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-Ulysses Owens Jr., music director and drums

Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic. — Laini Taylor 

Maestro James Conlon, whom I’ve know well for the last two decades, is extraordinary: a great conductor in

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In 2009 a dusty treasure was uncovered during the renovation of a dilapidated home in St. Anne, Illinois. Workers discovered boxes containing music by Florence B. Price previously considered lost, including two violin concertos and her fourth symphony. Although the quality of her compositions was recognized during her lifetime, her works were not widely heard.

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In a letter written in 1837 to his fellow musicians prior to a tour, Franz Liszt stated that the piano should place at the “top of the hierarchy of instruments,” in large part because of its ability to capture the entire “scope of the orchestra,” and replicate the “harmony of 100 players.” 

If you were able to attend our opening night show last Thursday, October 14, then you were among the first patrons to view the 42" long, 16" tall lighted display featured centrally in the Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby.

By Don Roth

By: Anna Marrero

From the home of Rob Tocalino, Director of Marketing

By Don Roth, Executive Director of the Mondavi Center

By: Aarya Gupta

We're looking forward to sharing the details of our 2021–22 season with you! Our ticket office will be operating remotely during the renewal period, and we are going to rely heavily on online communication. Keeping your information up to date will be vitally important to stay connected.

This post details the things you can do to prepare for the upcoming season:

March is Membership Month at the Mondavi Center and we've shared the stories of several of our members during the month.  Kim Swaback is a Member and a long-time patron.  In her professional life, she is a Program Specialist at the City of Sacramento's Community Development Department

March is Membership Month at the Mondavi Center and we're sharing the stories of several of our members during the month.  Denise Verbeck has been a season ticket holder and donor for over ten years. She is a happy and active retired elementary school teacher and lover of the arts. 

March is Membership Month at the Mondavi Center and we're sharing the stories of several of our members during the month.  Sally McKee is an enthusiastic supporter, plus she serves as a member of the Mondavi Center Administrative Advisory Committee. 

March is Membership Month at the Mondavi Center and we're going to share the stories of several members during the upcoming week. Clairelee Leiser Bulkley and Ralph Bulkley are major annual donors, plus they have started an orchestra endowment and are leaving a generous legacy to help secure the future of the Mondavi Center. 

While he lived like a king, I was banished to the garage. In my absence our garage had become both a “bedroom” and my mother’s storage unit, filled with Amazon boxes and bags of old clothing which reached the ceiling. As I tripped on miscellaneous items walking through the door, I wondered how I would spend my time stuck inside and living back home. 

March is Membership Month at the Mondavi Center and we're going to share the stories of several members during the upcoming weeks. Darren Isom is a patron, a member and also a Mondavi Center Advisory Board Member. In his professional life, he's a Partner at The Bridgespan Group. 

I’ve always been passionate about two things: art and flowers. When what we assumed would be a simple two week break from normality slowly turned into a month, then two, then more, I realized I had the one thing I had been lacking since I started college: time. Moving back home with my family and watching everything close around me left me with so much free time to take advantage of. I could finally pursue all the hobbies I’ve had since I was a kid that had been thrown onto the back burner when school started to become more demanding.

Over the summer and this petrifying pandemic, a writer's block and an artist block stood at my door, waiting for me to welcome them in. Of course these blocks were disguised as blank pages in a book and faded ink in my pen. Would I let them in? I don’t know

This summer I formed an alliance of multi-cultural poets called Mad Mouth Poetry. There are 6 of us: Cyrus Sepahbodi, Arthur Kayzakian, Maya Pescatore, Damieka Thomas, Ideas Aubrey, and (me) Ruth Christopher. Half of our team is in the Sacramento/Davis area, half are in L.A. Together we pooled our resources and are building a digital platform for community, poetry, and activism.

With reluctance, we have reached the conclusion that in 2020-21, for the first time in its almost twenty-year history, the Mondavi Center will not present a season of live events. This arises as a result of the current pandemic, with both national and international artists canceling their tours and with the continued restrictions on indoor events.

