Quick Summary
- Check back Tuesday for "The Week Ahead," delivering more information about events next week
Youn Sun Nah brings jazz to Davis
From Thursday, Nov. 7 through Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m., Vanderhoef Studio at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, run time is approximately 90 minutes with no intermission
Youn Sun Nah first heard Nina Simone in high school. From that moment on, she decided to pursue jazz.
Long hailed for her style-blurring renditions of artists spanning from Tom Waits and Jimi Hendrix to Marvin Gaye and Metallica, her most recent album, Elles sees Youn Sun Nah bringing her remarkable voice and unique perspective to a range of songs made famous by such iconic female artists as Bj?rk, Sarah Vaughan, Grace Jones, Roberta Flack, Edith Piaf, Grace Slick, Maria Jo?o and, of course, Nina Simone.
Youn Sun Nah will be joined by Grammy Award-winning pianist and composer Ruslan Sirota, whose past collaborations have included some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Seal, Josh Groban, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Watch her official music video for Feeling Good here:
Get tickets here:
Festival Napa Valley’s Manetti Shrem Opera presents Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale, live as well-being deal
Ticket deal avaliable until Nov. 13
Friday, Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
Note: The Well-being ticket is for the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis faculty, staff and retirees only. Members of the public may purchase tickets to this event through mondaviarts.com .
The effervescent Peruvian and Mexican American Soprano Vanessa Becerra stars as Norina in Donizetti’s classic comedy, Don Pasquale.
Set in vibrant 1980s Miami, the fully staged production is enhanced by Anouar Brissel’s cutting-edge interactive video set. Think Pink Flamingos, Golf Carts, and Jazzercise.
The extraordinary cast includes tenor Jonah Hoskins as Ernesto, baritone Alexey Lavrov as Dr. Malatesta, and bass-baritone Matt Burns as Don Pasquale. Noah Lindquist leads Festival Orchestra Napa in this enduring tale of love and deception. Jean- Romain Vesperini directs.
Read the digital program
Faculty, staff and retirees: to get the Well-Being $10 ticket deal, use code “BEWELL” when you’re purchasing tickets or call 530-754-2787 from 1 to 5 p.m. open Tuesdays through Fridays
Listen to the violin, viola, and cello for Thursday's Shinkoskey Noon Concert
Thursday, Nov. 7, 12:05 p.m., Recital Hall at Ann E. Pitzer Center, free
Pop up performance on Friday, Nov. 8, 1-2 p.m., Peter J. Shields Library on the Grand Staircase Mezzanine.
Aromi Park, violin
Kimberlee Uwate, viola (B.A. music ‘08)
Seth Biagini, cello
Program
Franz Schubert: Trio in B Flat Major, D. 471
Bohuslav Martin?: Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola
Paul Wiancko: American Haiku アメリカン俳句
Ernst von Dohnányi: Serenade for String Trio, op. 10
Read more about the artists and their performance here:
Catch Ongoing Exhibitions at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis
Learn about exhibitions at The Gorman Museum of Native American Art, The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art and the Design Museum. All are free.
Department of Art and Art History lecture series features Fernando Palma Rodríguez
Thursday, Nov. 7, 4:30 p.m., at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, free
Fernando Palma Rodríguez combines his training as an artist and mechanical engineer to create robotic sculptures that utilize custom software to perform complex, narrative choreographies. Central to Palma Rodríguez’s practice is an emphasis on indigenous ancestral knowledge, both as an integral part of contemporary life and a way of shaping the future.
Drawing on Aztec mythology and pictorial codices — as well as colonial histories — his works reframe language through the physical activation of these linguistic symbols. He lives in the agricultural region of Milpa Alta outside Mexico City, where he runs Calpulli Tecalco, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Nahua language and culture.
Experience magic with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Thursday, Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis
“When you’re talking about Cloud Gate, ‘magic’ is not too strong a word.” Effusive praise from no less a source than Time Out magazine, reads the Mondavi Center description of this event.
Formed in Taiwan in 1973, Cloud Gate is known for transforming ancient aesthetics into a thrilling and modern celebration of motion. Indeed, Cloud Gate could very well be compared to the story-ballet spectacle stylings of Mondavi Center favorites Ballet Preljocaj or Akram Khan. 13 Tongues is inspired by the childhood of current artistic director Cheng Tsung-lung and has been praised as “a sensationally big, indulgent, and visually arresting expression of cultural memory” (The Times).
