School of Music

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and Professor Mike Lee for an evening of music featuring the fortepiano.

Internationally acclaimed saxophonist Anna Marie Wytko leads a masterclass at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. About Anna Marie Wytko: Saxophonist Anna Marie Wytko, whose playing has been described by The Absolute Sound as “extraordinary” and the Uruguayan Press as “impeccable,” is University Distinguished Professor of Saxophone within the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Kansas State University. A Yamaha Performing Artist-Clinician and KSU International Educator of the Year Award Winner, Dr. Wytko is a globally acclaimed recording, performing, and teaching artist, as well as a globally praised author of multiple books, articles, and other publications. Sample albums include When Night Came, Anna Marie Wytko – Saxophonist, The Loveliness of Air – I Can’t Breathe, Muddle, and Phraseology. Published by RJ Upmarket Press, Dr. Wytko authored pedagogy books The Saxophonist As Rank Beginner and Beyond: A Guide for Saxophone Methods Class, Band Directors, and Private Instructors and The Saxophonist As Musician First – A Sampling Of Resources. As concerto soloist, Anna Marie has performed in Carnegie Hall in the famous Stern Auditorium on the esteemed Perelman Stage, and in the historic National Theatre of Costa Rica with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. She has performed as concerto soloist with the Polish Air Force Wind Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, the Banda Sinfónica de Montevideo in Uruguay, with the National Bands of San José and Alajuela in Costa Rica, and with orchestras throughout England and Scotland, among many others. Internationally, Dr. Wytko has performed as guest recitalist and taught as guest professor at institutions such as the Royal College of Music in London, the Royal Birmingham Conservatory of Music, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, the Conservatorio Nacional Superior de Música de Buenos Aires, the University of Zagreb Academy of Music, the Akademia Muzyczna of Poland, the Universidad de Costa Rica, and throughout Italy at the national conservatories of Milan, Florence, Bologna, and Perugia. The winner of numerous awards and prizes, Anna Marie is a Yamaha Young Performing Artist First Prize Winner, Butterfield Young Artists Concerto Competition First Prize Winner, International Incentive Grant award recipient, and Mortar Board National Honor Society for “Exemplary in Instruction and Dedication to the Students’ Experience” award recipient, among numerous others. Please visit Anna Marie’s website for further information.

  From lush melodies and jazz-inflected rhythms to music born of war, resilience and cultural memory, this concert takes audiences on a journey across continents and musical traditions. The musical journey begins with William Grant Still’s lush Romance, the first known concert piece for saxophone by an African American composer. Next, immerse yourself in the brilliant three-movement Concertino by French composer Jeanine Rueff. Featuring a jazz-inspired final movement, audiences will be certain to dance the rest of the night away following this delightful and joyous music. The California premiere of Seattle-based composer Karen P. Thomas’ When night came reflects the horrors of the war in the former Yugoslavia and, in particular, the atrocities committed against the women of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Partly a lament, the piece is also a tribute to the strength and resilience of these women. Czech composer Jindřich Feld’s substantial Sonate pushes the boundaries of sonic and technical virtuosity in this highly flavorful composition. Last but certainly not least, embrace the rich melodies of Retorno (Return) by Costa Rican composer Federico Molina Campos in this U.S. premiere. For more information about the artists, visit the program.

A Symposium at UCLA October 1-3, 2026 This three-day symposium welcomes scholars, practitioners, and students to join the international Black Opera Research Network (BORN) for papers, a workshop, a performance, and the North American premiere of an opera film. Highlights include a performance by composer Yvette Janine Jackson and her Radio Opera Workshop ensemble; a presentation on the launch of BORN’s Black Opera Critical Editions series; and a screening of the South African opera film Nkoli: A Fierce and Fabulous Life, about anti- Apartheid and AIDS activist Simon Nkoli, with an introduction by the composer and music director. For the most up-to-date information and further details about the symposium please visit our event website: https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/opera-black-queer/ This event is made possible by the UCLA Chancellor’s Arts Initiative, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities, the UCLA Walter H. Rubsamen Music Library and the UCLA Music Library’s Hugo and Christine Davise Fund. Yvette Janine Jackson and the screening of Nkoli are presented in partnership with CAP UCLA at the UCLA Nimoy Theater. This program is made possible by the Joyce S and Robert U. Nelson Fund. Robert Uriel Nelson was a revered musicologist and music professor at UCLA, who, together with his wife, established a generous endowment for the university to make programs like this possible.

