After 19 months without live performances, the Mondavi Center for Performing Arts at the University of California at Davis, today announced its 2021-2022 season. The fun begins on October 14 with Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and ends on May 19, 2022, with flautist, electronic musician and scholar Grace Leslie.

More than ever, the Mondavi Center is focused on its audiences, with a priority on security and flexibility while offering the dynamic programming for which it is renowned.

“Each season announcement from the Mondavi Center is eagerly awaited and exciting, a highlight of our cultural calendar. But now to launch a season on the heels of a pandemic year, which has kept our theaters in the dark for over a year and a half, makes for a truly extraordinary moment, ”said the executive director of the Mondavi Center. Don Roth.

“I am delighted that we can present to you a season of artists and thinkers, many of whom have profound things to say about where we are as a culture and where we are going as a society. Equally important, each of them will remind us of the magic that only happens with live performances. We are delighted to return, as the lights begin to turn on again in theaters, galleries and museums in our region, our country and the world. “

Jazz & Roots

Kick-off of the season, Fandango at the Wall by Arturo O’Farrill October 14 demolishes musical walls, exploring jazz, classical, Broadway, hip hop and son jarocho with special guests the Villalobos brothers and the Conga Patria Son Jarocho collective. First of the two Marsalis brothers to appear this season, Delfeayo Marsalis brings his Uptown Jazz Orchestra October 23.

Pamyua, on November 21, will play Inuit soul music, its own genre that fuses traditional Inuit dance melodies with vocal styles and R&B dance. Singer Veronica Swift, also on November 21, built a resume that even many late-career jazz singers would envy. His latest album, This bitter land, shows even more growth of this prodigious talent. Damien Sneed brings Joy to the World: A Christmas Musical Journey on December 4 – just in time to ring in the holiday spirit with original arrangements of jazz, gospel and classical.

Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra continue their long relationship with the Mondavi Center, showcasing all the vigor and vision of American music on February 2. Making her debut at the Mondavi Center, singer and songwriter Becca Stevens on February 10 makes music that’s based on folk and jazz, but makes room for clever lyrics and funky beats. Another debut album features keyboardist Matthew Whitaker March 25, a phenomenon on the Hammond B3 organ and piano, and his talented orchestral companions. The following night, cabaret artist and provocateur Meow Meow will bring together her remarkable voice and passionate physical comedy for an unforgettable evening of music, crowd surfing and tragicomic fun.

Classical with Alexander String Quartet, opera, more

Pianist Christopher Taylor will perform, over two weekends at opposite ends of the season (November 6-7 and April 22-23), Beethoven’s nine symphonies in solo piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt. The Alexander String Quartet, the only group to have performed every season of the Mondavi Center, will focus on chamber music by Antonin Dvořák in three concerts (December 5, January 30 and May 15).

Robert Greenberg will provide lively music commentary, with illustrations by the Alexander String Quartet, before each performance in Mondavi’s Jackson Hall.

Bringing a New York holiday tradition to Davis, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on December 10 will perform the complete JS Bach Brandenburg Concerto. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, on January 15, under the baton of its new musical director, Vasily Petrenko, will perform Britten Four Sea Interludes, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with soloist Olga Kern, as well as Variations on an original theme.

Heartbeat Opera on February 19 delivers on promise to rejuvenate opera in its Beethoven adaptation Fidelio, in which a black activist is falsely incarcerated and his wife disguises herself to infiltrate the system and set it free. Proving the adage that two are better than one, pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Kirill Gerstein, on March 6, will join forces in a piano duo featuring works by Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Busoni. One of the most popular ensembles in the world, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields with Joshua Bell on March 12 makes a welcome return to Davis.

Pianist Lara Downes on April 7 brings another innovative project, this time in collaboration with composer Clarice Assad on World of change, a suite of pieces reflecting global transformation, disruption and destruction, renewal and rebirth.