Read the digital program PDF and get tickets
Explore Choreo-Ecologies: A Dance Dialogue with Nature
Thursday, Nov. 7 and Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m., Della Davidson Performance Studio in Nelson Hall, spots are full but check back for cancellations
Choreo-Ecologies, curated by Doria E. Charlson, visiting professor of dance, showcases works in development inspired by relationship of movement and nature. The student dancers will share their works-in-process on Nov. 7 and 8 at the Della Davidson Performance Studio in Nelson Hall.
Choreo-Ecologies is an investigative process undertaken by undergraduate dancers at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis aimed at exploring the myriad relationships between movement and nature. “Choreo-Ecologies” invites audiences to consider the ways in which our bodies are entangled within ecological systems and how attuning to the way the world moves around us can offer us new perspectives on our relationship to the planet and all its inhabitants.
In collaboration with scientists associated with the Center for Watershed Sciences at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, students have been engaging in choreographic research that is centered on the following questions: How can we attend to the choreographics of the world around us? How does/might our relationship to nature change when viewed through the lens of movement and dance? And, how can we use our bodies to visualize/embody/create/discover new modes of engagement with the natural world?
To participate, reserve tickets here: and .
Sneak peek/next week
Austrian filmmakers for award-winning 'The Devil's Bath' are Lunn Lecture speakers
Thursday, Nov. 14, 4-6 p.m., at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, free. Followed by film screening at Cruess Hall
"From Reality to Truth: (Re)Creating History in Film"
Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s most recent film, The Devil’s Bath (2024), was based on 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Professor Kathy Stuart’s original research. It won a Silver Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival and is Austria’s official entrant for the 2025 Academy Awards. It is this year's Eugene Lunn Memorial Lecture.
Franz and Fiala’s discussion, “From Reality to Truth: (Re)Creating History in Film” asks, “How do you (re)create history in a film? How do you depict a concrete place and time when only scarce sources convey a vague idea of how the past might have looked like and felt to its contemporaries…We’ll follow the path from fact to truth during the production of our film The Devil’s Bath," which tells a story about women's mental health, motherhood, and life in early Modern Europe.
The Devil's Bath (120 minutes) will have a separate showing on campus on Thursday, Nov. 14 in Cruess 1002 from 8:15-11 p.m. This includes a post- screening Q&A with the filmmakers and Professors Stuart and Kyu Kim. Like the Lunn Lecture, it is free and open to the public. The film will be screened in its original German with English subtitles.
Content warning: this film has some disturbing content and scenes.
and the book, event and film here. Read more about Stuart's research in this story.
The Pence Gallery’s annual Holiday Market returns to Davis
Running from Friday, Nov. 8 through Tuesday, Dec. 24, open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Opening reception is on Friday, Nov. 8, 6-9 p.m.
Do you need gifts for the upcoming holiday season? If you do, the Pence Gallery has you covered with their annual Holiday Market. Stop by to get your loved ones hand-crafted gifts made by local artists and artisans. Over 50 artists will be selling their work this year ranging from knit items to ceramics and jewelry.
Pence members receive 10% off all Holiday Market purchases! Watch for upcoming guide to arts-related gifts next month in the Arts Blog.
For more information visit
Share the joy of stand-up comedy with W. Kamau Bell Friday
Friday, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center of the Performing Arts
W. Kamau Bell returns to the world of stand-up, bringing his talent for “finding the comic absurdity in darkness” (Time Magazine) to the Jackson Hall stage for an illuminating evening of comedy.
Bell’s CNN docuseries United Shades of America won five Emmy awards, and he was awarded a Peabody for his docuseries We Need to Talk About Cosby. The list of accolades only continues to grow with his second book, Do the Work: An Antiracism Activity Book, making The New York Times bestseller list and his second comedy special, Private School Negro currently available on Netflix.
Get tickets here:
Save the date
‘Unexpected Legends’ film on 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Arts will appear on KVIE next Wednesday
Wednesday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m., KVIE
Unexpected Legends will make its television debut on . It will also be streaming on-demand through the PBS app.
The film is an extension of the Year of the Eggheads, a campuswide celebration of Robert Arneson, a longtime professor at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis and the creator of the five sculptures comprising the Egghead Series on campus that have elicited joy, engagement and conversation since their installation in 1994. A preview of the film, with an accompanying panel discussion of 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Art faculty and a student, was held at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art on Monday.
Stay in the loop by subscribing to the Eggheads newsletter and read the full article about the documentary here.
Media Resources
Arts Blog Editor: Karen Nikos-Rose, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu; subscribe to our newsletter.
The Arts Blog Weekender is published every Thursday! Next week, there will be a "week ahead" special edition on Tuesday because of the numerous art events happening this month.