A Symposium at UCLA October 1-3, 2026 This three-day symposium welcomes scholars, practitioners, and students to join the international Black Opera Research Network (BORN) for papers, a workshop, a performance, and the North American premiere of an opera film. Highlights include a performance by composer Yvette Janine Jackson and her Radio Opera Workshop ensemble; a presentation on the launch of BORN’s Black Opera Critical Editions series; and a screening of the South African opera film Nkoli: A Fierce and Fabulous Life, about anti- Apartheid and AIDS activist Simon Nkoli, with an introduction by the composer and music director. For the most up-to-date information and further details about the symposium please visit our event website: https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/opera-black-queer/ This event is made possible by the UCLA Chancellor’s Arts Initiative, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities, the UCLA Walter H. Rubsamen Music Library and the UCLA Music Library’s Hugo and Christine Davise Fund. Yvette Janine Jackson and the screening of Nkoli are presented in partnership with CAP UCLA at the UCLA Nimoy Theater. This program is made possible by the Joyce S and Robert U. Nelson Fund. Robert Uriel Nelson was a revered musicologist and music professor at UCLA, who, together with his wife, established a generous endowment for the university to make programs like this possible.

A Symposium at UCLA October 1-3, 2026 This three-day symposium welcomes scholars, practitioners, and students to join the international Black Opera Research Network (BORN) for papers, a workshop, a performance, and the North American premiere of an opera film. Highlights include a performance by composer Yvette Janine Jackson and her Radio Opera Workshop ensemble; a presentation on the launch of BORN’s Black Opera Critical Editions series; and a screening of the South African opera film Nkoli: A Fierce and Fabulous Life, about anti- Apartheid and AIDS activist Simon Nkoli, with an introduction by the composer and music director. For the most up-to-date information and further details about the symposium please visit our event website: https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/opera-black-queer/ This event is made possible by the UCLA Chancellor’s Arts Initiative, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities, the UCLA Walter H. Rubsamen Music Library and the UCLA Music Library’s Hugo and Christine Davise Fund. Yvette Janine Jackson and the screening of Nkoli are presented in partnership with CAP UCLA at the UCLA Nimoy Theater. This program is made possible by the Joyce S and Robert U. Nelson Fund. Robert Uriel Nelson was a revered musicologist and music professor at UCLA, who, together with his wife, established a generous endowment for the university to make programs like this possible.

On the 100th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth year, The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s global jazz studies program will celebrate this giant of the saxophone, this jazz innovator and spiritual/artistic icon of the Black Arts Movement, this patron saint of avant garde. This symposium will honor Coltrane in words. The keynote address will be delivered by  Archbishop Franzo King, co-founder of the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church. The keynote address in addition to remarks by the archbishop will feature music from members of the church. Theodore A. Harris, Coltrane’s Thunderclap, 1998, paper collage. 11X17in   ABOUT THE ART WORK Theodore A. Harris, Coltrane’s Thunderclap. 1998, paper collage, 11×17 in. Theodore A. Harris (1966-) is a Philadelphia-based visual artist and poet. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is in private and public collections such as Libraries and Museum University of Delaware, Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Saint Louis University Museum of Art, La Salle University Art Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, McGill University Visual Arts Collection, Center for Africana Studies; University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center Rare Books and Manuscript Library; University of Pennsylvania, and the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, and the Winston and Carolyn Lowe Collection. Harris is the co-founder of the Anti-Graffiti Network/Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Harris has also co-authored and authored books including Our Flesh of Flames (2019), Malcolm X as Ideology (2008) with Amiri Baraka, TRIPTYCH with Amiri Baraka and Jack Hirschman (2011), i ran from it and was still in it with Fred Moten (2007), and Thesentür: Conscientious Objector to Formalism (2017). He is the Founding Artistic Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Black Aesthetics. LEARN MORE: THEODORE A. HARRIS – Home

On the 100th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth year, The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s global jazz studies program will celebrate this giant of the saxophone, this jazz innovator and spiritual/artistic icon of the Black Arts Movement, this patron saint of avant garde. Theodore A. Harris, Coltrane’s Thunderclap, 1998, paper collage. 11X17in   ABOUT THE ART WORK Theodore A. Harris, Coltrane’s Thunderclap. 1998, paper collage, 11×17 in. Theodore A. Harris (1966-) is a Philadelphia-based visual artist and poet. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is in private and public collections such as Libraries and Museum University of Delaware, Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Saint Louis University Museum of Art, La Salle University Art Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, McGill University Visual Arts Collection, Center for Africana Studies; University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center Rare Books and Manuscript Library; University of Pennsylvania, and the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, and the Winston and Carolyn Lowe Collection. Harris is the co-founder of the Anti-Graffiti Network/Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Harris has also co-authored and authored books including Our Flesh of Flames (2019), Malcolm X as Ideology (2008) with Amiri Baraka, TRIPTYCH with Amiri Baraka and Jack Hirschman (2011), i ran from it and was still in it with Fred Moten (2007), and Thesentür: Conscientious Objector to Formalism (2017). He is the Founding Artistic Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Black Aesthetics. LEARN MORE: THEODORE A. HARRIS – Home

