嘿嘿视频

Weekender: Take a Break With Art, Music, Theatre

嘿嘿视频 and San Francisco Murals; Harpsichord; Call of the Wild

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Illustration of peformance of Call of the Wild
The Call of the Wild can be seen this weekend at Mondavi Center, 嘿嘿视频. (Courtesy illustration)

The Arts Blog recommends plenty of art in the region to enjoy!

Scholar reconnects to 嘿嘿视频 and his homeland through research on San Francisco murals

Mauricio Ernesto Ram铆rez, a postdoctoral scholar in the 嘿嘿视频 Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, first walked through Balmy Alley when he was a student at a nearby elementary school in San Francisco鈥檚 Mission District. The block-long alley contains the most concentrated collection of murals in a city that鈥檚 a tapestry of murals. The alley鈥檚 art 鈥 which first began appearing in the early 1970s 鈥 has long been about issues relevant to the many Mission residents who trace their roots to Mexico and Central America.

Mauricio Ernesto Ram铆rez in dark blue shirt with colorful embroidery on the left side, short dark hair looking directly at the camera in front of a colorful mural with people, green space and a mountain.
Mauricio Ernesto Ram铆rez, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, is researching San Francisco murals connected to Central America. (Adriana Espinoza)

Mauricio Ernesto Ram铆rez, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, is researching San Francisco murals connected to Central America. (Adriana Espinoza)

As a child, Ram铆rez didn鈥檛 know that in the 鈥80s most of the murals were about U.S. military intervention in Central American wars, including in his family鈥檚 homeland of El Salvador.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 really know the significance until I was in college,鈥 said Ram铆rez, who earned his doctorate in Latin American and Latino studies at UC Santa Cruz. 鈥淚 became much more aware of the politics and history of the region.鈥

Ram铆rez鈥檚 interest led him to Malaqu铆as Montoya, a 嘿嘿视频 professor emeritus who launched a mural workshop class and was founder of Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer (TANA), the department鈥檚 Woodland-based art center. He also met Carlos Jackson, an artist who was then a faculty member in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies; and Maceo Montoya, a professor of Chicana/o studies and creative writing at 嘿嘿视频.

Large mural showing farmers in front of rich fields, smiling, guitar player and words from a song; on the left are a group of women holding black and white photo of murdered family with armed men to their left.
The only surviving work from the 1980s Central American murals: "Culture Contains the Seed of Resistance Which Blossoms into the Flower of Liberation / La cultura contiene la semilla de la resistencia que se convierte en la flor de la liberaci贸n," by Miranda Bergman and O'Brien Thiele. (Tim Drescher)

Ram铆rez has returned to the murals for research on a book tentatively titled Painting Solidarity: U.S.-Central American Murals of San Francisco. The UC President's Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Hispanic-Serving Institution Postdoctoral Fellowship has provided support for that work.

Talk about the murals

Mauricio Ernesto Ram铆rez will give a talk about his research into the Central American murals on  May 23 at 4 p.m. Room 157, Everson Hall. The talk, sponsored by Chicana and Chicano studies and art history, is free and open to the public.

Read more about Ram铆rez and his research .

Artists in Residence: Lillian Gordis, harpsichord, with J茅r么me Hanta茂, viola da gamba

May 4, 12:05 鈥 1 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, free, a Shinkoskey Noon Concert

The program includes Suite in G Major (Livre III), Sonata in G Major, BWV 1027, and selections from Partita No. 6, BWV 830, Suite in D Minor.

Lara Downes & John McWhorter: Scott Joplin & The Birth of American Music

Friday, May 5, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall

Woman and man duo photo

Chart-topping American pianist Lara Downes reflects on the music of Scott Joplin through a 21st-century lens, revealing its many layers of genre-blurring subtlety and nuance. Joplin is revered as the 鈥淜ing of Ragtime" and acknowledged as a classically-trained composer of concert music whose ambitions were denied in his own time. He was also an innovator who merged traditions and histories to make music at the crossroads of the American future. His story is ready to be retold. Downes is joined by author and cultural commentator John McWhorter for an intimate evening of music and conversation about Scott Joplin鈥檚 story and legacy, his opera Treemonisha, a century of progress, and the contradictions that shape our American life. Together, they revisit the lineage of black music in America as Downes weaves the musical journey through Joplin's powerful music.

Find more information and purchase tickets

嘿嘿视频 Symphony Orchestra: Brazil and Jazz

Saturday, May 6, 7 p.m., Jackson Hall

The program includes Alberto Nepomuceno: Batuque from S茅rie Brasileira, George Gershwin: Concerto in F with Natsuki Fukasawa, piano, and Heitor Villa-Lobos: 颁丑么谤辞蝉 No. 6.

There will be a pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m. with 嘿嘿视频 professors, moderated by Professor of Music Christian Baldini, who is the Barbara K. Jackson Chair in Orchestral Conducting and the Artistic Director and conductor of the 嘿嘿视频 Symphony Orchestra. Leopoldo Bernucci is Distinguished Professor of Spanish and the Russell F. and Jean H. Fiddyment Chair in Latin American Studies. Juan Diego D铆az is asssociate professor of music and director of the 嘿嘿视频 Hemispheric Institute on the Americas.