When that stimulation is suddenly taken away and self-isolation stands in its place, many feel lost and unable to control their lives. Despite all of the negative thoughts that accompany our worldwide pandemic situation, the down time in our lives can be used to explore our creative sides which are sometimes lost in our day-to-day. Quarantine, and the reoccurring boredom that follows, has given me the opportunity to explore my more creative side and discover new hobbies that interest me.  

How have I been creative these days? 

My obsession with work: images from two different days.  

I often ponder the significance behind my innovative mediums. What is the meaning of what I do, and why does it matter? Questions like these, I have posed to myself for years. I always rejected the idea of prescribing a purpose for my artwork, as drawing for me, is a creative release.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I was actively creative in my daily life. As an English major part of a collegiate dance team, I would write and dance on a regular basis until COVID-19 changed the world as we know it, leaving me in a creative slump.

Poem by Grant Schrader

What does it mean to be a fashion student during a global pandemic? Lately, I’ve been asking myself this question a lot. Ever since quarantine started and things began to shut down all around us, I’ve found myself being faced with issues that I don’t have answers for.

While COVID-19 disrupted my life and routines by cutting my senior year of high school short and forcing the cancellation of events like choral performances, it also presented me with an interesting opportunity: time, with which I could do whatever I wanted.

During this unprecedented time, the Mondavi Center wants to hear from UC Davis students about the various ways that they are staying creative during COVID-19 while learning and working remotely. 

Dear Friends of the Mondavi Center

It had been a long-time dream of mine to present John Prine who, like Bruce Springsteen, never gave a less than 100% committed performance in his life.  And here he was, at age 73, on the stage of Jackson Hall, opening this now disrupted season, with a Springsteen-like two-hour marathon of music.  

My life and Ellis Marsalis’ have intersected in a few, fleeting moments. For me, at least, those interactions—some in person, most not—have made powerful impressions and abiding memories.

Out of respect for the health and safety of our campus and community of arts lovers, as of today the Mondavi Center is canceling all remaining public events for  the 2019–20 season.  We so much appreciate your support and interest in the Center’s programs, and wish there were another path availab

Out of respect for the health and safety of our campus and community of arts lovers, on March 12 the Mondavi Center canceled all remaining public events for the 2019–20 season.  To express our gratitude for the patrons who purchased tickets to the canceled shows, we have put together a virtual co

Dear Mondavi Center Patron,

Out of respect for the health and safety of our campus and community of arts lovers, as of today the Mondavi Center is canceling all public events through March 31. 

Events affected include (list current as of March 12, 2020)

MONK’estra Band                        

Conductor, Arranger, Pianist:  John Beasley

Trumpets                     Bijon Watson, Rashawn Ross, James Ford, Brian Swartz

Trombones                  Wendell Kelly, Ryan Dragon, Francisco Torres

By: Lisa Mezzacappa

By: Georgia McBride Agerton

Make no mistake, Michela Marino Lerman's role in Mwenso and the Shakes is not a novelty act. Lerman is a critical member of the band.

Below, Joshua Bell shares the harrowing tale of how the Huberman violin came to be his! Hear him play it live with pianist Alessio Bax on November 2, 2019 at the Mondavi Center.

As we begin our 2019-20 season, we're sharing some highlights of what's to come. Our Executive Director Don Roth and our Associate Executive Director & Director of Programming Jeremy Ganter narrate and share why they're excited for each of these events.

As we begin our 2019-20 season, we're sharing some highlights of what's to come. Our Executive Director Don Roth and our Associate Executive Director & Director of Programming Jeremy Ganter narrate and share why they're excited for each of these events.

As we begin our 2019-20 season, we're sharing some highlights of what's to come. Our Executive Director Don Roth and our Associate Executive Director & Director of Programming Jeremy Ganter narrate and share why they're excited for each of these events.

