Indulge your senses in Shaam-E-Ghazal poetry night

Thursday, Feb. 6, 5-5:30 p.m. reception, 5:30-7:30 event, at the UC Davis Conference Center, Ballroom A&B

Join the Hindi/Urdu Program for Shaam-E-Ghazal. Indulge your senses in an enchanting evening of ghazal, where poetry meets melody, with soul-stirring performances from renowned ghazal artists. Dinner will be provided and limited seats are available, RSVP here.

This event is organized by the Hindi/Urdu Program and supported by the Hindi Urdu Club and Pakistani Student Association at UC Davis. 

The Empyrean Ensemble plays 37th season

Thursday, Feb. 6, 12:05 p.m., Shinkoskey noon concert, Recital Hall at Ann E. Pitzer Center, free

Empyrean Ensemble
Sam Nichols, director • Matilda Hofman, resident conductor

Musicians Playing
Tod Brody, flute*
Peter Josheff, clarinet*
Michael Seth Orland, piano*
Chris Froh, percussion*
Hrabba Atladottir, violin*
Thalia Moore, cello*

*core member

Program

Pierre Boulez: Dérive 1

Laurie San Martin: Mondegreen (World Premiere)

Maurice Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Piano, M. 77

Tickets still available for Sasha Velour at Jackson Hall 

Friday, Feb. 7, 7:30 p.m. at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

The Big Reveal: Why Drag Matters, Now & Forever talk

Critically acclaimed gender-fluid drag queen, visual artist, speaker, illustrator and author, Sasha Velour has been a force in the international drag scene long before her scene-stealing, rose-petal-filled win on season nine of the Emmy Award-winning RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Following the talk, Sheri Atkinson, associate vice chancellor for Student Life, Campus Community and Retention Services, will moderate a discussion and Q&A. 

Get tickets here: Sasha Velour | Mondavi Center

Listen to Braxton Cook blend jazz, soul, and alternative R&B in quintet

Saturday, Feb. 8, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Blending jazz, soul, and alternative R&B, Braxton Cook is one of this generation’s most exciting emerging voices in the jazz world. 

 He has toured and performed with Christian McBride Big Band, Jon Batiste and Marquis Hill among others. Listed as a Top Five Jazz Artist to Watch by Ebony Magazine, Braxton has released six projects including his most recent album Who Are You When No One Is Watching. 

Presented in partnership with Future Foundation.

Get tickets here: Braxton Cook | Mondavi Center

Bereishit Dance Company brings worlds of martial arts, dance together 

Get discount tickets by Friday, Feb. 7

Thursday, Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, part of UC Davis ticket deal that expires Friday, Feb. 7

Founded in 2011 by acclaimed choreographer Soon-ho Park, the Bereishit Dance Company is known for their contemporary approach to traditional Korean culture with work that beautifully connects the forms and themes of sports and traditional arts.

Through dance and rhythm, Judo shows how sports can mediate and transcend our inner turmoil. It reflects competition, cooperation, conflict, and harmony in society.

In Balance & Imbalance, dancers seamlessly partner and then hurtle through space, employing the laws of physics to illustrate the constantly turning wheel of opposition and harmony at the heart of all relationships. The piece is set to traditional live Korean percussion and pansori, a kind of musical storytelling.

“A dance battle executed with the explosive force of gymnasts and the smooth exactitude of a K-pop boy band." — The New Yorker

Download the digital program PDF here: Bereishit Dance Company

To get the deal, get tickets here using promo code DANCE30: Bereishit Dance Company Tickets

In Sacramento

The Axis Gallery features artist Steve Briscoe 

Running now through Sunday, March 16, hours for Axis Gallery are 12-5 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, 625 S Street, Sacramento (this is a change in dates from previous posts)

Receptions on Second Saturdays, Feb. 8 from 5-8 p.m. and March 8 from 5-8 p.m.

The exhibition, Disputed territory: The Patriot/Profile/Portrait Scroll and Other Works, by Steve Briscoe spans three decades and includes graphic and sculptural works. The show's centerpiece is the Patriot/Profile/Portrait Scroll, a 30-foot-long work on paper, that ruminates on the post-9/11 security push that led to the Patriot Act and subsequent profiling apparatus that monitors and assesses threats. Started in 2002 and readdressed in 2019, this major work has only been exhibited publicly once. 

To learn more about Steve Briscoe and the Axis Gallery, go here.

Collidoscope: de la Torre Brothers Retro-Perspective starts this weekend at Crocker

Running from Sunday, Feb. 9 to Sunday, May 4, at the Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street, Sacramento

The exhibition, Collidoscope, is a thematic retrospective on the artistic and exploratory trajectory of Einar and Jamex de la Torre, the two siblings that comprise this artistic duo known as The de la Torre Brothers. 

Einar and Jamex were born in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1963 and 1960, respectively, but they have navigated life on both sides of the border since they were very young. For over three decades, the de la Torre Brothers have developed their signature style, creating colorful, mixed-media work through blown-glass sculpture, installation, and, most recently, lenticular imagery. In an over-the-top aesthetic frequently described as baroque, the pieces are at once humorous and critically earnest, manifesting influences ranging from religious iconography and German expressionism to the sculpture of the ancient Americas and Mexican folk art. The more than 40 works presented here are a kaleidoscopic collision of imagery and meaning drawn from the Brothers’ bi-national and bi-cultural experiences.

Get tickets here. 

Coming up

‘Olé Ham Nees: We Call Him Coyote’ coming soon to the Gorman Museum of Native American Art

On display from Wednesday, Feb. 12 through Sunday, Aug. 31, Gorman Museum of Native American Art, UC Davis

The solo-exhibition ”Olé Ham Nees: We Call Him Coyote” features the artwork of Harry Fonseca drawn from the Shingle Springs Band Collection.  Embracing the lifework of this former tribal citizen, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians acquired an important collection of works spanning his career.

The exhibition considers multiple series and stylistic shifts from his earliest pieces reflecting his Maidu heritage, the Coyote series for which he is most recognized, the influences of rock art in Stone Poems, the political views of Discovery of Gold and Souls in California, to the abstraction and examination of painting in the Stripes and Seasons series.

For more information on the exhibit, visit Olé Ham Nees: We Call Him Coyote | Gorman Museum. 

Heloísa Fernandes Quartet brings newly composed program to Jackson Hall stage

Thursday, Feb. 13 through Saturday, Feb. 15, performances at 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Sonho das águas (Dream of the Waters)

Strong and original, ancient and modern, Heloísa Fernandes’ music blossoms with rhythmic vitality and melodic delicacy, a style that has garnered her worldwide attention.

Fernandes brings her quartet with a newly composed program – Sonho das águas (Dream of the Waters). “The story,” she says about Dream of the Waters, “will be told in frames or chapters, which reflect moments of observation and reflection on the beauty, immensity and life that exists in the Amazon.

Her original compositions are profoundly influenced by literature, poetry, nature, classical music, jazz and Brazilian music. The Post and Courier describes her unique talent as “beyond categorization.” One listen and it’s easy to see why.

Tickets for Feb. 13: Heloísa Fernandes Quartet | Mondavi Center

Tickets for Feb. 14: Heloísa Fernandes Quartet | Mondavi Center

Tickets for Feb. 15: Heloísa Fernandes Quartet | Mondavi Center