Chancellor’s Professor of Music Kei Akagi releases a new album that features fellow UCI faculty members Kojiro Umezaki and Darek Oles: KEI AKAGI / AQUA PUZZLE Contemporary Asian Perspectives in American Music Kei Akagi (piano) Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi) Darek Oles (bass) Tamaya Honda (drums)

The masterful melodies of seven choral groups came together in Winifred Smith Hall here on campus on January 26th for the first annual AcaLove: Southern California A Cappella Festival.

To be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28, at the university’s acoustically superior Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, the two-hour fundraising event — aptly billed as a Jazz Piano Summit — will culminate with a joint performance by Cecil Lytle, Mike Wofford, Joshua White, Tobin Chodos and Kei Akagi.

Nicole Mitchell, 50, the artist-in-residence at this week’s Winter Jazzfest in New York, brings an eclectic ear and a frothy vigor to her instrument. The flute is rarely given much of a chance in jazz — maybe it seems too quiet, too liquid, too fey — but she has transcended all that, becoming a leading voice of the music’s cutting edge.

"New York pianist Kelly Moran turns the fuzzy, buzzy world of prepared piano into something more prismatic..."