As we begin our 2019-20 season, we're sharing some highlights of what's to come. Our Executive Director Don Roth and our Associate Executive Director & Director of Programming Jeremy Ganter narrate and share why they're excited for each of these events.

As we begin our 2019-20 season, we're sharing some highlights of what's to come. Our Executive Director Don Roth and our Associate Executive Director & Director of Programming Jeremy Ganter narrate and share why they're excited for each of these events.

Safety is something we take very seriously in the Production Department of the Mondavi Center. Stage work is inherently dangerous, and we always strive to remember that. Theatres are highly sophisticated buildings filled with complicated machinery and systems.

On Wednesday, October 10, Mondavi Center Members were invited to a members-only listening party with artist Lila Downs. Lila was interviewed throughout the event and asked to share why each of the following songs that she picked were meaningful to her and how they influenced her music.

As we begin our 2019-20 season, we're sharing some highlights of what's to come. Our Executive Director Don Roth and our Associate Executive Director & Director of Programming Jeremy Ganter narrate and share why they're excited for each of these events.

The songs performed by Luca Pisaroni, bass-baritone and Jonathan Ware, piano, also required dual efforts to compose. This program features several works by composer Franz Schubert set to the texts of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.

Read on to learn more about Schubert, Goethe, and their relationship.

Here's the set list for John Prine's October 4, 2019 concert in Jackson Hall. 

"La celebración del Día De Muertos nos ofrece la oportunidad de celebrar a los que ya han partido, y de invitarlos a compartir de nuevo con los que aún viven.

As we begin our 2019-20 season, we're sharing some highlights of what's to come. Our Executive Director Don Roth and our Associate Executive Director & Director of Programming Jeremy Ganter narrate and share why they're excited for each of these events.

Virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell returns to the Mondavi Center with renowned pianist Alessio Bax on November 2, 2019!

Bassist Billy Cox, who played alongside the legend himself in the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band Of Gypsys, invites you to come hear him pay tribute to his friend on October 7, 2019.

As we begin our 2019-20 season, we're sharing some highlights of what's to come. Our Executive Director Don Roth and our Associate Executive Director & Director of Programming Jeremy Ganter narrate and share why they're excited for each of these events.

As we begin our 2019-20 season, we're sharing some highlights of what's to come. Our Executive Director Don Roth and our Associate Executive Director & Director of Programming Jeremy Ganter narrate and share why they're excited for each of these events.

The Mondavi Center staff is a diverse team with many interests, but all of us share a passion for the performing arts. As we look forward to the 2019-20 season, we'll be posting videos featuring staff members talking about the three shows they are most looking forward to seeing next season.

Devon Bradshaw is concertmaster for the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra. She began playing with the orchestra as a UC Davis student and graduated in 2017 with a double major: a B.S. in statistics and a B.A. in music.

Jerry Hochman from Critical Dance did a beautiful job of describing a performance similar to what MOMIX will bring to the Mondavi Center on October 13 with his review titled "MOMIX: Do You Believe In Magic?"

Andrew Bird released his latest single, "Manifest," on September 5.

The Mondavi Center staff is a diverse team with many interests, but all of us share a passion for the performing arts. As we look forward to the 2019-20 season, we'll be posting videos featuring staff members talking about the three shows they are most looking forward to seeing next season.

Some of today's top guitarists and musicians come together on October 7 at the Mondavi Center to honor Jimi Hendrix.

CBS's Scott Pelley interviewed NASA Astronaut Terry Virts on what it was like to photograph the Egyptian pyramids from space:

Trey McLaughlin & The Sounds of Zamar invite you to come to the Mondavi Center on Sunday, September 29, 2019!

Lila explains what we can look forward to and how we can participate in her upcoming concert, Día De Muertos: Al Chile, on Thursday, October 10, 2019!

Trey McLaughlin talks with us about his upcoming performance with the Sounds of Zamar at the Mondavi Center on Sunday, September 29, 2019!

