PRIMAVERA
UCSB's FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND DIGITAL MEDIA
MON., APRIL 2 - SUN., APRIL 15, Various locations and times.
Some events are free.

The 2012 edition of Primavera once again celebrates the work of performing and visual artists working at UCSB, as well as distinguished guests. Highlights include a lecture by Per Anders Nilsson, sponsored by the Corwin Chair (April 2), the premiere of It's Only Human....(if it dies), the new CCS TV Musical (April 4-5-6); Re-Membering: Performing memories/histories, directed by Ruth Hellier-Tinoco (April 10); Ensemble for Contemporary Music (April 11); CREATE, featuring Richard Boulanger and Thom Blum (April 12); New Century Voices (April 14); installations by Clarence Barlow and Yuan-Yi Fan. Information:
http://www.ccs.ucsb.edu/primavera..

JONATHAN BISS
IN A PIANO MASTER CLASS WITH UCSB STUDENTS
MON., APRIL 2, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Karl Geiringer Hall (Music Room 1250)
Free and open to the public for observation.
Co-presented by UCSB Arts and Lectures, (805) 893-3535 or www.artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu

Jonathan Biss, noted in particular for his intriguing programs, prodigious technique and musical intelligence, leads a master class with UCSB students.

MARIA SONEVYTSKY
Chornobyl Songs: Musical Heritage and the Challenges of Environmentalism in Post-Soviet Ukraine
TUES., APRIL 10, 1 pm
ARTS 2406
Free Admission

In 1986, the small town of Pripyat, in what was then the north-central region of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, was the site of one of the most severe nuclear catastrophes in human history. The isolated and remote villages near Pripyat, now known as “the Chornobyl Zone,” had preserved a unique and colorful tradition of polyphonic and heterophonic singing. In those villages, time was marked through ritual songs that served as the bridge between the mundane and spiritual realms of human experience. After the disaster of 1986, 160 villages – approximately 160,000 inhabitants – of Kyivan Polissia were evacuated and resettled, disrupting the life cycle rituals that had bound communities together for as far back as anyone in those villages could remember. Some resettled villagers fought to preserve elements of their traditional life, while some traditions quickly faded away. Some older villagers, unable to accept life away from home, simply moved back into the Chornobyl Zone, where a few souls still exist today, and where wilderness has ferociously reclaimed the land in the absence of real human settlements. Set in the broader context of Ukrainian neo-pagan movements that emphasize the preservation and celebration of the natural world, as well as fledgling Ukrainian efforts in environmental activism (propelled, in part, by the Chornobyl catastrophe), this paper reviews the work of political, ethnomusicological, and revival folklore ensembles in preserving and honoring the traditional musical heritage of the Chornobyl Zone.  

Maria Sonevytsky received her  Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Columbia University. Her work has focused on Ukrainian traditional and popular music, exoticism, and the social history of the accordion in the U.S. In New York. She also sings Ukrainian village songs with Ensemble Hilka, performs with cabaret trio The Debutante Hour, and plays with the new music collective Anti-Social Music.

KRONOS QUARTET
IN A MASTER  CLASS & COMPOSER'S FORUM WITH UCSB STUDENTS

MASTER CLASS:  WED., APRIL 11, 4-6 p.m., Campbell Hall
Free and open to the public for observation.
Members of the Kronos Quartet lead a master class with UCSB students.

COMPOSER'S FORUM
THURS., APRIL 12, 1-2:30 p.m., Karl Geiringer Hall
Free and open to the public for observation.
Members of the Kronos Quartet participate in a UCSB Composer's Forum with UCSB students.

Co-presented by UCSB Arts and Lectures, www.artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu

JOACHIM HEINTZ
IN A UCSB CORWIN CHAIR/CREATE/MAT COMPOSITION FORUM SESSION
WED., APRIL 18, 6-7:30 p.m., Studio Xenakis (Music Room 2215)
Free Admission.

Joachim Heintz is the head of the electronic studio Incontri at the University of  Music, Drama and Media, Hanover, Germany, and teaches Audio Programming at the University of  the Arts, Bremen. His talk will be, "Re-Reading and Re-Composing Gesualdo - an analysis of microtonal interval structures in the madrigal 'S'io non miro non moro'."

UCSB CORWIN CHAIR/CREATE/MAT PRESENT
CEMEC - CALIFORNIA ELECTRONIC MUSIC EXCHANGE
FRI., APRIL 20, 8 p.m., Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
Free Admission.

The UCSB Corwin Chair Series/ CREATE/MAT present a CEMEC-California Electronic Music Exchange, a concert featuring works by student composers from California colleges.

