Current Student Successes

Third-year undergraduate student Daniel Marella organized and completed a 10-mile ocean swim on August 15, 2020 in support of COVID-19 relief for Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, raising over $12,000. Money raised supported funds for “COVID Home Kits”—which provide essential supplies for individuals who test positive but do not need to be hospitalized—and Cottage Hospital employees from double-income and frontline worker households who had unexpected expenses related to the pandemic. Marella is pursing a Bachelor of Arts in Music Studies. He is co-captain of the men’s team for UC Santa Barbara Swimming and is a member of the UC Santa Barbara Jazz and Percussion ensembles.

Doctoral student Valdis Jansons was announced as the baritone soloist for the Santa Barbara Symphony’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s Songs of the Wayfarer (arr. Arnold Schoenberg) on April 17, 2021. The performance, to be conducted by Nir Kabaretti, is part of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s 2020/2021 season, which is being streamed live from the Granada Theatre with socially-distanced audiences from October 2020 to May 2021. The April 17th program will include Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, as well as works by Henri Tomasi, Bramwell Tovey, and Johannes Brahms. Jansons is a student of Associate Professor Dr. Isabel Bayrakdarian.

Doctoral candidate and mezzo-soprano Kelly Guerra was named a finalist in the team-based Catapult Opera Accelerate Competition, which was created to inspire innovation and creativity during this time of socially-distanced performances. Guerra and her team were given a grant of $1,000 to create a video depicting an excerpt from Los Angeles-based composer David Hertzberg’s opera, The Wake World. Described as a “hallucinatory choral fantasy,” the work was originally scored for five instruments and nine singers, and is based on a fairy tale written by British poet, magician, and occultist Aleister Crowley. Guerra is a student of Associate Professor Dr. Isabel Bayrakdarian.

Undergraduate student Noelle Barr was named one of six winners of the Pacific Bridge Arts Foundation’s 2020 Musical Arts Scholarship. The Musical Arts Scholarship provides resources for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) students pursuing a degree in the musical arts to break into the music industry with mentorship, networking opportunities, and financial support. The fields of study of the 2020 awardees ranged from audio engineering to performance. The foundation provides a “platform to support and celebrate Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in arts and culture.” Barr is a senior and a double major in Music Studies and the History of Art and Architecture.

Doctoral Candidate Rodney DuPlessis was named a finalist for the Musica Nova International Electroacoustic Competition for his work De Rerum Natura. DuPlessis’ piece was presented alongside works by composers Annette Vande Gorne, James O’Callaghan, Louise Rossiter, and Apostolos Loufopoulos. De Rerum Natura was also a finalist for three other awards, including the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States/The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Award; SIMEC Electroacoustic Music Competition; and the Destellos International Electroacoustic Competition. DuPlessis has studied with UC Santa Barbara professors Curtis Roads, Clarence Barlow, and João Pedro Oliveira.

Doctoral student Alvise Pascucci gave a virtual solo piano recital on December 23, 2020 from the Teatro degli Industri of Grosseto, Italy as part of the Scriabin Concert Series. The program included Ludwig van Beethoven’s Variations and Fugue in E-flat Major, Op. 35 and Robert Schumann’s Fantasy, Op. 17 in C Major. Pascucci has been awarded over 60 prizes in national and international competitions, and has performed in venues all over the world. He received a Performer Diploma from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and is now working towards his Doctor of Musical Arts degree with Professor Paul Berkowitz at UC Santa Barbara, where he has been awarded the prestigious Chancellor’s Fellowship.