The Mondavi Center staff is a diverse team with many interests, but all of us share a passion for the performing arts. As we look forward to the 2019-20 season, we'll be posting videos featuring staff members talking about the three shows they are most looking forward to seeing next season.

We are thrilled to share the program for the annual Barbara K. Jackson Rising Stars of Opera!

The Mondavi Center staff is a diverse team with many interests, but all of us share a passion for the performing arts. As we look forward to the 2019-20 season, we'll be posting videos featuring staff members talking about the three shows they are most looking forward to seeing next season.

The Mondavi Center staff is a diverse team with many interests, but all of us share a passion for the performing arts. As we look forward to the 2019-20 season, we'll be posting videos featuring staff members talking about the three shows they are most looking forward to seeing next season.

The Mondavi Center staff is a diverse team with many interests, but all of us share a passion for the performing arts. As we look forward to the 2019-20 season, we'll be posting videos featuring staff members talking about the three shows they are most looking forward to seeing next season.

The Mondavi Center staff is a diverse team with many interests, but all of us share a passion for the performing arts. As we look forward to the 2019-20 season, we'll be posting videos featuring staff members talking about the three shows they are most looking forward to seeing next season.

Two Mondavi Center favorites and folk music pros, Brandi Carlile and the Indigo Girls' Amy Ray, talk shop about the art of songwriting, arranging, recording, touring, performing, and using their positions in the music industry to promote other women in a way that only true musical veterans can.

Andrew Bird will play his Finest Work Yet at the Mondavi Center on October 21 with special guest Meshell Ndegeocello.

The Mondavi Center staff is a diverse team with many interests, but all of us share a passion for the performing arts. As we look forward to the 2019-20 season, we'll be posting videos featuring staff members talking about the three shows they are most looking forward to seeing next season.

A surgeon. A mother. A teacher. An engineer. An artist.
There are an endless number of ways to define greatness.
How will you define yours?

The Alexander String Quartet with Joyce Yang program on June 2 features something extra special—the debut of a newly-commissioned work by Samuel Adams specifically for the Alexander String Quartet and pianist Joyce Yang. To celebrate this historic occasion, we asked both Samuel Adams and ASQ cellist Sandy Williams to share their thoughts on how this new piece was created.

Check out 2019-20 Mondavi Center season artist Andrew Bird performing "Sisyphus" on the show Busy Tonight!

Dear Admitted Transfer Students,The Mondavi Center welcomes you to UC Davis on May 10!

Read more about all of the benefits enrolled UC Davis students receive at the Mondavi Center.

Chancellor Gary S. May’s love for Star Trek runs deep. In anticipation of his upcoming Chancellor’s Colloquium with William Shatner on May 11, we’ve compiled a few of the many articles in circulation that demonstrate Chancellor May’s devotion to the series and explain how Chancellor May uses lessons from the series as inspiration for how he leads.

This season, the Mondavi Center is thrilled to present year two of our three-year series of performances with pianist Vladimir Feltsman. 

Last week the Mondavi Center welcomed Ballet Preljocaj back for their first performance in Jackson Hall since 2012, performing La Fresque. It was a different kind of dance show for the Production Department because there were some unusual technical elements. Here's a rundown of some of the equipment we used for La Fresque at the Mondavi Center by the numbers, technically.

UC Davis Professor David Grenke, Chair of Theatre & Dance, talks with us about the recent history of ballet and modern dance in France. 

Mondavi Center Executive Director Don Roth shares his thoughts on our upcoming screening of In the Fade the final event in our "Focus on Film" series for the 18-19 Season.

What is “jazz”? 

And why is it important? 

Read on for thoughts on this seemingly unanswerable question published in our Gateway magazine.

Fred Hersch sent us a video telling us about his upcoming series of performances at the Mondavi Center, April 10-13, 2019.

As we prepare to welcome Storm Large & Le Bonheur to the Mondavi Center stage, we thought we'd share this interesting interview that DC Metro Theatre Arts did with Storm Large recently. 

