Department of Music Concert and Event Listing

Artist Talk: Whitney Johnson

ABSTRACT: "Mind and Matter: Sound Practice at the Conflux of Soma, Psyche, and Society"

Much like sound itself, the conflux of somatic experience in sensory perception, the conscious and unconscious mind of the psyche, and the many layers of social forces including identity and culture forms an ever-changing space of forces and flows. I have found intermedia sound practice to be particularly suited to exposing the complex, sometimes puzzling, and always rich connections between these three elements, and this talk will comb through some moments and transformations in the last 5 years of my practice. After some description of the theoretical context of my work, I'll share some examples of performance-installation events and recordings, and we can discuss how these works expose or disguise the connections between body, mind, and society.

ARTIST RESIDENCY: 

• Thursday, October 2nd at 2:30 p.m., CPMC 265 - Artist Talk
• Friday, October 3rd at 9:30 a.m., CPMC 231 - Student meetings

BIOGRAPHY:

Whitney Johnson is an artist using sound to understand bodies and minds. Based in Chicago, she composes, performs, and installs multi-channel sound with viola, sine waves, Max/MSP, organ, synthesizers, vocalization, tape looping, and field recording. As artist-in-residence at Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm and Inkonst in Malmö, Sweden, she composed sine waves, marimba, viola, ARP Odyssey synthesizer, and Halldorophone into a multi-channel performance-installation and her latest LP, Hav (2024, Drag City). As Matchess, the Stena cassette (2024, Drag City) embodies an alter ego to join the cult of Hermaphroditus in Cypriot and Greek antiquity. Recent performance-installations FIAT (2023-2025, Indexical, Roulette Intermedium, Forecast Platform Berlin), The Tuning of the Elements (2023, Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago), Death in Trafo (or, The Crater) (2023, Logan Center for the Arts), and Huizkol (2020, Lampo) consider the possibility of brainwave entrainment, an alternative healing technique using binaural beats to induce relaxed or energized mental states. These works offer audiences the opportunity to explore their own skepticism and belief in the effects of sound on bodies and minds. In tandem with her sound practice, she received her doctorate in the sociology of sound from the University of Chicago in 2018. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship on sound and technology in the Centre for Gender Research at Uppsala Universitet in 2022 and an artist research residency on gender-based canonization at Q-O2 Brussels in 2025. She is currently Assistant Professor of Art and Technology/Sound Practices at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Vinola Trio joins the UC San Diego Department of Music as an ensemble-in-residence to workshop, rehearse, and perform new works by graduate student composers. Known for combining their unique voices to explore the ever-expanding world of new music, Vinola is dedicated to diversifying the classical repertoire and fostering meaningful connections with different communities. This concert, New Dimensions in Sound, presents the culmination of their residency: a program of pieces that push the boundaries of sound and imagination.

The Bridge Music Series focuses on bridging the classical and contemporary music genres and working across disciplines to create cultural connections.

PROGRAM

Mendelssohn: Fantasy in f sharp minor op28
Janacek: On an Overgrown Path, Series I - Good a night!
Mozart: Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman," K. 265/300e
Gershwin songs: The Man I Love and I Got Rhythm
Beethoven: Sonata Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2

Intermission

Hertzberg: Notturno Incantato
Mozart: Fantasy in D minor K. 397
Liszt: Réminiscenes de Don Juan  S. 418

Garden of Klons features Cory Smythe on piano and electronics, Jermaine Paul on bass, and Jonathan Pinson on drumset. As an ensemble, their work explores the intersection of otherworldly harmonies and propulsive, meticulously crafted rhythms.
 

PERFORMERS

Steve Lehman - alto saxophone and electronics

Jermaine Paul - electric bass

Jonathan Pinson - drums and electronics

Cory Smythe - piano and electronics

PROGRAM

Garden of Klons, Steve Lehman (1978 - )
Orenthal, Steve Lehman
Lest We Forget, Steve Lehman
Meris, Steve Lehman
Siete Ocho, Andrew Hill (1931-2007)
House Count, Lehman / Coltrane (1926-1967)
You Are Too Beautiful, Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) & Lorenz Hart (1895-1943)

Join us to celebrate the beauty of cultural diversity! Moon Viewing is a Japanese tradition that honors year-long efforts to grow rice and sustain cultural rituals. The concert day is planned for one of the biggest full-moon nights of 2025.

Kosuke Matsuda, an interdisciplinary musician, presents the Moon Viewing Concert featuring “Moon Viewing Music” by Peter Garland and “Kanade” by Masayuki Sakamoto. Garland’s piece uses five Thai gongs and one large tam-tam, creating a tonal harmony of pitched metal sounds that evokes meditative sound waves. Sakamoto’s Kanade is one of the few Japanese Okedo-Taiko solos, showcasing the unique sound of double-headed traditional drums while incorporating multicultural rhythmic inspirations such as samba and pop music.

RSVP FREE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/moon-viewing-concert-2025-presented-by-kosuke-matsuda-tickets-1632620053529?aff=oddtdtcreator

Shapes of Percussion: Wes Fowler’s DMA Recital No. 1

Wes Fowler presents an evening of acoustic percussion music that explores the concept of shape across the repertoire. Ranging from distant constellations to the human tongue, friction, intrigue, and beauty will be explored at scale. A potluck gathering will be enjoyed after the concert, so please bring a dish to share if you would like.
 

REPERTOIRE

• Graffitis by Georges Aperghis 
• Straie by John Fonville
• Parson’s Piece by William Hibbard
• Secret Dialogues by James Wood
• Zyklus, Work No. 9 by Karlheinz Stockhausen 

Potluck gathering to be enjoyed after the concert

Jonny Stallings Cárdenas presents sketches from a new opera, The Art of Something Halfway Like Flying, composed in collaboration with librettist Natalie Soper.

T.A.O.S.H.L.F. follows a Seamstress who is trapped in a looping system of receiving boxes containing the shredded fragments of broken hearts. She must sew them back together at which point they take on the forms of birds and fly away. Assisted by two ghosts (the Twins), she begrudgingly sees to the isolated work while waiting for an escape. But, when she's presented with the seemingly impossible task of mending the heart of Medea–– the Greek tragic figure--the Seamstress begins to face her own brokenness.

The concert will also feature a set of improvised music revolving around Jonny's "Interludes 1A-1D" with improvised choreography by Jessica Hemingway.

Personnel:

"Interludes 1A-1D"

piano/synth - Jonny Stallings Cárdenas
alto sax/flute - Logan Hone
violin - Myra Hinrichs
trombone - Peter Sloan
upright bass - Joe Davancens
drums - Jesse Quebbeman Turley
dance - Jessica Hemingway

"The Art of Something Halfway Like Flying" (excerpts), music by Jonny Stallings Cárdenas, libretto by Natalie Soper:

Seamstress - Mariana Flores Bucio
Twins - Emily Barger and Julia Cordani
Jason/stage director - Miguel Zazueta
*Heart (choreography) - Jessica Hemingway
*costume by Ray S. Thomander

flute - Lyra Montoya
oboe - Carlos Rosas Coronado
clarinet - Grace Talaski
alto sax - Logan Hone
trombone - Peter Sloan
tuba - Jonathan Piper
drums - Jesse Quebbeman Turley
violin 1 - Myra Hinrichs
violin 2 - Amir Norouz Nasseri
cello - Peter Ko
bass - Joe Davancens

conductor - Jonny Stallings Cárdenas

poster - Kiki LaPomme

In this concert, Amy Cimini offers music from her 2025 solo album See You When I Get There.  While playing in noise bands and experimental projects for over 25 years, Cimini has developed a sonic palette for the amplified viola that combines overtone-rich distortion with percussive techniques nestled in reverb and delay effects meant to fill large acoustical spaces. Her music embraces noise abstraction as much as a tuneful directness, that evokes Cimini’s fellow experimental string players, historical protest musics and her early, enduring love of feminist punk. This is a personal, intimate music that questions how sound interacts with power, social organization and surveillance.  

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Amy Cimini is an Associate Professor of Music at UC San Diego in the Integrative Studies Area. As a musicologist, teacher and musician, my work addresses power, community and technology in 20th & 21st century experimental music, sound art and auditory culture. My research methods connect archival research and oral history with experimental writing and performance, anchored by questions like: How do musical performance and technological mediation shape collective knowledge and practice? What ideologies of value and community shape practices of sound and listening in U.S. auditory culture after 1945, especially when viewed through the lens of understudied or marginalized figures and analytics of gender, race and class?  What theoretical frameworks can expand the concepts of body, life and materiality through which music studies register difference and power in analysis and historical narration? 

For the last few years, the work and musical thought of composer Maryanne Amacher have guided my inquiries across listening, gender and histories of US technoscience.  Spanning the early 1960s through the turn of the millennium, my book, Wild Sound: Maryanne Amacher and the Tenses of Audible Life (Oxford 2021) engages Amacher’s approach to original presentational formats in existing and speculative media as engagements with sound and listening that conjoined real and imagined social worlds. The book discerns frameworks for life that emerged from Amacher’s multidisciplinary study of auditory experience and engages, broadly, with how conceptualizations of sound can attach social value unevenly to bodies, materials and relations that has relevance across civic and environmental contestation, telecommunications and science and technology in the late 20th century U.S. I also co-edited Maryanne Amacher: Selected Writings and Interviews (Blank Forms Editions 2020) with composer and theorist Bill Dietz and engage with Amacher’s  legacy through public presentation, performance and exhibition  as a member of the Supreme Connections Working Group and the Maryanne Amacher Foundation. You can watch an 9-episode conversation series between Dietz, myself and invited guests about Selected Writings and Interviews hosted by the New York Public Library here. 

I came to music studies through performance (viola) and musical practice and collaboration are key ways that I attend to how people and relations are differently valued in sites where music is made and circulated. This supports long-standing research interests in collaboration, embodiment, performance studies, problems in site-specificity, DIY practice and critical approaches to the archive. You can watch a solo performance at the San Diego Public Library here and listen, here, to my long-standing duo project,  Architeuthis Walks on Land with bassoonist and composer Katherine Young, on our album The Surveyors (Carrier 2014). 

At UC San Diego, I teach undergraduate courses on music history and culture as well as film and media as well as research and teaching methods. My graduate courses include Gender and Experimental Music; Arts of the Archive; Music and Affect; Music, Sound and Biopolitics as well as Introduction to Research and Teaching Methods. My teaching is committed to the analysis of power and the demystification of knowledge production and inherited hierarchies across all dimensions of music and research practice. 

I am Affiliate Faculty in Critical Gender Studies and currently serve as Director of Graduate Studies in the Music Department. I also serve on the editorial board of the journal Women and Music and take part in the Graduate Education Committee in the American Musicological Society. I am a founding member of the Music and Philosophy Study Group of the AMS and I also serve on the board of the Maryanne Amacher Foundation. I hold a Ph.D. in historical musicology from New York University and a B.A. in English and a B.M. in Viola Performance from Oberlin College and Conservatory. 

Limit Duo | music from the 20th/21st century for quarter-tone pianos.
 

Jack Dettling is a keyboard player, composer, and curator who resides in Los Angeles. Their interests include lesser-played Baroque repertoire,
experimental works of the 20th-century, player pianos, analog synthesizers, historical and contemporary tuning systems, the intersection of ancient and
modern literatures. They approach the piano with an acknowledgment of the complexity of its history, with a desire to extend the common practice
forward and backward. They perform in living rooms, in galleries, in concert halls. They are the founder and artistic director of beauty salon, a space for intermedia installation and performance in Los Angeles. They hold degrees in piano performance and literature from Mannes College/The New School,
contemporary piano performance from Manhattan School of Music, and piano performance and composition from CalArts, where they teach currently.

Jesse Reyes is an artist whose work as a pianist, composer and piano technician is highly integrated. The Piano, materially, conceptually,
emotionally, or otherwise, is often at the core of his practice. He is driven by various emotional, poetic, and conceptual ideas. These ideas mostly result in text pieces: sometimes vague contemplations, other times performable works, and often in some kind of gray area. His process is
partially an effort of understanding which extends to the large portion of his work that is written for or by specific people. He often tries to move the
finality of conception out of reach from the performer and/or himself to encourage their and his positions to be one of someone who experiences,
as opposed to one of someone who only communicates. He received his degree in performance and composition from the California Institute of the
Arts.

An Evening of WORLD PREMIERE compositions, conducted by Steven Schick. 