Join us for the first of six workshops as part of the Modal Interchange: Conversations on 21st-Century Performance Practices series with Vicki Ray, a Los Angeles based composer and pianist, who will join Wendy Richman in a conversation about concert programming and commissioning new works. Concert Curation IS Composition! Every musician presenting a concert is: a composer! In this talk I’ll explore different ways to think about concert programming and how the works you program constitute a meta-composition. Using musical examples I’ll explore the way connections between worlds – musical and otherwise – can create fresh, interesting juxtapositions that challenge (and hopefully delight!) the performer as well as the listener. Folded into this approach is the opportunity to commission new works that can tie previously unrelated pieces together and expand the repertoire of our instrument. Bio Described as “phenomenal and fearless” Vicki Ray is a pianist, improviser and composer. She has commissioned and premiered countless new works by today’s leading composers. Ray is a founding member of Piano Spheres and was, for many years, the head of keyboard studies at the California Institute of the Arts where she was named the first recipient of the Hal Blaine Chair in Musical Performance. She has appeared on numerous international festivals and was a regular member of the faculty at the Bang On a Can Summer Festival at MASS MoCA. Ray has been featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series as soloist and collaborative artist. Her widely varied performing and recording career covers the gamut of new and old music: from Boulez to Reich, Wadada Leo Smith to Beethoven. Notable recordings include the first Canadian disc of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Blue Rider Ensemble, the premiere recordings of Steve Reich’s You Are (Variations) and the Daniel Variations with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the first recording of John Cage’s Europeras 3 and 4. Her recording of Cage’s The Ten Thousand Things on Microfest Records received 2013 Grammy nomination. Vicki can also be seen playing the chromelodeon in the Los Angeles based PARTCH ensemble. Vicki Ray is a Steinway artist. More about Modal Interchange: Conversations on 21st-Century Performance Practices The personality of Los Angeles’s new music scene mirrors its city’s culture and geography as a whole: equal parts diversity and decentralization, in a battle for recognition and relevance that crisscrosses 650 freeway miles. This series casts a wide net around the new music community, hosting a diverse group of individuals who might not otherwise share the same artistic and academic spaces in a series of lecture-workshops geared to an audience of performers. Modal Interchange is a series of six workshops through 2026-27. Each workshop focuses on an element of 21st-century performing, programming, and music-making in the world of contemporary music: histories of experimental music and the avant-garde, commissioning new works, concert programming, listening as an audience member, listening as a performer, score-reading and part-marking, learning and practicing contemporary works, researching and writing program notes, improvisation, and activism. This series is conceived and hosted by violist Wendy Richman and produced in partnership with the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities. Dr. Richman is Lecturer in Performance Studies, Director of uclaFLUX, and a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble. For the full schedule, please visit our website: https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/modal-interchange-conversations-on-21st-century-performance-practices/

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for a screening of the film “Arnold Schoenberg and That Ol’ Atonal Music: A Conversation” featuring interviews with Larry Schoenberg and Alex Ross in the Schoenberg Rockingham house, followed by in-person discussion with Schoenberg family members, Alex Ross and the makers of the film.