"If you are like me when it comes to certain orchestras, such as the one we have the pleasure of hearing on April 6, you may ask yourself: How does something earn the title of 'royal'?" UC Davis musicology Ph.D. student Jonathan Minnick shares a history lesson about how ensembles earn this special designation.

Listen to Nick Miller's interview with Greg Miller on Capital Public Radio!

It’s time for another test of your ability to speak “tech.” Like all professions, theatre technicians have their own language. Read on to see if you know any of the terms featured in this week's Tech Tuesday blog post! 

The Mondavi Center Welcomes Class of 2023 Admitted Students!

Lawrence Brownlee and Eric Owens present an adventurous program that travels well outside the classical canon. In the inaugural issue of the Mondavi Center magazine, Gateway, Capital Public Radio's morning classical host Kevin Doherty (an operatic tenor himself) shares some provocative thoughts about the state of classical music, the canon and how diversity and a focus on living composers pays the ultimate respect to Beethoven’s legacy of innovation.

The Mondavi Center's Executive Director Don Roth discusses the state of classical music in a recent Gateway article, as we draw connections between Don's article and the upcoming Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performance featuring Jeremy Denk on March 8, 2019.

Damien Sneed talks with us about his upcoming performance of We Shall Overcome, A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Don't miss Damien Sneed live at the Mondavi Center on March 1, 2019!

The Mondavi Center is hiring a Master Carpenter. Read more to learn about the unique job of the Master Carpenter at the Mondavi Center. We’ll be accepting applications until March 13.

We were able to pose a few questions to the 23-year-old about his brief but jam-packed journey thus far. Hear Li perform  Rachmaninoff’s famed Concerto No. 2  with the  Russian National Orchestra  and music director  Mikhail Pletnev at the Mondavi Center on  March 2, 2019. 

The next time you come to a concert here, see if you can spot an RE20 in the stage set-up. And watch for future posts about other specialized mics in the MC inventory.

Welcome to this year’s edition of Curtis on Tour at the Mondavi Center!

No matter what languages we speak, we will never speak them all—and that’s when we let music do the talking.

The decision to record an album of Christmas music was not easily accepted by Stan Kenton. Thanks to these liner notes from Boston Brass, learn how this seasonal classic from 1961 become a reality. 

“Even now it feels like the performers are the only ones who understand what’s going on, and the audience is just a witness,” Sammy said in our interview. “That never made sense to me because the audience is there, and to pretend like they’re not there is to not include them in the experience. So we try to make them a part of every step.”

In advance of improvisational comedian Paula Poundstone’s Nov. 30 performance at the Mondavi Center, we decided to ring her for an update—unfortunately catching her in the middle of a Rite Aid. On the second attempt, though, she graciously took us behind the scenes of her weekly podcast, Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone—“a comedy field guide to life, or at least a set of IKEA assembly instructions.” 

It would not be an overstatement to say Morrison provided the soundtrack to my freshman year. Other musicians certainly contributed, often thanks to me seeing them at the Mondavi Center, but none had the same staying power as Morrison, and especially his 1968 album, Astral Weeks, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of its release this month.

What kind of light is small, packs a powerful punch of illumination and color---but doesn’t use any cords? One answer is the Chauvet Freedom PAR Quad-4.

In a previous post, I wrote about two definitively American musicians, Bob Dylan and Sammy Miller. In keeping with that post’s comparison of American and British music, I now turn to two definitively British musical groups, the Beatles and the Kinks.

With the right outlook, nonprofits should be able to provide commissioned artists not with a rigid set of expectations, but a nexus and an impetus to create art on their own terms and with their own idiosyncrasies. SFJazz showed me the power of that potential. With the infinitude of the universe for inspiration, how could musicians find the act of being commissioned anything but liberating?

Even before his death in January 2016, David Bowie “might have been among the most-covered artists of the past four decades … often by musicians who stretched the source material to its limits” (diffuser.fm). 