New works composed by: William Kuo, Daniel Cui, Ana Luisa Diaz de Cossio, and Emily Barger.

TICKETS & INFO

Playful whimsy meets profound wonder with both French and French-inspired works. The La Jolla Symphony plays Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Erik Satie's Parade, bringing two seminal French masterpieces of musical modernism to life.

Program:
Kevin Puts - Virelai
Igor Stravinsky - Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Jean-Philippe Rameau - Selections from Les Boréades
Betsy Jolas - Just a Minute!
Claude Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Erik Satie - Parade

Conductor, Guest Artists, Soloists:
Sameer Patel, conductor
 

TICKETS & INFO

Playful whimsy meets profound wonder with both French and French-inspired works. The La Jolla Symphony plays Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Erik Satie's Parade, bringing two seminal French masterpieces of musical modernism to life.

Program:
Kevin Puts - Virelai
Igor Stravinsky - Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Jean-Philippe Rameau - Selections from Les Boréades
Betsy Jolas - Just a Minute!
Claude Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Erik Satie - Parade

Conductor, Guest Artists, Soloists:
Sameer Patel, conductor

Biographies will tell you that Stuart Saunders Smith was a prolific composer of melodically intricate and rhythmically complex music. He explored mobile forms, text pieces, and theatrical works. He was a man of great faith, and sometimes described his compositional practice as listening to the still, small voice within.

Stuart often called himself a jazz composer.

    Stuart was my friend.

Although I commissioned music from Stuart in the past, at a certain point in our long friendship, Stuart simply started sending pieces to me in the mail, newly composed. I have the great fortune of being a dedicatee of a number of those new piano works.

    In a blink, on June 3, 2024, his newest piano piece Wonder changed
    from being another piece that Stuart wrote for me, and for Drew Krause,
    to being the last piece I would ever receive from him.

Stuart possessed a great and voracious love for the sounds of American music in the 20th and 21st centuries. 

In an evening-length work of 16 movements, Wonder shines a bright light on Stuart’s musical mind, synthesizing and bringing into conversation many faceted touchstones of American art music and jazz:

    The nostalgia of Charles Ives; 
        and the present moment of Cecil Taylor
    The thoughtful spaciousness of Morton Feldman; 
        and the spiky acuteness of Thelonius Monk
    The complexity of Elliott Carter; 
        and the lyricism of John Coltrane
    The storytelling of Leonard Bernstein; 
        and the highly personal vocalism of Ella Fitzgerald.

Stuart was my friend, 
    and he entrusted me with Wonder.

So, with loving care and intention, 
I look forward to sharing with you, on November 5th and 6th,
    the world premiere of Wonder
        by my friend, Stuart Saunders Smith.

- Kyle Adam Blair

Biographies will tell you that Stuart Saunders Smith was a prolific composer of melodically intricate and rhythmically complex music. He explored mobile forms, text pieces, and theatrical works. He was a man of great faith, and sometimes described his compositional practice as listening to the still, small voice within.

Stuart often called himself a jazz composer.

    Stuart was my friend.

Although I commissioned music from Stuart in the past, at a certain point in our long friendship, Stuart simply started sending pieces to me in the mail, newly composed. I have the great fortune of being a dedicatee of a number of those new piano works.

    In a blink, on June 3, 2024, his newest piano piece Wonder changed
    from being another piece that Stuart wrote for me, and for Drew Krause,
    to being the last piece I would ever receive from him.

Stuart possessed a great and voracious love for the sounds of American music in the 20th and 21st centuries. 

In an evening-length work of 16 movements, Wonder shines a bright light on Stuart’s musical mind, synthesizing and bringing into conversation many faceted touchstones of American art music and jazz:

    The nostalgia of Charles Ives; 
        and the present moment of Cecil Taylor
    The thoughtful spaciousness of Morton Feldman; 
        and the spiky acuteness of Thelonius Monk
    The complexity of Elliott Carter; 
        and the lyricism of John Coltrane
    The storytelling of Leonard Bernstein; 
        and the highly personal vocalism of Ella Fitzgerald.

Stuart was my friend, 
    and he entrusted me with Wonder.

So, with loving care and intention, 
I look forward to sharing with you, on November 5th and 6th,
    the world premiere of Wonder
        by my friend, Stuart Saunders Smith.

- Kyle Adam Blair

A powerful occasion to showcase the creativity and collaborative work at UC San Diego. Our music department is a unique blend of performers, researchers, and creators who aspire to connect and present our art together.
 

Blacktronika & Future Is Color present
Luv’ Dancing
A celebration of Blacktronika’s 5th anniversary through movement and sound!

Blacktronika: Afrofuturism in Electronic Music is a course created and taught by Professor King Britt, honoring the often-overlooked innovators of color who have profoundly shaped global dance music culture. From Jamaican Dub and Philadelphia Disco to Chicago House, Detroit Techno, and UK Drum & Bass, these sonic movements emerged from a deep love and a necessity for liberation and freedom of expression. The dance floor, and the sound system, have long served as sanctuaries, offering space for joy, healing, and connection beyond judgment.

The Blacktronika dance nights are a natural extension of the course—open to students and the wider community—inviting participants to experience this music in a proper sonic environment. These gatherings are more than parties; they are living archives, spaces of celebration where bodies, histories, and futures converge.

Music will be provided of course by Professor King Britt, a veteran DJ and producer with over 35 years of contributions to electronic music culture worldwide who continues to tour and curate globally. Live percussion by Professor Daunte Fyall of the UC San Diego Theater and Dance Department will amplify the vibration. Visuals by Vizuelyze by the Marksmen.

This special event is held in collaboration with Future Is Color, vital community builders based in Barrio Logan whose mission centers on love, liberation, and inclusive cultural activation.

We ask that you come with open hearts and minds—ready to dance, commune, and uplift.

***This concert has been rescheduled to Tuesday, January 6, 2026. Please join Emily on that date. Thank you!***

Emily Barger soprano, presents her first DMA recital, showcasing a diverse range of musical works by composers Schoenberg, Messiaen, Weir, and Ligeti. Throughout the evening, she explores the profound impact of the voice, demonstrating its ability to transport listeners to different realms and evoke a wide spectrum of emotions. From the sweeping grandeur of medieval history to the intensity of spiritual devotion, from the sharp wit of satire to the profound longing of Romanticism, the program delves into the multifaceted nature of the voice. The program transitions between myth and mysticism, clarity and chaos, and absurdity and truth, showcasing the voice as an instrument of transformation. The result is a mesmerizing glimpse into the voice in full flight, a testament to its empathetic, expressive, and intuitive qualities.

The Undergraduate Forum is a quarterly concert series that showcases various works composed and/or performed by undergraduate music students.

This quarter's undergraduate forum features performances by:
Ke Chen (Piano), Kayla Doan (Voice), Alice Guo (Violin), Vivek Jayaraman (Piano), Jacob Kang (Cello), Raymond Li (Violin), Zing Li (Oboe), Derek Phan (Piano), Luke Carmichael Valmadrid (Viola), Carly Villongco (Voice), Claire Wang (Clarinet)

Co-Produced by: Keene Cheung and Roman Guzman Houghton

MUS95F's Fall Concert, titled "Percussion is an Invitation", explores the expanding and welcoming nature of percussion music. Percussion is not defined by one instrument or culture, but rather by a growing dialogue, and the invitation to join and contribute is open. The program reflects this growing dialogue in a literal fashion: beginning with a duo using hands on the piano and body, followed by a trio for swirling and striking chopsticks on found objects, a quartet for homogenized mallets on tuned keyboards, a collection of septets employing an orchestra of instruments and tools, a piece for eleven performers utilizing electronic amplification and the human voice, and concluding with a brief piece featuring audience participation. As we leave the performance, this spirit of inclusion can be extended beyond campus into our various local communities.

Repertoire:
DiGit #2 - Mayke Nas
Shi - Alexandre Lunsqui
Deathwish - Gemma Peacocke
March, Waltz, Percussion Opus No 14 - Johanna Beyer
Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ - Steve Reich
Twinkling Keys - Wes Fowler

Rimsky-Korsakov - Russian Easter Overture
Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kijé Suite
Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 5 "Reformation"

animarum: flight of the spirit

for soprano + live electronic processing by julia anne cordani

metaphorical games: reason hums • doubt flutters
workshop performances of new pieces

The UC San Diego Concert Choir is delighted to invite you to our Fall Quarter Concert, featuring music from Les Misérables, Queen, and more! We hope you will join us for this exciting musical evening. 
 

The UC San Diego Wind Ensemble performs diverse repertoire for woodwinds, brass, and percussion, and is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students, staff, and community members. The ensemble’s members participate in a number of musical activities within and beyond the Department of Music and boast a variety of academic majors across the arts, humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields.

This quarter’s concert demonstrates the wind ensemble’s diverse repertoire, from the familiar military band march-fantasy "Esprit de Corps," to the newly composed Rhapsody by Kazakhstan-born, Hong Kong-American composer, Meilina Tsui. Also featured on the concert is our very own DMA vocal performance candidate, emily barger, as soprano soloist, presenting two beloved African-American spirituals accompanied by chamber winds.

TICKETS & INFO

The profound personal struggle of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the architect of the atomic bomb, is powerfully rendered in John Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony. Afterwards, the majesty of Beethoven's Mass in C, a rarely heard choral-orchestral masterpiece, carries us forward into redemption and spiritual transcendence.

Program:
John Adams - Doctor Atomic Symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven - Mass in C

Conductor, Guest Artists, Soloists:
Sameer Patel, conductor

TICKETS & INFO

The profound personal struggle of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the architect of the atomic bomb, is powerfully rendered in John Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony. Afterwards, the majesty of Beethoven's Mass in C, a rarely heard choral-orchestral masterpiece, carries us forward into redemption and spiritual transcendence.

Program:
John Adams - Doctor Atomic Symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven - Mass in C

Conductor, Guest Artists, Soloists:
Sameer Patel, conductor

MUS 32VM Vocal Master Class: “Song and Story”

Eleven talented singers take the stage, performing song sets of their own design—telling personally-crafted stories through performances of classical art song and opera (Mozart, Schubert, Fauré, Ravel) and selections from popular musicals across decades including Hello, Dolly!, Waitress, Hamilton, and more.

works in progress from Music 271C
for instruments, voices and electronics

including works by:
Emily Barger
Robert Bui
Julia Cordani
Daniel Cui and Rose Sun
James Koo
Josh Mitchell
Carlos Rosas
Scarlett Shi
Grace Talaski

Ti McCormack (Assistant Professor of Music) is fascinated by music that makes audible the tactile relationship between a performer and their instrument. McCormack’s new composition, "...stretched across its axes,” will be performed for the first time in the U.S. by violinist/violist Marco Fusi. Audiences can expect to hear the viola — often overlooked as a solo instrument — in ways they may never have before. 

The concert will also feature world premieres by graduate composers William Kuo and Adam Zuckerman, whose works share a focus on sound’s inner qualities, energies, and textures. The concert represents one of more than 200 held each year in the Department of Music, part of the School of Arts and Humanities.

Please note: This concert will not be live-streamed.

Emily Barger soprano, presents her first DMA recital, showcasing a diverse range of musical works by composers Schoenberg, Messiaen, Weir, and Ligeti. Throughout the evening, she explores the profound impact of the voice, demonstrating its ability to transport listeners to different realms and evoke a wide spectrum of emotions. From the sweeping grandeur of medieval history to the intensity of spiritual devotion, from the sharp wit of satire, to the profound longing of Romanticism, the program delves into the multifaceted nature of the voice. The program transitions between myth and mysticism, clarity and chaos, and absurdity and truth, showcasing the voice as an instrument of transformation. The result is a mesmerizing glimpse into the voice in full flight, a testament to its empathetic, expressive, and intuitive qualities.

Acclaimed tenor Victor Ryan Robertson will be visiting Anthony Davis's Music 12 class at 11:00 AM on Thursday, January 8th. Robertson starred as Street/Elijah in the Metropolitan Opera production of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. He recently appeared in the opera Down in the Valley by Kurt Weill and Highway 1 by William Grant Still at Detroit Opera. He has also played the role of Raymond in The Central Park Five. He has been featured in operas by Terence Blanchard and Ricky Ian Gordon.