MARGO HALSTED
IN A CARILLON RECITAL
SUN., APRIL 22, 2 p.m., Storke Tower Carillon
Free Admission.

Faculty member Margo Halsted performs music by Emma Lou Diemer, Anchangelo Corelli, Richard Rodgers, Joaquín Rodrigo, and others. There will be a video screen for listeners to watch the performer play.

MUSIC OF AUGUST HALM (1869-1929)
A concert with an Introduction by Lee Rothfarb, Department of Music,
"AUGUST HALM AS COMPOSER"
and a short slide presentation,
"AUGUST HALM AS AN ARTIST,"
by Bruce Robertson, Department of Art History and Architecture
SUN., APRIL 22, 5 p.m., Karl Geiringer Hall
Free Admission

Program to include performances by:
Christopher Davis, Rachel Galvin, viola, Bridget-Hough-Maynenc, piano, Pascal Salomon, piano, Rachel Galvin, violin, Mark Covey, baritone, Yi Kai Sim, piano

ALBERT GRAF
IN A UCSB CORWIN CHAIR/CREATE/MAT SEMINAR SESSION
TUES., APRIL 24, 5:30-7 p.m., Room 2001, College of Engineering
Free Admission.

Albert Gräf chairs the Computer Music Department at the Institute of Musicology of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, where he teaches  computer music and systematic musicology to students of computer science, mathematics, media,  music and musicology. He will discuss "Functional Programming Tools for Computer Music Applications."

ULRICH KRIEGER
IN A CORWIN CHAIR/CREATE/MAT SERIES LECTURE
THURS., APRIL 26, 6-7:30 p.m., Studio Xenakis
Free Admission.

Ulrich Krieger studied classical and contemporary saxophone, composition and electronic music  at the University of the Arts Berlin and the Manhattan School of Music, New York.  His current work focuses on the experimental fringes of contemporary rock culture, in the area  between noise, metal, ambient, silence and experimental music.  His talk will focus on "Instrumental Electronics - from Pitch to Sound."

UCSB OPERA THEATRE
MONTEVERDI'S"THE CORONATION OF POPPEA"
(L'incoronazione di Poppea)
FRI., MAY 4, 8 p.m., SAT. & SUN., MAY 5 & 6, 3 p.m., Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall $15/Gen, $7/Stu - Tickets at the door.

Claudio Monteverdi's last work, The Coronation of Poppea (L'incoronazione di' Poppea)  a baroque opera with a prologue and two acts, was first performed during the 1642-43 carnival season in Venice. The work has been praised for its originality, its melody, and for its reflection of the human attributes of its characters. The work helped to define the boundaries of theatrical music, and established Monteverdi as the leading musical dramatist of his time. Simon Williams is Stage Director, Paul Sahuc is Music Director, Temmo Korisheli is Orchestra Director, Xarene Eskandar is Scenic Designer, Stacie Logue is Costume Designer, and Benjamin Brecher is Producer.

BOOK PRESENTATION, with live music and refreshments
Embodying Mexico: Tourism, Nationalism and Performance
Ruth Hellier-Tinoco, Ph.D.
Oxford University Press, 2011
WED., MAY 9, 3:15 p.m., McCune Conference Center, 6020 HSSB
Free Admission

Click here for flyer with full details

Examining two performative icons of Mexicanness; the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead of Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

Speakers:

• María Herrera-Sobek, Ph.D.   (Associate Vice Chancellor and Chicana/o Studies)
• Sarah Cline, Ph.D.                  (History)
• Suk-Young Kim, Ph.D.            (Theater)
• Ninotchka Bennahum, Ph.D.   (Dance)
• Sarah Townsend, Ph.D.          (Spanish and Portuguese)
• Dave Novak, Ph.D.                 (Music)

Musicians: Juan Zaragoza, Daisy León, Ann Hefferman, Luis Moreno, Ruth Hellier-Tinoco

UCSB STUDENT CARILLON RECITAL
SUN., MAY 13, 2 p.m., Storke Tower Carillon
Free Admission

Students Sean Burau, Evan Gravelle, Philip Hu, Ethan Schwartz and Janet Vong will play works by Beethoven, Grieg, Piazzolla, Sor,J. S. Bach, Poulenc, John Bull and John Williams. Following the recital, listeners will be able to ascend the tower to view the instrument. Please bring blankets or chairs so that you may sit comfortably near the tower.

