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The Maestro Has Left the Building

Dr. Stephen Tucker, 22-year music director for the UCI Symphony Orchestra, reflects on his time at CTSA By Matt Coker Stephen Tucker’s accomplishments would not only fill the orchestra pit but the entire Hollywood Bowl. The professor and Robert and Marjorie Rawlins Chair of Music teaches...

Shakespeare, Reunited

This, this! No more, you gods! Your present kindness Makes my past miseries sports. – Pericles By Christine Byrd Pericles’ joy over being reunited with his family after years apart may resonate with actors and audiences when Pericles, Prince of Tyre and The Comedy of Errrorrs (note the...

Arts Advocates: Matt Bailey

ARTS ENTREPRENEUR Q&A with Matt Bailey Trained as a fine art photographer, Matt Bailey blended artistry with entrepreneurship throughout his career — from opening a tattoo shop in Albuquerque to co-founding a software company serving photographers. Bailey went on to earn an M.B.A. from...

Catalyst for Innovation

Art students get creative outside gallery walls By Christine Byrd After more than a year away from campus due to the pandemic, Claire Trevor School of the Arts students were thrilled to get back into studios and in-person classes in fall 2021. For the five student leaders of the Catalyst...

Taking a Bow

By Christine Byrd One of the most satisfying parts of my tenure has been raising awareness of the way in which arts are radically interdisciplinary. Stephen Barker’s career is hard to pin down: He has been a dancer, actor, director, creative writer, translator, critical theorist and, for...

Forging a Common Bond

Three UCI M.F.A. artists from 1969-71 reconvene in an Armory exhibition in Pasadena. By Richard Chang In 1969, three young women entered the newly formed M.F.A. program at UCI not really knowing what to expect. They were all divorcees with children. Each was doing a kind of art that was...

Hooked from the Start

Professor Michael Hooker receives top honor for career achievement in sound design By Jill Kato Professor Michael Hooker has received the 2022 Distinguished Achievement Award in Sound Design from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), the premiere organization in his...

Arts Advocates: Mary Watson-Bruce

OPERA AFICIONADO Q&A with Mary Watson-Bruce Mary Watson-Bruce, Ph.D. social sciences ’82, has an extensive history with UCI. She served as the associate director of geriatric medicine at UCI for ten years, and her late husband, Dickson Bruce, was a professor of history for over four...

Christopher Adriance Named Vice President of Marketing for the Irvine Barclay Theatre

Christopher Adriance (B.Mu. ’11) recently joined the Irvine Barclay Theatre as the Vice President of Marketing, overseeing the organization’s strategic marketing, branding and communications. Adriance joins the Barclay after eight years with the Pacific Symphony. During his time at the...

Curtains Up

UCI alumni and faculty help reopen live theater on Broadway and national tours By Christine Byrd One of Kaden Kearney’s, M.F.A. ’19, last performances before the pandemic was at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Now, Kearney is taking curtain calls at the Kennedy Center and the Ahmanson...

Making Music Together

After a lonely year and a half, the UCI Symphony Orchestra is reveling in live performances once again. By Jill Kato After being away from the stage and studio, the students from the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) are emerging from the pandemic and ...

Learning the Steps

Young alumni are prepared to thrive in their professional dance careers By Christine Byrd Lauren Gresens’ final performance as a student was a solo in North Star, a piece by acclaimed modern dance choreographer and UCI professor Lar Lubovitch. When she graduated a few months later, in June...

Jeffrey Lo Strives to Connect Theater with Diverse Communities

By Richard Chang Since graduating from UC Irvine in 2010, Jeffrey Lo has kept busy. He has stuffed a résumé full of accomplishments while pursuing theater in Silicon Valley — not exactly the first place you might think of when it comes to live theater. But he’s a San Jose native, so blazing...

Arts Advocates: Susan Hori

CREATIVE DEFENDER Q&A with Susan Hori Susan Hori is a partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, where she specializes in land use and environmental law. She has supported the Claire Trevor School of the Arts since 1997, and has been a longtime member of the Medici Circle,...

Elaine Koshimizu Endowed Scholarship for Inclusive Excellence in Dance

The Department of Dance at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts ranks third in California and 10th in the U.S. Despite being nationally acclaimed, each year the department competes with other top dance programs to recruit high-achieving and underrepresented students in dance. Students often select...

Mari Kimura Explores Music’s Intersections with Technology and Science

By Richard Chang Mari Kimura, a professor of music at UCI’s Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology program, is connecting students, disciplines and departments with her groundbreaking work. She’s fostering collaboration and interaction during times when the coronavirus pandemic has...

Chloe King and Summer Session Uplift Queer Voices

Medici Scholars Chloe King and Summer Session Uplift Queer Voices in Searching for Shelter By Lauren Knight When UCI Drama M.F.A. directing candidates Chloe King and Summer Session started collaborating last summer, they had no idea that their co-directed project on racism in childhood would...

Emerging Brighter

UCI student artists discovered and honed new skills in 2021 By Christine Byrd When UCI moved operations online a year and a half ago, everyone gained new skills: creating an at-home studio, mastering Zoom meetings and troubleshooting technology. But as artists struggled to keep their creative...