Third installment in La Jolla Symphony & Chorus's yearlong Stravinsky survey is a program of stark - and very beautiful - drama. The program opens with Verdi's searing overture to bloody revenge (Overture to La Forza del Destino) and concludes with Brahms' mighty First Symphony. Between them comes John Adams' setting of Walt Whitman's poem about tending the wounded of the Civil War (The Wound Dresser) and this season's Thomas Nee Commission winner: Nicholas Deyoe's still getting rid of. Conducted by Steven Schick. Nee was a founding faculty member in UCSD's Department of Music who conducted LJS&C for 31 years.

Third installment in La Jolla Symphony & Chorus's yearlong Stravinsky survey is a program of stark - and very beautiful - drama. The program opens with Verdi's searing overture to bloody revenge (Overture to La Forza del Destino) and concludes with Brahms' mighty First Symphony. Between them comes John Adams' setting of Walt Whitman's poem about tending the wounded of the Civil War (The Wound Dresser) and this season's Thomas Nee Commission winner: Nicholas Deyoe's still getting rid of. Conducted by Steven Schick. Nee was a founding faculty member in UCSD's Department of Music who conducted LJS&C for 31 years.

A special Valentine's Day edition of the popular Soirée for Music Lovers with János Négyesy and Friends. The program includes Händel's Violin Sonata in D Major; Mozart's Flute Quartet in D Major, KV 285; Camille Saint-Saëns' Aria Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix (from the opera Samson et Delila); and Schumann's Piano Quintet in Eflat Major, Op. 44. Performers are Rachel Beetz (flute), Leslie Leytham (mezzo-soprano), Todd Moellenberg (harpsichord and piano), Eric Moore (cello), János Négyesy (violin), Allison Roush (viola), Sarah Schwartz (violin).

UCSD's Department of Music presents a special concert featuring the music of Chaya Czernowin, the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University, and an alumnus of the department. The concert will feature her recent compositions performed by Department of Music graduate students, and Ms. Czernowin will speak about her music from the stage. The program includes Ina (recorded with UCSD faculty flutist John Fonville), Drift, and Manoalchadia. Ms. Czernowin earned her PhD ('93) in composition at UCSD where she was mentored by composers including Roger Reynolds and Brian Ferneyhough. She has said that she considers herself to be part of a new generation composers who have lived in many locations (in her case, Israel, Germany, Austria, Japan, and now the U.S.) and who create a new "hybrid" music that brings together a range of influences. She spoke to NewMusicBox.com about her work last year. The interview combines insightful conversation with video accompanied by provocative excerpts of her music.

Violinist Andrew McIntosh and bassist Scott Worthington perform Wolfgang von Schweinitz's concert-length duo in just intonation, Plainsound Glissando Modulation.

Undergrads for Opera at UCSD presents… Members of the brand new student organization Undergrads for Opera at UCSD showcase their talents and hard work in an evening of song.

Clarinetist Ariana Lamon-Anderson performs her second DMA (grad degree) recital, featuring works by Giacinto Scelsi, Helmut Lachenmann, and Odd and Even.

Morton Feldman's iconic and rarely heard work Three Voices (for Joan La Barbara) will be performed by graduate student Jessica Aszodi. In this 90-minute work, the singer performs live alongside two prerecorded versions of herself. The text comes from a setting of the Frank O'Hara poem Wind. This performance is Jessica's Master's Recital.

Flutist Berglind Maria Tómasdóttir's concert begins with premieres of works she commissioned from UCSD grad-level composers Carolyn Chen, Nicholas Deyoe, and Clint McCallum (featuring vocalist Leslie Leytham). The second half is Berglind's new 'performative installation' I Am an Island, which includes a brand new video piece by visual artist Frankie Martin.

Leah Bowden presents percussion music by Jeff Kaiser, Clint McCallum, and Iannis Xenakis. She will perform this program two times, first in the Conrad Prebys Music Center's Experimental Theater on February 28th at 8 p.m.; and again as a part of a multimedia event at her home in City Heights on Saturday, March 3rd (3606 51st street, 3 p.m. to 3 a.m.). The City Heights event will also feature performances by the bands RockRiver Mary and Smooth Badger, as well as installations by Drew Allen and sound responsive laser projections by Reg.

Contrabassist Mark Dresser gives a concert of recent compositions, improvisations and the West Coast premiere of MARKe Music for contrabass and computer.

Undergrad composers premiere new works.

Kyle Adam Blair performs two pieces for solo piano: John Adams' American Berserk and Stuart Saunders Smith's Pinetop. Rachel Beetz plays two compositions for solo flute, both by UCSD's Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Reynolds: Ambages and Transfigured Wind IV.

Reger's Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola, Dvořák's Quintet for Strings in G, Op. 77, and Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 2 in F-sharp minor, Op. 10, performed at Camera Lucida, San Diego's premiere chamber series. The concerts bring together principal soloists from San Diego Symphony with renowned UC San Diego faculty musicians and special guests. The series is made possible through the general support of Sam Ersan. Concerts are broadcast on KPBS-FM public radio on the second Saturday following each concert.

Adam Goodwin's "Low Art Recital" is a concert of original music presented by an assortment of UCSD grad students and special guest Miss Bovina Clovis.

Ride the wave of creativity in this concert of structured group improvisations designed by the ensemble's members and developed over the course of a quarter spent making music-in-the-moment together. Saxophonist/composer/improviser David Borgo of the music faculty directs the ensemble. 

Dustin Donahue performs realizations of some of the earliest solo percussion repertoire: Earle Brown's Four Systems (1954), Sylvano Bussotti's Coeur (1959), Karlheinz Stockhausen's Zyklus (1959), Morton Feldman's King of Denmark (1964), and Herbert Brun's Plot (1967).