What is “American music?” Here is what Sammy had to say. “The bands…that I come back to time and time again are the ones that are trying to work through their struggles. And I kind of love that in American art. There’s sort of a hopefulness in spite of whatever the situation is.”

Are you ready for Halloween? Have you carved a scary face on your Jack-o’-lantern to ward off evil spirits? Have you picked out a costume to fool ghosts into thinking you’re somebody else? Okay, those are just superstitions that have become part of the fun lore about Halloween. There are lots of superstitions in theatre, too. I asked members of the MC Production team to share their favorite ones with me.

It may sound like a truism, but music really is a universal language. For instrumental compositions in particular, the notes that a musician reads on the page are the exact same as the notes that the composer put on that page (barring, of course, the occasional emendation or error that may be introduced over the years). Nothing gets “lost in translation,” so to speak, because there literally is no translation.

It’s time for a test of your ability to speak “tech.”  

Barn doors? Donuts? Top Hats? -  Do you know these theater terms? Read on to learn more. 

 I am certain that without my class on Latin American racial dynamics, I would have been unable to appreciate the full implications of projects like these; similarly, without my seminar about 1950s jazz, I couldn't have put Charles’s boundary-pushing music in its proper context. But without the experience of that live performance in April 2017, my academic perspective on the music would’ve remained just that—academic. The Mondavi Center made it personal.

In addition to an evolving lineup of some of the brightest bandleaders in jazz, the SFJAZZ Collective is known for its distinctive approach to repertoire. Each year the members of the octet contribute original arrangements of a composer's work.  From Ornette Coleman to Michael Jackson, the group has thrived by drawing inspiration from the past while pushing jazz in interesting new directions. This season, the Collective tackles the work of Antonio Carlos Jobim, composer of countless Bossa Nova classics including "Corcovado," "Wave," "Chega do Saudede" and, of course, "The Girl from Ipanema." 

Each year, the Barbara K. Jackson Rising Stars of Opera concert pairs stunning vocal talent with the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra for an evening of vocal artistry. Program in hand, we've created a Spotify playlist of the evening's entertainment, both to get prepared for the evening, and to return to following the performance.

As part of its new "This Month in Live Jazz" column, The New York Times featured trumpeter Marquis Hill as one of its "September Standouts" for the best live jazz happening in New York. 

Although the Mondavi Center maintains a large inventory of stage equipment, a lot of performers prefer to bring specific items for their shows. How they move their stuff is as varied as the artists’ performances.

All songs are traditional and sung in Scottish Gaelic, unless otherwise stated. Repertoire will be selected from the following list of songs and announced from the stage:
Julie Fowlis -- vocals, whistles, shruti
Éamon Doorley -- guitar-bouzouki, backing vocals
Duncan Chisholm -- fiddles, backing vocals
Tony Byrne -- guitar, backing vocals

Julie Fowlis is one of the preeminent modern interpreters of traditional Gaelic songs and a deeply knowledgeable scholar of Highland and Gaelic culture. Her latest album, alterum, is a continued exploration of those storied traditions and further evidence of her unique gift.

When you visited Barbara, her first words often would be: “What do you know that’s good?”  That would invite an analysis of the Giants’ bullpen, a recent symphony concert at the Mondavi Center or a great new tenor just seen in HD.  But, more consistently, what’s good was to be a friend of Barbara’s, a beneficiary of her philanthropy and a fellow music-lover. 

Barbara K. Jackson, a founding philanthropist of the Mondavi Center, passed away on September 7, 2018, only a few weeks short of her 100th birthday.  Along with Larry and Rosalie Vanderhoef and Robert and Margrit Mondavi, Barbara Jackson helped give life to the dream of a performing arts center on the UC Davis Campus.  Her generous gift to name the Center’s largest performance space as Barbara K. and W. Turrentine Jackson Hall played a significant role in launching this great performing arts center.