Faculty News

S. Ama Wray named one of the CIES AD SIG Emerging Scholars

Prof. S. Ama Wray has been named one of the Comparative & International Education Society African Diaspora Special Interest Group’s (CIES AD SIG) Emerging Scholars. The award is given annually to exceptional scholars who are on the cutting edge and have the potential to make a contribution...

La Jolla's Best Bets for Events

UC San Diego’s 22nd annual Lytle Scholarship Concert, “Jazz Piano Summit,” will feature a unique solo improvisation set from visionary musicians Cecil Lytle, Kei Akagi, Mike Wofford and Tobin Chodos, capped off by a show-stopping finale that will merge the talents of all four performers, 3 p.m....

UC Irvine theater professor’s new production tells a story through physical movement

The runaway wanders the cold streets of Los Angeles grasping for meaning in the uncompromising urban sprawl. Fleeing a life of evangelical conformity, the girl hopes to find something valuable hidden within the city's outer husk. The perennial theme of the directionless child's search for identity...

Nicole Mitchell, an Innovative Flutist With an Afrofuturist Vision

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,...

Nicole Grimes, guest lecturer at UCSB

Nicole Grimes, Assistant Professor of Musicology, gave a guest leture at UCSB on December 29, 2017 called "A Disembodied Head for Mythic Justice: Brahms, Tantalus, and Gesang Der Parzen."

Eli Simon named The Daily Pilot/TimesOC Man of the Year in Theater for 2017

The Daily Pilot/TimesOC Man and Woman of the Year in Theater for 2017 are the artistic director of UC Irvine’s New Swan Shakespeare Festival and the executive director of One More Productions at the Gem Theater in Garden Grove, Eli Simon and Nicole Cassesso. Simon is a Chancellor’s Professor of...

Sheron Wray, Artist Residency with Wisconsin-Madison Interdisciplinary

"The Art of Improvisation" with Dr. Sheron Wray at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Spring 2018 This course will reveal how to apply improvisation methodologies to enable productive interdisciplinary collaborations, while also showing how to tap into your personal creativity, bound within...

Nicole Mitchell Top Best Jazz Concert of 2017

The Chicago Tribune named Nicole Mitchell and Malian kora virtuoso Ballake Sissoko's September performance at the University of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts one of the top jazz performances of the year for the "daring world premiere" of “Bamako*Chicago Sound System," calling it "intensely...

Nicole Grimes presented at the symposium Music Aesthetics in Britain in the Long Nineteenth Century

Nicole Grimes, Assistatn Professor of Musicology, presented a paper called "On Silencing Brahms: Ethics and Aesthetics in E. M. Forster's Howards End," at the symposium "Music Aesthetics in Britain in the Long-Nineteenth Century," King's College London, December 15-16, 2017.

Nicole Grimes gave talk at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Nicole Girmes, Assistant Professor of Musicology gave a talk at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on "Performing Wagner in Israel" on December 12, 2017.

Artforum names UCI faculty and alum in the "Best of 2017" issue

Congratulations to the Department of Art faculty and alumni from the were recently named in Artforum's “Best of 2017” issue. Rhea Anastas (faculty) Curator Jamillah James selects Cauleen Smith’s  "Lessons in Semaphore", curated by Rhea Anastas at UCI’s University Art Galleries, as one of...

Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble was Awarded an International Grant

Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble was awarded an international grant by USArtists International, a program of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, to perform at the Edison festival in Sweden. For more information on the final grant recipients.

Nicole Mitchell was awarded top jazz album of the year by the New York Times

Nicole Mitchell was awarded top jazz album of the year by the New York Times for Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble, “Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds” on FPE records.

For Women in Jazz, a Year of Reckoning and Recognition

This year women in the music industry, especially jazz, has managed to break through the barriers of sexism and stereotypes. Espereza Spalding is a bassist and vocalist that has recorded an entire album titled "Exposure", a portrayal of self expression and form of breaking social norms. For 77...

Nicole Mitchell profiled by the New York Times as leader of a banner year for women in jazz:

Christopher Dobrian at the Seoul International Computer Music Festival

Christopher Dobrian was an invited scholar and composer at the Seoul International Computer Music Festival in October. There he gave a lecture about his research on "Gesture, Acceleration, and Expressivity", and his composition Point of No Arrival for cello and computer was performed by Hea Mee Kim...

Christopher Dobrian Completed a Five-University Tour

Christopher Dobrian completed a five-university tour of concerts, lectures, and master classes in early November through the southeast U.S. [at the University of South Florida, Furman University, Columbus State University, Georgia Southern University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology] with...

Chris Dobrian and Mari Kimura Honoring Jean-Claude Risset

Chris Dobrian and Mari Kimura performed a memorial concert honoring composer and computer music pioneer Jean-Claude Risset in Winifred Smith Hall on November 17.