Music News

UCI's Creative Engine

Through art, dance, music and drama, UCI artists push boundaries and fuel innovation By Christine Byrd This winter, the Claire Trevor School of the Arts will treat audiences to riveting performances and thought-provoking exhibitions, all of which are the result of a thriving creative engine...

The Highly Collective Work of ICIT’s “Circadian Etudes”

And the pursuit of ‘remote interconnectedness’ Inherent to UCI’s Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology (ICIT) Ph.D. program is collaboration; all projects to emerge from the ICIT program suggest a degree of collectivity and interactivity. Rather—the entire music-making process...

ICIT Alumnus Omar Costa Hamido publishes groundbreaking dissertation work on quantum computing and music.

When considering music and technology, most people probably do not think of the intersection between creative expression through music and new directions in quantum computing. The work of Omar Costa Hamido–a recent recipient of a doctoral degree from the Claire Trevor School of the Arts (Ph.D. in...

New Book: Rethinking Brahms, edited by Nicole Grimes and Reuben Phillips

The Department of Music is pleased to announce the publication of a new book, Rethinking Brahms, edited by Nicole Grimes and Reuben Phillips, and published by Oxford University Press. The book features chapters by two core faculty members in the Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Music Program: Dr...

Ph.D. Candidate Joao Martins wins prestigious musicology award

Joao Martins, a candidate in the Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Music program at the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts Department of Music, has won the 2022 Ingolf Dahl Award in Musicology. This award was established by the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society in...

Flutist is flying high

UCI Symphony Orchestra member Savanna Nygard has found inspiration in nature – and an act of generosity by Dhanika Pineda, UCI | October 17, 2022 Savanna Nygard started playing the flute when she was 10 years old. An avid “birder,” she associates the sound of her craft with birdsong, which...

Marlaina Owens Is An Operatic Force to Reckon With

The Fulbright scholar on privilege, Paris and the paired criticisms of being ‘too much’ By Mia Hammett A classical singer, actress and performer, Marlaina Owens has the pleasure of adding “2022-23 Fulbright Scholar” to an already extensive set of professional arts experiences. Owens...

Amplifying a classic Black music genre

UCI to host 25th anniversary African American Art Song Alliance conference By Nick Schou, UCI | October 9, 2022 If early African American classical music composers such as Scott Joplin, who went bankrupt trying to promote his 1911 opera “Treemonisha,” had been better received by white...

Flourishing this fall: UCI arts

Upcoming performance season includes such bold and ambitious programs as a modern take on ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Nick Schou, UCI | September 26, 2022 After a two-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UCI once again hosted its popular New Swan Shakespeare Festival on campus this summer. With...

Made in California

The arts and education helped new dean Tiffany Ana López reimagine her own life By Christine Byrd For Tiffany Ana López, joining the Claire Trevor School of the Arts as dean is a double homecoming. Both a return to her native California and to the public higher-education system that shaped...

Dynamic choral conductor joins the UCI Music faculty

  Irvine, Calif., September 6, 2022 — The Department of Music in the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts has named Dr. Irene Messoloras an Assistant Professor of Music. In her role, Messoloras will direct the department’s choral activities, conduct the UCI Chamber Singers and...

UCI Music to host the 25-Year Anniversary African American Art Song Alliance Conference

The Quinquennial Conference Celebrates Black Leaders in Classical Music Irvine, Calif., August 10, 2022 — The Department of Music at UCI is pleased to host the 25th Anniversary African American Art Song Alliance Conference, which will take place on October 13-16, 2022, at the UCI Claire...

Umezaki joins the the first Silkroad Ensemble tour with Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens

Now in his 21st year with the ensemble, Professor Kojiro Umezaki joined the summer Phoenix Rising tour including performances at the Newport International Folk Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center. The summer festival tour was the first with MacArthur Fellow and multiple GRAMMY...

Professor of Music Mari Kimura nominated for OC 2022 Innovator of the Year

Professor of Music Mari Kimura has been nominated for the 8th annual Innovator of the Year honor presented by the Orange County Business Journal (OCBJ). Kimura is one of 74 outstanding nominees from various industries throughout Orange County.    This program is...

CTSA celebrates alumni during the month of August

At the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, August is Alumni Appreciation Month! We have dedicated our Instagram account to celebrating our alums' work and accomplishments in and beyond the arts all month long. Spend the month learning more about just a few of our outstanding alumni! CTSA alums from...

Artful Summers

Summer Academies in the Arts offer college and career preparatory programs  By Christine Byrd Mafer Reyes had been dancing at private studios and ballet academies since she was 5 years old. But when it came time to think about college, she realized she had no idea what to...

Nicole Grimes receives Danijela Kulezic-Wilson Prize Honorable Mention

Nicole Grimes receives Society for Musicology in Ireland’s Danijela Kulezic-Wilson Prize Honorable Mention The Department of Music is pleased to share the news that Associate Professor of Music, Nicole Grimes, has received the Danijela Kulezic-Wilson Prize 2022 Honorable Mention for her book...

The Music Pioneer

Mari Kimura came to BU to study violin performance and left as an innovator at the intersection of art and technology Excerpt from CFA, a publication of the Boston University College of Fine Arts By Joel Brown May 16, 2022 "Now a professor of music in the Integrated Composition,...