School Matinees
2025-26 School Matinees Go On Sale May 19, 2025
Thank you for your support of our school matinees this season. We had full houses, lots of happy young people and wonderful performances. We’ll be announcing our 2025-26 line up and taking ticket requests starting on Monday, May 19. Return to this page on the 19th to learn about the matinees and use the online ticket request form.
Ruth Rosenberg
Mondavi Center Director of Arts Education and Artist Engagement
How To Buy Tickets
The online request form will be available starting on May 19, 2025.
Tickets are $11 for students, $15 for adults (1 adult for each 10 students required)
When the performance you wish to request is sold out, you can join our waitlist:
Purchasing questions? Contact Group Sales Coordinator at 530.754.4658 or email us
Performances
Sons of Mystro
Monday, October 21, 2024 • 11:00am
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: 4-8
Length: 60 minutes
Have you ever experienced a musical duo, in this case, brothers, who play all genres of popular music, using the violin instead of their voices to express a song’s lyrics? If not, then you must not have heard of the violin virtuosos Sons of Mystro! Born in South Florida to a Jamaican father and Barbadian mother, brothers Malcolm and Umoja learned to play violin through South Florida’s public school system and attended Dillard High School for the Performing Arts. They use their violins to interpret reggae classics, American pop songs, and their own creations, accompanied by a DJ & a drummer. At an age when music is coming to be more defined by genres and labels, Sons of Mystro shows that music does not exist within a box, but rather exists in another space – one as open and unrestrained as the minds that produce it.
Around the Americas with 123 Andrés
Monday, November 18, 2024 • 11:00am
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: K-3
Length: 60 minutes
Join 123 Andrés, 2024 GRAMMY Winner for Best Children’s Album, in this lively, interactive concert to search the continents and learn about geography, culture, and music along the way. Christina and Andrés can’t find their friend Juana, and their only clue is that she’s somewhere in the Americas. The audience will be a key part in this rich journey brought to the stage with colorful, exciting visuals. With performances across the U.S., Puerto Rico, Mexico and Central America and on PBS Kids under their belt, this husband and wife duo of teaching artists share a doctorate in music and a master’s in education. Both native Spanish speakers, Andrés and Christina incorporate language seamlessly, empowering students to sing in both Spanish and English, as well as moving and dancing. Learning has never been so fun!
Cirque Kalabanté: Afrique en Cirque
SOLD OUT!
Monday, February 24, 2025 • 11:00am
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: K-12
Length: 60 minutes
Welcome to the universe of Yamoussa Bangoura, famed multidisciplinary artist of Guinean origin, former Cirque du Soleil performer and founder of Kalabanté Productions. His Afrique en Cirque showcases the beauty, youth and artistry of African culture in a performance inspired by daily life in Guinea. Prepare yourself for a colorful show beyond its scenery, costumes and staging, featuring acrobats executing gravity-defying moves and human pyramids, all accompanied by the contemporary sound of live Afro-Jazz, percussion and kora.
Words Take Wing
Tuesday, February 25, 2025 • 11:00am
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: 3-8
Length: 60 minutes
Born in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, author Mitali Perkins, known for her remarkable works for readers across grade levels, from picture books to novels to nonfiction texts for adults, will give a lecture style presentation focused on her personal journey and creative process. Her notable books include You Bring the Distant Near, which received a National Book Award nomination, and Rickshaw Girl, which was adapted into a film. Through her compelling storytelling, Perkins delves into themes of crossing various borders, both physical and metaphorical. Her aim is to evoke a range of emotions from her readers, striving to make them laugh, cry, and ultimately broaden their hearts. She moved a great deal in her youth, living in India, Ghana, Cameroon, London, New York and Mexico before settling in California in the seventh grade. Now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Perkins continues to captivate audiences with her thought-provoking narratives.
Yamato: 人の力 Hito no Chikara/The Human Power
LIMITED AVAILABILITY
Monday, March 17, 2025 • 11:00am
Location: Jackson Hall
Recommended Grades: K-12
Length: 60 minutes
The word performance can’t fully describe the experience that is Yamato. It’s “physical music” that’s been celebrated the world over. This Japanese Taiko drumming group looms (and booms) large, with more than 40 Taiko drums on stage representing different characters. Yamato does more than simply make their Taiko drums explode; they produce delicate music that gives the listener a palette of meticulously crafted sound. At once intense, then sad and even comforting and comical, you’re more than a bystander when you experience Yamato. You’re engulfed in the sound of the Taiko, becoming one with the performers.
California Arts Standards
The California Arts Standards provide guidance toward a common goal: for all California students to fully participate in a rich and well-rounded arts education. The standards are based on the artistic processes of creating; performing/producing/presenting; responding; and connecting. Our school matinees correspond to responding and connecting:
-
Responding—Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and Analyze Artistic Work; Standard 8: Interpret Intent and Meaning in Artistic Work; Anchor Standard 9: Apply Criteria to Evaluate Artistic Work
-
Connecting—Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and Relate Knowledge and Personal Experiences to Make Art; Anchor Standard 11: Relate Artistic Ideas and Works with Societal, Cultural, and Historical Context to Deepen Understanding
Common Core Standards
Common Core broadens the definition of a “text,” viewing performance as a form of text, so students are experiencing and interacting with a text when they attend a performance. Seeing live performance provides rich opportunities to write reflections, narratives, arguments etc.
What Students Can Expect
A theatre is a charged space, full of energy and anticipation. When the house lights (the lights that illuminate the audience seating) go down, the excitement level goes up!
By watching attentively, the audience shows respect for the performers. Audience members may feel like laughing if the action on stage is funny, crying if the action is sad, or sighing if something is seen or heard that is beautiful. Sometimes the audience will clap during a performance, as after a featured solo.
Applause is the best way for audience members to share their enthusiasm and to show their appreciation for the performers. Applaud at the end of a performance!
Please note that food and drinks are not permitted in the theatre during a performance.
Contact Us
Ruth Rosenberg
Director of Arts Education and Artist Engagement
rrosenberg@ucdavis.edu
530.752.6113
School Matinee Ticket questions:
Madi Miguel
Group Sales Coordinator
mcgrouptickets@ou.ad3.ucdavis.edu
530.754.4658
Other School Matinee questions:
Jennifer Mast
Business Services and Arts Education Coordinator
jmmast@ucdavis.edu
530.754.5431
Thank you to our Arts Education Sponsors
Les and Mary Stephens Dewall
MC Friends K-12 Arts Education Fund