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This weekend's highlight

Choruses of �ٺ���Ƶ offers concert in honor of Albert J. McNeil — creator of University Chamber Singers

Saturday, March 8, 7 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

The choruses of �ٺ���Ƶ — the Concert Choir and the Chamber Singers — join to sing the music that Albert J. McNeil (1920–2022) loved and championed with guest conductor Dr. Jan Taylor.

McNeil was a transformative force in the music department during his 21 years as a faculty member (1969–90). He greatly increased participation in the University Chorus from an occasional course to a full public performance group, and created the University Chamber Singers.

He founded a music education program and was an original faculty member of the African American and African studies program. As founder and longtime director of the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers in Los Angeles, he had a profound effect on the performance, preservation and presentation of African American spirituals.

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Gamelan and Afro-Cuban ensembles highlight noon concert Thursday

Linda Sormin talks about on site-responsive installations

Thursday, March 6, 4:30-6 p.m., at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art

Linda Sormin is a visual artist who creates sculptures and site-responsive installations using raw clay, fired ceramics, found objects and interactive methods. Her work explores themes of fragility, upheaval and transformation that reflect her diasporic experiences.

Sormin is an associate professor of Studio Art and Head of Ceramics at New York University. Her work is included in the permanent collections of institutions including the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Hawaiian music masters bring their heritage to the Jackson Hall stage

Thursday, March 6 to Saturday, March 8, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Join master slack key guitarist George Kahumoku Jr., ukulele virtuoso Herb Ohta Jr., and renowned slack key and Hawaiian steel guitarist Sonny Lim for a celebration of Hawaiian music and culture. 

Four-time Grammy-winner, master slack key guitarist George Kahumoku Jr., known as “Hawai‘i’s Renaissance Man”, is a multiple Hawaiian Grammy Award winner, a vocalist, storyteller, songwriter and author, teacher, sculptor, farmer, and chef, and honored with a Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Slack Key Guitarist, Lap Steel Guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and producer, Sonny Lim developed his guitar and vocal styles performing with his famous Lim Family of the Big Island. He was also one of the early members of the renowned Makaha Sons of Ni‘ihau for whom he played lap steel guitar beginning at age 15. He performed on the first Grammy-winning CD in Hawaiian music, and has won multiple Na Hoku Awards on his solo albums.

Tickets are almost at capacity, check back for availability on the ticket pages below.

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Reflect on the British-Indian Partition’s impact through dance

Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16, 7:30 p.m., Vanderhoef Studio Theater at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Special ticket deal available until Friday, March 7 with code DANCEFLASH

Nava Dance Theatre and Rupy C. Tut created Broken Seeds Still Grow, a multi-disciplinary dance and visual art production to explore the continuing impact of the 1947 British-India Partition, one of the most formative events in South Asia’s recent history.

Through Bharatanatyam, the Indian classical dance form that expresses South Indian religious and spiritual themes, and mixed visual media, they examine the hyphenated-American immigrant experience, linking it to the displacement of their ancestors during Partition. This intriguing dance project sources poetry, eyewitness accounts and current events to understand the current political climate while reflecting on what it means to belong in the United States.

While the partition and its impact are explored in the show, it goes even beyond by making heart-wrenching connections with the contemporary hyphenated-American immigrant experiences of today. Kindness is smothered by rising conflict and intolerance in American life. The heavy and somber mood is lifted to reveal a feeling of optimism and hope.” — Sonia Dhami, Indica News

Get special offer ticks here, deal expires Friday, March 7, use code “DANCEFLASH”

The Department of Theatre and Dance presents ‘Small Mouth Sounds’

Discount tickets for final week

Wyatt Pavilion Theatre, final week discount offer of $8 tickets, use promo code MOUTH, (see remaining dates and times below)

The Department of Theatre and Dance presents Beth Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds this winter. Directed by Granada Artist-in-Residence Peter J. Kuo, the minimalist work of experimental theater casts the audience as voyeurs in an entertaining adventure that gradually turns more serious. 

In the overwhelming quiet of the woods, six runaways from city life embark on a silent retreat. As these strangers confront internal demons both profound and absurd, their vows of silence collide with the achingly human need to connect.

Filled with awkward and insightful humor, Small Mouth Sounds is the unique and compassionate new play that asks how we address life’s biggest questions when words fail us. The New York Times called the play “as funny as it is, uh, quietly moving.”

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March 1, 8:  2-4 p.m.

March 1, 6, 7: 7-9 p.m.

Content Warning: Adult language, themes and situations

Celebrate Women’s History Month at The John Natsoulas Gallery

Running from Wednesday, March 5 to Saturday, April 5, 521 First Street

Discussion Panel on Saturday, March 8, register for tickets here: 

Coinciding with Women’s History Month, The John Natsoulas Gallery will be hosting an exhibition called Working Through It: Women and Their Art. This exhibit will showcase how women have and continue to develop unique artistic visions that derive from the social, political, and cultural experiences that are specific to their lives as women. 