Semblance Project is a series of collaborative works with Asian performers, treating hybrid identity not as a label to be explained but as an aesthetic force that reshapes sound, space, and presence on stage. The concert will feature the premieres of four new pieces for solo or duo and electronics, performed by Yuri Horiuchi (violin), Dabin Baek (cello), Ruo-yang Xiang (piano) and the Clato Duet, along with excerpts from Mongolian Suite (solo cello) and My Windows (solo piano) by Professor Lei Liang.

Hailed as “stunning and assured” by the New York Times, Atlanta native David Byrd-Marrow is the solo hornist of the International Contemporary Ensemble, as well as a member of The Knights. Working with a uniquely wide range of performers, he has premiered works by Anna Webber, Arthur Kampela, George Lewis, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Du Yun, Marcos Balter, Eric Wubbels, Jörg Widmann, Miguel Zenón, and Chick Corea.

PROGRAM

David Byrd-Marrow, horn
Cory Smythe, piano

Alec Wilder - Sonata No. 3 for Horn and Piano (1970)

• Moderately Fast
• Slowly
• With a solid beat and a jazz feeling
• Tempo di Valse - Joyously

Cory Smythe - Ventriloquism for Ryan (2024)
Jörg Widmann - Air for Horn (2005)
Billy Strayhorn - Suite for the Duo for Horn and Piano (1966)
David Byrd-Marrow - Assumed Lineage (2025)
Olivier Messiaen - Chant (dans le style Mozart) for horn and Piano (1986)

Transforming Texts: New Music for Voice(s) Susan Narucki with Kirsten Ashley Wiest - soprano & Donald Berman - piano

An evening of music that explores the fusion of poetry and music through the prism of a wide range of compositional styles and practices. With longtime colleague and collaborative partner Donald Berman, Susan presents Siete Haiku by Colombian composer Alba Potes to texts by Jorge Luis Borges, songs by Dora Pejavic and the world premiere of Boston composer Scott Wheeler’s Ausländer Lieder, a cycle set to evocative texts by the 20th Century poet Rose Ausländer.

Susan will also be joined by coloratura soprano Kirsten Ashley Wiest, continuing their exploration of new music for two soprano voices. The duo will present two world premieres: Melisande by Marti Epstein as well as a world premiere of Dutch composer and poet Rozalie Hirs. Both works will be part of Susan and Kirsten's upcoming cd recording project.

Mezzo Soprano J'nai Bridges and Baritone Justin Austin will visit Anthony Davis's Music 12 Opera class on Thursday, January 15th at 11:00 a.m. They will discuss their careers in opera and music theater and their most recent collaboration with composer Damien Geter. La Jolla Music Society and San Diego Opera present the work COTTON at The Conrad on January 16th.

Image: "Spirits Rising" by John Dowell

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: 

J’Nai Bridges

Two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning American mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, known for her “plush-voiced mezzo-soprano” (The New York Times), and “calmly commanding stage presence” (The New Yorker), has been “marked out at an early stage as a singer headed for top flight” (Financial Times), gracing the world’s leading operatic and concert stages “with a voice both voluptuous and statuesque” (The New York Times).

In the 2024-25 season, Bridges makes her role debut as Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto at The Metropolitan Opera. She returns to Seattle Opera in her role debut as Didon in Les Troyens and sings the title role in Carmen in her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper. Her concert engagements include Erika in Vanessa with the National Symphony Orchestra and engagements with Symphony Tacoma, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She gives a solo recital as an artist in residence at the Kaufman Music Center and joins the Dessoff Choirs in Verdi’s Requiem at Trinity Church. Bridges recently made her Lincoln Center debut performing Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, and sang the role of Mary in John Adams’ El Niño at the Metropolitan Opera to critical acclaim.

Bridges has emerged as a leading figure in classical music’s shift toward conversations of inclusion and racial justice in the performing arts. In 2022 she was announced as one of the Kennedy Center’s NEXT50 cultural leaders, and appeared with The National Philharmonic in the world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s A Knee on the Neck that same year. Bridges led a highly successful panel on race and inequality in opera with the Los Angeles Opera that drew international acclaim for being a “conversation of striking scope and candor” (The New York Times). Bridges was also featured in the Converse shoe brand’s All Stars Campaign for its Breaking Down Barriers collection, and performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel for two episodes of the digital SOUND/STAGE series. She was also a part of the Global Citizen movement’s Global Goal campaign, a program which also included Coldplay, Shakira, Usher and more and was featured as a “DVF” Woman, a campaign started by clothing designer Diane Von Furstenberg recognizing leading women who also love fashion.

Bridges is a recipient of the prestigious 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence Award, a 2016 Richard Tucker Career Grant, first prize winner at the 2016 Francisco Viñas International Competition, first prize winner at the 2015 Gerda Lissner Competition, a recipient of the 2013 Sullivan Foundation Award, a 2012 Marian Anderson award winner, the recipient of the 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, the recipient of the 2009 Richard F. Gold Grant from The Shoshana Foundation, and the winner of the 2008 Leontyne Price Foundation Competition. 

Justin Austin

Possessing a “mighty lyric voice” (The New York Times) “with a burly, burnished tone capable of striking nuance and color” (Washington Post), Drama Desk Award-nominated baritone Justin Austin was named Rising Star of the Year at the 2024 International Opera Awards and is a recipient of the 2024 Marian Anderson Vocal Award. Deemed “a natural performer—a star awaiting a galaxy to form around him” (Washington Post), he has been praised for his “intensity and charisma” (Opera), “rich, pointed expressiveness” (Parterre), and “immaculate musicianship” (Seen and Heard International).

Following the world premiere of Damien Geter’s American Apollo at Des Moines Metro Opera (“a galvanizing, Herculean performance,” Opera Today) and appearances at Caramoor and the Sag Harbor Song Festival in summer 2024, Justin begins the 2024-25 season with his house debut at Los Angeles Opera as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, returning to the company later in the season in his role debut as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. He also returns to Opera Theatre of St. Louis for the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s This House, starring as Lindon. In concert, he returns to Carnegie Hall for Brahms’s Deutsches Requiem with the Cecilia Chorus of New York, and joins for selections from Terence Blanchard’s Champion and Fire Shut Up In My Bones at La Jolla Music Society in La Jolla, CA, The Soraya in Northridge, CA, and with Seattle Theatre Group, among others. He also returns to Stuttgart, Germany, for a concert with the Stuttgart Philharmonic and Opera for Peace as well as New York Festival of Song for My Brother’s Keeper at Kaufman Music Center, an event he personally conceived. He and pianist Howard Watkins additionally give a recital at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina, and Justin appears at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music for a guest recital.

Last season, Austin starred as Young Emile in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Champion to great critical acclaim. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera, opening their season as the Motorcycle Cop in the company’s premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking in a new production directed by Ivo van Hove and conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as well as Washington National Opera making his role debut as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette. He additionally sang the title role in The Barber of Seville at Opera Theatre of St. Louis and performed in the New York premiere of Damien Geter’s song cycle COTTON alongside Denyce Graves at the 92nd Street Y. In concert, he gave the Marian Anderson Vocal Award Recital at the Kennedy Center as the 2024 recipient and gave concerts with Houston Grand Opera, Strathmore and Washington Performing Arts, the Kimmel Center, and Des Moines Metro Opera. He gave recitals with pianist Howard Watkins at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Longy School of Music with the Celebrity Series of Boston, Gore Recital Hall (at the University of Delaware on Delaware’s Master Player’s Concert Series), and Atlanta’s Spivey Hall (Clayton State University).

Austin has received accolades and awards from The Recording Academy, NAACP, George London Foundation, Washington National Opera, Opera Ebony, Gerda Lissner Foundation, Manhattan School of Music, NANM, Choir Academy of Harlem, and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. He is the recipient of a 2023 Mabel Dorn Reeder Award from Opera Theatre of St. Louis which goes to “the single artist in each season with the greatest potential to make a significant contribution to the art form of opera.” He is under the tutelage and mentorship of Catherine Malfitano.

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Austin is an alumnus of the Choir Academy of Harlem, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Heidelberg Lied Akademie, and Manhattan School of Music (M.M. and B.M.).

From Steven Schick: 

I’ll present here three important frameworks of my UC San Diego collaboration: works commissioned from UC San Diego composers (Brian Ferneyhough and Rand Steiger), collaboration with graduate student musicians (Carlos Rosas in Dmaathen), and project development, especially in the realm of music technology with colleagues (Shahrokh Yadegari.)

Iannis Xenakis        Dmaathen (1977)        With Carlos Rosas 
Rand Steiger           For Robert Erickson (2024)
Brian Ferneyhough        Bone Alphabet (1992)
Kurt Schwitters    Ursonata (1922-1932)
Electronics by Shahrokh Yadegari (2017)

Mexican percussionist Ángel Florido presents Hybrid Resonances, a concert exploring extended percussion with everyday objects, body expression, and innovative installations, featuring works by Valeria Jonard, Matthew Rosenblum, Robin Hoffmann, Diego Jiménez Tamame, and Wilfrido Terrazas.

Please join us for an evening of original music by our First Year Doctoral Students in Music and Friends.

Performers:
Lorraine De OIiveira, Leanna Keith, Sofia Leal De Leon, Michelle Lou, Jeremy Rosenstock, Sivan Silver Schwartz, and Michelle Sui

Compositions by: 
Jeremy Rosenstock, Sivan Silver Schwartz, Leanna Keith, Michelle Sui, Sofia Leal Deleon, and Lorraine De OIiveira

Celebrate the release of Boris Acosta-Jaramillo’s debut album, Echoes of Origin, with an evening of live music at the Experimental Theater. Featuring original compositions and performances by a stellar ensemble, this concert invites listeners on a journey of musical rediscovery and shared emotion.

Way Out West: Songs of the Cowboys
from Black Country Roots to Western Swing

A celebration of the enduring appeal of frontier songs and Western music, this exciting collaboration of virtuosity and storytelling celebrates the connections, beginning in the late 1900s, between Black cowboys, gunfighter ballads, herding songs, and Mexican border music, as well as ranch dance fiddle, hot jazz, blues, Western swing, and beyond.

Join Grammy-Award winner and American Songster Dom Flemons and critically acclaimed hot jazz and Western swing trio Hot Club of Cowtown for an authentic and joyful journey through songs of the Cowboy West.

Grad Forum — Listening Inward

A turn toward the personal and reflective: deep listening, soundwalks, process talks, and intimate performances centered on care, introspection, and work-in-progress at any stage.
 

Aleck Karis plays piano music by Mozart and Chopin

PROGRAM

Ballade no. 2, opus 38         Frédéric Chopin

Sonata in a minor, K. 310    W.A. Mozart

Sonata in D, K 576,  W.A. Mozart

Ballade no. 3, opus 47   Frédéric Chopin

Steven Schick met and grew to know the venerable composer Chou Wen-chung at UC San Diego on the several occasions Chou was invited to San Diego by Schick’s colleague Roger Reynolds.  Professor Chou was a champion of the music of Edgard Varèse and was himself one of the most important composers of the 20th and 21st centuries.  The links between Professor Chou and the department strengthened over the years--Lei Liang on UC San Diego has been a steadfast friend and advocate of Professor Chou's music. After his death in 2019, Liang and Schick brought all of Professor Chou’s percussion instruments, including many that belonged to Varèse, to UC San Diego where they now comprise the core of a collection of historically important percussion instruments. Each year, a UC San Diego graduate student is commissioned for a new piece that uses or is inspired by the collection. This year, the newly commissioned pieces are by graduate students Jiyoung Ko and Myles Ortiz-Green. Also on the program are works by Schick’s UC San Diego colleague, Wilfrido Terrazas, and an old friend, Gabriela Ortiz.

Program

Wilfrido Terrazas.               Caminar (2025) (US First Performance)
Myles Ortiz-Green              [new work] (2026)
Jiyoung Ko                         A Ray of Light Through the Crack (2026)
Gabriela Ortiz                     Liquid Borders (2014)

Uptown on Mardi Gras Day!

Join Grammy Award winner Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra for an evening of non-stop fun. Time to throw up your hands, cut the king cake, and grab some beads as we celebrate New Orleans and the greatest time of the year with songs by Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Earl King, Marsalis, and more. A member of The First Family of Jazz and an NEA Jazz Master, the middle Marsalis brother leads the vibrant Uptown Jazz Orchestra from his seat in the trombone section, in a performance that is full of the joy and soul of NOLA.

Composer Jiyoung Ko, fellow UC San Diego graduate musicians, and conductor and UC San Diego Distinguished Professor Steven Schick present “Hearing the Unseen,” a concert featuring one recent work and three world premieres.