Percussionist and RED FISH BLUE FISH member Steven Solook's concert showcases music by UCSD faculty composers.

Students of János Négyesy.

Undergraduate vocalist Mariya Kaganskaya invites one and all to celebrate her 21st Birthday, with her favorite activity – a recital! Mariya performs pieces of various styles, revolving around the relevant themes of spring, libations, and old age. The program includes works by Offenbach, Rorem, recent UCSD graduate Frank S. Li, and more! This once-in-a-lifetime (literally!) event features illustrious colleagues, and a very special guest!

La Jolla Symphony & Chorus continues its yearlong survey of Stravinsky with a concert that explores the composer's classical roots. Mozart's famous Overture to the Marriage of Figaro leads to Stravinsky's most classical work, his Symphony in C, which he modeled on Beethoven's First Symphony, and the concert closes with that piece. Along the way comes a very different Stravinsky: his Ebony Concerto, written for clarinet soloist and Woody Herman's jazz orchestra. Conducted by Steven Schick.

San Diego's premier chamber series presents Bach's Preludes and Fugues for String Trio (arr. Mozart), Strauss' Sextet for Strings from Capriccio, Op. 85, and Brahms' Sextet for Strings in B-flat, Op. 18. There is inspiring synergy among top soloists from San Diego Symphony with renowned UCSD faculty musicians and special guests, in the superb acoustics of UCSD's new concert hall. Concerts are broadcast on KPBS-FM public radio at 8 p.m. on the second Saturday following each concert. Camera Lucida is made possible through the generous support of Sam Ersan.

Adam Goodwin's "High Art Recital" will feature works for solo contrabass by Giacinto Scelsi, Fernando Grillo, Luciano Berio/Stefano Scodanibbio, Andrew Jordan Miller, and Jacob Druckman.

János Négyesy and Päivikki Nykter.

A celebration of the centenary of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, a work that altered the course of modern music. The concert features the world premieres of  companion pieces by composers Andrew Allen, Yeung-Ping Chen, Aaron Helgeson, and Paul Hembree as well as a performance of  Schoenberg's seminal work. The project features singers Jessica Aszodi, Tiffany Du Mouchelle, Bonnie Lander and Alice Teyssier, with instrumentalists Rachel Beetz (flute), Jennifer Bewerse (cello) Sam Dunscombe (clarinet), and Steven Lewis (piano). The Pierrot Project is led by UCSD faculty members Philippe Manoury and Susan Narucki.

Vocal recital featuring music faculty Susan Narucki and Philip Larson with pianist Aleck Karis.

La Jolla Symphony & Chorus's yearlong survey of Stravinsky continues with a program inspired by the many faces of spring. Grieg's beautiful lament for string orchestra (The Last Spring) is a perfect introduction to Schumann's robust 'Spring' symphony (Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major). Chorus and soloists join the orchestra for quite a different Spring Symphony, Benjamin Britten's setting of fourteen poems about the coming of spring, a preview of the chorus's upcoming Carnegie Hall debut. Conducted by David Chase.

Inspiring synergy among top San Diego Symphony soloists, renowned UCSD faculty players and special guests makes Camera Lucida a rare chamber experience enhanced by the superb acoustics of UCSD's new concert hall. The all-Beethoven program includes the Sonata for Cello and Piano in C, Op. 102, No. 1; Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat, Op. 16; and String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. Concerts are broadcast on KPBS-FM public radio at 8 p.m. on the Saturday following each concert. Camera Lucida is made possible through the generous support of Sam Ersan. 

Viktor Ullman's powerful chamber opera 'The Kaiser of Atlantis', written in 1943, while the composer was interred in the concentration camp Theresienstadt.   When the opera's obvious references to the Nazi regime were discovered during rehearsal, the work was banned; it had tragic consequences for the composer and his family.  Miraculously, the work survived.
 
The story is a type of fable. After a protracted and violent war,  Death discovers that his job has been taken away from him by the "Kaiser of Atlantis".  Death decides to go on strike; all of a sudden the concept of war, victory and defeat becomes irrelevant. The result is moving and heartbreaking.
 
The cast includes sopranos Tiffany Du Mouchelle, Bonnie Lander and Alice Teyssier, guest artist baritone Brian Wahlstrom as the Kaiser and UCSD Professor Philip Larson in the role of Death.  Professor Steven Schick conducts UCSD's new music ensemble palimpsest. The production team also includes Orli Nativ, costume designer (UCSD Department of Theater and Dance), as well as scenic designer Gaeun Kim.
 
'The Kaiser of Atlantis' is an initiative of kallisti, whose mission includes presenting works of modern music theater in an intimate setting, led by Susan Narucki.
 
 

FOR DESCRIPTION SEE MAY 30

FOR DESCRIPTION SEE MAY 30

La Jolla Symphony & Chorus's yearlong survey of Stravinsky closes the 2011-2012 season with his most popular work, The Firebird. The concert opens with the premiere of Tintinnabulation by Igor Korneitchouk, professor of music at Mesa College, UCSD music alumnus, and longtime La Jolla Symphony violinist. UCSD faculty pianist Aleck Karis is the featured soloist in Barber's magnificent Piano Concerto, which won the Pulitzer Prize exactly fifty years ago.

San Diego's unique chamber series closes the 2011-2012 season with an edgy program including Richard Rodney Bennett's Sonata after Syrinx, Sofia Gubaidulina's The Garden of Joys and Sorrows, Jacques Ibert's Trio, plus former UCSD faculty member Bernard Rands' Trio "sans voix parmi les voix...". Concerts are broadcast on KPBS-FM public radio at 8 p.m. on the second Saturday following each concert. Camera Lucida is made possible through the generous support of Sam Ersan.