Around the World with Camerata Pacifica
Camerata Pacifica, the Santa Barbara-based chamber music collective founded more than 35 years ago by Artistic Director Adrian Spence, had a pretty terrific off-season this summer. Cam Pac was named 2026 Ensemble of the Year by Chamber Music America in recognition of its considerable history of commissioning new works and creating innovative programs.
“I was really touched when I received the news because it’s voted on by our peers,” said Spence, who is still at the organization’s helm. “It’s recognition of the community that’s built up around Camerata, the musicians, the audience members, and everybody who supports us.”
Now, attention turns to the ensemble’s 37th season, which begins with Rachmaninoff’s “Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22” and Franz Schubert’s “Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, D. 898,” which Spence called “one of the more straightforward programs for us.”
There’s a reason for that.
“The subject for the Rachmaninoff variations is a little sober reminder of where we are in the world right now,” he said of the performance that closes out its four-concert run at Hahn Hall on October 15. “Eventually, Rachmaninoff moves us forward into a sense of optimism and joy. The Schubert is an awareness of the time we’re in, surrounded by buoyant optimism and joy.”
That kind of goes for the full season, which boasts seven more programs through May 2027.
“It’s not even a political comment to say that this is a very challenging time to be on the planet,” Spence said. “I hope my programming through this season both acknowledges that, but also touches it in this sense of optimism and hope. Throughout history, classical music has been aspirational. It points us to a representation of the best we can be. That’s a helpful message in this time.”
Case in point: November’s concert, which includes the world premieres of two new commissions for Cam Pac this season in Iranian American Composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s “The Innocence of Life”sandwiched between Missy Mazzoli’s “Vespers for Violin”and Mozart’s gorgeous “Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major, K. 452.”
“Putting music by a 30-year-old female Iranian musician on concert stages in the Western world, that’s a statement by itself,” Spence said. “Contemporary history has made it even more notable.”
Camerata will also debut Howard Frazin’s new work for a mixed sextet, titled “The Distant Chirping of Birds,” a more traditional piece by request of its sponsor. Also new this season is the appointment of two principal players in violist Che-Yen Chen and flutist Sébastian Jacot, the latter of whom Spence – who held the flute chair for a sizeable chunk of Camerata history – called the producer of “the most sensational flute playing I’ve heard ever, anytime, anywhere.”
April’s harp-centric program is another highlight of the season, featuring both the Camerata Pacifica debuts of guest artists Emmanuel Ceysson (LA Philharmonic’s Principal) and Cristina Montes Mateo (Valencia Opera House Principal and Royal Harpist to the King and Queen of Spain). The ensemble’s season winds up a month later with a program Spence said serves as another statement bookend to the first two concerts.
“It has an early Beethoven piano sonata, an American piece and a Russian piece. Everybody can take whatever inferences they want out of that. You can draw your own conclusion.”
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