Live Stream UCSB Chamber Choir and Jazz Ensemble Concerts

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music will present two live stream events featuring the UCSB Chamber Choir and UCSB Jazz Ensemble on Wednesday, May 26 at 6 pm PDT and Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 5 pm PDT, streamed live from the UC Santa Barbara YouTube channel. The concerts mark the first synchronous live stream performances in the Department of Music’s history and represent a collaborative effort between UC Santa Barbara faculty members Nicole Lamartine (Director of the UCSB Chamber Choir) and Jon Nathan (Director of the UCSB Jazz Ensemble), Santa Barbara City College faculty member Jim Mooy (Director of the SBCC Lunch Break Jazz Ensemble), and members of the UC Santa Barbara Office of Public Affairs, including Jessie Ward O’Sullivan and Matt Perko.

The live-streamed concerts will incorporate a live mix of individual performers generated using the Jamulus audio platform and live-streamed videos of each performer generated via Zoom to create synchronous performances. The combination of the Jamulus and Zoom platforms enables ensembles to rehearse in real time, with minimum of lag or noise, a concept that was pioneered by Santa Barbara City College’s Jim Mooy. On October 23, 2020, Mooy became the first in the world to direct a synchronous audio and video stream of a university ensemble performance with Santa Barbara City College’s Lunch Break Jazz Ensemble concert. Mooy provided consultation to both the UCSB Chamber Choir and Jazz Ensemble in the use of open source "Jamboxes," tiny Raspberry Pi computers running software packages that enable clean connection to the Jamulus audio platform. Each student received specific equipment including the computer, gaming headphones with clear audio and microphone pickups, and ethernet connection cables. Mooy will also serve as the engineer of both live streams, coordinating the data streams from Jamulus and Zoom through the UC Santa Barbara YouTube channel.

Under the direction of Dr. Nicole Lamartine, Sorensen Director of Choral Music, the UCSB Chamber Choir live stream, titled “UCSB Chamber Choir LIVE - Resilience,” on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 at 6 pm PDT will feature Don Macdonald’s When the Earth Stands Still, Frank Ticheli’s Earth Song, and Kirby Shaw’s The Tide Rises. The program will include additional arrangements crafted by the students of songs from The Justice Choir Songbook and a special live collaboration of Paris Rutherford’s arrangement of Autumn Leaves with members of the UCSB Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Jon Nathan. After the concert, the performers will stay on to talk about their experience of making music in the digital era. Audience members can ask questions and interact with the choir members via the YouTube chat.

The UCSB Jazz Ensemble live stream, titled “(Almost) A Century of Jazz - from 1927 to 2021,” on Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 5 pm PDT will feature music for 10-piece jazz band (four brass, two saxophones, guitar, piano, bass, and drums), as arranged by Los Angeles-based composer and arranger Randy Aldcroft. The concert will include performances by musicians from all over California, including the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County, and Isla Vista. Pieces to be performed include Freddie Hubbard's Asiatic Raes and Moacir Santos' Coisa (Thing) #2, along with Surry with a Fringe on Top and Blue Skies, both with a vocal performance by first-year student Kaidi Dai. The performance will also include a collaboration with the UCSB Chamber Choir, directed by Dr. Nicole Lamartine, with an arrangement of Autumn Leaves. The concert will also include a focus on the ensemble’s graduating students, mostly trumpet players, with a performance of Cornet Chop Suey, originally performed and recorded in 1927 by Louis Armstrong's Hot Five. Finishing out the concert will be Horace Silver's exciting bop blues, Opus de Funk, and an arrangement by ensemble director Jon Nathan of Vulpeck's Dean Town (based on Jaco Pastorius' fusion classic Teen Town) featuring trombonist Sriram Ramamurthy and first-year bassist Emily Conway.

More Information

Both concerts will stream via the UC Santa Barbara YouTube channel (youtube.com/c/ucsantabarbara).

See below for links to each live stream.

UCSB Chamber Choir LIVE - Resilience Wednesday, May 26, 2021 | 6 pm PDT | Virtual Event | Free and open to the public

YouTube Live link: youtu.be/YnbuJvzu8x0

Event page: music.ucsb.edu/news/event/2210

UCSB Jazz Ensemble: (Almost) A Century of Jazz - from 1927 to 2021 Thursday, May 27, 2021 | 5 pm PDT | Virtual Event | Free and open to the public

YouTube Live link: youtu.be/gL8_lgGTikk

Event page: music.ucsb.edu/news/event/2209

About the UC Santa Barbara Department of Music

From an institution that began life dedicated to training the next generation of music educators, to what is now a multi-faceted department with a fully established research and professional graduate program with degrees in composition, ethnomusicology, musicology, music theory, and performance, the UC Santa Barbara Department of Music has produced many hundreds of graduates who have distinguished themselves both nationally and internationally. Alumni have gone on to teach on faculties of major colleges and universities in the United States and abroad, or in outstanding secondary school positions. Many graduates of the program have published extensively and become widely renowned, prize-winning scholars, while others are award-winning and frequently performed composers writing for television and film. Alumni are also establishing fine reputations as conductors of orchestras, opera, and choruses. Graduates of the instrumental programs have gone on to solo and orchestral careers with leading orchestras, and graduates of the voice program can be heard in opera companies around the world.

With over 150 events presented annually, the UC Santa Barbara Department of Music offers something for every music lover. The department boasts 26 unique performing ensembles, each with a quarterly concert calendar. Chamber music, large ensembles, opera, contemporary groups, world music, and jazz ensembles make up the department’s rich performance calendar, along with lectures, master classes, and presentations from the ethnomusicology, musicology, theory, and composition programs.

For a complete listing of performances and lectures for the quarter, please visit the UC Santa Barbara Department of Music website at music.ucsb.edu. For additional information, photos, or to request an interview with an artist, please contact Adriane Cleary at adrianecleary@ucsb.edu (remote work number available upon request).

To sign up for the Department of Music’s newsletter, please visit eepurl.com/dcrvRr. Follow the Department of Music on Facebook (@UCSBDepartmentofMusic), Twitter (@UCSBMusicDept), and Instagram (@ucsbmusicdept).

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