In his newly released documentary film, Umbria Jazz Feast, UC Davis Professor of Music Pierpaolo Polzonetti investigates the perceptions and identities of jazz as it intersects with the cuisine, art, and culture of locals and visitors in Perugia, a medieval town in central Italy. A musicologist specializing in music and food, Polzonetti focused on how the festival enabled a synesthetic experience; that is, one in which different senses are simultaneously engaged.
Just weeks before heading to New York City to perform at the legendary Carnegie Hall, the choruses of UC Davis will join the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Rosephanye Powell’s “The Cry of Jeremiah” at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts on May 31.
"Umbria Jazz Feast" is a documentary film that investigates multi-sensorial intersections during the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy. It presents a new look at this festival by addressing the question: how is jazz perceived as part of a new global identity intersecting with local and global cuisine, art and culture? There will be a free screening of the film on May 6 in Davis.
Here in the College of Letters and Science, we love all that Picnic Day has to offer, but we love what our departments are doing best! So, if you, like us, don't want to miss what L&S Aggies are planning for April 18, we wanted to make it easier by providing this guide, featuring events from across the arts and humanities as well as math and science.
'The Drowsy Chaperone' tells the story of a man looking back on his life via his relationship to an audio recording of an old musical from 1928. Using his imagination only, "the Man in the Chair,” drawing from old Hollywood and musical theatre tropes and stereotypes, sends the stars of the musical into a mash-up performance wherein hilarity, beauty and chaos ensue.
Composer, performer and installation artist Raven Chacon, the winter quarter spotlight artist in The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies, will be giving a talk at UC Davis in February. Students will also be performing one of his pieces. Both events are free and open to the public.
A professional percussionist, UC Davis lecturer in music and advocate of musical education, Chris Froh has built a career fostering the talent of musicians while helping students discover new ways of listening and connecting through music. He was recently featured in UC Davis Magazine.
Welcome to Books of the Month, where once a month, L&S staff select works from our Bookshelf of authors within the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis. This month, in honor of the Taproot New Music Festival, we explore music from around the world. Through ethnographies, essays and analyses, our scholars demonstrate how music, culture and politics influence one another.
Composers and musicians will come together this fall to build community and experiment with new sounds at the Taproot New Music Festival at UC Davis. Curator Sam Nichols says “there is a sense of adventure” to the festival, which promises to provide audiences with a sense of what is happening now in the genre. The first concert kicks off Oct. 25, followed by a full weekend of events Nov. 6 - 9, 2025.
UC Davis alum Fawzi Haimor (B.A. in music ’05, M.A. in music ’07) has been named the fourth music director of the Marin Symphony Orchestra. Haimor joins the orchestra after a number of years guest conducting around the world.
