June 2008

Made in the USA

“Anything you want, we got it right here in the USA,” the great Chuck Berry once opined, and musically speaking, the man had a point.  From blues and bluegrass to jazz, funk, rock, and more, America has a rich legacy of native musical styles that's well worth celebrating and exploring.  That's the idea behind the Mondavi Center's American Heritage series, which will bring everything from mariachi music to 1960s soul to Jackson Hall in 2008-09 with performers including Linda Ronstadt, Mavis Staples, Bill Frisell, and more. 

Read the article

Speaking of Speakers

Bill Clinton's been part of it.  So have Toni Morrison, Ken Burns, Dick Cheney, and almost 100 other movers, shakers, and opinion makers.  For 19 years, the Distinguished Speaker series has been bringing to the UC Davis campus the people whose ideas shape our world, and in 2008-09, legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, author Ishmael Beah, and award-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis will become part of the capital region's longest-running and most successful speaker series. 

Read the article

Paradise for Pianophiles

If you love the piano and great piano playing, have we got a series for you!  Tour de Force features three great pianists—Angela Hewitt, Christopher Taylor, and Frederic Rzewksi—playing three monumental piano masterpieces: Bach's Goldberg Variations, Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus, and Rzweksi's The People United Will Never Be Defeated.  These are works that, in the words of Mondavi Center Executive Director Don Roth, will leave you “transformed and moved.” 

Read the article