This program features Philip Glass’s popular first concerto for violin, with his iconic sound: open, full of motion, and yet without a lot of tonal changes. The soloist is Chase Spruill, who is a champion of Glass’s violin music. This contrasts with Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony: regal and full of dueling themes, and which also features one of his best waltzes.

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Fate and Alter Ego

Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

All three composers whose works are featured on this program bravely incorporated new aspects of music to the concert hall: George Gershwin brought jazz, Alberto Nepomuceno brought the beauty of the Portuguese language, and Nepomuceno’s student Heitor Villa-Lobos brought Brazilian ‘choro’ music into the fold. This concert features Sacramento’s own Natsuki Fukasawa as the Gershwin piano soloist and is guest conducted by the Brazilian Evandro Matté.

Brazil & Jazz

In its first reunion with alumni chorus members since 2018, the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra and University Chorus join together to perform Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony, a long-form symphony imbued with a deep reverence for Heaven and the journey to it from our mortal world. Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony is clearly a Beethoven’s-Ninth kind of work, albeit written sixty plus years later, and written after decades of further symphonic development by not only Beethoven, but Berlioz, Brahms, and others.

 with the University and the Alumni Chorus: “Resurrection”

Featuring student and community singers from the UC Davis community directed by UC Davis lecturer in music Erik Peregrine, these three choruses present diverse choral repertoire representative of our choral traditions of the past, our present, as well as new and developing traditions. Choruses of UC Davis are comprised of the University Chorus, Chamber Singers, and Early Vocal Ensemble.

Choruses of UC Davis

“Of California Ecology” features new works based on different facets of California’s natural world. The trio will perform compositions by ensemble members, Julie Herndon, and Sl(e)ight Ensemble’s 2020 call-for-scores winner Kian Ravaei. Drawing on the artists’ distinct backgrounds in jazz, band, and chamber music, the program is inspired by seismic activity, fungal biomes, waterways, and social ecology, among other natural phenomena. The result is a diverse set of works all created with the aim of bringing appreciation to California’s beautiful and delicate environment.

UC Davis Symphony Orchestra

Jun 3, 2023

Fate and Alter Ego

May 6, 2023

Brazil & Jazz

UC Davis Symphony Orchestra