School of Music

As the United States celebrates its semiquincentennial, the UCLA Wind Ensemble opens its season with a program exploring America’s triumphs and tragedies. The concert opens with Robert Jager’s festive Esprit de Corps, written for “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band and based on the Marines’ Hymn. Eric Ewazen’s A Hymn for the Lost and the Living, written just months after 9/11, marks the 25th anniversary of one of the darkest days in American history. Sung by marching Revolutionary War soldiers, Chester, originally penned by 18th-century musician William Billings and set in theme-and-variations form by Pulitzer Prize winner William Schuman in the 1950s, was the de facto national anthem of its time. We honor the late H. Robert Reynolds (1934–2026), a true titan of wind band music, by playing his transcription of Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium, which he guest conducted with the UCLA Wind Ensemble at Schoenberg Hall in November 2015. The program closes with Omar Thomas’s powerful Of Our New Day Begun, which quotes “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and was written in the aftermath of the 2015 terrorist attack on Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C.

Join us before the Steve Reich @ 90 performance for an enlightening discussion. Many factors (language, speech, text) make up the programmatic content of a series of Steve Reich’s works – we are focusing on the Jewish themed works. The symposium seeks to problematize the Jewish aspects of Reich’s work, which has been a significant influence in recent decades.  Andrea Moore, a grad of the UCLA Musicology doctoral program (Smith College), will focus on WTC 9/11 as a 9/11 commemoration piece and Ryan Scott Ebright (Bowling Green State University), will focus on The Cave, and UCLA Professor of Musicology and Director of the Berry Gordy Music Industry Center, Robert Fink, an expert on minimalism, will be in conversation with Mark Kligman.

Please join the Milken Center for a 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. A symposium prior to the event will take place with engaging conversations with leading experts in the music of Steve Reich and Minimalism. Register here. Interested in hearing more Steve Reich music? uclaFLUX, the School of Music’s contemporary chamber music collective (Wendy Richman, Director), joins the Milken Center in presenting a second program of the music of Steve Reich on December 5, 2026. The concert features three large ensemble works (Runner, Traveler’s Prayer, and Daniel Variations, in memory of journalist Daniel Pearl) led by Director of Orchestral Studies Neal Stulberg and graduate student conductors; and New York Counterpoint, for SATB saxophone quartet and tape. This program—which serves as uclaFLUX’s Fall Quarter concert, in addition to honoring Reich in his 90th birthday year—will feature over 30 School of Music student performers. More information here.

Out of the Depths: the first collection of Holocaust songs tells the story of a small songbook, produced in Bucharest in 1945. It contains the first collection of songs from survivors of camps and ghettos, those hiding in forests, or those on false papers who managed to conceal their identity throughout the war. Bucharest Romania, 1945: a small team of Polish Jews gather in a house set up by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to support recently liberated survivors of the camps and ghettos. While compiling legal testimonies from those who come for food, provisions, and advice for safe places to resettle, they notate songs of wartime experience, which are collected and printed in a short run, and distributed to various people and organisations. Sydney Australia, 2013: one of these fragile song books is found in the estate of a survivor in Sydney, preserved from deterioration by chance, gently pressed between pages of another music score. It is one of only 5 remaining copies in the world. Thirteen years later, the songbook is reborn as Out of the Depths: the first collection of Holocaust songs. Dr Joseph Toltz and Associate Professor Anna Boucher have spent the last 13 years traveling four continents, investigating archives, tracing the stories of those who contributed to the original project. Critically acclaimed by James Loeffler (Johns Hopkins), Samuel Kassow (YIVO), Hasia Diner (NYU) and many other scholars, this event will launch the book in the USA. Similar to launches in Australia, the melodies of the songbook will be woven around the stories of the songs themselves.  The special event will feature discussion with and musical accompaniment by Professor Michael Beckerman on piano.

The dissertation and final DMA recital curated by harpist Jillian Risigari-Gai will focus on the life and works of composer Alfredo Rolando Ortiz. It will explore how his compositions have continued the lineage of “Transculturality,” a conceptual framework describing the blending, fluid interaction, and transformation of cultures as they encounter one another. Unlike multiculturalism, which often views distinct cultures as existing side by side, transculturality emphasizes how globalization, migration, and communication break down traditional cultural boundaries, creating new, shared, and continuously evolving cultural identities. Through research, oral history interviews, and performance, the project will closely examine how Paraguayan harp techniques and performance practices inform and expand the possibilities of the double-action pedal harp through Alfredo Rolando Ortiz’s South American Suite for Harp and Orchestra.

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.

From the clanging of iron to the cadence of the human voice, rhythm is the oldest language on earth. Join the 20-member UCLA Percussion Ensemble for an electrifying journey through sound and space, where world-class percussion music pushes the boundaries of rhythm, melody, and kinetic energy.   Bridging centuries and styles, feel the raw, driving pulse of industrial urbanity in Rick Dior’s Heavy Metals and John Paul Chapman’s towering High Rise. Transcend boundaries with the cosmic and grounding landscapes of Pius Cheung’s Between Heaven and Earth Suite, paired with the timeless, witty vocal gymnastics of Ernst Toch’s pioneering Geographical Fugue. Listen as the ensemble unleashes the fierce, ritualistic drumming of Christopher Rouse’s masterpiece Ogoun Badagris. Finally, the concert explodes into pure joy and celebration with two percussion-driven re-imaginings of Dave Brubeck’s jazz standard Blue Rondo a la Turca and the infectious, groove-heavy energy of Earth, Wind & Fire’s September.   We invite you to join us for an electric performance where every surface becomes an instrument and every beat tells a story!

Judith A. Peraino and Tom McEnaney, authors of We’re Having Much More Fun: Punk Archives for the Present from CBGB to Gilman an Beyond (2026), join with Tommy Gear and Paul Roessler from legendary LA punk band the Screamers to delve into punk archives of zines, photos, flyers and documents and discuss how punk’s grassroots creative communities and uncompromising artistic visions challenged the dominance of major labels and corporate standards, and created an alternative ecosystem to the mainstream music industry that has lasted over fifty years. The Berry Gordy Music Industry Center at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music hosts a compelling speaker series aiming to inspire and educate the next generation of music industry professionals by providing direct access to those shaping the industry, from creatives to executives each facet of the industry will be touched upon. Each event highlights conversations around the human side of the industry—from personal growth and wellness to social impact and responsible leadership. The series offers students the opportunity to learn directly from change makers across music, media, and business who are reimagining what it means to lead with purpose in a rapidly evolving industry.

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!

Winner of the Israeli Academy’s Best Documentary Award, The Komediant focuses on the life and career of Pesach Burstein and his family, famous for Yiddish theaterA discussion with son, actor Mike Burstyn follows the screening, in conversation with Miri Koral, UCLA Lecturer and expert in Yiddish language and culture.

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. The Modal Interchange series casts a wide net around LA’s 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, with special focus on the topics’ relevance in greater LA: 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, improvisation practices, and arts 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/

What happens when a Minimoog takes center stage in a concerto? British composer and electronic music performer Gabriel Prokofiev brings his answer to UCLA following the U.S. premiere of his Concerto for Minimoog Synthesizer and Orchestra. Prokofiev will be joined by Shapiro Professor of Piano Inna Faliks and Professor Robert Fink, musicologist and chair of the Music Industry Program, for an insightful panel conversation, a live Minimoog synthesizer demonstration, and an interactive audience Q&A exploring the intersection of classical tradition, electronic performance, and contemporary music culture.

On November 19, 2026, join us beneath the moonlight at the Herb Alpert School of Music for a beautiful Loy Krathong Festival, presented by the Ethnomusicology Department and the Music of Thailand Ensemble. Talented students from the Music of Thailand Ensemble (ETHNMUS 91Z and 161M), along with community members, will bring the evening to life with the vibrant sounds and graceful movements of traditional Thai music and dance. Discover the joy of Thai culture through dance workshops and activities for all ages, including crafting colorful paper lotuses, making Thai sweets, and playing games for exciting prizes. Join the circle of dancers and learn traditional steps from expert dancers right here in LA. As the evening draws to a close, we’ll gather by a freshwater pond prepared for the occasion, holding our glowing candles and “lily lotuses.” Together, we’ll gently set them afloat, share good wishes for the new year, and send love to a loved one. May this Full Moon Festival bring you joy, connection, and hope. We look forward to celebrating with you at Inverted Fountain, UCLA, 7-9 PM!