Speakers include thinkers, comedians

The Mondavi Center is proud to present leading thinkers and comedians. This season begins with quintessential New Yorker and author Fran Lebowitz February 24. How to be anti-racist is the book featured for the UC Davis Campus Community Book Project, and author Ibram X. Kendi, on March 31, will appear as part of the year-long social justice event series.

Author and scholar Heather McGhee, April 3, is one of the brightest and most influential thinkers exploring inequality today, as evidenced by her groundbreaking work Our sum: what racism costs everyone and how we can thrive together. David Sedaris, appearing on May 1, is one of America’s foremost humorous writers, whose wildly popular live readings feature his sharp wit and keen observations of the human condition.

Movement

About, the australian circus company, brings its new work Humans 2.0 January 28, pushing the limits of what circus and acrobatics can be while celebrating what it means to be human. Equality of night and day is a new work by Ronald K. Brown and Evidence, A Dance Company, on February 26, which examines the concepts of balance, fairness and justice. It has an original Goal by Jason Moran, spoken word by poet and activist Angela Davis, and a photo exhibition screened on stage curated by Deborah Willis.

Global works

Amalia Hernández’s Ballet Folklórico de México, on March 18, brings together the music, dance and costumes of Mexican folklore from pre-Columbian civilizations to the modern era. Las Cafeteras on April 28 combines Afro-Mexican rhythms, rhythms and rhymes to deliver inspiring lyrics that document the stories of a community in search of love and justice in Los Angeles.

Intersections

When work rushes to the frontiers of genres, the Mondavi Center brings it together under the Intersections banner.

Eliza Jane Schneider, the 11th of November combines his talents of a voice over and dialect artist coach in Freedom of expression, a play that takes viewers on a journey across the country to capture an image of America you won’t see or hear anywhere else. Will always be heard, November 17-19, is a musical theater piece by Liz Queler that takes us on a journey through the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Kinetech Arts, March 9-10, combines the work of dancers, scientists and digital artists to create its pieces; his new job Passages is an immersive experience that explores the relationship between entropy and time.

Paul Dresher and Joel Davel create lush textures and rhythmically propulsive grooves that fascinate ear and eye with the instruments they created in the Dresher Davel-Invented Instrument Duo (March 11-12). In Ritual encounters the work of artists Ashwini Bhat and Forrest Gander reconfigures the Vanderhoef Studio Theater in Mondavi as a kind of temple that celebrates the secular and sacred environment of Mount Tamalpais. All this takes place from April 14 to May 6.

Grace Leslie on May 19 creates “brain-body” performances that combine improvisation of the flute and electronics triggered by electrical readings from Leslie’s brain, heart and skin.

Mondavi Brochure

The digital brochure of the Mondavi Center, with full information on the artists referenced in this press release, is available at 2122.mondaviarts.org. (The website is embargoed and password protected until 1 p.m. on June 7.)

Mondavi Center’s 2021-2022 season is supported by a long list of members, donors and corporate partners including Western Health Advantage, UC Davis Health, Downey Brand, Capital Public Radio, Sactown Magazine, Hyatt Place UC Davis, UC Davis Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, UC Davis Global Affairs and Park Winters.

Subscriptions

Mondavi Center subscriptions are discounted packages of three or more events. Subscribers get priority seating, early access to added shows, and discounted tickets throughout the 2021-2022 season. More information on the subscription is available at mondaviarts.org/subscription.

Security and protocols

The Mondavi Center and UC Davis are committed to providing healthy and safe facilities to the public, artists and staff. Based on campus, state, and CDC guidelines at the time of performance, protocols may include mask application, increased cleaning and ventilation / filtration improvements, vaccination, or test verification negatives, and more. We will continue to update our website with current protocols as more information becomes available.

Price

Ticket prices start at $ 25. Ticket prices fluctuate throughout the season; the most recent prices are always available on mondaviarts.org.

All performance dates and times are subject to change.