UCLA will open the floodgates of Bruin faculty and student musical talent Thursday, Jan. 29 with “UCLA Sings!” Featuring a musical smorgasbord ranging from pianists to punk rockers, this all-hands-on-deck production will showcase the full range of talent at UCLA’s Herb Albert School of Music and Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. The free concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in Schoenberg Hall and will include performances by Opera UCLA, the Early Music Ensemble, the Bulgarian Quartet, the Monk Institute Ensemble, the Trap Girl punk band and original compositions by music faculty.

The concert will kick off a two-day conference devoted to the central attribute that these musicians share -- the human voice. On Friday and Saturday, Jan. 30-31, “Voice Studies Now” will convene 20 scholars from the arts and sciences alike to  contemplate the weekend’s single overarching question: What is voice? Many of the scholars are featured authors in the forthcoming "Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies," edited by UCLA musicology assistant professor Nina Eidsheim and Katherine Meizel, visiting assistant professor at Oberlin Conservatory.

The conference’s keynote speaker is the American avant-garde composer, musician and vocalist Diamanda Galás. Said to be "capable of the most unnerving vocal terror," Galás borrows from a range of influences that include Johnny Cash, Maria Callas and her own Greek heritage to give voice to such topics as AIDS, mental illness, despair and injustice. 

Panel discussions in connection with “Voice Studies Now” run through Saturday, Jan. 31. All events are free and open to the public. View concert program here: http://voice.humanities.ucla.edu/concert-program/