Now in its 78th season, the Music Academy of the West’s annual summer festival, which runs from June 15 to August 9, offers an unparalleled blend of world class performances and musical discovery. Themed “Soundtrack to Summer,” the mega event showcases international artists performing alongside 150 of the academy’s gifted young musicians and 60 esteemed […]
Sultry lounge singer Storm Large lived up to her billing when she sang at the Granada with the Santa Barbara Symphony, under veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti in Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with additional vocals by the Hudson Shad Quartet. Other sensual works in the concert included Jacques Ibert’s “Divertissement,” William Grant Still’s “Seven Little […]
Montecito Bank & Trust, which is celebrating its half century, held its annual anniversary grants reception at its State Street headquarters when Janet Garufis, chairman and CEO, handed out $5,000 checks, instead of the normal $3,000, to 11 nonprofits chosen by the bank’s staff. The Jerry Parent Legacy Award went to Many Mansions, which runs […]
Meghan Markle has made friends locally with “working women with normal jobs,” she tells People magazine. This comes after critics of her Netflix lifestyle show told the Duchess of Sussex she was “out of touch” and “tone deaf.” But Meghan says she and Prince Harry, who live on a $14.65 million estate in Riven Rock, […]
Santa Barbara Choral Society had an annual gala with a difference with Shamrock at the Rockwood over St. Patrick’s Day weekend. The sold-out bash welcomed more than 130 guests to the women’s club which had been transformed into a giant Irish-themed bar, and where they were welcomed by emcees Larry Schecter and Kathleen Stinnett before […]
A new comedy about texts, sex, and empty nests, Parents in Chains – written by Emmy and Peabody Award winner Jay Martel – is the latest Ensemble Theatre Company production at the New Vic. Directed by Andy Fickman, the play focuses on six Los Angeles parents dealing with communications from their teenagers driving home from […]
The venerable Granada rocked to the Motown sound when the Tony Award-winning show Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations rocked the theater in the American Theater Guild production. Electrifying smash hits launched them from their home in Detroit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a fascinating story about […]
Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West was socially gridlocked for the Mariposa series of yMusic featuring trumpeter alumni CJ Camerieri performing a new work inviting listeners to commune with the fragile beauty of natural worlds. A new score, a blend of acoustic performance, featured raw and personal field recordings with California composer […]
UCSB Arts & Lectures Miller McCune Executive Director Celesta Billeci was honored by the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce in recognition of her 25 years at the university. Celesta, a longtime friend, received the Visionary Arts Leadership Award as part of the Regional Business Awards Gala at the Hilton from Dr. Colin Marlaire, […]
Dr. Cheryl Chooljian is the new Director of Veterinary Services for the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network. She has a diverse background in veterinary medicine and wildlife conservation. She earned her BA in biology at the University of Texas in Arlington and her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the Louisiana State University of Veterinary […]
Jim Jackson is the new Board Chair of Santa Barbara Zoo and Ozlem Arconian, Hillary Courtemanche, Rhonda Ledson Henderson, and Jennifer Perry have joined the board. Serving as a trustee of the Ann Jackson Family Foundation for more than 25 years, Jackson brings a legacy of leadership and community commitment to his new board role. […]
Just a week after launching her new Netflix culinary series With Love, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex is back in the podcast game. Meghan Markle has launched Confessions of a Female Founder with Lemonada Media. “I’ve been having candid comments with amazing women who have turned dreams into realities and scaled small ideas into amazingly […]
The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum throbbed to the Caribbean beat as 140 guests celebrated a Love Boat cruise gala with head honcho Greg Gorga in all white officer’s uniform. Condor Express owner Hiroko Benko, who created a Santa Barbara Whale Heritage Area, and Sigrid Toye, a past board president and current board member, were presented […]
