Ensembles

Our multi-layered ensemble contains both simple and complex parts to suit multiple student levels. Working with a Balinese musician and Balinese dancers, the class prepares across the three quarters for two open rehearsals and a Spring quarter public concert–so please consider your enrollment a year-long commitment. We explore various topicsin Balinese culture and perform on two types of traditional Balinese gamelans.

Music 8 is graded on attendance and progress in playing parts starting at your own level, so do plan on coming every time and putting your best effort into every rehearsal. It is open to all students. 

Audition/Enrollment Info: To enroll, email the instructor, Brian Baumbusch, at bbaumbusch@gmail.com.

Learn to play traditional and contemporary music and songs from Ireland, Scotland, England, and beyond.

Audition/Enrollment Info: To enroll, email the director, Bill Coulter, at billski@ucsc.edu

Formerly Eurasian Ensemble. Instruction in various repertoires and music cultures from the Eurasian continent.  Primary focus on vocal and instrumental traditions from Central Asia.

Audition/Enrollment Info: Students should enroll and attend the first class meeting where we will evaluate their abilities and previous training (but all are welcome, regardless of previous musical experience). Students will be given a permission code to enroll at first class meeting. Contact Tanya Merchant, merchant@ucsc.edu, 831-459-5762 with any questions

Chamber music ensembles are established at the beginning of each quarter. Popular recurring Chamber Music Workshops currently include the Celtic Chamber Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble, amongst others.

Chamber music activities on a credit basis are available for each quarter. Various ensemble groups (strings, woodwind, brass, early instruments, voice, guitar, harpsichord, and piano) will rehearse twice a week (one of them with a faculty coach) and perform in the end-of-quarter open studio. Students can organize an ensemble in coordination with a faculty coach or apply individually to be placed in a group. The auditions will be arranged with coordinating faculty members. Repertoire and rehearsal meeting times are decided by the players and faculty coach together for each group.

An option for those who like Handel, Bach, Mozart or Haydn, will be to enroll in Early Music Ensemble (Music 163) for an early chamber music experience.

Audition/Enrollment Info: A recommendation from your applied music instructor is required to participate in Chamber Music.

The University Chamber Singers, an advanced choir conducted by Michael McGushin, specializes in presenting works for small ensembles from a variety of historical periods in historically informed performances. The Ensemble has received the American Choral Federation’s Louise Goucher Madrigal Award for their performance of works by John Wilbye. The Chamber Singers frequently appear with performing organizations in the Bay area. They are featured on many world premiere recordings including two CD recordings of music by Lou Harrison, a selection of French chansons from the Renaissance, cantatas by Alessandro Stradella, and the recently released recording of Milhaud’s Cantate de la Guerre. The Ensemble perform repertoire with orchestra as well as a cappella concerts. The choir is open by audition to all members of the university community though most members are voice majors of the music department. Participation requires an advanced level of vocal and music-reading skills. See schedule of classes for further details.

• new auditionees will be asked to sing a prepared aria or art song; please bring a copy of sheet music for the instructor to play accompaniment from 
• scales and vocalises led by the instructor
• sight reading of a few short excerpts from choral repertoire (from easy to advanced)
• ear training (hearing and singing back melodic excerpts)

Audition/Enrollment Info: To enroll, email the director, Michael McGushin, at mjmcg@ucsc.edu.

For Audition sign-up, visit the audition schedule sheet.

