Department of Music

From Swing Era tunes of the 1930s and 40s, to the famous charts by Duke Ellington and Count Basie, the big bands of UC Davis always present an eclectic and invigorating concert. The two big bands of UC Davis are directed by Otto Lee, lecturer in music, who is a California native, saxophonist, educator, and composer. Lee received his D.M.A. degree in jazz studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2017.

From Swing Era tunes of the 1930s and 40s, to the famous charts by Duke Ellington and Count Basie, the big bands of UC Davis always present an eclectic and invigorating concert. The two big bands of UC Davis are directed by Otto Lee, lecturer in music, who is a California native, saxophonist, educator, and composer. Lee received his D.M.A. degree in jazz studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2017.

Illuminating choral works written by female composers over two centuries, central work of the program is a multi-movement work — Iluminare — by award-winning composer Elaine Hagenberg. Also featured is a work by Professor of Music Laurie San Martin, which uses poetry by UC Davis's Pulitzer-Prize winning faculty member, Gary Snyder.

Both the UC Concert Band and the California Youth Symphony celebrate their 75th year. Ever committed to educating students in the varied genres of wind band repertory, UC Davis Lecturer in Music Pete Nowlen has been director of the UC Davis Concert Band for 25 years and been with the California Youth Symphony for 35 years! The College of Letters and Science at UC Davis — home to the UC Davis Concert Band, arts and humanities, mathematical and physical sciences, cultural studies, the social sciences and more — also celebrates its 75th anniversary.

Collaborators and star performers of their instruments — Grammy Award-winning pianist Michelle Cann and Mexican Japanese American flutist Ráyo Furuta — will give an unforgettable performance at the Pitzer Center.

“[A] pianist of sterling artistry” 

Gramophone   

“The Rockstar of the Flute” 

Informador de Guadalajara   

This program is a celebration of the big band tradition, featuring jazz musicians from right here in our campus community. The bands will dig into Miles Davis's bebop staple Half Nelson and Jimmy McHugh's beloved standard Exactly Like You, among other selections. The two big bands of UC Davis are directed by Otto Lee, lecturer in music, who is a California native, saxophonist, educator, and composer. Lee received his D.M.A. degree in jazz studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2017.

Lift every voice and sing. These program selections were written with strands of vocal material to elevate afflicted peoples.

The UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance’s annual SPRING DANCE CONCERT celebrates creativity with a program of new works choreographed and performed by students. 

Does folk music belong in an orchestra? Yes! This program features a century of American composers continuing to answer Antonín Dvořák's 1893 proposition that "American" symphonic music should come from the folk material of early America — specifically pointing to Black spirituals and Native American influences.

This program catches three composers at the threshold of something new: Lili Boulanger's shimmering D'un matin de printemps paints the light of a season's first morning; Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 is the first of what would become one of the most consequential symphonic cycles in music history; and Poulenc's Double Piano Concerto — which he called the start of his "great period" — uses some of the exquisite colors of a Balinese gamelan he heard in Paris just the year before.