The Mondavi Center this week announced the new Aggie Arts internship program, for UC Davis students who are interested in learning firsthand what goes into running a performing arts center.

The paid internships, contingent on grant funding, will focus on four major aspects of arts administration: programing, marketing, fundraising and arts education. The center plans to select four interns for the yearlong program, fall through spring quarters, 2011-12.

A news release describes the program as high-energy and hands-on, culminating in a final project that will task the students with marketing and producing their own event in the spring quarter.

“The Mondavi Center has a long history of including students among our staff,” said Don Roth, executive director. “Hundreds of students have joined our ranks over the years and several of our student employees have gone on to career positions at the center.

“The Aggie Arts program evolves our commitment to student staffing to include advanced training in every aspect of arts administration and nonprofit management. We believe our Aggie Arts interns will complete the program with a sense of what it takes to work in the arts, but they will also gain a set of lifelong professional skills that will assist them in whatever career path they ultimately choose.”

The center will get something out of the deal, too, by turning to the Aggie Arts interns for advice on building the UC Davis student connection to the Mondavi Center and its presentations.

The complete internship description and application information are due to be available starting Monday, April 18, on the Student Employment Center website (search for job ID 736383). The application period opens April 18 and closed May 6.

What's on stage

• Gold Coast Trio — In this Department of Music program, Susan Lamb Cook, faculty affiliate in cello, performs with Rachel Vetter Huang, violin; and Hao Huang, piano. Program: Beethoven, Trio in B-flat Major, op. 97 (Archduke); Martinu, Trio in D Minor; Zwilich, Trio; and Brahms, Trio in C Major, op. 87. 8 p.m. Friday, April 15, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre.

• UC Davis Symphony Orchestra: Picnic Day Concert — A free performance of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, with Lois Brandwynne, piano. Noon Saturday, April 16, Jackson Hall.

• UC Davis Empyrean Ensemble: Meanwhile, In Europe — Program: John Stringer, Disquiet; Bent Sørensen, Phantasmagoria; Gianvincenzo Cresta, Sospesi-Anonimi, Diseredati, Poeti; Petr Bakla, For Eduard Herzog; and Steingrimur Rohloff, The Sinus Experience II, an Empyrean Ensemble commission for flute, clarinet, vibraphone, violin, viola, cello and piano (2010-11). 7 p.m. Sunday, April 17, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre.

• Focus on Film: Der Untergang (Downfall) — About Hitler's final days, as he raged against his powerlessness to stop the fall of Berlin, and with it, World War II and the Third Reich. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel with music by Stephan Zacharias. 156 minutes, rated R. 7 p.m. Thursday, April 21, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. Jaimey Fisher, an associate professor of German, and acting director of the Film Studies Program, is scheduled to give a talk at 6:30 p.m., also in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre.

• Buddy Guy — The guitar-playing blues legend, a pioneer of Chicago’s fabled West Side sound, a living link to that city’s halcyon days of electric blues, and a chief influence to such rock titans as Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Rolling Stone puts Guy 30th on the magazine’s listing of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2008, at the age of 71, he made the Rolling Stone cover for the first time — in connection with “Stone Crazy,” ranked 78th among the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time. Guy received a National Medal of Arts in 2003 and a place in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. He is the recipient of 29 W.C. Handy Blues Awards, five Grammy Awards and the Billboard Magazine Century Award for distinguished artistic achievement.As Guy’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame biography notes, “He’s renowned for his raw, blistering vocals and high-voltage guitar playing … employing feedback, distortion and extreme string-bending.” 8 p.m. Friday, April 22, Jackson Hall.

• David Sedaris — Humor writer, in the Distinguished Speakers series. 8 p.m. Thursday, April 28, Jackson Hall. Sold out; check with the box office about the waiting list for tickets.

• Pablo Ziegler: Beyond Tango — Born in Buenos Aires, Grammy-winning pianist Pablo Ziegler began his career playing classical and jazz before joining Astor Piazzolla’s New Tango Qunitet in 1978. His 12-piece Beyond Tango band carries forward Piazzolla’s legacy while creating a bracing new tradition for the inimitable Argentine musical form. 8 p.m. Friday, April 29, Jackson Hall. Preperformance talk by Professor Pablo Ortiz of the Department of Music, 7 p.m., Jackson Hall.

• Lucinda Childs: DANCE — A re-creation of Childs' controversial 1979 choreography, complete with the black-and-white film backdrop showing dancers in sync with the live performers. Visual artist Sol LeWitt created the film and Philip Glass wrote the music. When DANCE debuted at the University of Minnesota, some members of the audience walked out, outraged at the piece’s experimental nature. 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, Jackson Hall. Preperformance talk by Ruth Rosenberg, artist engagement coordinator at the Mondavi Center, 7 p.m., Jackson Hall. Post-performance question-and-answer session, moderated by Professor Della Davidson of the Department of Theatre and Dance.

• Henry Louis Gates Jr. — Harvard University professor, head of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Studies, in the Distinguished Speakers series. In a talk titled "African American Lives — Genealogy, Genetics and Black History," Gates will address research and DNA analysis and poignant family stories in a lively discussion on individual lineage and African American history. 8 p.m. Monday, May 9, Jackson Hall (postponed from an earlier date).

Just-added concerts

• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra — The “greatest large jazz ensemble working today,” according to the Chicago Tribune, draws from an extensive repertoire, including original works by Marsalis, Ted Nash and other members of the group. Marsalis, trumpeter, and the orchestra’s leader and music director, received the Pulitzer Prize in music in 1997 — becoming the first jazz artist to be so honored. He earned the prize for Blood on the Fields, a commissioned work for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the orchestra’s parent organization (with Marsalis as artistic director). 8 p.m. Saturday, June 18, Jackson Hall.

• Pink Martini — A 12-member band that draws inspiration jazz, classical, old-fashioned pop and the romantic Hollywood musicals of the 1940s and ’50s — with a more global perspective. As Pink Martini bandleader and pianist Thomas Lauderdale said, “If the United Nations had a house band in 1962, then hopefully we’d be that band.” Pink Martini’s latest album is Splendour in the Grass, described as a virtual carnival of musical influences, with one grand purpose: to rebuild a culture that sings and dances. 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 5, Jackson Hall.

Tickets 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.