The UCSC Classical Guitar Ensemble was originally founded in the Fall of 1999 under the direction Mesut Özgen. Mesut commissioned and premiered many ensemble works written specifically for the UCSC Guitar Ensemble, including Pick and Roll for guitar ensemble, two violins, tenor sax, and basketball by Ben Verdery, Mountain Mission by Adam Cotton, Snapshots by the Bay by Chris Pratorius, Quaditorio by Jack Vees, Following the Wind by Mark Aitken, and the guitar orchestra arrangement of Giuliani’s Grand Overture by Peter Constant. Some of the other repertoire performed by the ensemble includes works by Bach, Tchaikovsky, Brouwer, Garcia, Johanson, Duarte, Ogawa, and Charlton. Several video clips of the ensemble can be viewed at http://www.mesutozgen.com/en/clips/video.php 

Study of selected repertoire and instruction in performance for classical guitar ensemble. Currently, the Classical Guitar Ensemble is directed by William Coulter, who has achieved the following degrees: B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz. M.A., San Francisco Conservatory of Music. M.A., Ethnomusicology, University of California, Santa Cruz. Programming for the ensemble happens quarterly, and is adapted to abilities of the students enrolled. The ensemble presents regular public concerts both on and off campus each quarter.

Online enrollment before an audition is not possible. Students who audition in the Fall and are accepted will be given a permission code to enroll.

Audition/Enrollment Info: For audition information, email the director, Bill Coulter, at billski@ucsc.edu

Explores the live performance practice of electroacoustic music, including historical repertoire, improvisation, and compositions by participants. All manner of electronic audio resources are applied to real-time performance.

Participants need a basic proficiency in electronic audio and computer tools. Enrollment is restricted to juniors, seniors, and graduate students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor at first class meeting.

Audition/Enrollment Info: For more information, email the director, Yolande Harris, at yharris@ucsc.edu

The class is open to all undergraduate and graduate students interested in exploring early ensemble repertoire for voices and instruments. We will be focusing on Renaissance and Baroque repertories. We have a number of instruments available for student use including lute, baroque guitar, harpsichord, viola da gamba, and various wind instruments including Renaissance flutes. Guitarists and singers are particularly encouraged to apply. We also incorporate modern instruments—e.g. guitar, violin, oboe, etc.

Audition/Enrollment Info: For audition information, contact the instructor, Nina Treadwell, at treadwel@ucsc.edu.

The Experimental Music Ensemble generally focuses on experimental music composed during the past fifty years. Interested students meet with the instructor in advance for a brief interview/audition; in general, however, the ensemble is currently open to all students who have a desire to explore unconventional and innovative notation, novel approaches to the production of sound, and spontaneous and interactive performance practices. During the past few seasons, the ensemble has ranged from eight to sixteen musicians. All instruments are welcome.

Audition/Enrollment Info: Email Amy Beal (Director) at: abeal@ucsc.edu directly to join the ensemble. Please contact prior to the first rehearsal. 

All students are welcome to audition for all UCSC ensembles. Consideration is given to Jazz Minors and Music Majors needing ensemble credit.

The Small Jazz Ensembles class is organized in groups of varying sizes working with music traditions of the Jazz idiom. Groups of 4-6 players perform composed arrangements of music traditions of the Jazz world and work to develop original arrangements of Jazz standards and student compositions. Emphasis is placed on developing skills that allow players to animate the music with the ability to respond in the moment to the musical environment. Past concerts have included works from composers such as John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Don Grolnick, and many more. The class performs in concert each quarter.

Audition/Enrollment Info: For audition information, please contact the instructor, Charles Hamilton, at flugelboneprod@aol.com.

Fall 2024 auditions: The Small Jazz Ensembles will not need an audition for Fall ’24 quarter. 

In an effort to promote and perpetuate the indigenous American form of music known as jazz, the UCSC Large Jazz Ensemble continues in its mission to study and perform the finest jazz literature written or arranged for a big band format.  The Large Jazz Ensemble regularly performs both on and off the UCSC campus. 

Audition/Enrollment Info: For audition information, please contact the instructor, Charles Hamilton, at flugelboneprod@aol.com.