Huib Schippers argues that the history of ethnomusicology shows an organic development towards public-facing work, and discusses the skill sets needed in the field to improve lives through music. Abstract: An interesting thing happened to ethnomusicology on its way to the 21st century. While beginnings in the 1800s kept it carefully away from direct interaction with the people who make music, culture and context became increasingly important in the second half of the 20th century. Towards 2000, an awareness had dawned that the musicians we work with and their communities perhaps should be at the center of our efforts. This first manifested as “giving back” research outputs (such as recordings) to the community, and later expanded into working with communities on an equal footing to serve their agendas in and through music. In this talk, I will argue that this very short history constitutes an organic development towards public-facing work, and discuss how applied ethnomusicologists require new skill sets to engage successfully with an exciting range of contemporary applied work in the realms of social justice, health, institutions, media, cultural sustainability and crisis recovery. Bio: Huib Schippers is one of the world’s leading scholars on the crossroads of music education, community music, music industry, cultural diversity, and sustainability. In over three decades of leadership roles in arts and academia, he founded the World Music School in Amsterdam (1990-1996), the World Music & Dance Centre in Rotterdam (2001-2006), and Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre in Australia (2003-2015). Next, he directed Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (2016-2020), served as UC Regents’ Professor at UCLA (2022) and as Visiting Professor at CCOM in Beijing (2023). In 2025, he was proclaimed Distinguished Changjiang Professor and became Founding Director of the International Centre for Cultural Sustainability at Zhaoqing University in China. Schippers has initiated applied projects on five continents and published over 200 publications for scholarly and general audiences, mostly on cultural diversity, artistic research, systems of learning, and cultural sustainability, including Facing the Music: Shaping Music Education from a Global Perspective (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2010); Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures (OUP, 2016) and Music, Communities, Sustainability (OUP, 2022). https://huibschippers.org/

Join The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for the second annual UCLA Bassoon Day. Spearheaded by John Steinmetz, director of the bassoon studio, this event will feature a full day of bassoon classes, performance, reedmaking, bassoon band, with bassoon related vendors showing instruments, reeds, and accessories. This event will take place in the Band Room (1345) and is open to students of all levels.

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for an evening performance in Schoenberg Hall spearheaded by Professor Dante De Silva featuring UCLA Faculty.

Masanga Marimba will perform a selection of pieces from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Cameroon, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico on Zimbabwean-style marimbas, mbira, drums, and percussion. Participation is appreciated! Masanga Marimba performs traditional and popular music from Africa and Latin America. The instruments used in this ensemble consist of seven Zimbabwean marimbas of various sizes along with vocals, drums, and percussion. The word “Masanga” comes from a Shona word that means the coming together of rivers or roads representing the meeting of African and Latin musical traditions in this group. Masanga Marimba formed in the year 2000 and has performed at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles County Music Center, Grand Performances, Getty Center, Skirball Cultural Center, Ford Amphitheatre, California Worldfest, Millpond Music Festival, Strawberry Festival, and many other high profile music venues. The ensemble has opened for Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Beck, Lana Del Rey, John Mayer, Nora Jones, Father John Misty, Los Lobos, Ziggy Marley, Pink Martini, and many others. The group is led by Dr. Ric Alviso (UCLA Ethnomusicology PhD 2002), Professor of World Music at California State University Northridge. Professor Alviso studied traditional African music in Senegal, Zimbabwe, and Ghana. The members of Masanga have degrees in percussion performance, music composition, jazz performance, and music therapy. Masanga is one of the only marimba ensembles in the U.S. that combines Latin and African traditions. For more information go to: www.masanga.com This concert is presented in conjunction with the symposium “Music Alive in the Archive: Legacy and Promise–65 Years of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive,” a two-day event in celebration of the 65th anniversary of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as we welcome pianist Elizabeth Schumann for the Fall installment of our 2026/27 David L. Abell Piano Master Series, a concert series which features renowned artists visiting UCLA to perform and work with our piano students.   About Elizabeth Schumann: Dr. Elizabeth Schumann is a concert pianist, educator, and interdisciplinary artist whose work spans leading concert halls, public art initiatives, and research at the intersection of the arts, technology, and human performance. Described by The Washington Post as “deft, relentless, and devastatingly good—the sort of performance you experience not so much with your ears as your solar plexus,” she approaches the concert stage as a place where artistry and inquiry meet, offering audiences experiences that link music with the broader human story. ​ As a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist, she has performed at the Kennedy Center, Vienna’s Bösendorfer Saal, Weill at Carnegie Hall, Montreal’s Place des Arts, San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Musical Instruments Museum in Phoenix, Ravinia’s Rising Stars Series, Australia’s Huntington Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, and the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. Her performances have been featured on NPR’s Performance Today, PBS, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Honors include the Gilmore Young Artist Award, first prizes at the Bösendorfer and Pacific International Piano Competitions, and awards at the Cleveland, Hilton Head, Montreal, and World International Piano Competitions. ​ Her portfolio extends beyond traditional concert work to collaborative projects that place music in fresh contexts. She has developed touring productions that integrate performance with narrative and visual design, large-scale public installations that transform city spaces into concert venues, and educational programs for children and underserved communities that pair music with literature and live storytelling. These include Piano Carnival, which grew from a 15-city tour into a book, CD, and interactive applications reaching more than 20,000 students and teachers; Son et Lumière, premiered at Boston’s Illuminus Festival and later commissioned for the Pike & Rose Audio Visual Arts Festival, attracting audiences of over 8,000; and Pianimal, a concert and video series presented across the United States and distributed to children’s hospitals through partnerships with leading arts organizations. Across these projects, her aim is to allow audiences to meet music on their own terms and to experience its power without barriers of price or pretense. Her work has also reached international audiences through U.S. Embassy cultural diplomacy programs, building connections and mutual understanding through performance. ​ Carrying on the pedagogical tradition of her teacher, Sergei Babayan, Dr. Schumann has taught at Winter and Summer Performing Arts at The Juilliard School, Itzhak Perlman’s Perlman Music Program, the Crowden Chamber Music Workshop, and the Vancouver Piano Sessions. She is the Billie Bennett Director of Keyboard Studies and Assistant Professor of Music at Stanford University, where she combines conservatory-level training with insights from neuroscience, psychology, and biomechanics to help pianists achieve expressive freedom while minimizing injury risk. At Stanford, her research examines how physiology, pedagogy, and instrument design shape performance, with applications that extend beyond the arts to fields such as medicine, rehabilitation, and human performance science. ​ Through collaborations that unite artists, scientists, and community leaders, Dr. Schumann expands how people encounter and engage with music. Her work demonstrates how these connections can open new possibilities, deepen understanding, and inspire contributions that reach beyond the concert hall.

Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be! – Don Quixote Immerse yourself in the fantastical world of Don Quixote, where comic misadventures, tender moments and heroic dreams come vividly to life in Richard Strauss’s dazzling tone poem. As the Don, UCLA Philharmonia welcomes our new Professor of Cello Ben Hong in his Philharmonic debut, alongside his trusty sidekick Sancho Panza (aka UCLA Professor of Viola Che-Yen Chen). Before intermission, we’ll do a deep dive into the novel and the tone poem with Prof. Hong, UCLA Distinguished Professor Barbara Fuchs (one of the world’s leading Cervantes scholars) and our Philharmonia musicians. All hail the Knight Errant!

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for the first Wind Ensemble concert of the 2026-2027 season.

Please join the Milken Center for a gala 90th birthday celebration featuring the music of Steve Reich, one of the leading composers of our time, and a paradigmatic musician of American Jewish experience. Works to include Eight Lines, Know what is above you, WTC 9/11 and Tehillim.

The UCLA Guitar Ensemble presents the culmination of its Improvisation Workshop with the Radu Valcu Quintet, featuring chamber and ensemble performances by UCLA guitar students, alumni, and guests. Directed by the Radu Valcu Quintet and conducted by Dr. Mircea Gogoncea, the program explores new and existing classical-jazz fusion works, highlighting improvisation as a vital part of contemporary performance practice.

Join UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s Percussion Ensemble for their Fall installment of their quarterly performance series.

Join us for a night of new music composed by UCLA undergraduate composition students.   Among one of the most competitive schools for composition in the country, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music boasts performances of music written by ferociously talented and exceptionally gifted young composers.   Please come support their endeavors as we kick off the 2025-26 school year of composers concerts!

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for an afternoon of music featuring the students of Dr. Jan Berry Baker.

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for an evening of chamber music highlighting members of the brass family.