UCSB Departments of Anthropology and Music and CISM - The Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music present
ALAN JABBOUR and KEN PERLMAN IN CONCERT
THURS., MAY 17, 8 p.m., UCSB MultiCultural Center Theater
$5/Stu, $15/Gen - Contact A.S. Ticket Office at (805) 893-2064

Click here for event poster ....Click here for Jabbour and Perlman biographical information

Distinguished Lecture Series Talk:
"The Modern Oldtime Music Revival: A Participant-Observer's Memoir and Reflections:
WITH ALAN JABBOUR
FRI., MAY 18, 3-5 p.m., Music Room 1145
Free Admission

UCSB PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
WED., MAY 23, 7:30 p.m.
Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
$15/Gen, $7/Stu - Tickets at the door.

"Ring of Fire: Percussion Ensemble Music from the Pacific Rim". The UCSB Percussion Ensemble presents chamber music for percussion from Australian composer Erik Griswold, Japanese composer Keiko Abe, Brazillian composer Ney Rosauro, and American Bob Becker, member of the famed NEXUS Percussion Ensemble. Featured student performers are Matt Richards performing Abe's "Dream of the Cherry Blossoms" and solo snare drum on Becker's classical Indian music influenced "Mudra", Ben Donlon on the samurai influenced timpani solo "The Way of the Warrior", and graduate student on Music Theory Aaron Jones as marimba soloist on Rosauro's "Concerto for Marimba and Percussion Ensemble".

Prominently featured throughout the concert are "Five Drum Quartets from Coyote Builds North America", composed by John Luther Adams.

Members of the Percussion Ensemble will be performing at this year's Ojai Music Festival on Mr. Adams' large spatial percussion work "Inksuit" along with 40 other percussionists from throughout southern California. Rounding out the program is Erik Griswold's "In the Dream", for percussion sextet. Dr. Griswold currently teaches in Brisbane, but received his Ph.D in Music COmposition from UC San Diego where he frequently worked with percussionist Steve Schick, a frequent collaborator of John Luther Adams and coordinator of the Ojai Festival performance.

UCSB Percussion Ensemble performers include Isabel-Marie Garcia-Euyoque, Daniel Pena, Aaron Jones, BM Percussion students Matt Richards and Ben Donlon, composition student Chavadith Tantavirojn, newcomer Luis Vazquez, and director Jon Nathan.

The UCSB Flute and Compositions Studios present
NuFlute Festival
MON., MAY 28, 8:00 p.m.
Karl Geiringer Hall (Music 1250)
Free Admission

Works written expressly for this festival for small and large flute ensembles will be featured.

Composers include:

Azeem Ward
Katherine Saxon
Christine Rogers
Anthony Paul Garcia

Also programmed will be solo works for flute and the West Coast Premiere of the "rockin'" Steppin' Out for flute six flutes by UCSB alumnus Dr. Linda Holland.

UCSB GAMELAN ENSEMBLE
MUSIC OF BRONZE AND IRON
WED., MAY 30, 8 p.m., Karl Geiringer Hall (Music 1250)
$15/Gen, $7/Stu - Tickets at the door.

UCSB's bronze gamelan Kiyahi Selamet, directed by Chad Nielson, joins with with the Santa Barbara-based iron gamelan, Sinar Surya, directed by Richard North, in presenting music from Central Java and from the ancient Javanese kingdom of Cirebon.

UCSB WIND ENSEMBLE
THURS., MAY 31, 8 p.m., Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
$15/Gen, $7/Stu - Tickets at the door.

Paul Bambach conducts a patriotic and festive program dedicated to the Memorial Day Holiday.

Copyright, Piracy, and the Artist:
Music and the Politics of Culture in Postcolonial Mali
RYAN THOMAS SKINNER
UCSB Ethnomusicology Forum
FRI., JUNE 1, 4 p.m., McCune Room IHC
Free Admission

In Mali today, appeals to confront the “scourge” (fléau) of music piracy and affirm the “authorial rights” (le droit d’auteur) of professional musicians resound within the public sphere. These debates about copyright echo broader anxieties about the social and economic value of artistic expression in an era of private markets and decentralized politics. To defend and curate “culture” in its commodified forms, Malian authorities have embraced a neoliberal regime of cultural policy framed by intellectual property (IP). In this context, copyright – and its binary opposite, piracy – represent the normative and aberrant forms through which culture is produced and policed in Mali. In practice, however, Malian policies have not succeeded in protecting the legal interests of musicians, or in stemming the unauthorized reproduction of musical works through the adoption of global IP policies. Persistent failure to effectively govern copyright and piracy has produced a crisis of political subjectivity among Malian musicians, who, caught between a dysfunctional state and an informal economy of illegal reproduction, struggle to maintain a viable professional status and social identity. In this talk, I will historicize the everyday artistic and economic struggles for musicians by tracing the genealogy of copyright and musical subjectivity in the Malian postcolony. The resulting critique of intellectual property regimes brings specific local histories to bear on the current era of global neoliberalism, and reveals the disjuncture between an unregulated free market and the disciplinary institutions of neoliberal governmentality in postcolonial Mali.

Ryan Skinner is an ethnomusicologist who studies the local and global music culture in West Africa and its European and American diasporas. His research focuses on issues of popular culture, ethics, urbanism, cultural politics, and globalization. Skinner’s work has appeared in the journals Popular Music, Mande Studies, The Journal of American Folklore, and African Arts. Dr. Skinner is an Assistant Professor of Music and African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University; he is also the author and illustrator of a children's book, Sidikiba's Kora Lesson (Beaver's Pond Press, 2008) and an accomplished kora (21-stringed West African harp) player.

UCSB CHAMBER CHOIR AND UCSB WOMEN'S CHORUS
FRI., JUNE 1, 8 p.m.,  St. Anthony's Seminary Chapel, 2300 Garden Street, SB
$15/Gen, $7/Stu - Donation at the door.

In their finale of the season, the Women's Chorus sings the tale of a couple in love and Spanish music by Allan, Childs, Loomer, Pfeifer Nuñez and Grases, accompanied by guitarist Mark Covey. Helena von Rueden and Michael Vitalino are conductors.

Turning to music and text of the British Isles, the Chamber Choir welcomes guest-conductor Eric Holtan from Tucson, AZ, in a performance of British composer Herbert Howell's deeply moving Requiem and Finnish composer Jaako Mäntyjärvi's innovative Four Shakespeare Songs. Eric Holtan and Michel Marc Gervais are conductors.

UCSB MIDDLE EAST ENSEMBLE
"AN EVENING  OF MIDDLE EASTERN MUSIC AND DANCE"
SAT., JUNE 2, 8 p.m., Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
$15/Gen, $7/Stu - Tickets at the door.

Scott Marcus directs "An Evening of Middle Eastern Music and Dance." Cris! Basimah leads the MEE Dance Company.

UCSB SYMPHONY AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRAS
"CONCERTO AND COMPOSITION COMPETITION WINNERS"
MON., JUNE 4, 8 p.m., Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
$15/Gen, $7/Stu - Tickets at the door.

Christopher Rountree, conductor, leads the Symphony and Chamber Orchestras in a program featuring "Concerto and Composition Competition Winners."  Through a rigorous selection process, the best of the best will be featured.

UCSB ECM - ENSEMBLE FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
TUES., JUNE 5, 8 p.m., Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
$15/Gen, $7/Stu - Tickets at the door.

Jeremy Haladyna directs a program of contemporary music.

UCSB JAZZ ENSEMBLE
WED., JUNE 6, 7:30 p.m., Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
$15/Gen, $7/Stu - Tickets at the door.

UCSB Jazz Ensemble and combos: "Kind of Blue: The Music of Miles Davis." Join the UCSB Jazz Ensemble and four jazz combos, exploring the universe of music left to us by the brilliant and eclectic Miles Davis. There has been no more polarizing and influential voice in jazz and 20th century music, as Miles Davis has moved music from the traditional jazz of the swing era in the mid west territory bands to the bebop revolution, through post modern deconstructed jazz and avante-garde, to fusing rock and world music with jazz. Always on the front row of innovation, Miles Davis has left a huge legacy of music, including the legendary collaboration with Gil Evans, explored here in both large extended ensemble form with performances of "My Ship", "will o' the Wisp", and "Maids of Cadiz", and chamber group settings from the Birth of the Cool sessions such as "Moon Dreams" and "Boplicity". Combo performances abound from all style periods of Davis' 50 plus year career, including representative music from the classic 50's sextet with Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, the famed 60's quintet with Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams, and the seminal Bitch's Brew band.

UCSB MUSIC OF INDIA ENSEMBLE
"AN EVENING OF NORTH INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC"
THURS., JUNE 7, 7 p.m., Karl Geiringer Hall (Music Room 1250)
$15/Gen, $7/Stu - Tickets at the door.

Scott Marcus directs the sitar classes and Hom Nath Upadhyaya directs the tabla classes in "An Evening of North Indian Classical Music."

UCSB GOSPEL CHOIR
FRI., JUNE 8, 8 p.m., Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
$15/Gen, $7/Stu - Tickets at the door.

Victor Bell directs the highly popular group which has been featured in concerts, public events and university celebrations.