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.

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of music for the first UCLA Choral Studies concert of the 2026-2027 season.

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

From Latin America to France, the UCLA Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble bring a vibrant program suitable for UCLA’s dynamic campus. The UCLA Symphonic Band, comprising students from across campus, opens the concert with Alfred Reed’s A Festival Prelude, conducted by associate director of bands and director of athletic bands Justin McManus. Graduate wind conducting students lead the rest of the Symphonic Band program: Wax, Wane by Moriah Jensen, Regeneration by Kevin Charoensri, and Conga del Fuego Nuevo by Arturo Márquez. The UCLA Wind Ensemble, conducted by Travis J. Cross, closes the concert with Paul Hindemith’s landmark Symphony in B-flat, celebrating the 75th anniversary of its composition. The band also plays Peter Mennin’s Canzona, a transcription of Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps (On a Spring Morning), and Edvard Grieg’s Funeral March (commemorating the recent passing of King Harald V of Norway).

The UCLA Symphony invites you to an evening of music on a grand scale. Dvořák’s powerful Symphony No. 7 anchors a program that spans continents and styles, from Prague to Broadway. The program is rounded out by grand Hollywood composer Bruce Broughton’s Tuba Concerto and Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story, bringing the energy, rhythm and drama of Broadway to the concert stage.

Experience the pulse and precision of Steve Reich in a uclaFLUX program featuring Runner, New York Counterpoint, Daniel Variations and Traveler’s Prayer. From propulsive rhythms to intricate layers of sound, these works reveal the restless energy and striking emotional depth of one of contemporary music’s most influential composers. uclaFLUX is devoted to the performance of chamber music from the 20th and 21st centuries. We explore and embrace new performance approaches and techniques associated with the dynamic, ever-evolving languages of contemporary music. In preparing to perform and produce quarterly concerts, students learn innovative modes of expression, interact directly with composers, and develop skills in concert promotion, production, and entrepreneurship.

Atwater Kent Concerto co-winner Robbie Darling brings the marimba to the forefront in Emmanuel Séjourné’s dazzling Concerto for Marimba, a virtuosic showcase of rhythm, color and sound. Ravel’s dazzling Alborada del Gracioso. and Brahms’s exciting Symphony No. 4 round out this concert.  

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for the end-of-quarter Guitar Recital, featuring solo, chamber, and ensemble performances by guitar students, alumni, and faculty, conducted by Dr. Mircea Gogoncea.

Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for an evening featuring Piano Faculty Inna Faliks and David Kaplan and a curated program of music by Schumann for two and four hands, centered around his Bilder aus Osten.

Inspired by Chapter 5 of Racquel Bernard’s dissertation, Empress Epistemologies: Intersectional Resistance Through Black Women’s Reggae Music, this live event brings together artists whose music transforms personal testimony, spiritual knowledge, and community experience into practices of healing and social change. The evening opens with a reggae roots and dancehall DJ set by DJ Papalotl. Performances by Empress Truth, Jahmi Roc, Sara Aiken, and Queen Theresa King will explore the expressive power of reggae, vocal harmony, message-driven songwriting, and culturally grounded performance. Dale “Dizzle” Virgo will also present a creative offering. The program concludes with a panel discussion on themes emerging from the chapter: visibility and legitimacy in the music industry, the labor of women artists, spirituality, mental health, care work, ancestral connection, and the ways Black women and women of color use music to challenge oppression and imagine liberation. Together, the performances and conversation invite audiences to hear music not only as entertainment, but also as testimony, knowledge, resistance, and collective possibility.

Each year, the All-Star competition provides Music Department students with the opportunity to audition for the privilege of performing as soloists with the UCLA Philharmonia, the school’s flagship orchestra. Join us in Schoenberg Hall this year for the 21st Annual All-Star Concert featuring the winners of Fall 2026’s All-Star Competition.