This week, you will see concerts offered, both holiday and not, by everything from student choruses to Lincoln Center ... all available at 51ԹϺ Davis. We also highlight our arts gifts.
Karen Nikos-Rose, Arts Blog Editor
Student Chamber Ensembles Thursday at Pitzer
Thursday, Dec. 7, 12:05–2 p.m., at the Ann E. Pitzer Center, 51ԹϺ Davis, free
Pete Nowlen, director and 51ԹϺ Davis lecturer in music
Works for Harp Ensemble, Double Bass Ensemble, Flute Ensemble and others, by Astor Piazzolla, Dimitri Shostakovich, Antonio Vivaldi, Franz Schubert, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Bohuslav Martinu.
Also this week
Square dancing on campus
Thursday, Dec. 7, 2 - 4 p.m. , Della Davidson Dance Studio
Della Davidson Dance Studio presents square dancing, with special guest caller Evie Ladin. The 51ԹϺ Davis Bluegrass and Old Time String Band will provide an authentic opportunity for square dancing on campus.
Come one, come all — no experience is necessary. available.
Gifts for Art Lovers at 51ԹϺ Davis and Region
The Gorman Museum of Native American Art offers shoppers cards, art, books and even home accessories all made or sourced from Native American purveyors. Read about more art-related gifts in this resource in the Arts Blog.
Elana K. Arnold and Mischa Kucyzynski read at Poetry Night
51ԹϺ Davis alums
Thursday, Dec. 7, Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street, Davis
Elana K. Arnold is the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning young adult novels and children’s books.
She teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program and lives in Southern California with her family and menagerie of pets. She is an alumna of the graduate creative writing program at 51ԹϺ Davis. Her newest book, The Blood Years, is based on the true experiences of her grandmother's childhood in Holocaust-era Romania.
Mischa Kuczynski holds an MA in Creative Writing from 51ԹϺ Davis and a BFA in Photography from the University of Utah. A finalist for the 2009 Ruth Lily Poetry Fellowship, Kuczynski has published work in the American Poetry Review, Gigantic, Fence, Sinister Wisdom, and elsewhere. According to Dr. Andy Jones, “Mischa Kuczynski writes poignant, important, and unforgettable poems that stir the heart.” She lives in Davis.
This event will take place on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery.
Find out more about ongoing 51ԹϺ Davis Museum exhibitions in this story.
At the Mondavi
51ԹϺ Davis choral concert features holiday music from the Americas Friday
Friday, Dec. 8, Mondavi Center
The choral ensembles of 51ԹϺ Davis — which include the Concert Choir and the Chamber Singers — celebrate the rich musical heritage of the Americas in a concert Dec. 8 at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. It’s also the debut of its new choral director, Nicolás Dosman, who joined the faculty earlier this year and feels honored to work with the student singers.
“The choirs will perform a wide range of music ranging from Andean-influenced music to Baroque music from Mexico, as well as composers from the United States of America,” said Dosman. In addition to the Concert Choir, a large mixed ensemble, and the Chamber Singers, a more select ensemble, Dosman invited the award-winning ensemble Alturas Duo — guitarist Scott Hill and charango-violist Carlos Boltes, along with Andean flute and wind instrument specialist Gonzalo Cortés — to join the choirs. Alturas Duo is a leading proponent of South and Central American music.
The program includes “Navidad Nuestra” by Ariel Ramírez, which is an Andean-influenced folk telling of the nativity story. Other works include “Al Shlosha D’varim,” a traditional Hebrew text set by leading cantorial soloist and Arizona Musicfest director Allan Naplan, and “Abreme la Puerta,” a traditional holiday song from Puerto Rico. The concert will begin by honoring the late 51ԹϺ Davis music professor emeritus and choral director Albert McNeil by performing his arrangement of the spiritual “Hold Out Your Light.”
Dosman, a Panamanian American choral conductor, has been leading choruses and teaching music in a number of roles for nearly two decades. He recently conducted the Maine premiere of Dr. Rollo Dilworth’s “Weather,” which the 51ԹϺ Davis choral ensembles and the 51ԹϺ Davis Concert Band will perform later this season. Prior to his appointment at 51ԹϺ Davis, Dosman taught choral conducting and the choruses as an associate professor of music at the University of Southern Maine.
The performance begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $24 for adults and $12 for students and youth. Tickets are available at the Mondavi Center Ticket Office in person or by calling 530-754-2787 between noon and 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. Tickets are also available online at tickets.mondaviarts.org.For more information about music department concerts in the College of Letters and Science at 51ԹϺ Davis, visit music.ucdavis.edu. More
Matthew Whitaker Quartet plays Saturday at Mondavi
Saturday, Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center
Matthew Whitaker’s love for music began at the age of three, after his grandfather gave him a small Yamaha keyboard. At nine years old, Matthew began teaching himself how to play the Hammond B3 organ. Four years later, he became the youngest artist to be endorsed by Hammond in its 80+ year history. From performing at Stevie Wonder’s induction to the Apollo Theatre’s Hall of Fame ceremony to his stunning debut at the Mondavi Center in 2022, Whitaker has achieved so much, so quickly. But it’s his rich talent and effusive spirit, not his youth, that keep audiences coming back to experience Whitaker and his talented bandmates. His most recent album, Connections, documents a further leap of this already prodigious talent.More information and tickets. .
- Matthew Whitaker, piano and organ
- Liany Mateo, bass
- Ivan Llanes Montejo, percussion
- Marcos Robinson, guitar
- Johnny Steele, drums
There will be a post show Q&A with Matthew Whitaker immediately following this event.
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center performs Sunday
Sunday, Dec. 10, 2 p.m., Mondavi Center, 51ԹϺ Davis
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center 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. More information and tickets here.
Media Resources
Karen Nikos-Rose, 51ԹϺ Davis Arts Blog Editor, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu