FEATURED WINTER 2020 CONCERTS
Your guide to upcoming concerts at UC San Diego Music.
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Wednesdays@7 presents
featuring Karis, Schick, Steiger and Terrazas
Compositions by Rand Steiger, Anqi Liu & Alex Stephenson
Conducted by Steven Schick
Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
$10.50 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
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Conrad Prebys (1933-2016) was an extremely generous philanthropist who made the largest and most important gift to the UC San Diego Department of Music that we have ever received, enabling us to complete the Conrad Prebys Music Center in 2009. His subsequent gifts enabled us to establish an endowment for graduate student support (and name our concert hall in his honor) and to establish the Conrad Prebys Presidential Chair in Music. To honor the memory of Mr. Prebys, and to commemorate the establishment of the Endowed Chair five years ago, the Department of Music presents a concert of the music of
Rand Steiger
, the current holder of the Chair. The program will include the premiere of a new work for solo piano
Simple Gifts, Variations for Conrad Prebys,
performed by Professor
Aleck Karis
, along with
Beacon
(2015), for flute and electronics, performed by Professor
Wilfrido Terrazas
, and
Cyclone
(2013), for clarinet and electronics, performed by clarinetist
Gleb Kanasevich
. The program will conclude with
Steven Schick
conducting Palimpsest in a performance of Steiger’s innovative composition
Ecosphere
in a new version with revised electronics. Steiger’s work broke new ground in the use of realtime digital signal processing of musical instruments when it was commissioned and premiered by IRCAM and the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2002. Schick will also lead the premiere of two new works written for the occasion for the same 16-piece ensemble by graduate composers
Anqi Liu
and
Alex Stephenson
.
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Saturday, February 1, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
$10.50 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
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Beethoven turns 250 this year. He was a great composer, as everybody already knows. But in the midst of what will certainly be a mind-numbing hagiography, I can’t help but think that he would feel misunderstood by us. After all, he was much more in spiritual league with the flame-throwing radicals of the
Jacobin
rather than the cultural mainstream. What would the person who turned his back on princes and emperors say about today’s cultural worship of his music in the form of a well-heeled gala crowd at a symphony orchestra concert?
We propose another kind of birthday present. Building on the classical notion of interpolation to shed light on Beethoven’s impact on 20
th
and 21
st
music, we will nest among the movements of Beethoven’s mercurial First Symphony (1800) newer work that contains 20
th
and 21
st
century echoes of Beethoven’s mind. Webern’s
Symphony
, Dallapiccola’s
Una Piccola Musica Notturna,
and new music by
PamelaZ
and
Anna Thorvaldsdottir
help reveal the often unseen Beethoven: his formalism, his penchant for lyricism, and his wicked sense of humor. We hope to afford insight into parallel moments of cultural and political peril. From the turn of the 19
th
century in post-revolutionary Europe to the volatile time between world wars in the 20
th
century to our early 21
st
century
michigas
, these works, taken together, demonstrate the necessity for an artist to react to her or his time.
The concert will be preceded by a conversation with Steven Schick and a distinguished panel including:
Pamela Z
,
Lilian Faderman
, and
Henry Torres Blanco
, entitled: "How do we as artists working in different genres use (or abuse) classic works?"
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Wednesdays@7 presents
Wednesday, February 5, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
$10.50 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
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Soprano Susan Narucki presents a solo concert at the UC San Diego Conrad Prebys Concert Hall.
For over three decades, American soprano Susan Narucki has forged a unique path; her dedication to the music of our time has led to award winning recordings, critically acclaimed performances with musicians of the first rank and close collaborations with generations of composers. Since joining the faculty at the University of California at San Diego in 2008, she has been deeply engaged in commissioning, producing and performing chamber operas that illuminate critical issues in society. Her projects have earned major philanthropic support from the MAP Fund /Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, UC MEXUS, Creative Capital Foundation, New Music USA and multiple awards from the National Endowment for the Arts. Ms. Narucki's most recent production is Inheritance, a chamber opera that addresses gun violence in America. With music by Lei Liang and libretto by Matt Donovan, the world premiere performances of the opera took place at UC San Diego on October 24-27, 2018.
Ms. Narucki also commissioned and produced Cuatro Corridos (2013), the critically acclaimed chamber opera that addresses trafficking of women across the U.S.- Mexico border. With libretto by internationally renowned Mexican author Jorge Volpi, and music by Hebert Vazquez, Arlene Sierra, Lei Liang and Hilda Paredes, the opera has been performed fourteen times in the United States and Mexico and has had multiple broadcasts on Canal 22, Mexico's art and culture television network. Ms. Narucki’s recording of Cuatro Corridos on Bridge Records earned a 2017 Latin Grammy Nomination and was a Critic's Choice of both Opera News and Gramophone.
A dedicated mentor to the next generation of singers, Ms. Narucki's recent residencies include the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Aichi University of the Arts, the Longy School of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory. At UC San Diego, she directs the vocal ensemble kallisti. In December 2018, she was appointed Director of Arts and Community Engagement, a new initiative housed within the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at UC San Diego.
In November of 2019, Ms. Narucki was nominated for a Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Recording for The Edge of Silence: Vocal Chamber Music of György Kurtág (AVIE Records).
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Saturday, February 9, 2020 at 5:00 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Music Center, Experimental Theater
FREE
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David Borgo
celebrates his half-century birthday in musical style, inviting friends old and new to collaborate on an improvised suite of epic proportions, transforming the worldly sounds of brass, wind, wood, voice and skin through otherworldly electronic means into a metamodern masterpiece.
David Borgo - saxophones, winds, electronics
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let the crazy out
let the weirdness shout
let the unconscious loose
release inner recluse
let the automatic sing
let the gibberish ring
let the heart guide
let the energy preside
let the mind wander
drifting over yonder
into the hills
let the spontaneity spike
let it be
the free roaming psych
-Andy Cappricorn
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Wednesdays@7 presents
Wednesday, February 12, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
$10.50 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
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Wilfrido Terrazas
and
Tasha Smith Godinez
present an evening of work for flute and harp featuring a new piece by UC Santa Cruz graduate student
Pablo Rubio Vargas
(WP), a version of Cynthia Martínez Lira’s beautiful graphic score
Marcos (2016-17),
Mariana Villanueva’s seldom performed classic
Canto Nocturno (1985)
, for bass flute, and two works of by Terrazas:
Jaspe (2014)
and
Ifigenia en (2013).
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Thursday, February 13, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Music Center, Experimental Theater
FREE
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Extending their prior 2016 collaboration to a new level of immersive audio-visual design, in February, 2020 an intercultural team of artists presents Changing Tides II, an intercultural music collaboration responding to the climate crisis, featuring renowned improvisers in Seoul and San Diego performing together via cutting-edge technologies. With audiences at both locations, the event links 10 musicians in a stunning scenic environment created by visual artists, including Korean director Jungung Yang, who conceived the design in relation to a Korean shamanic ceremony to simultaneously evoke sorrow and the recirculation of new life. Blending live collaborative performance, pre-recorded materials, visualizations of climate data, and original compositions integrating Korean music, jazz and beyond, Changing Tides II addresses our urgent need for global collaboration and blends past and future artistic expressions in a unique act of collective imagination.
Musicians in Seoul: Yoon Jeong Heo, Jean Oh, Aram Lee, Min Wang Hwang, Bae Il Dong and Jungpyo Lee
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Wednesdays@7 presents
Wednesday, February 19, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Music Center Experimental Theater
$10.50 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
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One of the 20th century’s most important musicians, Professor
Chou Wen-chung
died at the end of October, leaving behind a wealth of extraordinary music, and a legacy of stewardship. He paved the way for many young composers, especially those with roots in Asia, and his abiding devotion to the music of his mentor, Edgard Varèse, changed the way many of us heard this great composer of the 20th century.
Beginning with one of his most ambitious pieces,
Echoes from the Gorge
for percussion quartet, red fish blue fish pays tribute to Chou Wen-Chung. We will also perform music by two of his most important students, our colleagues,
Chinary Ung
and
Lei Liang
. Edgard Varèse,
paterfamilias
of American experimental music, will also make an appearance. Through this and other music, we will hear the many ways that Chou Wen-chung lives on. - Steven Schick
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Wednesdays@7 presents
Compositions by Davidovsky, Babbitt, & Yi-hsien Chen
Wednesday, February 26, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
$10.50 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
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Aleck Karis
leads the Palimpsest Ensemble in a program honoring Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Mario Davidovsky. In 1959, the Argentine born composer emigrated to America at the behest of Aaron Copeland, with whom studied at the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood). There he met Milton Babbitt, who encouraged Davidovsky’s move to New York City where he eventually became director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. In honor of Davidovsky, who passed away last August, Aleck Karis has chosen a program including:
Flashbacks, Sefarad, Pennplay
, and
Biblical Songs
, featuring
Susan Narucki
, soprano. The program will also highlight Milton Babbitt’s
Composition for 12 Instruments
, from which a new “palimpsest” composition with the same ensemble will be created by UC San Diego graduate composer
Yi-hsien Chen
.