Learn more here: 

Musics of the World, a perfect performance for the end of your Thursday

Thursday, March 6, 5-7 p.m., Recital Hall at Ann E. Pitzer Center

Program

Hindustani Vocal Ensemble • Rita Sahai, director

Capoeira • Juan Diego Díaz, director

Bluegrass and Old Time String Band • Scott Linford, director

Mariachi • Oscar Garibay, director

Heni Savitri and Brian Rice bring culturally significant music to Davis

Thursday, March 6, 12:05 p.m., Ann E. Pitzer Center

Gamelan Ensemble • Heni Savitri, director

Afro-Cuban Ensemble • Brian Rice, director

Program

To be announced from the stage.

Heni Savitri began to study �����Ի��è�Բ��� (Javanese singing with gamelan) in 2002. In 2003 she won the competition for best singer in her native district of Wonogiri, Central Java. Upon enrolling in the Indonesian Arts Academy in Surakarta she was selected as the singer for many recordings of new faculty compositions and traditional works, representing the academy in the 2008 international vocal competition in Jakarta. She has recently been performing with gamelan groups in the United States, like Tufts University, Cornell University, the Indonesian Embassy, and more.

Brian Rice is a highly acclaimed performer, educator, and recording artist and one of the most versatile percussionists in the Bay Area. Though best known as a specialist in Brazilian and Cuban music, he can be heard playing a multitude of styles, and his percussion playing graces over sixty recordings.

Ongoing Exhibitions on Campus

Read about ongoing art and design exhibitions in this Arts Blog story.

Above art, Coyote dancer with flute #III, 1983, Acrylic wash/paper. (Courtesy/Gorman Museum of Native American Art).

Listen to a spectacular harmony of violin and piano to start your weekend

Friday, March 7, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Benjamin Beilman is one of the leading violinists of his generation, winning praise from the likes of The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Times.

His remarkable talent won him a spot among the youngest faculty members of the renowned Curtis Institute of Music and a successful stint in the Curtis on Tour 2023–24 season. He’ll be joined by Steven Osborne—a Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year—for a riveting performance of some of the classical world’s most prized works, including Clara Schumann’s 3 Romances and Brahms Violin Sonata in G Major.

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Digital Program PDF: 

‘The Book of Will’ comes to the Woodland Opera House next week

Various times and dates listed below, Woodland Opera House, 340 Second Street, Woodland

The Book of Will, written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Cheryl Watson, explores the story behind the first publication of William Shakespeare's complete works, known as the First Folio. The play is set in 1619, a few years after Shakespeare's death. It centers around a group of his close friends and former acting company members, including Henry Condell and John Heminges, who are determined to preserve Shakespeare's legacy by compiling and publishing his plays.

 March 7-9 – Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.

March 13-16 – Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

March 20-22 – Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

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Art in Action returns to the Pence Gallery

Sunday, March 9, $5 for members, $10 non-members, 212 D Street, Davis

Session 1: 12-2 p.m.

Session 2: 2:30-4 p.m.

This month’s theme for Art in Action at the Pence Gallery is Fanciful Fairy Houses. Create a one of a kind fairy hideaway using a variety of decorative and natural materials like tree trunk slices, moss, acorns, wooden mushrooms, flowers, and more.

When you arrive, sign in at the front desk to pay with cash or card. A parent or adult caregiver is required to stay, but only has to pay for the project themselves if they are also doing art. All materials are included! Space and supplies are limited to the first 25 participants, per session, and are available on a first come, first served basis.

To learn more, go here:  

The �ٺ���Ƶ Department of Music presents Big Bands of �ٺ���Ƶ 

Tuesday, March 11, 7 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center

The Big Bands of �ٺ���Ƶ, directed by Otto Lee, perform selections from the Great American Songbook including charts by legends by the likes of Gershwin, Porter and Ellington. The evening concert is sure to be filled with lush harmonies, soaring solos, and irresistible rhythms in the wonderful Pitzer Center. 

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�ٺ���Ƶ Symphony Orchestra performs Friday: 'Delicate and Contemplative'

Friday, March 14, 7-8:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts 

In Claude Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun, a solo flute player in the orchestra evokes the imagery of the mythical Pan and his enchanting flute. Pan is the Greek fertility god, represented with horns, legs, and ears of a goat, and is associated with flocks and herds and music. When he wakes up from a nap he tries to remember his dream, only to fall asleep again, hoping to meet his nymph friends in his next dream.

Shostakovich wrote his Sixth Symphony in curious proportions: The first movement is a lengthy Largo (slow and yet also serious) and features a beautiful English horn solo and haunting solos on flute and piccolo that are reminiscent of the flute solo in Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun. The second movement by contrast is a short scherzo filled with delightful rhythmic tricks, and as if one scherzo wasn’t enough, Shostakovich ends the symphony with another. It’s full of bombastic string work, almost a study for his later Festive Overture.

Program

Claude Debussy: �ʰ�é���ܻ�� ​à “L’Après-midi d’un faune,” L. 86

Tōru Takemitsu: Requiem for String Orchestra

Dimitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, op. 54

The �ٺ���Ƶ Symphony Orchestra in the Mondavi Center. (Austin Kyan/�ٺ���Ƶ)

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