Find more information and purchase tickets

Call of the Wild: Illustrated Edition

Sunday, May 7, 2 p.m., Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

This multi-media adventure mixes the classic storytelling of Jack London with projected illustrations to tell the story of Buck, the magnificent cross-bred offspring of a St. Bernard and Scottish Collie. Kidnapped from his lavish life on a California estate and sent to work as a sled dog during the great Klondike Gold Rush, Buck fights to survive and becomes the most famous dog in the history of Alaska. The stunning presentation from the acclaimed Austin, Texas-based troupe Theatre Heroes features 180-degree projections featuring classic illustrations and new drawings created by Michael Rae. 

Find more information and purchase tickets .

鈥淏墨jam: Music Seeds鈥 featuring Carnatic musician Sikkil Gurucharan next week

Tuesday, May 9, 12:05 鈥 1:30 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, free, a Shinkoskey noon concert

Leading Carnatic musician and youth ambassador Sikkil Gurucharan presents this concert as an artist in residence at the Davis Humanities Institute (DHI) at 嘿嘿视频. Drawing upon both contemporary and classical texts, he will explore the using music. This initiative seeks to broadly create dialogue between the humanities and the sciences, the arts and agriculture, the university and its larger communities. 

Musician named Charan standing left of center in a saffron-colored band collar shirt. The background is a green blurred forest.

One cannot cultivate what once started as a seed. Or can they?

Sikkil C. Gurucharan is a leading musician and a youth ambassador of Carnatic Music, and is a Davis Humanities Institute Artist-in-Residence (Spring, 2023). A prime-time artist during the Chennai music season, and a recipient of numerous awards鈥攊ncluding the prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar Award, Kalaimamani, and Tchaikovsky Award for the best musician of the year among others鈥擥urucharan has not only made a mark in the traditional concert paddhati style but also worked to broaden audience appeal by creating collaborative projects with world renowned musicians while retaining the spirit of the art form. In 2015, Gurucharan received a Nehru-Fulbright Excellence Award and was in residence at 嘿嘿视频.

Gurucharan was featured on the compilation album (a celebration of the music of Miles Davis)鈥, which was nominated for the Best Contemporary Jazz Album at the 51st Grammy Awards. The magazine India Today featured him among 35 Game Changers under the age of 35 in India. The Tamil Nadu Government conferred its highest honor of Kalaimamani on Gurucharan in 2020. He has also acted in two Tamil movies: and

Voice students of Zoila Muoz at Pitzer

Wednesday, May 10, 4:30 鈥 5:30 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, free

The program includes songs from the Italian Anthology: Caro m铆o ben, Se tu m鈥檃mi, and Tu lo sai; songs by composers: Purcell, Handel, Beethoven, Schubert, Faur茅, and Goffrey O鈥橦ara; Opera Arias: 鈥淏atti, Batti,鈥 Notte et giorno, and 鈥淪e vuol ballare by W.A. Mozart, 鈥淨uel bel sogno di Doretta鈥 by Giacomo Puccini and 鈥淯na voce poco fa鈥 by Giacchino Rossini; and songs from musicals: 鈥淐ome to my Garden鈥 from Secret Garden and 鈥淏urn鈥 from Hamilton.

Coming Up

Michael Goldberg, solo guitar, next Thursday's concert

May 11, 12:05 鈥 1 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, free, a Shinkoskey noon concert

The program includes A Fancy, Farewell Fancy, and The Most Sacred Queen Elizabeth, Her Galliard (c. 1610), Tres Apuntes (1959), Fantasie Elegaic, Two Polymetric Studies (1990) and Les soirees D鈥橝uteuil

(Ethno)Musicology Forum next week

May 11, 4 鈥 5:30 p.m., Room 266, Everson Hall

Shannon Garland is lecturer in Global Arts, Media and Writing Studies at the University of California, Merced. Her research investigates the production of popular music from an ethnographic, transnational perspective, focusing on indie music in South America. It is concerned with types of labor emerging in the music industries, and ties these to affective musical response, social relations, and economic value. Dr. Garland鈥檚 monograph-in-preparation, For the Love: Indie Music, Labor and Value in Brazil and Beyond, narrates the rise and transformation of the Brazilian indie music industry from 1990 to 2020, exploring the tension between social and aesthetic values created through musical labor and exchange and the need for this labor to be valorized as economic value within the capitalist social order. She is also co-editing Independence in 21st-Century Music Making: Cases from Beyond Anglo-America, with Pedro Roxo and Pedro Nunes. She holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Columbia University. 

Social Media of the Week

Tweet from deYoung of artist Catherine Opie's piece depicting Yosemite National Park.

Media Resources

Media contact: Karen Nikos-Rose, 530-219-5472/kmnikos@ucdavis.edu

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