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Wednesdays@7 presents
Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
$10.50 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
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Pianist Ricardo Descalzo presents an evening of solo piano, performing Lei Liang's 1996 composition,
Garden Eight,
and works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Karen Tanaka, and UC San Diego graduate composers.
Ricardo Descalzo is a contemporary pianist who has performed at many important concert venues such as the Lérida Auditorium, the Zaragoza Auditorium, the March Foundation in Madrid, the Palau de la Música and the Auditorium in Barcelona, the Carré Saint-Vincent in Orleans, the CNSM in Paris, the Palau de la Música in Valencia, the Manoel Theatre in Malta or the Benaroya Hall in Seattle. He has also played at many of the music world's most prestigious festivals, such as the International Festival in Ibiza, the "Quincena Musical" in San Sebastián, the Forfest Festival in the Czech Republic, the International Contemporary Music Festival in Alicante and the Ensems Festival in Valencia, and with the Barcelona Sinfonietta, the l'Empordá Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra Ciutat d'Eix, the Grup Instrumental de Valencia and the Orleans Symphony Orchestra. Descalzo has received many different prizes at specialist international music competitions, such as: first prize at the “Xavier Montsalvatge” in Gerona, first prize at the “Valentino Bucchi” in Rome, second prize at the International Contemporary Music Competition in Sitges, third prize at the “Ettore Pozzoli” in Milan, three special prizes at the Orleans Competition and special prize for contemporary music at the ”José Iturbi” in Valencia and “Jaen International Piano Competition," and first prize at the international piano competitions of Ibiza and “Ciudad de San Sebastián”.
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Saturday, March 7, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
FREE
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The Duo of Dresser Davis performs a wide range of music from the lyrical to the political. It features the music of both celebrated composers, pianist
Anthony Davis
and contrabassist
Mark Dresser
.
The music is a commentary on today from the political and dramatic, with works like “The Central Park Five” to the whimsical, “I Can Smell You Listening” and “Heil Twitler.” Informed by four decades of collaboration, these two master improvisers engage the full spectrum of Jazz and Improvised music.
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CAMERA LUCIDA
Camera Lucida
is a chamber music collaboration between four musicians with diverse backgrounds. Camera Lucida is a unique project matching masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire with a group of world-class instrumentalists who happen to call San Diego home.
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Monday, January 13, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
Mozart, Piano Trio in Bb, Divertimento K. 254
Beethoven, String Quartet in D major, Op.18 Nr. 3
Sergei Rachmaninov, Sonata Op 19 for viola and piano
$28 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
Ticket Information: (858) 534-TIXS (8497)
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Monday, February 10, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
Ravel, Sonata for Violin and Cello
Beethoven, String Quartet in c minor, Op. 18 Nr. 4
Brahms, Clarinet Quintet in b minor, Op. 115
$28 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
Ticket Information: (858) 534-TIXS (8497)
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Thursday, March 5, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
Mandeville Auditorium
Directed by Ken Anderson, the choir combines hundreds of voices to fill the auditorium with the uplifting sound of African American spirituals, blues, traditional songs, and gospel.
$5.50 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
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Saturday, March 7, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
Mandeville Auditorium
Under the direction of James Beauton, the UC San Diego Wind Ensemble will present their Winter concert in Mandeville Auditorium.
$5.50 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
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Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
Mandeville Auditorium
Directed by Matthew Kline, the Chamber Orchestra presents their Winter concert in Mandeville Auditorium.
$5.50 - UC San Diego Faculty, Staff and Alumni
FREE - All Students
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Parking
Visitor parking permits are available for purchase at the Gilman Parking Structure, located across the street from the Conrad Prebys Music Center at 3100 Gilman Drive
To purchase advanced parking passes click
here
.
Read our news updates on the Department of Music website:
music.ucsd.edu
.
Media Contact
Sherry An
Marketing & Promotions Coordinator
UC San Diego Music
(858) 822-0160
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UC San Diego Music
is a leading program known for its innovative research and support for the creation and performance of experimental music.
About UC San Diego
At the University of California San Diego, we constantly push boundaries and challenge expectations. Established in 1960, UC San Diego has been shaped by exceptional scholars who aren't afraid to take risks and redefine conventional wisdom. Today, as one of the top 15 research universities in the world, we are driving innovation and change to advance society, propel economic growth and make our world a better place. Learn more at
www.ucsd.edu
.
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