The performing group Music Humana was created in 1999 by the graduate students of the musicology department for a performance of German music from the Renaissance. That performance was so successful that the group has continued to perform together and has further embraced undergraduate students from both the music and the musicology departments, as well as members of the UCLA community. We’ve been fortunate that Karen Baxter at the Powell Library revived the Rotunda concerts, and her efforts have been furthered by the activities of her successor Cathy Brown, giving Musica Humana a very atmospheric space in which to perform.

Musica Humana’s goal is provide an exciting environment for performers and audience alike to explore the rich and varied ways in which all musical activities shape and express people and their cultures. With a combination of music and readings from period literature, Musica Humana’s concerts explore the many sonic worlds of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Recent concerts have included:

The “Contenance Angloise”: Two Centuries of English Music
The Roman de Fauvel
“Musae Iovis”: Four Generations of Franco-Flemish Composers
Masques & Monody: Nicholas Lanier and the Italian Style
Voices, Signs, & Symbols: Medieval and Renaissance Song
Music of the Florentine Renaissance : A Concert in Honor of Frank D'Accone
Jews and the Italian Renaissance
The San Marco Connection
“Cantar e Danzar” : Renaissance and Baroque Song and Dance
“…in mulieribus…” : Musical Representations of Women in the Renaissance
Vocal and Instrumental Music of the 16th and 17th Centuries
German Music from the Renaissance