Fall 2024 auditions: Tuesday, September 24th 2024 – Music Center Room 114, 3-5pm

This ensemble practicum will focus on the stylistic practice of mariachi music of Mexico and the transnational influences that it has integrated pertaining to style, repertoire and technique. We will survey the variety of genres that are incorporated within the mariachi repertoire. We will take from classic arrangements as well as newer arranged pieces that demonstrate the breadth of the ensemble. The class will centralize efforts learning dance music such as the son jaliscience, polkas, waltzes as well as popular singing genres that include the huapango, canción ranchera, corridos and boleros. Those with experience playing trumpet, violin, guitar, vihuela and guitarrón are welcomed to enroll.

The class will not focus on teaching students how to play these instruments. Those who play other instruments should talk with the instructor prior to enrolling. 

Those with experience playing trumpet, violin, guitar, vihuela and guitarrón are welcomed to enroll.

Audition/Enrollment Info: For audition information, contact Professor Russell Rodriguez, at rucrodri@ucsc.edu.

A course covering the music of North India taught using the oral traditions of Indian music. For beginners as well as more experienced students, this course is well suited for instrumentalists and vocalists.

Audition/Enrollment Info: Admission by instructor permission; please attend the first class meeting to receive an enrollment code.

The opera workshop is open to singers, accompanists, and directors who wish to develop a wide variety of skills related to opera through scene-work. Attention is given to movement, acting, coaching, and operatic stage-directing technique. Instruction culminates in studio productions of scenes from operas and musicals.

Offered in Fall and Winter quarters only. Tuesday and Thursday, 4:00-7:00 p.m., 131 Music Center

Audition/Enrollment Info: For questions, contact director, Sheila Willey, at swilley@ucsc.edu. Admission by permission of vocal instructor, or by audition with instructor, at the beginning of fall quarter.

Repertoire includes the music of Varese, Cowell, Chavez, Russell, Cage, Harrison, Roldan, Xenakis, Stockhausen, Zappa as well as more current composers i.e.: John Zorn, Fred Frith, James Tenney, Larry Polansky, Chris Brown, Frederic Rzweski, Alvin Curran, Peter Garland and Steve Reich. The percussion ensemble does concerts and recordings outside of scheduled school events, as well as has been featured for over 20 years at the April in Santa Cruz New Music Festival.

Percussion ensemble meets every Wednesday at 5pm. No audition necessary, just show up to First class in percussion room 115 at 5pm on the first Wednesday of Fall quarter.

Audition/Enrollment Info: For audition information, please contact the instructor, William Winant, at steakatto@hotmail.com, or by phone (510) 213-5905.

The University of California, Santa Cruz invites high school seniors to apply for the Student Resident String Ensemble Program. Ensemble members will receive scholarship funds to help with school costs*, participate in a number of department-sponsored performances and public concerts, and have the opportunity to be coached by Roy Malan, concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet and member of the UCSC String faculty.

The UCSC Department of Music offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Undergraduate students receive a strong foundation in musicianship, giving them excellent preparation for graduate work and professional careers. The department’s Music Center provides state-of-the art instructional and performance facilities for its students, including the Recital Hall that critics have called “the finest college hall of its size in California.”

*Students selected for the program will receive a lump sum every year for four years. The student’s progress will be reviewed after two years; if satisfactory progress has been made. To receive the award each year students must be registered full-time music majors in good standing.

How to Apply

Applicants should submit the following items via email to music@ucsc.edu with the Subject line – “Resident String Quartet Program Application”:

• A digital recording of two contrasting works (a total of 15-20 minutes of music)

• A one-page outline of musical experience: instrument, years studied, orchestra experience, works, performed.
• Be sure to include your name, telephone number and email address


Please note that at this time, physical material submissions are no longer accepted. Please do not submit CD/DVD recordings via mail.

The deadline to apply is November 30th of the year prior to initial matriculation.

Finalists will be invited to meet with the String Faculty and Director of Ensembles (Zoom is possible if in-person is not an option) for an audition/interview in the Winter quarter of that academic year.

All applicants must file a formal application for admission to the University of California, select Santa Cruz as one of their campuses, and be admitted. A copy of the completed UC application must be sent to the Resident String Program electronically (postmarked by November 30th of that year). For admissions information and deadlines, visit the UCSC Admissions Office online at http://admissions.ucsc.edu.

Meet the Director: Roy Malan

Roy Malan studied in London with Yehudi Menuhin and then at Juilliard and the Curtis Institute with Ivan Galamian and Efrem Zimbalist. He has been concertmaster and solo violinist with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra since 1974 and a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. For twenty years Malan was concertmaster of both Sinfonia San Francisco and the San Francisco Chamber Symphony and a featured soloist on the latter’s European tours. He is on the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Mr. Malan is also founder and co-director with pianist Robin Sutherland of the Telluride Chamber Music Festival. He has received critical acclaim for concerto appearances at New York’s Lincoln Center, Washington’s Kennedy Center, the Paris Opera and the Edinburgh Festival. He has recorded extensively with Robin Sutherland, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and as a concerto soloist.

The author of a biography on the late Efrem Zimbalist, Malan was honored in 1982 by Zimbalist’s dedication of a specially orchestrated version of his “Coq d’or Fantasy.” He was further honored by the bequest of the great Russian violinist’s collection of favorite bows.

Concurrent affiliations: concertmaster, San Francisco Ballet; principal violinist, San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players; founder and director, Telluride Chamber Music Festival; faculty, Rocky Ridge Music Center. Former affiliations: Ithaca College; Stanford University; first violinist: Porter Quartet, Stanford String Quartet, Ives Quartet, Crown Chamber Players, San Francisco Piano Trio. Teachers: Ivan Galamian, Efrem Zimbalist, Yehudi Menuhin. Performances: solo and chamber music in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, and Africa. Interests: emphasis on 19th-century literature and performance practice and on virtuoso techniques; chamber music. Recordings: Sonatas, by Efrem Zimbalist and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Genesis Records); Sonatas, by Robert Russell Bennett and Ottorino Respighi (Orion Master Recordings); Fredrick Kaufman Concerto, Violin Sonata (Orion Master Recordings); Music from Telluride (Transparent Recordings); and numerous contemporary works for CRI and Newport Classics, including a solo violin piece, Gihon, written for him by jazz flutist James Newton. Pedagogical philosophy: acquisition of the technique, tone, and general musical culture essential for performing the Classical, Romantic, contemporary, and virtuosic basics of the repertoire; cultivation of the sensitivity and discipline essential for chamber music playing.

The Music Department offers two levels of Ashwin Batish’s North Indian Rhythm workshops throughout the year. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the richness of North Indian rhythms. The language of rhythm that is specific to learning the tabla will be explored, in a hands on fashion. This course is intended for beginners, and all are welcome.

The beginning version, MUSC 55, introduces students to the richness of North Indian rhythms. Includes hands-on exploration of the language of rhythm that is specific to learning the tabla.

The intermediate version, MUSC 55A, dives deeper on the materials introduced in MUSC 55, and focuses more specifically on “hands-on” performance interspersed with short instructional bursts to improve each student’s level of playability.

Audition/Enrollment Info: For audition information contact instructor Ashwin Batish, at asbatish@ucsc.edu.

The choir performs music from the canon of choral repertoire and past works have included Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, and Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna. 

Class Meeting Times: MW, 5:20-6:55 PM, Music Center 114.

Audition/Enrollment Info: To enroll, please email the director Nathaniel Berman at natberman1@gmail.com. Auditions for the UCSC Concert Choir are open to all students, staff, faculty and community members. Choral experience is an asset, but not mandatory.

For Audition sign-up, visit the audition schedule sheet.

In-person auditions are friendly and low pressure, and consist of sung scales and vocalises (accompanied by the instructor), ear training (listening to short melodies and repeating them), and a short sight-reading excerpt (accompanied). The ability to read music is an advantage for this class, but not strictly required for individuals who can demonstrate the ability to sing by ear well, and who are willing to commit to practicing and learning the music assigned.

