ICIT Faculty

Core Faculty

KEI AKAGI, pianist and composer, has been a mainstay of the international jazz world for over two decades. Perhaps best known for his work as a member of the Miles Davis band in the late 1980's, his career also includes extended associations with major figures such as Stanley Turrentine, James Newton, Joe Farrell, Al DiMeola, and Airto Moreira. In addition, he has performed or recorded with Art Pepper, Blue Mitchell, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, Charlie Haden, Charnett Moffett, Tom Harrell, Bobby Shew, Eddie Harris, Slide Hampton, Steve Turre, Robin Eubanks, Jean-Luc Ponty, Jeff Watts, Allan Holdsworth, and others. Akagi has recorded 12 CDs as a solo artist and leader. As a sideman and accompanist, he has appeared on over 40 CDs worldwide, including Miles Davis's last recorded works. He has also written numerous original works for his own and others' recordings, with over 30 compositions currently in publication.

MICHAEL DESSEN is a composer-improviser who performs on the slide trombone and computer. Drawing on a wide range of experience across jazz, classical, improvised, and popular forms, he creates his own unique blend of music and collaborates with some of today's most exciting innovators. Dessen has recorded or performed with Yusef Lateef, Mark Dresser, Susie Ibarra, Vijay Iyer, Terry Jenoure, Anthony Davis, Adam Rudolph, Cosmologic, Dana Reason, Shahrokh Yadegari and many others. Current bands include his electro-acoustic trio, featuring Tyshawn Sorey and Christopher Tordini, and the collaborative Cosmologic quartet. Dessen has also contributed articles to publications such as The Other Side of Nowhere: Jazz, Improvisation and Communities in Dialogue (Wesleyan University Press), the online journal Critical Studies in Improvisation / Etudes Critique en Improvisation, and Musicworks magazine. His scholarship focuses especially on the role of African American traditions within late-twentieth century experimental music worlds. He received a Ph.D. from the Critical Studies/Experimental Practices division of the Music Department at the University of California, San Diego, where he studied with George Lewis and Anthony Davis. He also holds degrees from the the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he studied with Yusef Lateef and Salvatore Macchia. Equally important, Dessen has been schooled by numerous musicians outside of academia, while free-lancing in diverse contexts.

CHRISTOPHER DOBRIAN is the director of the Gassmann Electronic Music Studio and the Realtime Experimental Audio Laboratory (REALab), and is producer/director of the Gassmann Electronic Music Series. Previously he was acting director of the iEAR Studios and the graduate MFA program at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and executive producer of the Electronic Arts Performance Series. He holds a Ph.D. in Composition from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied composition with Joji Yuasa, Robert Erickson, Morton Feldman, and Bernard Rands, and computer music with F. Richard Moore and George Lewis. He is vice-president-at-large of the Electronic Music Foundation, a non-profit organization for the preservation and distribution of electronic music, and is the author of the original technical documentation and tutorials for the Max and MSP programming environments by Cycling '74. His work in computer music focuses on the development of "artificially intelligent" interactive systems for composition, improvisation, and cognition. Recent works include Microepiphanies: A Digital Opera (2000), a completely computer-controlled performance; Invisible Walls (2001) for dancers, motion tracking system, and computer-controlled synthesizer; Distance Duo (2001) for two computer pianos in remote locations connected via internet; In Tongues (2002) for flute and interactive computer system, premiered by virtuoso James Newton in Havana; Mannam (2003) for Korean flute (daegeum) and interactive computer system, premiered at the Seoul International Computer Music Festival; and JazzBot (2005) for Yamaha Disklavier piano and computer-controlled musical robots, premiered by Kei Akagi at the Beall Center for Art + Technology.

Affiliated Faculty

Composition

MICHAEL HOOKER, Professor of Drama, sound design and composition for theater
VINCENT OLIVIERI, Assistant Professor of Drama, sound design and composition for theater
ALAN TERRICCIANO, Professor of Dance, music for dance

Jazz Studies

CHARLES OWENS, saxophone, director of the UCI Jazz Orchestra
BOBBY RODRIGUEZ, trumpet
GEORGE McMULLEN, trombone
DAREK OLES, bass
JASON HARNELL, drums

Musicology and Theory

AMY BAUER, contemporary music, critical theory
DAVID BRODBECK, Central European music, rock history
RAE LINDA BROWN, African-American composers, jazz history
MARGARET MURATA, history of improvisation
HOSSEIN OMOUMI, Persian music

You can find a complete list of UCI Music faculty on the Music Department website,

This page was last modified November 21, 2007.