The venerable Granada was packed for a sold-out Rock for First Responders concert, organized by One805. Even Prince Harry turned out for the VIP reception. A guitar signed by HRH and the other performers, including Macy Gray, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald and Alan Parsons, soldfor $9,000. Toad the Wet Sprocket and Hootie & the Blowfish […]
French violinist and former Santa Barbara Symphony concert master Gilles Apap was in his element in a CAMA Masterpiece series concert with Friends! at the Lobero Theatre. Apap played a colorful selection of works with pianist Inna Faliks featuring Fauré, Krieger, Enescu, Piazzolla and Paganini, before playing Chinese and Tibetan compositions with Xiaoli Cioffi on […]
The Californian Rangeland Trust, founded in 1998, hosted the public premiere of its 49-minute documentary You Just Can’t See Them from the Road – directed by Keely Brazil Covello and Michaela Brazil Gillies, daughters of ranch veterinarians in a remote area of northern California. More than 200 people clad in Stetsons and cowboy boots poured […]
Santa Barbara residents Eric, former head of Google, and Wendy Schmidt’s family foundation has purchased the 350-acre parcel of land known as Mar y Cel, the largest contiguous undeveloped property in Montecito. In keeping with their philanthropic focus on the environment and in recognition of the value of Mar y Cel to the community and […]
Santa Barbara warbler Katy Perry’s high life is getting even higher! The former Dos Pueblos High student, 40, has announced she is heading into outer space as part of the historical Blue Origins all-woman crew alongside Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sanchez and CBS anchor Gayle King this spring. It will be the 11th […]
State Street Ballet, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, made quite a splash with the world premiere of its latest highly entertaining production The Little Mermaid – based on the classic 1837 fairytale of Hans Christian Andersen – at the Lobero. Choreographed by Artistic Director Megan Philips and Executive Director Cecily MacDougall the nautical adventure […]
Local longevity specialist Dr. Steven Gundry was so oversubscribed at an MClub lunch at the historic Santa Barbara Club that he had to speak twice – with 80 guests at his first performance and 75 at his second an hour later. The cardiothoracic surgeon and four times New York Times bestselling author’s ninth tome The […]
Security was paramount at the Granada when Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company performed as part of UCSB’s popular Arts & Lectures program. A small number of protesters were present, carrying disparaging placards. More than 18 Santa Barbara police officers were stationed in and outside the theater and guests had to go through metal detectors placed in […]
More than 115 guests turned out for the venerable Granada Theatre’s annual “l Love Your Theater” open house when supporters were allowed to see the “innards” of the 2,000-seat auditorium with wine and canapés on the capacious stage which a week earlier had hosted the historic London Symphony Orchestra, part of CAMA’s international program. Jon […]
Last weekend, terminally ill mother Traci Glynn from Atascadero traveled up the coast to Solvang where the historic Alisal Ranch hosted her, her husband, and son Sean, 21, for the weekend of final memories and a dream come true. A lifelong horse owner and experienced rider Traci, 42, who was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, […]
ShelterBox president Kerri Murray went to pot when she met King Charles and Queen Camilla at Buckingham Palace last week! Kerri also met Camilla at an event at the tony twosome’s private residence Clarence House, formerly the London home of the late Queen Mother. The latest event celebrated the anniversaries of four humanitarian organizations, ShelterBox, […]
Opera Santa Barbara’s latest production of Mozart’s classic work The Marriage of Figaro turned into the Love Boat when head honcho Kostis Protopapas and director Sara E. Widzer, set the location on the ocean liner SS Seville on the Mediterranean in the 1930s. The two-hour 40-minute Lobero show, with set and projection design by Yuki […]
One805 hosted a grants reception at the Montecito Club handing out a record high of $1,003,000 in checks to First Responder agencies and the One805 Mental Wellness Fund. The chiefs of all First Responder Agencies in Santa Barbara County were present, including SBC Fire Chief Mark Hartwig, Montecito Fire Chief David Neels, and SBC Sheriff […]
Disco fever reigned supreme when the Firefighter Foundation of Santa Barbara South Coast hosted a pulsating Disco Inferno event with more than 200 guests at the Bella Vista, Summerland, estate of Pat and Ursula Nesbitt. The boffo bash, co-chaired by Ursula, Arlene Montesano, Gail Kvistad, Jim Nigro and Greg Hons, featured a performance by the […]
Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West was packed when artists from the visiting London Symphony Orchestra via CAMA performed with academy alumnae, including flute, clarinet and harp, with works by Mozart and Ravel in the latest performance from the Mariposa concert series… The final work, another Mozart piece, “Clarinet Quartet in A […]
International surfer Lakey Peterson is coming to the big screen in 805 Beer’s Making Waves documenting her rise to fame and focus on mental wellness, including how narrowly missing the Olympic roster became her catalyst for deeper discovery. “You don’t remember the wins or the losses,” she reflects. You remember the in-between moments – being […]
The audience for Santa Barbara Symphony’s latest concert at the venerable Granada was certainly ore-struck! The musicians – under Grammy-winning guest conductor Lucas Richman, music director of the Bangor Symphony, and backed by a giant movie screen – played the score from Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 film The Gold Rush, whose story was based on the […]
It was quite a week for the local charity Hearts Aligned which helps critically ill children and their families. The nonprofit threw its third annual Hearts to Hearts Valentine’s lunch emceed by radio host Catherine Remak at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara for 250 guests raising an impressive $200,000 for the cause. Just 48 hours later Catherine […]
Howard Jay Smith has just published his latest musical work Viva Violetta & Verdi following two years of diligent research and 18 months of writing. Howard’s research also included many interviews with the late local Metropolitan Opera tenor Eduardo Villa, who shared a lifetime of working in opera and performed 18 of Verdi’s operas in […]
Social gridlock reigned at vintner and animal activist Gretchen Lieff’s La Lieff tasting room in the Funk Zone when she hosted a Hearts & Rosé bash for 100 guests on Valentine’s Day. Singer Nicole Sophia entertained on guitar while DJ Joseph Souza provided a throbbing musical background. There was also a photo booth for amorous […]
Twyla Tharp Dance’s Diamond Jubilee – the New York company’s first visit back to our Eden by the Beach in ten years – took place at the Granada with live music from the Third Coast Percussion, and was a true tour de force. The energized performance, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures program, […]
The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara honored 20 student artists during a presentation and reception at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Mary Craig Auditorium. Each will receive a scholarship and their selected art submissions are currently being exhibited through this week. Now in its 46th year, the program continues to attract exceptionally talented student […]
Mike Edmondson, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Vice President of performance optimization at Amgen, has joined the advisory council of Dream Foundation’s Dreams for Veterans program. Edmondson is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and served in the U.S. Marine Corps for six years. He has since worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 25 years, including […]
My congratulations to Montecito film director Frederick Toye, 57, who has just received two of the movie industry’s highest awards at the 77th annual Directors Guild of America Awards at the Beverly Hilton. Frederick, whose mother is screenwriter (and MJ contributor) Sigrid Toye, received the Outstanding Directorial Achievements in a Dramatic Series Award and an […]
The Ensemble Theatre Company’s presentation of a vastly entertaining new version of the Bard’s Hamlet, one of his best-known tragedies at the New Vic directed by Margaret Shigeko Starbuck, is not to be missed. The production is set in modern Denmark with Will Block playing the troubled titular character – with the Shakespearean text of […]
It was definitely a 90-minute production with a difference when Cirque Kalabanté performed at the Lobero, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. The show, Afrique en Cirque, was created by Yamoussa Bangoura, a multidisciplinary artist of Guinean origin, who eventually joined his country’s Circus Baobab touring Africa and Europe. In early 2000 […]
Former ballerina and photographer Jenna Reichental hosted a Palm Royale-themed belated birthday bash thrown by her husband Avi at their Toro Canyon Jenavi Vineyards for 80 guests. Oozing chic and elegance befitting a Palm Beach, Florida crowd, the boffo bash drew on the Apple+ TV series, starring Montecito comedienne Carol Burnett and high society in […]