Program:

Ko: Echoes of Your Light (2025) for solo flute and electronics – world premiere
Anita Chandavarkar, flute, Han Zhang, recording engineer

Ko: Counting the Stars at Night, poem by Yun Dong-ju (2025) for soprano, cello, and percussion – world premiere
Emily Barger, soprano, Robert Bui, cello, Kosuke Matsuda, percussion

Ko: sumbisori (2023) for chamber ensemble
Anita Chandavarkar, flute
Grace Talaski, clarinet
Jesús Cervantes, violin
Robert Bui, cello
Lorraine de Oliveira, piano
James Koo, percussion
Steven Schick, conductor

Ko: A Ray of Light Through the Crack (2025) for percussion trio – world premiere
I. The Shield of the Heart is the Heart
II. A Ray of Light Through the Crack
III. Love Wins

Percussion ensemble red fish blue fish
James Koo, percussion 1
Wesley Fowler, percussion 2
Kosuke Matsuda, percussion 3
Steven Schick, conductor

"A polished sonority and well-balanced, tightly synchronized ensemble with nearly faultless intonation….it is heartening to know that chamber music is in good hands with such gifted young ensembles as the Isidore Quartet"—Chicago Classical Review

Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022, the New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory.  The quartet is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet and the idea of ‘approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.’

The quartet began as an ensemble at the Juilliard School, and has coached with Joel Krosnick, Joseph Lin, Astrid Schween, Laurie Smukler, Joseph Kalichstein, Roger Tapping, Misha Amory, and numerous others. They are currently completing their final year as Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

In North America, the Isidore Quartet has appeared on major series in Boston, New York, Berkeley, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Durham, Washington DC, Houston, Toronto, and Montreal, and has collaborated with several eminent performers including James Ehnes, Jeremy Denk, Shai Wosner, and Jon Nakamatsu.  Their 24/25 season includes performances in Salt Lake City, Buffalo, Kansas City, Portland (OR), Louisville, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Memphis, Vancouver, San Francisco, and many other cities across the U.S. and Canada.  In Europe they will appear at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and in Bonn (Beethoven Haus), Stuttgart, Cologne, and Dresden, among many others.

Over the past several years, the quartet has developed a strong connection to the works of composer and pianist Billy Childs. His String Quartet No. 2, "Awakenings" was among the repertoire that delivered the Isidore their Banff victory, and this season they will play Childs’ Quartet No. 3, "Unrequited." In the 2025-26 season, they will premiere a new Childs quartet written expressly for them.

Both on stage and outside the concert hall, the Isidore Quartet is deeply invested in connecting with youth and elderly populations, and with marginalized communities who otherwise have limited access to high-quality live music performance.  They approach music as a "playground" and attempt to break down barriers to encourage collaboration and creativity.  The name Isidorerecognizes the ensemble’s musical connection to the Juilliard Quartet:  one of that group’s early members was legendary violinist Isidore Cohen.  Additionally, it acknowledges a shared affection for a certain libation – legend has it a Greek monk named Isidore concocted the first genuine vodka recipe for the Grand Duchy of Moscow!

Program
Haydn: Op. 76 No. 4 "Sunrise"
Childs, Billy: String Quartet No. 4 (2026)
Dvořák: Quartet No. 13 in G Major, Op. 106

Sponsored by Judith Bachner and Eric Lasley

DakhaBrakha is a music quartet from Kyiv, Ukraine. Their “ethno chaos” sound spans years of performances prior to Russia’s 2022 invasion, but war is in everything now. They masterfully blend Ukrainian traditional music with influences from around the world, resulting in an unexpected new music.

Traditional music has seen a resurgence in Ukraine over the past decades, after being suppressed during Soviet rule. DakhaBrakha uses Ukrainian polyphony as its foundation, interweaving complex rhythmic and melodic structures from India, Arabia, Africa, and Australia. Their music is textural, layered sounds with distinctive percussive heartbeats, thumping bass lines, distorted electric guitars and influences of jazz, spoken word, rap and even punk. DakhaBrakha calls this tapestry of influences “ethno chaos.” And this chaos is a strength, allowing them to draw in strands of music that connect Ukraine with the world.

They are troubadours, activists and educators. Though their name means Give/Take in the old language, DakhaBrakha is new Ukraine, both pre-colonial and post-Soviet, working within a global network of art and music. They aim to help audiences see Ukraine not as a monolith, but as a cosmopolitan culture that takes in other cultures, and gives in return.
DakhaBrakha was created in 2004 at the Kyiv Center of Contemporary Art “DAKH” by the avant-garde theatre director Vladyslav Troitskyi. Theatre work has left its mark on the band performances – their shows are always staged with a strong visual element. Projected behind them are a mix of animations from different Ukrainian artists and photos of life in today’s Ukraine. Some are celebratory, bright and bold. Some are dark, others curious, a reflection of the many facets of Ukrainian culture.

In March 2011 DakhaBrakha was discovered by Australian Womadelaide and began their ascent in the international music scene. They have since played hundreds of concerts and performances at major international festivals including Big Ears Festival, Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, WOMAD, Roskilde Festival and on the main stage at the Glastonbury Festival. In March 2020, DakhaBrakha won the Shevchenko National Prize for Musical Arts – the biggest award in Ukraine in the sphere of contemporary art – and confirmed its place in the culture once again. In 2023 DakhaBrakha won globalFEST’s Artist Award in the USA and became Chevaliers of the Order of Arts in France.

The band is currently in the process of recording their first album since 2020 in Kyiv (Ukraine), which combines material created before and during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A cross-media installation performance created in collaboration by Han Zhang and Yifan Guo.

Location: Atkinson Hall CALIT2 Theater

Tickets available via Eventbrite. (Updated link forthcoming.)

Across Generations: A celebration of music written by women

kallisti vocal ensemble presents a concert of rarely heard vocal chamber music from across the span of several generations, in celebration of Women's History Month. The concert takes place on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at 7 p.m. at the UC San Diego Department of Music's Conrad Prebys Concert Hall.

Among those represented on the program are Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, whose music earned international recognition, as well as an intricate, delicate acapella duet by Swiss composer Katharina Rosenberg.

A new generation of American composers is also featured on the program, including Kate Soper's iconic "Only the words themselves mean what they say" for voice and flute, along with duets for voice and doublebass by Lila Meretzky and 2025 Guggenheim Fellow Katherine Balch.

The concert also features Swedish composer Karin Rehnqvist's Puksånger/Lockrup for two voices and percussion. A tour de force for both singers, Rehnqvist's twenty-minute work incorporates traditional Swedish folk singing and herding-calls, and is set to texts that speak to the experiences of women of all times.

The kallisti concert features UC San Diego graduate students in Contemporary Music Performance: vocalists Emily Barger, Julia Anne Cordani, flutist Leanna Keith, double bassist Andrew Crapitto, along with pianist Kyle Adam Blair and guest artist Christopher Clarino, percussion.

kallisti was founded in 2009 by Distinguished Professor of Music Susan Narucki and has presented innovative chamber operas and vocal chamber music over the past seventeen years. We acknowledge - and celebrate - International Women's History Month with our concert.

"I hate silence when it is time to speak." Germaine Tailleferre

New works for 5 Double Basses composed by Andrew Crapitto, Luke Holley, Sofia Leal de Leon, and Mark Dresser.

UC San Diego Bass Ensemble
Andrew Crapitto
Matthew Henson
Sofia Leal de Leon
Vytis Nivinskas
Mark Dresser

The Undergraduate Forum is a quarterly concert series that seeks to showcase work composed and/or performed by undergraduate music students.

This quarter's undergraduate forum features performances by:
Kaden Cho (Piano), Andrew Crapitto (Bass), Alice Guo (Violin), Jacob Kang (Cello), Raymond Li (Violin), Morgan Makhina (Piano), Emma Parrott (Vocals), Derek Phan (Piano), Morgan Snell (Flute), Luke Carmichael Valmadrid (Viola), Jack Xia (Piano), and Seoin Yang (Piano)

Produced by: Keene Cheung and Roman Guzman Houghton

Kit Jack Chan, baritone

Dr. Kyle Adam Blair, piano

Kit Jack Chan presents his undergraduate honors recital for the Vocal Performance emphasis on Saturday, March 7th, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. at the Conrad Prebys Concert Hall. In collaboration with pianist Dr. Kyle Adam Blair, he will perform a program of art songs and arias by Vincenzo Bellini, Johann Sebastian Bach, Gian Carlo Menotti, Maurice Ravel, Franz Schubert, Libby Larsen, and Giacomo Meyerbeer. This recital marks the culmination of four years of study in the Music major at UC San Diego under the tutelage of Distinguished Professor of Music Susan Narucki.

Featuring pianists Karen Chan, Kaden Cho, Eduardo Garnica, Joshua Ham, Tyler Koh, Annabel Metcalf, Jack Xia, and Lucas Yan.

What does it mean to speak for God when the world refuses to listen? breaking the veil is a series of installation and concert works that explore the voices of Medieval and Renaissance women mystics and visionaries—those who saw, heard, and felt the divine, often in defiance of a Church that sought to silence them. Works in a variety of experimental voices come together to trace the struggles and triumphs of  St. Hildegard of Bingen, St. Joan of Arc, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Clare of Assisi, and others within and against the patriarchal and doctrinal boundaries of their faith, revealing the power, ecstasy, and terror of the ancient divine feminine experience and asking what we can learn from it today.

This recital is a unique two-day presentation of original work by UC San Diego composers: day 1 (March 10) features a rotating installation of longform spatialized chant with audiovisual immersion; day 2 (March 11) presents a theatrical concert performance. Featuring works by Emily Barger, Daniel Cui, Ana Luisa Díaz De Cossío, Aaron Mencher, Akari Komura, William Kuo, and Carlos Rosas.

With assistance from Leanna Keith (flutes), Robbie Bui (cello),  James Koo (percussion), Amir Norouz-Nasseri (violin),  Lorraine de Oliveira (piano), Rose Sun (electronics), and Grace Talaski (clarinets). From the studio of Susan Narucki.

UC San Diego's Percussion Ensemble "One Fish Two Fish" (MUS95F) presents their Winter Concert "Percussion is an Immersion", a program that is themed around the act of diving deep into local communities in a posture of listening and learning. By lowering ourselves and examining what is around us closely, new and exciting discoveries and relationships can be made, and this spirit is a profound ethic that characterizes the UC San Diego percussion ensemble. This quarter's program reflects this act by exploring percussion repertoire associated with some of our immediate and surrounding communities here at UC San Diego. In addition to social and cultural immersion, the concert offers a V-shaped progression of textural and musical heterogeneity, beginning and ending with expansive and joyfully melodic repertoire played on dozens of varied instruments, with the middle of the program narrowing into the interaction of individual keyboard instruments, individual natural objects found on the Earth, or even the interaction between two sonic frequencies in the air.

Repertoire:

Song of Queztecoatl (1962) by Lou Harrison (1917-2003)
Once, in a Grove of Tamarisk (2012) by Christopher Adler (b. 1972)
Twenty Stones, after Bergson (2022) by Jeremy Rosenstock (b. 1996)
Immersion (1998) by Annea Lockwood (b. 1939)
Toccata (1942) by Carlos Chávez (1899-1978)

Dvorak - Carnival
de Falla - The Three Cornered hat, Suite No. 2
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5

What does it mean to speak for God when the world refuses to listen? breaking the veil is a series of installation and concert works that explore the voices of Medieval and Renaissance women mystics and visionaries—those who saw, heard, and felt the divine, often in defiance of a Church that sought to silence them. Works in a variety of experimental voices come together to trace the struggles and triumphs of  St. Hildegard of Bingen, St. Joan of Arc, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Clare of Assisi, and others within and against the patriarchal and doctrinal boundaries of their faith, revealing the power, ecstasy, and terror of the ancient divine feminine experience and asking what we can learn from it today.

This recital is a unique two-day presentation of original work by UC San Diego composers: day 1 (March 10) features a rotating installation of longform spatialized chant with audiovisual immersion; day 2 (March 11) presents a theatrical concert performance. Featuring works by Emily Barger, Daniel Cui, Ana Luisa Díaz De Cossío, Aaron Mencher, Akari Komura, William Kuo, and Carlos Rosas.

With assistance from Leanna Keith (flutes), Robbie Bui (cello),  James Koo (percussion), Amir Norouz-Nasseri (violin),  Lorraine de Oliveira (piano), Rose Sun (electronics), and Grace Talaski (clarinets). From the studio of Susan Narucki.

All Bach Program

• Violin Concerto
• Double Violin Concerto
• Brandenburg Concerto 6

The UC San Diego Wind Ensemble presents an eclectic and vibrant evening of music under the direction of Pierre Long-Tao Tang, featuring our very own faculty member, tenor Miguel Zazueta. The program spans contemplative lyricism, cultural storytelling, and cinematic spectacle—from the rhythmic energy of Reena Esmail’s Tuttarana and the classic brilliance of John Philip Sousa, to evocative contemporary works by Josh Rodriguez and Itaru Sakai. The concert culminates with the profound spirituality of David Maslanka’s Hosannas and the thrilling humor of Eric Whitacre’s Godzilla Eats Las Vegas!. Join us on March 12th at 7:30 pm in Mandeville Auditorium for an evening of color, imagination, and powerful musical storytelling.

Final exam fo MUS 176: The Art of DJing, where the students will perform a live back-to-back DJ set.

Come join us for “The Final Final” electronic music party at "The Loft" featuring back-to-back DJ sets by "MUS 176: The Art of DJing" students. Meet us on the dance floor!

Wilfrido Terrazas joins forces with collaborators Boris Acosta, Christopher Clarino, Sofia Leal, and Carlos Rosas in rescuing long lost, neglected, or forgotten works of his to bring them to light, in most cases for the first time.

A screening of an immersive animation film in production by Kai Tattersall and Myles Ortiz-Green, part of the IDEAS program at QI.

THE MONTH BETWEEN APRIL AND MAY is a collaboration between composer-producer Myles Ortiz-Green and director Kai Tattersall. The seventy-minute feature blends animation and live-action, using painted frame-by-frame overlays for the stylized image. The film is accompanied by complete surround sound supported by the state of the art immersive lab. The film explores estrangement through "May," a traveling nurse onboarding a hospital train, and the ensuing month between her and her patients. 100% human made.

Kai Tattersall is a Japanese-English-American director and visual artist whose work blends live-action performance with stylized animation across film, immersive media, and installation. He has created films for streaming, theater, installations, VR, and IMAX that combine live-action performances with stylized animation; his work has been exhibited in Europe, Asia, and North America at festivals and galleries.

Born on the Okinawan islands in Japan, Tattersall developed an early interest in 2D animation. Throughout his career, he collaborated with animation pioneer Mike Patterson, developing a rotoscope animation approach that integrates traditional techniques with novel digital tools. This approach led to projects for clients including Disney, Paramount, CNN, Hulu, and The Academy.

Before commercial AI, Tattersall began incorporating open-source AI into his production workflow. This experimentation led to HEAVEN (2022), a hybrid live-action and animated project that premiered internationally and won Best Animated Short and Best Art Direction at the AI International Film Festival. Following the film’s completion, Tattersall established 2000blue, an animation studio focused on mixed-media animation dedicated to remove AI from all creative roles. Currently, 2000blue serves as the lead animation team for an undisclosed Tubi documentary, an independent feature and immersive experience for titled THE MONTH BETWEEN APRIL AND MAY, and a limited series, MIKO WAS HERE.

Myles Ortiz-Green is a multidisciplinary artist and composer based in San Diego, California, who has collaborated on a variety of films, multimedia projects, and installations. As a pianist and with a background in classical and jazz studies, they combine analogue and digital electronics and improvisation to manipulate samples and field recordings.

They pioneered the Beats by Dre “INAUGURAL BLACK FUTURE CREATOR PROGRAM” in 2020 and 2021 as an in-house composer, collaborating with film directors from institutions such as Morehouse, Howard, USC, Florida A&M, and North Carolina A&T State University. Their film scores have received nominations and have been included in notable events such as the Atlanta Horror Film Festival, San Francisco Short Festival, Black Truth Film Festival, Black Film & TV Collective Selection, Launderthestars, Cult Critic Movie Awards, and the 28th Annual DGA Student Film Award. They’ve also provided scores, sound design, and sound mixing for podcasts and commercials for various businesses and brands, including AMG, JanSport, and Chevrolet.

Myles is a graduate of Tulane University with a BA in Music, and an alumnus of the prestigious POSSE scholarship program. They are currently pursuing his PhD in Computer Music and Composition at the University of California San Diego.

Blacktronika : Afrofuturism in Electronic Music is a movement and course dedicated to honoring and illuminating innovators of color who have played a pivotal role in the evolution of electronic music.  The pedagogy centers the foundational Black and Latino roots of Chicago House, Detroit Techno, Disco, Drum & Bass, Dub, Hip Hop and beyond.

As an extension of the course, the Blacktronika campus series of events, transforms the music department’s Experimental Theater into a club environment and safe space for everyone to dance and experience this music on a proper sound system.  Movement and community is always a powerful combination.

Music by world renowned DJ / Producer : Professor King Britt

The members of the acclaimed Attacca Quartet are passionate advocates of contemporary repertoire and new work—including that of composer and vocalist Caroline Shaw, who became the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013. In a special program together, the Attacca and Shaw perform music from their 2022 album Evergreen, which, like their previous record, Orange, garnered a Grammy Award.

These three pieces all explore physical and psychoacoustic phenomena through setting the clarinet against static and drifting oscillators in the space. While the setup is pretty minimal, the effects quickly become highly complex, blurring the boundaries of pitch, harmony, and rhythm. The performance space itself also becomes a key part of the music. Burr's intention is to match focused exploration of the acoustics with more conventional notions of harmony and voice leading to see what happens. The work draws in part on his experiences working with Alvin Lucier on his music and is dedicated to his memory.

This concert features traditional seating with quiet and contemplative sounds; however, some of the more unusual acoustic effects can be disorienting. 

Panta rhei is a Greek phrase meaning "everything flows," summarizing the philosophy of Heraclitus, who taught that the universe is in constant change, like a river you can't step into twice. Panta Rhei emphasizes flux, transformation, and impermanence as the fundamental nature of reality. 

This concert will feature the recent compositions of David Borgo and compositions by other members of the ensemble, all designed to inspire individual and collective improvisation.

The Panta Rhei ensemble includes David Borgo on saxophones, Victor Baker on electric guitar, Tobin Chodos on piano, Doug Walker on bass, and Kevin Higuchi on drum set.

Come out and ride the musical flow!

This evening presents world-renowned maestro Pandit Kartik Seshadri in concert (sitar) accompanied by Pandit Anindo Chatterjee (tabla). Don't miss this opportunity to enjoy the astonishing improvised melodies of Indian classical music.

Featuring mainly contemporary works for solo flute of various styles.

This concert features traditional seating and moderate volume. Occasional loud moments. 

Stretching In / Stretching Out: Music for Trombone and Bass in Two Cities

For 19 years, composer-improvisers Mark Dresser and Michael Dessen have been dedicated to a practice of live performance in multiple locations via the internet. This night's concert, with performers and audiences at both UC San Diego and UC Irvine, features original works in celebration of an upcoming duo recording, as well as a new intermedia piece in collaboration with artist Mariángeles Soto-Díaz.

Performers and locations

Mark Dresser, bass (Experimental Theater, Conrad Prebys Music Center, UC San Diego)
Michael Dessen, trombone (Experimental Media Performance Lab, Contemporary Arts Center, UC Irvine)

Program

Rasaman, composed by Mark Dresser
Unfurlings, composed by Michael Dessen
Why Cycles, composed by Mark Dresser
Gloaming, composed by Mark Dresser
What Do You Call The World, composed by Michael Dessen
Falcon, composed by Mark Dresser
Bounceback, composed by Michael Dessen
As It Breaks, an intermedia work created by Timespace (Mariángeles Soto-Díaz and Michael Dessen) and
performed by Dresser/Dessen
Don’t Let US Let It Happen, composed by Mark Dresser

Production credits

Artistic Directors and Producers: Michael Dessen and Mark Dresser
Technical Director at UCSD: Trevor Henthorn
Audio Production at UCSD: Jeremy Olson
Networked Audio/Video at UCSD: Wesley Fowler
Technical Director at UCI: Danny Sanchez
Audio Production at UCI: Emma Houton
Networked Audio/Video at UCI: Reed Wixson
xMPL Director at UCI: Micah Sechler

Monocromo (aka Emir Chacra) first Live Electronics set with all original music, featuring earthfruit on live visuals. Expect to dance to merging influences of club music, and immerse yourself in a full audiovisual experience.

The Heavenly Life
La Jolla Symphony & Chorus
The San Diego Youth Symphony

May 2, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
May 3, 2026 at 2:00 p.m.
Mandeville Auditorium at UC San Diego

Andrea Casarrubios – Afilador 
Osvaldo Golijov – Night of the Flying Horses 
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 4 

The San Diego Youth Symphony joins forces with the La Jolla Symphony in a work by the brilliant composer and cellist Andrea Casarrubios, who was first introduced to La Jolla audiences in the 2023-2024 season. The haunting beauty of Osvaldo Golijov’s Night of the Flying Horses is paired with the great symphonist Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 4, which takes the listener on a journey through a child’s vision of paradise.

The Heavenly Life
La Jolla Symphony & Chorus
The San Diego Youth Symphony

May 2, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
May 3, 2026 at 2:00 p.m.
Mandeville Auditorium at UC San Diego

Andrea Casarrubios – Afilador 
Osvaldo Golijov – Night of the Flying Horses 
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 4 

The San Diego Youth Symphony joins forces with the La Jolla Symphony in a work by the brilliant composer and cellist Andrea Casarrubios, who was first introduced to La Jolla audiences in the 2023-2024 season. The haunting beauty of Osvaldo Golijov’s Night of the Flying Horses is paired with the great symphonist Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 4, which takes the listener on a journey through a child’s vision of paradise.

Michael J. Schumacher - multichannel compositions
Schumacher presents a range of work in multichannel format, a
generative installation, “Stills” - pieces that explore the idea of
auditory scene analysis within an immersive sound environment
- and “Construction”, a recent large-scale work.

Michael J. Schumacher is a composer, sound artist, performer, curator and educator based in  Brooklyn, New York, whose work has centered on the perceptual, formal, and emotional  possibilities of sound in space. Since the 1980s, he has developed a distinctive practice spanning  spatialized sound, algorithmic composition, installation, improvisation, and long-duration  listening environments, creating works in which sound is articulated around the body as an active  spatial field. His compositions treat location, resonance, recurrence, silence, and timbral  association as structural elements, and they are often realized through multichannel systems  designed specifically for the pieces themselves. Across this work, Schumacher has pursued a  sustained inquiry into how listeners construct meaning from sound: through repetition,  coincidence, spatial displacement, memory, and the changing relation between sonic events and  the spaces in which they occur. 

Schumacher studied music composition with Stanley Applebaum, Bernhard Heiden, John Eaton,  and Vincent Persichetti, and piano with Seymour Bernstein, John Ogdon, Richard Shirk and  Shigeo Neriki. He holds degrees from Indiana University, winning the composition prize in  1982, and The Juilliard School, where he earned his doctorate in 1988. His background joins  formal study in composition and piano with longstanding involvement in experimental music,  improvisation, electronics, and spatial sound. 

A major current running through Schumacher’s work has been his engagement with spatialized  sound and generative form. Since the 1980s he has created multi-channel Room Pieces and  related installations for galleries, museums, concert halls, and public and private spaces, building  a body of work in which loudspeaker distribution is not an afterthought but a primary  compositional medium. These works have been presented in a wide range of venues and  contexts, including GRM in Paris, Ars Electronica Linz, Roulette Intermedium, Issue Project  Room, Artists Space, Transmediale in Berlin, MCA Lyon, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg,  Klangraum Krems, The Dream House, Ostrava Music Days, and the Sound Art Museum in  Rome, among many others. His music has been released by labels including XI, Sub Rosa,  Entr’acte, Quecksilber, Sedimental, and Superpang, and the project Living Room Pieces,  published by Chaikin Records as a stand-alone computer-based generative installation, has  extended his multichannel and algorithmic concerns into domestic listening environments. 

An important part of Schumacher’s work has been collaboration across disciplines. He has  worked with choreographers, poets, filmmakers, architects, and musicians, building projects in  which sound acts not as accompaniment but as an equal structural presence. He is the music  director of the Liz Gerring Dance Company, collaborating with Gerring on roughly a dozen  evening-length works. He performs regularly with Sally Silvers, another key figure in New York  dance, and has collaborated with artists including Oren Ambarchi, Bruce Andrews, Tom Chiu,  Zorica Colic, Charles Curtis, Ken Jacobs, Victoria Meyers, Ursula Scherrer, Stephen Vitiello, and  others. 