For many students, participation in opera is a defining part of their college experience. UC Santa Cruz’s Music Department has one of the only university opera programs in the United States to feature almost entirely undergraduate casts, as most opera programs are dominated by graduate students. Our program gives undergraduate singers a rare opportunity to gain experience and grow in their craft by performing in leading roles. The full-length spring opera is fully-staged with live orchestra, professionally designed sets, costumes, lighting, wigs, and makeup. Music 160 in spring is the culmination of year-long involvement in opera. See Music 159 – Opera Workshop.

Audition/Enrollment Info: To enroll/audition, email program director Shiela Willey, via email at swilley@ucsc.edu.

Offered in Spring Quarter. Tuesday and Thursday, 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Past Productions Include:

The UCSC Orchestra is the largest ensemble, consisting of 80 – 90 members on campus, and one of the most popular, with nearly all of their performances sold out events. Represented by various majors across the university, both music majors and non-music majors.

The orchestra plays the best of standard orchestra repertoire to packed houses, as well as popular music, film music, latin music and a wide variety of styles and cultures. The orchestra hosts a concerto competition each spring and presents the winners on various concerts the following year.

Each year the orchestra joins the UCSC Opera Theater in a full production of an opera, and occasionally joins the choral ensembles in the performance of majors choral works. One of the few ensembles that performs off-campus, the orchestra regularly holds concerts with a variety of orchestras and venues throughout the state of California.

Audition/Enrollment Info: To enroll, contat director Bruce Kiesling, at bruce@ucsc.edu.

Orchestra will be doing video auditions. Returning members do not need to audition to join the orchestra.

Students learn to perform music that originates primarily from Ghana, West Africa as well as be introduced to the variety of different musical styles present in Ghana through guided viewing of multimedia and discussion of culture as a living, evolving entity. Uses a variety of instruments including drums, bells, rattles, clappers, and hands. Classes consist primarily of hands-on instruction and singing. In-class learning supplemented with audio and video clips and articles posted on Canvas. Repertoire each quarter varies at the discretion of the instructor.

Audition/Enrollment Info: Please contact instructor, Francis Kofi Akotuah, at fkakotuah@ucsc.edu

Instruction in practice and performance of gamelan music from Java or Sunda, including Kecapi-suling and Angklung. Preparation of several works for public presentation. Beginners should enroll in MUSC 5A. See Schedule of Classes for section times.

Gamelan Studio, 230B Music Center.

Audition/Ensemble Info: Admission by instructor determination at first class meeting.

The UCSC Wind Ensemble is devoted to the study and performance of the highest quality and most challenging repertoire written for wind band. The current director of Wind Ensemble is Nat Berman. 

The ensemble was founded in the fall of 1998 under the direction of Robert Klevan, and since that time has grown to include over seventy members. In addition to presenting three major concerts per year, the UCSC Wind Ensemble also performs at various school and community functions, and has been featured in the Ensemble Debut series at Carnegie Hall where the band received a standing ovation from a near capacity house.

MW, 7:10-8:45 PM, 114 Music Center.

For the audition, I’ll ask for three elements. First, a scale of two octaves, suggested by me, but I will accept any scale that is comfortable. Please prepare to play the scale slowly, in order to demonstrate tone and intonation—speed is not important.

Second, a prepared solo piece, etude, or concert excerpt of your choice (2-3 minutes of something that you’ve worked on recently and that shows your sound and technique as a player to the best of your ability. An excerpt from a band or orchestra piece is ok if it features your instrument throughout).

Third, I will provide a short excerpt for sight-reading. If you absolutely cannot make the times listed, please contact the instructor (natb@ucsc.edu) to see if an alternative can be arranged. I look forward to hearing you! 

Audition/Enrollment Info: To enroll, please email the director Nathaniel Berman at natberman1@gmail.com. Online enrollment before an audition is not possible. Students who audition in the Spring and are accepted will be given a permission code to enroll. Check back for updated times and dates.

For Audition sign-up, visit the audition schedule sheet.