanian Folk Dances, Selections from Sonata No. 3, and Allegro non troppo from Symphonie espagnole.
Find a direct link to the livestream .
Junior Recital: Louie Lee, Clarinet
May 24, 4 – 5 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Free
with Karen Rosenak, piano
The program includes Variations for Clarinet, Fantasiestücke, op. 73, Immer Kleiner (Always Smaller), and a humorous clarinet-fantasy for clarinet and piano.
Find a direct link to the livestream .
Concert Bands of Ƶ with The USAF Band of the Golden West
In Memory of Bill Hollingshead, Ƶ Alumnus
Wednesday, May 25, 7 p.m., Jackson Hall, (General Admission)
Campus Band
Dr. Garrett Rigsby, conductor
Studio Ghibli's Anime March Medley, Adagio Sostenuto from Symphony No. 6, and : Kyiv, 2022 (a Sequel to “Moscow, 1941”).\
Ƶ Concert Band
Pete Nowlen, conductor
: Africa, Land of Superstition from the Africa Suite, : Evening Snow at Kambara from Symphony No. 4 (“Bookmarks from Japan”), The 53 Stations of the Tokaido Highway, : Conga del Fuego Nuevo, and : Give Us This Day (Short Symphony for Wind Ensemble).
USAF Band of the Golden West
Major Joseph Hansen, commander and conductor
, : Overture to Candide, : Back to the Future, and : Kalinda.
... and more!
The United States Air Force Band of the Golden West is stationed in the San Francisco Bay area at Travis Air Force Base, California. The only active duty Air Force band west of the Rockies, the Band of the Golden West is comprised of about 60 talented and versatile Airmen-musicians under the command of Major Joseph S. Hansen. In addition to performing for civilian communities throughout the states of California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and Nevada, the band supports 13 Air Force Bases, 8 Air Force Reserve Wings, and 6 recruiting squadrons in over 250 annual performances for 1.5 million listeners.
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Media contact: Karen Nikos-Rose, Arts Blog Editor, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu