The Empyrean Ensemble — the professional new music group based at UC Davis — will celebrate longtime music professor D. Kern Holoman with the premiere of new works that were composed in Holoman’s honor during the Empyrean concert on Monday, April 28. The concert begins at 7 p.m. in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center.

“The centerpiece of the concert will be 10 new short works by composers that all have significant relationships with D.Kern Holoman,” said Kurt Rohde, a composer and music department faculty member. “These new works are meant as tributes to Holoman, paying homage to his substantial and significant musical and scholarly career at UC Davis, and beyond.”

Holoman retired last summer.

The works will be by Rohde himself as well as Yu-Hui Chang, Steve Mackey, Darin Wilson, Mika Pelo, Sam Nichols, Ross Bauer, Pablo Ortiz, Christian Baldini and Laurie San Martin.

Rohde said his piece, titled “final lecture,” takes taped samples from Holoman’s final lecture at UCD — at which Holoman spoke about the Beethoven symphonies — and “incorporates those samples in a series of arabesques that are realized by percussionist Chris Froh.”

Ortiz, another faculty member, wrote a piece called “Harold in Davis,” which references “Harold in Italy,” the well-known piece for orchestra and viola soloist by the French composer Hector Berlioz (which was, in turn, inspired by a lengthy narrative poem titled “Childe Harold” published by Lord Byron in the early 1800s).

Holoman published a widely respected biography of Berlioz in the 1989.

Ortiz said his piece is a “micro-tone poem, describing the trials and tribulations of Childe Harold in Davis — with a very happy ending. It is loosely based on the letters D, K and H from the viola part in Berlioz’s immortal ‘Harold in Italy.’ ”

Ortiz added, “I always think of Kern as a young man, exiled from Princeton, in a 1970s Davis, full of energy and ideas. (It was) a genteel, somewhat less-developed atmosphere with room for relaxed lunches at the Faculty Club. I had a fleeting glimpse of the way it may have been when I first came here 20 years ago.”

San Martin, a composer and music faculty member, wrote a piece called “HDKH (Homage to D. Kern Holoman).” She said, “Holoman was one of the first people I met when I came to UC Davis in 1987. It was my first year as an undergraduate, and I was facing tough decisions: Should I play for the orchestra (which Holoman conducted) or join the water polo team? They met in the same time slot.

“At my (orchestra) audition, I found Professor Holoman a bit intimidating — actually, he was a lot intimidating,” San Martin recalled. “But despite my terror, I had a sense that he was a nurturing and dedicated person.”

In writing a piece to honor Holoman, “I kept finding myself back in 1987, reliving my first concert at UC Davis. It was an ambitious program (Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony) celebrating the reopening of Freeborn Hall. I had the impression that I was catching UC Davis at a prime moment in its history.

“What I soon learned is that Kern makes eery moment — whether it’s the opening of a hall, an orchestral tour of Australia, or a simple noontime show — seem  vivid and special.”

Nichols, a composer and faculty member, wrote a piece called “disjecta membra no. 1a.” Nichols said, “The phrase ‘disjecta membra’ appears in Horace’s ‘Satires’ as ‘disjecti membra poetae.’ This is apparently a tribute to the earlier Roman poet Ennius. A literal translation from Latin might be ‘limbs of a dismembered poet.’ A less strict translation of Ennius’ words might be something like: “Even if you were to tear this poet into pieces, the scattered fragments would still sing.’ ”

Nichols continued, “Kern has many accomplishments — it’s hard to single out any one — but what always strikes me is his immediately recognizable voice as a writer. His prose is vivid, fresh, exactingly specific and particular. Even when ripped out of context, you can still tell who wrote it.”

Also on the program will be Mackey’s “It’s Equals It Is.” Mackey came to UCD as an undergrad in the 1970s; at the time, he was a rock-and-roller. Mackey enrolled in Holoman’s music history class, and embarked on a career as a Grammy-winning composer/guitarist/professor. He is now a music professor at Princeton.

Holoman, who is seldom at a loss for words, needed a day before he responded to a request by The Enterprise for a comment.

“Well I’m flattered, of course, by the gifts of newly composed music and fresh scholarship,” he said. “A wonderful posse of colleagues is involved, composers and performers and ‘ologists who go on filling every day with new adventures. But in point of fact, I’ve been fully retired since last July, so the predominant feelings so far are real satisfaction and faith in the folks now stewarding the program(s) and wide-eyed awe at how far we came in just a few decades.”

— Reach Jeff Hudson at [email protected] or 530-747-8055.

D. Kern Holoman PortraitW

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