These collaborations span markedly different artistic worlds. With pianist Vicky Chow and cellist  Charles Curtis, Schumacher intersects with traditions of instrumental sound and long-form  listening associated with contemporary composition, just intonation, and minimalist practice.  With Bruce Andrews and Charlie Morrow, he has engaged experimental language and sound  poetry. With Tom Chiu, Shelley Hirsch, Kaffe Matthews, Donald Miller, and Hans Tammen, 
among others, he has worked within the free improvisation scenes of New York and beyond.  Schumacher collaborated extensively with the experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs, including  live performances with Jacobs’s Nervous Magic Lantern system and the creation of fixed scores  for a number of his films. As a guitarist, he has released two solo recordings and recorded with  the Donald Miller Trio and the songwriter Stephen Tunney; between 2012 and 2018, he also  released three albums with his band diNMachine. Together, these collaborations reflect a practice  of unusual range, moving fluently among composed music, text, improvisation, film, and  spatialized sound. 

Another significant aspect of Schumacher’s career has been curatorial and infrastructural work in  support of experimental sound. His interest in the relation between musical form, architecture  and social spaces led to the founding of Diapason Sound Art (1996-2011), a New York space  dedicated to sound-based and intermedia practice. As the gallery’s founder and director, he  produced exhibitions by figures such as John Luther Adams, David Behrman, Olivia Block,  Kabir Carter, Seth Cluett, Catherine Christer Hennix, Brandon LaBelle, Alvin Lucier, Phill  Niblock, Jim O’Rourke, Eliane Radigue, Steve Roden, Marina Rosenfeld, Stephen Vitiello, and  Achim Wollscheid. Schumacher continues his curatorial work at New York University’s Bobst  Library, hosting a regular program of multichannel works, both contemporary and historical, at  the Avery Fisher Center’s “Immersion Room”. This dimension of his work reflects a long standing commitment to creating contexts in which sound can be encountered outside the usual  restrictions of the concert format. 

His work has received support from a wide range of institutions and programs, including NYFA,  Harvestworks, RPI/EMPAC, DAAD, New Music USA, The Rockefeller Foundation, NYSCA,  EMS Stockholm, and Q-O2 Brussels, among others. He has also pursued forms of portability and  domestic realization unusual in the field, including the development of a portable multichannel  sound system that can fit in a suitcase and tour internationally, and home-based editions of  generative work such as Living Room Pieces and the XI-published Five Sound Installations  (2005). These projects reflect a persistent concern in Schumacher’s practice: how to build forms  of serious listening that are not confined to fixed institutional settings, but can also exist in  homes, temporary installations, traveling systems, and spaces shaped as much by attention as by  architecture. 

Taken as a whole, Schumacher’s career occupies a distinctive place within contemporary  experimental music and sound art. Emerging from the overlap of post-minimal composition,  downtown improvisation, dance, text, installation, and electronic media in New York, he has  built a body of work that treats multichannel sound as both a compositional medium and a way  of organizing perception. Across installations, performances, collaborations, and generative  systems, his work returns consistently to a core set of questions: how sound shapes the  experience of space, how recurrence and duration produce meaning, and how listeners orient  themselves within complex auditory fields. Whether working with a choreographer, a poet, an  ensemble, a custom speaker array, or a generative domestic system, Schumacher has pursued a  practice in which listening itself becomes the central artistic material.
 

Form and Room - a discussion of musical form within the context of architectural and social spaces.

Michael J. Schumacher will present thoughts on how musical form emerges out of spaces, pattern perception, and cognition through archeological explorations into the origins of specific structural approaches and their continuation as listening paradigms. The artist will include examples from his experiences as “sound gallerist” and composer.

Michael J. Schumacher is a composer, sound artist, performer, curator and educator based in  Brooklyn, New York, whose work has centered on the perceptual, formal, and emotional  possibilities of sound in space. Since the 1980s, he has developed a distinctive practice spanning  spatialized sound, algorithmic composition, installation, improvisation, and long-duration  listening environments, creating works in which sound is articulated around the body as an active  spatial field. His compositions treat location, resonance, recurrence, silence, and timbral  association as structural elements, and they are often realized through multichannel systems  designed specifically for the pieces themselves. Across this work, Schumacher has pursued a  sustained inquiry into how listeners construct meaning from sound: through repetition,  coincidence, spatial displacement, memory, and the changing relation between sonic events and  the spaces in which they occur. 

Schumacher studied music composition with Stanley Applebaum, Bernhard Heiden, John Eaton,  and Vincent Persichetti, and piano with Seymour Bernstein, John Ogdon, Richard Shirk and  Shigeo Neriki. He holds degrees from Indiana University, winning the composition prize in  1982, and The Juilliard School, where he earned his doctorate in 1988. His background joins  formal study in composition and piano with longstanding involvement in experimental music,  improvisation, electronics, and spatial sound. 

A major current running through Schumacher’s work has been his engagement with spatialized  sound and generative form. Since the 1980s he has created multi-channel Room Pieces and  related installations for galleries, museums, concert halls, and public and private spaces, building  a body of work in which loudspeaker distribution is not an afterthought but a primary  compositional medium. These works have been presented in a wide range of venues and  contexts, including GRM in Paris, Ars Electronica Linz, Roulette Intermedium, Issue Project  Room, Artists Space, Transmediale in Berlin, MCA Lyon, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg,  Klangraum Krems, The Dream House, Ostrava Music Days, and the Sound Art Museum in  Rome, among many others. His music has been released by labels including XI, Sub Rosa,  Entr’acte, Quecksilber, Sedimental, and Superpang, and the project Living Room Pieces,  published by Chaikin Records as a stand-alone computer-based generative installation, has  extended his multichannel and algorithmic concerns into domestic listening environments. 

An important part of Schumacher’s work has been collaboration across disciplines. He has  worked with choreographers, poets, filmmakers, architects, and musicians, building projects in  which sound acts not as accompaniment but as an equal structural presence. He is the music  director of the Liz Gerring Dance Company, collaborating with Gerring on roughly a dozen  evening-length works. He performs regularly with Sally Silvers, another key figure in New York  dance, and has collaborated with artists including Oren Ambarchi, Bruce Andrews, Tom Chiu,  Zorica Colic, Charles Curtis, Ken Jacobs, Victoria Meyers, Ursula Scherrer, Stephen Vitiello, and  others. 

These collaborations span markedly different artistic worlds. With pianist Vicky Chow and cellist  Charles Curtis, Schumacher intersects with traditions of instrumental sound and long-form  listening associated with contemporary composition, just intonation, and minimalist practice.  With Bruce Andrews and Charlie Morrow, he has engaged experimental language and sound  poetry. With Tom Chiu, Shelley Hirsch, Kaffe Matthews, Donald Miller, and Hans Tammen, 
among others, he has worked within the free improvisation scenes of New York and beyond.  Schumacher collaborated extensively with the experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs, including  live performances with Jacobs’s Nervous Magic Lantern system and the creation of fixed scores  for a number of his films. As a guitarist, he has released two solo recordings and recorded with  the Donald Miller Trio and the songwriter Stephen Tunney; between 2012 and 2018, he also  released three albums with his band diNMachine. Together, these collaborations reflect a practice  of unusual range, moving fluently among composed music, text, improvisation, film, and  spatialized sound. 

Another significant aspect of Schumacher’s career has been curatorial and infrastructural work in  support of experimental sound. His interest in the relation between musical form, architecture  and social spaces led to the founding of Diapason Sound Art (1996-2011), a New York space  dedicated to sound-based and intermedia practice. As the gallery’s founder and director, he  produced exhibitions by figures such as John Luther Adams, David Behrman, Olivia Block,  Kabir Carter, Seth Cluett, Catherine Christer Hennix, Brandon LaBelle, Alvin Lucier, Phill  Niblock, Jim O’Rourke, Eliane Radigue, Steve Roden, Marina Rosenfeld, Stephen Vitiello, and  Achim Wollscheid. Schumacher continues his curatorial work at New York University’s Bobst  Library, hosting a regular program of multichannel works, both contemporary and historical, at  the Avery Fisher Center’s “Immersion Room”. This dimension of his work reflects a long standing commitment to creating contexts in which sound can be encountered outside the usual  restrictions of the concert format. 

His work has received support from a wide range of institutions and programs, including NYFA,  Harvestworks, RPI/EMPAC, DAAD, New Music USA, The Rockefeller Foundation, NYSCA,  EMS Stockholm, and Q-O2 Brussels, among others. He has also pursued forms of portability and  domestic realization unusual in the field, including the development of a portable multichannel  sound system that can fit in a suitcase and tour internationally, and home-based editions of  generative work such as Living Room Pieces and the XI-published Five Sound Installations  (2005). These projects reflect a persistent concern in Schumacher’s practice: how to build forms  of serious listening that are not confined to fixed institutional settings, but can also exist in  homes, temporary installations, traveling systems, and spaces shaped as much by attention as by  architecture. 

Taken as a whole, Schumacher’s career occupies a distinctive place within contemporary  experimental music and sound art. Emerging from the overlap of post-minimal composition,  downtown improvisation, dance, text, installation, and electronic media in New York, he has  built a body of work that treats multichannel sound as both a compositional medium and a way  of organizing perception. Across installations, performances, collaborations, and generative  systems, his work returns consistently to a core set of questions: how sound shapes the  experience of space, how recurrence and duration produce meaning, and how listeners orient  themselves within complex auditory fields. Whether working with a choreographer, a poet, an  ensemble, a custom speaker array, or a generative domestic system, Schumacher has pursued a  practice in which listening itself becomes the central artistic material.
 

A new music ensemble for the 21st Century, the [Switch~ Ensemble] is dedicated to the creation of new works for chamber ensemble: we bring bold new acoustic, electroacoustic, and multimedia projects to life.

[Switch~ Ensemble] returns to UC San Diego to perform an evening of WORLD PREMIERE works by Peter Gilbert and professor Karola Obermueller and graduate student composers including: Daniel Cui, Emily Barger, Ana Luisa Diaz de Cassio, Carlos Felipe Rosas, and Lorraine Gregório de Oliveira (Lola). The program will also feature "soliloquios del viento" by [Switch~ Ensemble] artistic director Jason Thorpe Buchanan. 

[Switch~ Ensemble] features performances by: 

Daria Binkowski, flutes
*Michiko Ogawa, clarinets
Andrew Tholl, violin
*TJ Borden, cello
Megan Arns, percussion
*Mari Kawamura, piano
Wei-Han Wu, conductor
Jason Thorpe Buchanan, Artistic Director/electronics
with
Julia Anne Cordani, mezzo-soprano
Emily Barger, soprano 

*denotes: UC San Diego Doctor of Musical Arts Alumni

The development of études is rooted in a long-standing culture of structured practice aimed at enhancing technical proficiency in pedagogy. Étude, originating from the Latin form of “study”, “studium” (n. = eagerness, dedication) and “studere” (v. = to be diligent), suggests that the learner possesses a strong desire and commitment to diligent practice. It can also imply that any composition intended to foster and nurture a musician's drive for diligent practice could be categorized as an étude.

In earlier pedagogical models, études were typically composed by performer-pedagogues with intimate knowledge of their instruments, while contemporary practices often introduced a greater divide between the composer, who creates, and the performer, who interprets. This lecture recital introduces the Composer-Performer-Pedagogue praxis as an integrative and reciprocal creative framework in which composition, performance, and pedagogy inform and reshape one another. This framework is explicitly depicted as a praxis, rather than simply a methodology or philosophy, as “praxis” here can be understood as the synthesis of theory and action through cycles of reflection. When the praxis is active and cyclical, with each action feeding a reflection and each reflection feeding a future iteration of action, learners are encouraged to apply the core skills of composing, performing, and teaching in their growth as musicians.

To put this framework into practice over the past two years, I have been composing violin études to support young musicians in developing fingerboard fluency and aural awareness, and exploring the genre's potential. My realization is that effective contemporary étude writing still demands a thorough understanding of the instrument’s idiomatic potentials. I then began incorporating these original études into my teaching practice and examined how composing and practicing études within the Composer-Performer-Pedagogue praxis fosters reflective and self-regulated learning, enhances embodied musicianship, and promotes technical agency.

The selected original études for solo violin featured in the first half of this recital are categorized into three groups: (i) “Intonation and Pitch Perception”, in which the main technical goals emphasize on thinking intonation based on local pitch relationships and broader harmonic contexts, prioritizing aural observation and advocating the “intellect of the ear”; (ii) “Violin-Specific Techniques”, exploring instrument-specific idiomatic challenges as the primary compositional parameter; e.g. natural harmonics; (iii) “Repertoire-Based Études”, reimagining materials from familiar repertoire as sites of technical inquiry.

In the second half of the recital, I will be presenting collaborative études adapted from the solo violin études with my colleagues at UCSD. We will explore how the principles of étude composition for solo instruments and pedagogical considerations can be extended into ensemble contexts and collaborative possibilities.

By composing études through the lens of the Composer-Performer-Pedagogue praxis, I seek not only to foster independent and inquisitive musical thinkers but also to propose the étude as an evolving genre in composition, performance, and pedagogy. The lecture recital concludes by re-examining what constitutes an étude and whether the étude genre can move beyond its initial function as a purely technical study.

On May 17, 2026 (Sunday), The Arcades will be presented at the Conrad Prebys Music Center at UC San Diego. Our goal is to fill the performances spaces at CPMC for a marathon concert, from 1:00pm to 6:00pm. We are soliciting proposals from all musicians and all genres of music. We strongly encourage all undergraduates to apply and proposals including original work are especially welcome. We also welcome those who wish to present electronic music, deliver a scholarly paper, create a sound installation, or any alternative form of music presentation. We want everyone to be represented! 

The Arcades is a student-run music festival at UC San Diego that highlights the diverse musical talent found across campus. Supported by the Department of Music, the festival is organized entirely by students and creates space for performers of all backgrounds. The festival is meant not just for music majors but for all students to share their work in a live setting. 

Described as a “collage of music,” The Arcades spans a wide range of genres, selecting artists for their original works and shaping each performance space around their sound. From grunge and alternative bands in the courtyard to intimate singer-songwriter sets, chamber ensembles, 

and electronic performances, the festival transforms the Conrad Prebys Music Center into a dynamic, multi-venue experience. 

Unlike other campus events that bring in outside acts, The Arcades focuses on homegrown talent, connecting UC San Diego artists with the broader San Diego community. With multiple performances happening throughout the day, the festival invites audiences to explore, discover new sounds, and support emerging artists in an open and accessible environment.

The Arcades is a student-run music festival at UC San Diego that highlights the diverse musical talent found across campus. Supported by the Department of Music, the festival is organized entirely by students and creates space for performers of all backgrounds. The festival is meant not just for music majors but for all students to share their work in a live setting. 

Described as a “collage of music,” The Arcades spans a wide range of genres, selecting artists for their original works and shaping each performance space around their sound. From grunge and alternative bands in the courtyard to intimate singer-songwriter sets, chamber ensembles, 

and electronic performances, the festival transforms the Conrad Prebys Music Center into a dynamic, multi-venue experience. 

Unlike other campus events that bring in outside acts, The Arcades focuses on homegrown talent, connecting UC San Diego artists with the broader San Diego community. With multiple performances happening throughout the day, the festival invites audiences to explore, discover new sounds, and support emerging artists in an open and accessible environment.

The Arcades is a student-run music festival at UC San Diego that highlights the diverse musical talent found across campus. Supported by the Department of Music, the festival is organized entirely by students and creates space for performers of all backgrounds. The festival is meant not just for music majors but for all students to share their work in a live setting. 

Described as a “collage of music,” The Arcades spans a wide range of genres, selecting artists for their original works and shaping each performance space around their sound. From grunge and alternative bands in the courtyard to intimate singer-songwriter sets, chamber ensembles, 

and electronic performances, the festival transforms the Conrad Prebys Music Center into a dynamic, multi-venue experience. 

Unlike other campus events that bring in outside acts, The Arcades focuses on homegrown talent, connecting UC San Diego artists with the broader San Diego community. With multiple performances happening throughout the day, the festival invites audiences to explore, discover new sounds, and support emerging artists in an open and accessible environment.

The Arcades is a student-run music festival at UC San Diego that highlights the diverse musical talent found across campus. Supported by the Department of Music, the festival is organized entirely by students and creates space for performers of all backgrounds. The festival is meant not just for music majors but for all students to share their work in a live setting. 

Described as a “collage of music,” The Arcades spans a wide range of genres, selecting artists for their original works and shaping each performance space around their sound. From grunge and alternative bands in the courtyard to intimate singer-songwriter sets, chamber ensembles, 

and electronic performances, the festival transforms the Conrad Prebys Music Center into a dynamic, multi-venue experience. 

Unlike other campus events that bring in outside acts, The Arcades focuses on homegrown talent, connecting UC San Diego artists with the broader San Diego community. With multiple performances happening throughout the day, the festival invites audiences to explore, discover new sounds, and support emerging artists in an open and accessible environment.

The Arcades is a student-run music festival at UC San Diego that highlights the diverse musical talent found across campus. Supported by the Department of Music, the festival is organized entirely by students and creates space for performers of all backgrounds. The festival is meant not just for music majors but for all students to share their work in a live setting. 

Described as a “collage of music,” The Arcades spans a wide range of genres, selecting artists for their original works and shaping each performance space around their sound. From grunge and alternative bands in the courtyard to intimate singer-songwriter sets, chamber ensembles, 

and electronic performances, the festival transforms the Conrad Prebys Music Center into a dynamic, multi-venue experience. 

Unlike other campus events that bring in outside acts, The Arcades focuses on homegrown talent, connecting UC San Diego artists with the broader San Diego community. With multiple performances happening throughout the day, the festival invites audiences to explore, discover new sounds, and support emerging artists in an open and accessible environment.

The Arcades: After Hours is an extension of The Arcades music festival, created in collaboration with DVC (Deejays and Vinylphiles Club). Beginning at 8 PM, this late-night event shifts the focus to DJ culture, featuring a lineup of student DJs in a high-energy, immersive setting. 

Inspired by Boiler Room–style performances, After Hours places the DJ at the center of the space, creating a 360-degree environment that encourages movement, interaction, and connection. The intimate setting allows the music to take priority, fostering an atmosphere where audiences can engage directly with the sound and the energy of the crowd. 

Like the festival itself, After Hours is entirely student-run and highlights undergraduate talent at UC San Diego. With a focus on electronic and hip-hop sounds, the event creates space for DJs and genres that are often underrepresented on campus. Designed as a space to dance, socialize, and experience music collectively, The Arcades: After Hours invites attendees to end the night on a high note.

The Inaudible Ocean (commissioned by the ProtoStar Group) is the latest collaboration between composer Lei Liang and oceanographer Joshua Jones at the Lei Lab. Many marine mammals—Baird’s, Stejneger’s, and Dall’s porpoises, to name just a few—are deep divers and almost impossible to spot visually. But they make their presence felt through sound—sound that is mostly beyond human hearing. Only when we transform these signals into an experience audible to humans can we begin to appreciate their communication. 

The Inaudible Ocean explores a vast spectrum of audible data, spanning signals from the infrasonic (as low as 10 Hz) to the ultrasonic (up to 160 kHz). For perspective, human music typically occupies a range of 20 to 20 kHz—less than 10% of the frequencies we study. What renders these signals inaudible to humans? It is not only their frequency range but also their temporal scale. For instance, to perceive the richness of certain echolocation signals, we must transpose their frequencies and decelerate the playback by 10 or even 100 times. This process reveals the intricate acoustic “landscape” of the ocean, where valleys and mountains emerge through awe-inspiring echoes. 

The Inaudible Ocean is our journey into the realms beyond human hearing, where technology serves as our tool and curiosity as our compass. Together, scientists and artists craft a “sonic searchlight” to illuminate the hidden wonders of the ocean for our listeners.

Lei Liang’s distinguished colleagues from the music department, Mark Dresser (contrabass), Cory Smyth (piano), and doctoral student Camilo Zamudio-Romero (percussion) will give the world premiere of The Inaudible Ocean.

We warmly invite you to join us for a post-concert reception, generously hosted by the ProtoStar Group.

An evening concert exploring themes of self abandonment and morality through the removal of symbolic objects and attachments. Interconnected with recorded and spatialized music concréte from Hong Kong, each ritual examines the performer as an object of study. Through this project I challenge my conceptualization of the self through undergoing a series of ritualized performances, leading towards a form of self abandonment. The concert features two large form pieces by Kaija Saariaho, Bun Ching Lam (set-up percussion),  James Tenney (large gong), Globokar (self) & Xu Yi (Vibraphone + setup percussion). This project graciously indebted to the work of Spencer Duff (Theatre), Rose Sun (Computer Music), Julia Cordani (Performance) & Daniel Cui (Composition).

The Anatole Quartet emerged from the UC San Diego chamber music scene in Fall 2025 as four students who came together over a shared love of great music. Self-directed and student-run, the quartet has performed at the Department of Music Undergraduate Forums and appeared as guests of the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus and the Arcades Festival.

Join them for their debut recital, featuring an evening of string quartets by Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Hisaishi, and Mendelssohn.

Accessibility Notice: Traditional Seating. A recital lasting about 1 hour, including a 10-15 minute intermission.

UC San Diego percussion ensemble red fish blue fish will be performing pieces that consist of the ensemble’s recent sonic explorations, along with UC San Diego professor Ti McCormack’s Glost Fire. Having founded the ensemble after joining the Department of Music, red fish blue fish is one of Professor Steven Schick’s collaborations with UC San Diego graduate students. Over the course of its 30+ years, red fish blue fish has played regularly on campus as well as in highly profiled concerts on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series, at Lincoln Center and The Park Avenue Armory in New York, The Centre Pompidou in Paris, and elsewhere in Europe and Asia. Recently, as a teaching tool, they have developed exercises that they call “sonic explorations,” short prepared or improvised pieces that serve to explore the sonic potential of a single instrument—a five-minute essay on solo woodblock, or single gong, for example.

red fish blue fish features percussionists: Wesley Fowler, Kosuke Matsuda, James Koo, and Camilo Zamudio.

Program:
Drumming, part 1 - Steve Reich
Glost Fire - Ti McCormack
Sonic Explorations - red fish blue fish
Third Construction - John Cage

Accessibility Notice: Traditional seating. Loud percussion.

As the culminating work of his doctoral creative project at UC San Diego, Boris Acosta-Jaramillo presents Emanations — a fully improvised concert featuring some of the most adventurous voices in contemporary music. Rooted in the spirit of jazz but unbound by tradition, the ensemble navigates uncharted sonic territory in real time, guided by deep listening, collective trust, and a shared commitment to discovery. A year in the making, this project began in the studio in 2025 and tonight marks its arrival on the stage — a rare opportunity to experience live what will soon be heard on the forthcoming album Emanations, due for release later this year. Featuring live visual art by Mochilla.

Accessibility notice: Traditional seating. Two extended pieces across a 45 to an hour program. The music is deeply immersive and highly dynamic — expect moments of groove, contemplative stillness, and experimental intensity.

Under the direction of Grammy award-winning producer and arranger Kamau Kenyatta, the Jazz and Pop Ensemble harnesses the instrumental, improvisational and compositional talent of the UC San Diego music community to present quarterly concerts exploring a diverse range of repertoire, from jazz and contemporary classics to student originals.

"How do I love? Let me count the ways!

Allowing love to resonate within myself and recognizing that it is a conscious decision.
Seeking humanity and compassion while resisting hatred and violence.
Exploring memories and friendship, and appreciating the beauty of everyday life.
Discovering ways to heal open wounds and honoring the women who have found the ways to do it.
Viewing others with openness, care, and understanding." - Natalia Merlano Gomez

This concert features five pieces that explore themes of love, memory, resistance, and human connection. By drawing from Gomez's personal experiences, the stories of others, and shared history, she aims to examine love not just as an emotion but as a transformative force and a daily choice that helps us connect with the world around us.

Featuring
Boris Acosta Jaramillo - Piano
David Aguila - Trumpet and Electronics
Ana Luisa Díaz de Cossío - Violin
Tim Gmainer - Electronics
Carlos Felipe Rosas - Oboe
James Ko - Percussion
Akari Komura - Voice and Projections

Accessibility Notice: Traditional sitting. The program consists of five pieces and lasts around one hour. It is designed as a cohesive work, featuring a variety of loud and quiet moments.

Ben Roidl-Ward (bassoon) & Timothy McCormack (augmented bass drum)

This concert marks the initiation of a new collaboration between bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward and composer Timothy McCormack (who is also a bassoonist). Roidl-Ward's visit to UCSD is twofold: the composer and bassoonists record McCormack's 2015 solo "BODY MATTER," and workshop materials for a new composition, commissioned by Roidl-Ward, for bassoon and string quartet (with the JACK Quartet). This concert is intended as a modest offering to the community amongst these aforementioned, less public activities.

Concert Program
deep terrane [2021/24] for solo augmented bass drum
BODY MATTER [2015] for solo bassoon

Image credit: Deidre Huckabay

Ben Roidl-Ward is the bassoonist of Ensemble Dal Niente, principal bassoonist of the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Illinois Symphony, and Co-Principal Bassoonist of Sinfonia Da Camera. He serves as Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and as a Bassoon Coach for the Lucerne Festival Academy.

Program

Stravinsky - Suite from "The Firebird" (1919 version)
Elgar - Symphony No. 1

Accessibility Notice: Traditional seating

A note from the artist:

"I suppose recitals usually suggest some sort of grand culmination of mastery: years spent diligently refining your lifelong instrument, rehearsing pieces to intimate familiarity, perhaps towards full memorization. This final DMA recital takes an opposite approach. All pieces on the program feature some sort of first attempt at doing something, or developing a skill that is not something I consider myself to be fully comfortable in. Rather than treating the recital as a conclusive marker of my studies, I instead imagine it as an exploratory space for cultivating emerging interests and reconsidering what “performing” can mean to me.

Across the program, I perform in formats tangentially related to my usual practice of contemporary cello performance, all contributing to an artistic identity shaped by multi-instrumental and multidisciplinary work. This recital gathers many firsts for me: a duo piece realized as a twin-video installation, an attempt at linking projections directly with composed music, performing as a new-music pianist, writing for electronics, and working within the realm of theater." - Robbie Bui

Program

Steven Kazuo Takasugi - The Flypaper/Das Fliegenpapier (2005, rev. 2012)
video installation
Robbie Bui, flute, voice, and video production
Aaron Mencher, audio recording

Aaron Mencher - Deepfake (2026)
for cello and electronics
Robbie Bui, cello and projection design

Robbie Bui - Stretch Marks (2026)
for piano, violin, and electronics
Amir Norouz Nasseri, violin
Robbie Bui, piano

Robbie Bui - Caution! Attack hackers to your account! (2026)
music theater piece for narrator and electronics

The Promise of Living

UC San Diego Concert Choir & Wind Ensemble
Spring 2026 Joint Concert
Miguel Zazueta and Pierre Tang, directors

Thursday, June 4 | 7:30 PM
Mandeville Auditorium

This exciting collaboration between the UC San Diego Concert Choir and Wind Ensemble explores themes of death, remembrance, and rebirth through the imagery of winter and spring. The first half features John Rutter’s Requiem, sung by the Concert Choir, which is a work that journeys from sorrow and mortality toward peace, light, and paradise, offering consolation and hope beyond death.

The second half features the UC San Diego Wind Ensemble, and highlights renewal through music by contemporary composers, including Asian and Asian American voices. Works by Chen Yi, Xi Wang, and Viet Cuong reflect celebration, memory, and transformation, while A Hymn of Promise and Copland’s The Promise of Living affirm perseverance and hope. The concert concludes with Alfred Reed’s The Hounds of Spring, celebrating spring’s triumphant return.

Accessibility Notice: Regular symphonic concert setting. Seated, watching and listening. Good balance between quiet and loud.

Undergrad flutists Keene Cheung, Vivian Liu, and Cecilia Sommerfield offer an end of year recital featuring works by Herman Beeftink, Paul Hindemith, Klaus Huber, Siegfried Karg-Elert, Gerhart Muench, Sergei Prokofiev, and Toru Takemitsu. Featuring pianists Ke Chen and Kyle Adam Blair. Direction by Wilfrido Terrazas.

Accessibility Notice: Audience should expect a sitting-down listening experience with occasional mildly loud flute sounds.

Sonata for Double Bass and Piano: I. Con Moto
Sonata for Double Bass and Piano: II. Adagio 
Sonata for Double Bass and Piano: III. Scherzo
Composed by Joseph Iadone (b.1914-2004) 

Sonata in G Minor: I. Largo 
Sonata in G Minor: II. Corrente. Allegro con spirito
Sonata in G Minor: III. Adagio 
Sonata in G Minor: IV. Vivace
Composed by Henry Eccles (b.1670-1742)

Chelsea Bridge
Composed by Billy Strayhorn (b. 1915-1967)

Mr. Pastorious 
Composed by Marcus Miller (b. 1959-) 

In A Sentimental Mood 
Composed by Duke Ellington (b.1899-1974), Arrangement by Shai Maestro (b.1987-)

Angelica Yamada, bass 
Kaden Cho, piano
Nathan Tatsuta, piano
Samantha Lincoln, drums
Maxwell Moore, trumpet

Angelica Yamada has been a local San Diego upright and electric bassist for over a decade playing music from jazz to classical pieces to Middle Eastern musics. The past few years Ms. Yamada has been studying various musical techniques and styles at UCSD under the direction of Mark Dresser and Kamau Kenyatta and in doing so, will be presenting a multi genre senior recital. This recital is in dedication to my mother as well as in memory of close figures in my life that have recently passed away during my time at UCSD. I would not be the person that I am today without acknowledging those that have fallen before me: Leo, Izzy, Max Zape, and Iris. 

The Nan Trio
Ty Bouque, voice
Will Yager, double bass
Ti McCormack, augmented bass drum

Concert Program
Seated at the Throat [2023-24] for solo voice
deep terrane (something moves) [2024] for trio
nestbuilder [2022-23] for solo voice & assistants 

In January 2024, vocalist Ty Bouque, bassist Will Yager, and composer Ti McCormack joined forces for the first time in an abandoned church in Baltimore for a concert that had the intensity of a seance. Naming themselves after writer Nan Shepherd and taking inspiration from her book The Living Mountain, the Nan Trio convenes for a second time at UCSD's Conrad Prebys Concert Hall for a concert of McCormack's music that is meant to mirror walking through a forest in the dead of night: eyes wide open, but only our ears can guide us through.

Senior students in the ICAM-Music major program present their projects during the Spring Quarter of their final year at UC San Diego.

Presentations last year in the Conrad Prebys Music Center, Experimental Theater were livestreamed online and available for on-demand viewing on our Vimeo.

The ICAM Program in the Music and Visual Arts departments draws upon, and aims to bring together, ideas and paradigms from computer science, art and cultural theory. The departments take for granted that the computer has become a meta-medium and that artists and musicians working with computers are expected to combine different media forms in their works. This makes the program unique among other existing computer art or design programs.

Learn more about the UC San Diego's ICAM Major.

Undergraduate Composers of MUS 103C present a diverse program of original compositions: spectral piano solos, violin solos caught in a vicious circle, ethereal atmospheres for electric guitar and synth, and a solo piece for three instruments and three performer-doppelgängers...

Come hear music composed by:

• Kaden Cho
• Spencer Ellison
• Ruby Lofton
• Jack Melcher
• Annabel Metcalf
• Derek Phan
• Celest Santaolaya
• Khushal Shukla
• Michael Tonya
• Leonardo Torres

Accessibility Notice: Traditional seating. Medium to loud music.

July 2: Sun God, Series kickoff with Westwind Brass

As America marks its 250th birthday, Westwind Brass celebrates with Sousa-style marches, beloved folk and hymn tunes, jazz standards, Broadway showstoppers, and Hollywood film scores, all carried unamplified across Niki de Saint Phalle’s radiant Sun God lawn. The professional brass quintet — two trumpets, French horn, trombone, and tuba — sweeps across the American story, from the concert hall to the silver screen. Think Copland’s wide-open prairie sound and the brassy swagger of big-band jazz. Roughly 60–75 minutes of joyful noise for America’s 250th. 

• Check out the band in advance: Listen to Westwind Brass 

• Location: Sun God in Google Maps 

• Parking: Scholars Parking Structure in Google Maps

July 9: La Jolla Project, Left Coast Quintet

As dusk settles over the Richard Fleischner’s La Jolla Project, five wind players gather among UC San Diego’s popular outdoor artwork, known as “Stonehenge,” for an evening that spans centuries in a single breath. The Left Coast Quintet — flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon — is one of music’s most eloquent ensembles: five distinct voices, one rich palette of color. Their program moves fluidly from Baroque counterpoint and Classical-era works (the woodwind quintet was born in Mozart’s day) to Romantic showpieces, contemporary discoveries, and imaginative arrangements of jazz and film music. What sets LCQ apart is its blend of warmth, humor, and polish — as at home with a Baroque partita as a film-score medley, and always ready to let the audience in on the fun. About 60 minutes where art, landscape, and music fold into one another. 

• Check out the band in advance: Listen to Left Coast Quintet on their website 

• Location: La Jolla Project in Google Maps 

• Parking: Theater District Parking Structure in Google Maps

July 16: Bear, Westwind Virtuosi 

Westwind Virtuosi returns to the most intimate setting in the series — the Bear courtyard, centered on Tim Hawkinson's massive granite boulder, Bear, also known as "Beryl." Something happens when strings play beside that stone: the granite seems to lean in and listen, holding the sound warm and close. This chamber ensemble — violin, viola, cello, and bass — draws on the heart of the string repertoire, from Haydn and Mozart through the Romantics, favoring lyrical slow movements that reward close listening: the cello’s deep warmth, the violin’s singing upper register, the feel of private conversation between musicians. Expect folk songs, tango, and lighter classics that translate beautifully to strings in the open air. 

• Check out the band in advance: Listed to Westwind Virtuosi on their website 

• Location: Bear in Google Maps 

• Parking: Gilman Parking Structure in Google Maps 

July 23: Sun God, Manny Cepeda + Westwind Strings & Brass

We’ve never done this before — and that’s exactly the point:  For one electrifying hour, strings, brass, and the irresistible Manny Cepeda come together for a brand-new program of salsa, rhythm, and pure Latin joy. Sábor means flavor, and this concert has it in abundance. Cepeda — one of San Diego’s most beloved Latin musicians — leads a combined ensemble of Westwind string and brass players through salsa, cumbia, bolero, and cha-cha: forms rooted in Cuba, Colombia, and Puerto Rico and built on syncopated rhythm and call-and-response. The strings, unusual in a Latin dance band, lend lush warmth beneath the brass’s punch and swagger — the full sound of the great Tito Puente–era orchestras. The Sun God lawn's open footprint gives the music room to move.  

• Check out the band in advance: Listen to Manny Cepeda on his website 

• Location: Sun God in Google Maps 

• Parking: Scholars Parking Structure in Google Maps

July 30: La Jolla Project, Hornswoggle

Thirty French horns gather at dusk at the La Jolla Project - and the results are elemental. Hornswoggle is one of the few ensembles in the country performing at this scale, and the French horn genuinely sounds better outdoors than in any hall. Thirty players spread across the grounds, dispersing the sound so it surrounds you rather than faces you - hunting calls and fanfares dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, hymn-like chorales and folk songs that bloom across horns in unison, and contemporary works written for the spatial possibilities of many horns in open air. Against the backdrop of La Jolla Project, it becomes a glorious, soaring wall of brass rolling into the sky. 

• Check out the band in advance: Listen to Hornswoggle on their website 

• Location: La Jolla Project in Google Maps

• Parking: Theater District Parking Structure in Google Maps

August 6: Bear, Chamber Orchestra

The Second Summer with Stuart ends the only way it could - with everyone on stage, Handel in the air, and Bear hearing Water Music for the very first time. Handel wrote Water Music in 1717 to be played outdoors, from a barge on the River Thames for King George I - one of the earliest masterpieces written for the open air. Three hundred years later, the combined forces of our summer series bring it back where it belongs: beside Tim Hawkinson’s granite boulder Bear, under a summer sky. Roughly twenty musicians - strings, brass, and winds drawn from every ensemble of the season, many of them former San Diego Chamber Orchestra players - gather for the full sweep of Handel’s suites: stately overtures, graceful minuets, and spirited hornpipes. 

• Location: Bear in Google Maps 

• Parking: Gilman Parking Structure in Google Maps