UC Davis June Arts Newsletter

June 2022

Some of the exhibition works by (clockwise from upper left): Fatema Mostafa, Valentyna Hrushkevych, Whitney Vangrin, Morgan Cristine Flores, Anuj Vaidya and Avital Meshi. (Courtesy photos)

Arts Year Wraps Up With Graduate Student Exhibition

“The Arts and Humanities Graduate Exhibition,” showcasing the work of 27 students from eight majors, is taking place in person after two years of being online. The exhibition is at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

All the students are from the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. Along with M.F.A. students from art studio and design, graduate students in music, art history, performance studies, math, creative writing and political science are part of the show.

Many of the students address pressing issues — environmental destruction, political divisions, racism, immigration, disability justice and more, while others engage with personal experiences, memory and aesthetic practices. Their projects take a wide range of forms, including sculpture, photography, ceramics, painting and experimental music.

A public opening will be held June 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the museum, with performances by several students and an awards ceremony.

The exhibition runs through June 19. Admission is free.

MUSIC

All concerts will also be livestreamed and available for later viewing on the Department of Music YouTube channel.

Chamber Concert With Funk — June 1

From a classical guitar quartet to a brass quintet to a harp quartet, several student chamber ensembles will perform a free concert of music by J. S. Bach, Antonin Dvořák and Sergei Rachmaninov, plus an all-cello arrangement of the popular song “Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson.

Chamber players

Take a Musical Global Journey — June 2

Climb aboard for a musical trip around the world — and it is all as close as the Ann E. Pitzer Center. The free concert will include performances by Capoeria and Samba School (Brazil), Gamelan (Java), Hindustani Vocal (India) and Mariachi (Mexico) — all ensembles in the Department of Music.

Samba School

Choruses Sing New and Old — June 3

This concert will present older music in new arrangements with art songs by Clara Schumann and sacred harp and Sephardic music. There’s also the West Coast premiere of Carlos Cordero's Escucha, with string ensemble, and Controlled Burn, a collaboration between composer Jocelyn Hagen and hip-hop artist Dessa, featuring string quartet and piano.

UC Davis Chorus

CREATIVE WRITING

Creative Writers Send-off Reading – June 9

A dozen creative writing students will give a reading to celebrate completing their M.F.A. degrees. The students are poets, short story and novel writers and non-fiction writers, although many work across genres. The free reading will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the courtyard of Voorhies Hall.

THEATRE AND DANCE

Experience a Magical Musical in the Making — June 2 and 3

Death and Harry Houdini, an in-development musical about the greatest escape artist, will have two free workshop performances. The musical is the work of Keaton Wooden, artist in residence at the Department of Theatre and Dance, and will be directed by Lisa Quoresimo (Ph.D., performance studies, ’18). Houdini, born Erik Weisz, became obsessed with death and escaping it after witnessing the death of his father.

Harry Houdini

This is the final Arts Newsletter for the 2021–2022 academic year. We’ll be back in the fall with more exciting news about the arts at UC Davis.