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Stick and Bow at noon concert

Thursday, April 23, Pitzer Center, 51�ԹϺ��� Davis

This week's Shinkoskey Noon Concert features Stick and Bow,  a unique duo who have been awarded the prestigious Opus 2023 prizes for “Artists of the Year” and “Artistic Influence Abroad.” Their program includes Distinguished Professor Emeritus Pablo Ortiz's "Dancing with the Wendigo" which was commissioned for Stick and Bow as well as Astor Piazzolla's "Buenos Aires Hora Cero," Pablo Casals' "The Song of the Birds," Fiona Apple's "Hot Knife" and more. Performance begins at 12:05 p.m. in the Ann E Pitzer Center. Free and open to all. 

An additional concert of Stick and Bow takes place 5-6:15 p.m. at Pitzer Center. 

Premieres by 51�ԹϺ��� Davis graduate student composers—

Dean Kervin Boursiquot: H. I. F. A. B. (How I Feel About Being…)

James Larkins: Smeared Convexly

Joseph Martin: where we meet

Samane Paya: Ephemeral

Zoë Wallace: Brushstrokes

Mimi Plumb will give Visiting Artist Lecture Series
artist talk

Thursday, April 23, 2026, 5:30-7 p.m.
Cruess Hall, Room 1003

Mimi Plumb is part of a long tradition of socially engaged photographers whose work explores the landscapes and communities of California and the American West. In 2022, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to support her ongoing project, The Reservoir

Boy in Sand, from the series The Reservoir, 24x30 inkjet print, 2022. © Mimi Plumb

Plumb has published five monographs. Landfall (TBW Books, 2018), drawn from her work of the 1980s, offers a dreamlike vision of an American dystopia, encapsulating the anxieties of a world spinning out of balance. The book was shortlisted for both the Paris Photo/Aperture Foundation First Photobook Award (2019) and the Lucie Photo Book Prize (2019). The White Sky (Stanley/Barker, 2020) is a memoir of her childhood in California suburbia, photographed in the 1970s. The Golden City(Stanley/Barker, 2022) reflects on her years living in San Francisco, spanning images from 1984 to 2000. Megalith-Still (Stanley/Barker, 2023) portrays a herd of wild horses in the High Sierra’s John Muir Wilderness, photographed between 1995 and 2005. 

Her most recent book, The Reservoir (Nazraeli Press, 2025), documents receding lakebeds and people gathering at two California reservoirs in the face of drought and extreme heat.

The California Studio Artist Talk features Dyani White Hawk

Thursday, April 30, 4:30-6 p.m., Manetti Shrem Museum of Art

Dyani White Hawk is a multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis. Her practice, strongly rooted in painting and beadwork, extends into sculpture, installation, video, and performance, reflecting upon cross-cultural experiences through the amalgamation of influences from Lakota and Euro/American abstraction. 

Dyani White Hawk, Walk With Me, 2024, acrylic and rhinestone chain on canvas, 42 x 72 in. Courtesy of the artist. 

Student Recital: Helena Birbrower and Cristian Palacios, voices

Junior Recital, Saturday, April 25, 4–5 p.m. at the Pitzer Center, 

with Michael Parks, piano

Program Includes

Lotti: Pur dicesti, o bocca bella

Schumann: Selections from Liederkreis and Dichterliebe

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Sondheim: "No One Is Alone" from Into the Woods

Quilter: Selections from Three Shakespeare Songs

Vaughan Williams: "Let Beauty Awake" from Songs of Travel 

Obradors: Selections from Canciones Clásicas Españolas

Organized by the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program and supported by the College of Letters and Science at 51�ԹϺ��� Davis. 

Image: Mimi Plumb, Pier Fire, from the series the Golden City, 20x24 silver gelatin print, 1985 © Mimi Plumb

Join mural workshop at TANA

Saturday, April 25, 2026  Noon to 3 p.m., TANA, 1224 Lemen Ave., Woodland

Join TANA for a hands-on mural workshop as part of the Sacramento Poderosas exhibition programming. This session will begin with a brief introduction to mural history, followed by an overview of traditional techniques used by generations of Xicanx muralists. 

Participants will also learn about the recent mural painted in Woodland by Elyse Doyle-Martínez honoring Dolores Huerta. The workshop includes a hands-on component with participants mixing and painting with acrylic paint, learning basic mural painting techniques, and contributing to a collaborative group mural exercise.

This workshop is free and open to all skill levels. All materials will provided so be ready to paint and be part of the process. 

Ongoing Art Exhibitions at 51�ԹϺ��� Davis

At the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Saxophonist Håkon Kornstad Thursday-Saturday 

7:30 p.m., Vanderhoeff Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Saxophonist Håkon Kornstad is a one-of-a-kind artist, seamlessly merging his two tenors.

Kornstad uses instrumental skill, live looping, and imagination to become a one-man orchestra, creating minimalist grooves, freeform elegies, eastern mysticism, and jazz balladry. Adding his newly trained operatic tenor voice, he brings forth an unprecedented sound, merging jazz improvisation with the grandeur of opera. He is the tenor who plays tenor.

Enjoy “one of Norway’s most original and daring musicians” (DownBeat Magazine) as Kornstad delivers a groundbreaking solo performance where jazz and opera intertwine.

.

Run time is approximately 70 minutes without an intermission

Danzantes del Alma Annual Showcase Saturday 

Saturday, April 25, 6 p.m.

Founded in 1977, Danzantes del Alma is a retention program housed under the Cross Cultural Center that fosters and nurtures student leadership, intellectual curiosity, and artistic expression through the art of ballet Folklórico.

Las Historias de nuestras Raíces son todas aquellas partes de nuestra cultura que nos permiten comprender la vida que nos rodea. Our 47th Annual Show is born out of the idea that love is more powerful than hate and that united we are strong. Through this wonderful journey across the history of México, the 51�ԹϺ��� Davis Danzantes del Alma will tell those stories that have been passed down to us by generations. Every song, every step and every region including Aguascalientes, Michoacán, Revolución, Guerrero and Veracruz will grant the audience the opportunity to celebrate the beauty of Mexican culture. Join Danzantes del Alma at the Mondavi for our 47th Annual Showcase: “Historias de mis Raíces.”

Other Mondavi events Sunday and Monday, and beyond,  

Music and storytelling with Al-Juthoor Dabke and Aswat Ensemble Sunday

Take Me to Palestine - خدني ع فلسطين

Sunday, 2 p.m., Jackson Hall, 51�ԹϺ��� Davis Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Rooted in tradition and alive with momentum, Al-Juthoor (“Roots”) and Aswat Ensemble unite for a powerful evening of dabke, music, and storytelling. Drawing on dance and sound from Palestine and the Arab Levant/Bilad al-Sham, this collaboration affirms culture as something lived, shared, and carried forward.

On stage, grounded footwork meets driving rhythms and rich vocals in a charged exchange that transforms performance into a site of unity and voice. Structured in two movements—Resistance and Land Back—the performance moves from a powerful exploration of resistance to a vision of return and reclamation, honoring relationships to land, memory, and heritage.

Other Mondavi events Sunday and Monday, and beyond,  

Next week:

51�ԹϺ��� Davis Symphony Orchestra

Orbiting Spheres

Friday, May 1, 7–9 p.m. in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center

Matilda Hofman, conductor

More in next week's Arts Blog on Thursday. and  

AND

on May 2, community symposium on Village Homes and its effect on building communities today. 

See next week's blog for details on these events.