All Hands on Deck with SBMC and More Musical Happenings

Another longstanding Santa Barbara-based chamber music program also launches its new season this weekend, as the Santa Barbara Music Club opens its 56th series of concerts featuring purely pianists. The “Six Hands at One Piano: Romantic and Modern Perspectives” program, slated for 3 pm on Saturday, September 27, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (4575 Auhay Drive), will be performed by three celebrated keyboardists in Sergio Gallo, Björn Månsson, and Zeynep Üçbaşaran. Steinway artist Gallo has released CDs through Eroica and Naxos that have received raves from critics at BBC and Gramophone magazine, Månsson earned several degrees at University of Music in Gothenburg in the 1980s, and Üçbaşaran obtained her Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from USC before launching a long performance and teaching career. The three will play works for “piano six hands”(a term connoting three pianists at one piano) by Charles Gounod, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Georges Bizet, and others in a program that will also be performed at 7 pm on Friday, September 26, at Westmont College’s Deane Chapel. Admission to both concerts is free. 

Visit www.SBMusicClub.org or www.westmont.edu/music/concerts

More Piano Power

Grammy Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov returns to Campbell Hall on Tuesday, September 30, for a solo recital that not only kicks off UCSB Arts & Lectures’ 2025-26 season but also inaugurates the new Keyboard Virtuosos series. Trifonov’s appearance follows an extraordinary season of high-profile performances that included a highly regarded two-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl – where he played Rachmaninoff’s Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic with such staggering technical command and poetic sensitivity that Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times compared his playing with the composer’s own. At Campbell Hall, the pianist will perform a program that features Taneyev’s “Prelude and Fugue,” Prokofiev’s “Visions fugitivesl,” and sonatas by Myaskovsky and Schumann. 

Ticketholders are invited to come early for an elegant pre-concert Season Kickoff Reception featuring music, mocktails, a selection of hors d’oeuvres, a free commemorative poster and a few festive surprises on the plaza in front of the theater on campus.

Visit https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu. 

What the H: Duo Debuts in Benefit 

Veteran but very vital Music Academy of the West teaching artists Richie Hawley (clarinet) and Conor Hanick (piano) team up for a fall fundraiser for the Montecito institute, featuring an intimate dinner followed by performance from the world-class duo that will find the artists sharing personal insights and stories behind the music, transforming Lehmann Hall into a sophisticated, intimate lounge on Saturday, September 27. Only 100 seats are being sold and general admission tickets go for $500 to the first installment in MAW’s new Up Close and Unforgettable series. 

Half the personnel and the same instrumentation will be back on campus on November 9 for the second concert in MAW’s Mariposa series at Hahn Hall. This time Hanick will partner with clarinetist Gerbrich Meijer, a 2020-22 MAW fellow and winner of the Academy’s 2025 Alumni Performance Award. The thoughtfully curated, wide-ranging program features the world premiere of a Music Academy commission by composer Derek Bermel, with tickets starting at $55. 

Visit www.MusicAcademy.org.