Join us for the second of six workshops as part of the Modal Interchange: Conversations on 21st-Century Performance Practices series with Jonathan Hepfer, percussionist and artistic director of Monday Evening Concerts, who will join Wendy Richman (Academic Lecturer and Director of uclaFLUX at UCLA) in a conversation about how to develop as a working artist. Sisyphus as Artist (Whatever prevents you from doing your work has become your work) Whether navigating complex scores or directing a series, the common denominator is simply problem solving: using one’s sense of logic, aesthetics, ethics, and intuition to figure out how to get from A to B. Every project or piece is completely different, requiring constant reinvention and re-equipping of one’s toolbox. More abstractly, but of equal or greater weight, is the importance of nurturing non-musical artistic and creative interests while we hone our problem-solving skills. Whether performer, presenter, painter, or poet, artists flourish when we connect through our shared goal: to make a lasting impression on the souls of those around us. Bio Jonathan Hepfer is a percussionist, conductor, and concert curator. He began playing classical music at age seventeen after discovering the work of John Cage while studying at SUNY Buffalo. Subsequently, Jonathan attended Oberlin Conservatory, UC San Diego and the Musikhochschule Freiburg (on a DAAD fellowship) where he studied with Michael Rosen, Steven Schick and Bernhard Wulff. ​Since 2015, he has been the Artistic Director of Monday Evening Concerts (MEC) in Los Angeles as well as its resident ensemble ECHOI. At MEC, Jonathan has directed performances of major works by Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Julius Eastman, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Gérard Grisey, Sarah Hennies, Yves Klein, Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Salvatore Sciarrino, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, Simeon Ten Holt and Iannis Xenakis. As a curator and producer, he has presented works by Georges Aperghis, Pierluigi Billone, Carolyn Chen, Chaya Czernowin, Julius Eastman, David Hammons, Sarah Hennies, György Kurtág, Klaus Lang, Alvin Lucier, Hans Otte, Éliane Radigue, Michael Pisaro-Liu, Caroline Shaw, Wadada Leo Smith, Steven Takasugi, Davóne Tines and Wu Tsang. Jonathan has directed (or co-directed) projects at venues such as the Getty Museum, Harvard University, Hauser & Wirth, Jeffrey Deitch, LACMA, LAXART, Marciano Art Foundation, the Santa Monica Carousel (Frieze), Thomas Mann House and the Pinault Collection in Paris. ​As a percussion soloist, Jonathan has focused extensively on the works of Georges Aperghis, Pierluigi Billone, Julius Eastman, Brian Ferneyhough, Morton Feldman, Vinko Globokar, Helmut Lachenmann, Giacinto Scelsi, Iannis Xenakis and Walter Zimmermann. In this capacity, he has performed widely across the United States, Europe and Asia. Recent independent projects have included serving as artistic director for a portrait of Julius Eastman at the Pinault Collection in Paris (a collaboration with Anaïs Ngbanzo, Dev Hynes and Adam Tendler) and performing the role of conductor in a revival of Deborah Hay’s ‘Solo 2’ at the Getty Museum. Jonathan has also contributed to projects by friends such as Henrik Purienne (‘Tasjaki’ at Galerie Chenel), Vanessa Beecroft and Gustave Rudman (‘Two Shadows’ at Jeffrey Deitch) and Henri Levy Alexandre (Enfants Riches Déprimés S/S ’25). He has published interviews with Meredith Monk (Autre Magazine), Éliane Radigue (Purple Magazine) and Steve Reich (Kaleidoscope Magazine). Jonathan also documented the oral histories of the pioneering generation of percussion soloists (Jan Williams, Christoph Caskel, Sylvio Gualda, Jean-Pierre Drouet, Gaston Sylvestre, Maurizio Ben Omar). Jonathan has served on the faculty at Art Center Pasadena and Cal Arts. He is interested in the ways that music intersects with visual art, literature, architecture, fashion and film. More about Modal Interchange: Conversations on 21st-Century Performance Practices The personality of Los Angeles’s new music scene mirrors its city’s culture and geography as a whole: equal parts diversity and decentralization, in a battle for recognition and relevance that crisscrosses 650 freeway miles. This series casts a wide net around the new music community, hosting a diverse group of individuals who might not otherwise share the same artistic and academic spaces, in a series of lecture-workshops geared to an audience of performers. Modal Interchange is a series of six workshops through 2026-27. Each workshop focuses on an element of 21st-century performing, programming, and music-making in the world of contemporary music: histories of experimental music and the avant-garde, commissioning new works, concert programming, listening as an audience member, listening as a performer, score-reading and part-marking, learning and practicing contemporary works, researching and writing program notes, improvisation, and activism. This series is conceived and hosted by violist Wendy Richman and produced in partnership with the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities. Dr. Richman is Lecturer in Performance Studies, Director of uclaFLUX, and a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble. For the full schedule, please visit our website: https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/modal-interchange-conversations-on-21st-century-performance-practices/

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for an evening in historic Schoenberg Hall featuring Dr. Travis Cross, Jens Lindemann, and other world-class faculty in a performance of Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat.

UCLA student combos and ensembles directed by world-class jazz artists will be performing well-known jazz standards, contemporary works, and pop songs, as well as compositions by the faculty directors and the students.

UCLA student combos and ensembles directed by world-class jazz artists will be performing well-known jazz standards, contemporary works, and pop songs, as well as compositions by the faculty directors and the students.

UCLA student combos and ensembles directed by world-class jazz artists will be performing well-known jazz standards, contemporary works, and pop songs, as well as compositions by the faculty directors and the students.

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for an evening featuring the students of Professor Benjamin Smolen.