Associate Professor Kurt Rohde is back with a new take on Double Trouble, his 2002 composition for two violas and a small ensemble.

The new piece is a double concerto for two violas and a large orchestra — in fact, the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra will perform the work’s world premiere on Sunday, May 15. Rohde and one of his music department colleagues, lecturer Ellen Ruth Rose, will play amplified violas.

“This new piece is much more cumbersome and lumbering than the original. In remixing it for larger forces, I lengthened it with a lot of new music,” said Rohde, who teaches music composition, theory and analysis. In addition, he is co-director of UC Davis’ Empyrean Ensemble.

Basically, he said, he took Double Trouble apart, reworked it and put it back together, akin to what novelist Mary Shelley did in creating the monster in Frankenstein. Thus Rohde came up with the title for his new work: Double-Franken-Trouble-Stein for Two Amplified Violas and Orchestra.

The concerto follows the traditional three-movement form: a fast opening, a slow middle and a rapid final movement.

“The first movement is very intense,” Rohde said. “It sounds as if the soloists are trying to escape from the strict, relentless energy of the orchestra.

“The slow movement is very dreamy, almost like a mist of sound, with weaving melodies handed off between the soloists.

“The final movement plays on the notion that the viola players cannot play well. It is this very erratic, disjointed virtuoso movement where the soloists have to play a demanding part that sounds like they cannot play at all — and this is a lot more difficult to do than one might think.”

“The entire piece is fun! I also wanted to add an element of rock ’n’ roll, and made the viola parts for electric amplified violas — I love that sound, because it is related to the electric guitar.”

The orchestra includes four percussionists playing assorted instruments, from tuned gongs to cowbells to large plastic water bottles.

“Since the viola is easily covered by most orchestral sounds, the challenge was to compose a piece, which, even with two viola soloists, would allow the solo parts to be heard, while making the orchestra part sound interesting, cohesive and integrated with the solo parts.”

Similarly, the violists in Double Trouble try to consistently thwart the best intentions of the music being played by the small ensemble.

“In that older piece, at a certain point, the ensemble ‘gives up,’ and they simply decide to play along with the two soloists. With the new remix, I thought of it as taking the older piece apart and putting it back together again, resulting in a steroid induced, reanimated and reassembled creature, now much larger and more unusual.

“Hence, the Frankenstein insertion into the older title to make a new title.”

How does it sound? Come hear the premiere, in a concert starting at 7 p.m. in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. The complete program:

• Gershwin — Catfish Row (Suite from Porgy and Bess)
• Rohde — Double-Franken-Trouble-Stein for Two Amplified Violas and Orchestra, with Rohde and Ellen Ruth Rose, viola
• Mozart — Mass in C Minor ("Great Mass"), with the University Chorus, featuring Nadine Sierra, soprano; Julie Anne Miller, mezzo-soprano; Daniel Montenegro, tenor; and Ryan Kuster, bass-baritone.

More spring quarter concerts

The Symphony Orchestra is scheduled to present one more concert before the end of the academic year. And five other music department groups also are planning concerts between now and June 2. Here is the schedule:

Early Music Ensemble — Works by Italian Baroque composers Claudio Monteverdi and Giovanni Sances. Professor David Nutter directs the ensemble of approximately 30 singers, with guest musicians David Morris, cello; Cheryl Fulton, harp; and Steve Lehning, viola da gamba. 7 p.m. Saturday, May 21, Davis Community Church, 412 C St.

Baroque Ensemble, with the Davis High School Baroque Ensemble — Works by Vivaldi, Soler, Handel, Geminiani and Mozart. 3 p.m. Sunday, May 22, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center.

Empyrean Ensemble: New Music from Davis — Premiering the works of graduate student composers. 7 p.m. Monday, May 23, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. Preconcert talk with the composers and Kurt Rohde, the ensemble's co-director. The program:

• Hendel Almetus — Combite for String Quartet
• Gabriel Bolaños — Two Daguerreotypes for String Quartet
• Ben Irwin — Projection
• Scott Perry — Three Spells
• Garrett Shatzer — Lament: Verse I for String Quartet
• Liam Wade — Food Twenty Eleven for Odd Quartet
• Ching-Yi Wang — String Quartet No. 3

Jazz Bands: Guest Artists — Featuring composer, arranger and saxophonist Gregory Yasinitsky, along with Carlos Medrano on congas and Tim Acosta on trumpet. 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 25, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. The program includes:

• Jerome Kern — All the Things You Are
• Henry Mancini — Dreamsville
• Maurice White — September
• Plus three works by Yasinitsky and several pieces by Delbert Bump, who directs the UC Daviz Jazz Bands: the "big band" and the smaller combo

Yasinitsky, who has performed with such artists as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Louis Bellson and Stan Getz, is a Regents Professor of Music at Washington State University, and in June will become director of WSU's School of Music.

Concert Band: Earth Songs — Celebrating the biological, ecological and agricultural sciences. Also: a tribute to the bicycle, featuring well-known bicycle tunes. 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, Jackson Hall.

Symphony Orchestra — Family Concert, featuring the winners of the orchestra's 2011 Concerto Competition and the Composition Award. 7 p.m. Thursday, June 2, Jackson Hall. The program:

• Beethoven — Leonore Overture No. 3
• Bolaños — Cerro Negro
• Beethoven — Allegro moderato from Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, with Han-ah Sumner, piano
• Strauss — Emperor Waltz

Tickets for all concerts except the Early Music Ensemble are available online, or by visiting or calling the Mondavi Center box office, (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787. Box office hours: noon-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Admission to the Early Music Ensemble concert is by suggested donations at the door.