Mondavi Center Announces 2015-16 Season

The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis announces its 14th season of performing arts, filled with the leading artists in music, dance and theater, speakers and a collection of films screened with live musical accompaniment. The season, sponsored by Western Health Advantage, begins on September 21 with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and concludes May 11, 2016 with a recital by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott.

Subscriptions go on sale Friday, April 10, 2015; single tickets go on sale August 7, 2015. All purchases can be made through the Mondavi Center Ticket Office on the UC Davis campus; via phone at (530) 754-2787; or online at mondaviarts.org. The Ticket Office is open Monday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m.

"The Mondavi Center is proud to be at the heart of our region's artistic conversation," said Don Roth, executive director of the Mondavi Center. "For more than a decade we have balanced presenting established and emerging artists in one of the finest performance venues in the United States. This new season continues that tradition, with a collection of engaging artists in music, dance and theater, and an equally remarkable group of speakers."

Some familiar names to Mondavi Center audiences make long anticipated returns, most notably soprano Renée Fleming, who last appeared at the center in 2005. The Twyla Tharp Dance Company has been on hiatus for over a decade, however, to commemorate her 50 years of dance, Tharp has formed a new company and created new works to the music of J.S. Bach, John Zorn and Henry Butler and Steven Bernstein. Other notable Mondavi Center returnees include cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Pink Martini, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Joshua Bell, Los Lobos, Yamato, and the Russian National Orchestra with soloist Yuja Wang.

A notable theme in this season is a preponderance of female vocalists across a number of genres. Patty Griffin, Sara Watkins and Anaïs Mitchell will present an Americana songwriters in the round. Fresh off another tour with the Rolling Stones, Ms. Lisa Fischer (from the film Twenty Feet from Stardom) and her band Grand Baton will offer fresh interpretations of rock and pop classics. Newcomer Cécile McLorin Salvant will stake her claim as heir to the icons of female jazz vocalists. And guitarist/vocalist Luciana Souza will explore the dynamics of the jazz quintet with an all-star band in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. Mavis Staples and Joan Osborne bring their considerable talents together for an evening of "Solid Soul."

Film has long been an important part of the Mondavi Center repertoire. This year, four Film + Music events feature live musical accompaniment and large-scale projection in Jackson Hall. Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) features a score of 15th century vocal music curated and performed by the British a capella group The Orlando Consort. Organist Cameron Carpenter brings his International Touring Organ to perform a short recital and an improvised score to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), thought to be the first true horror film. Benoit Charest created the hot jazz score for The Triplets of Belleville (2003), and will recreate it with Le Terrible Orchestre de Belleville during the film's screening. Finally, the San Francisco Symphony will make one of two appearances on the 15-16 season performing John Williams' live soundtrack to Steven Spielberg's masterpiece E.T.

Complete information about the Mondavi Center's 15-16 season of performances, including dates, times, subscription prices and venues will be available on April 10 at mondaviarts.org.

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