There are 19 RiteCare Childhood Language Centers across California, a program of the California Scottish Rite Foundation that provides life-changing speech therapy, language skills, and literacy services to more than 2,300 children at no cost to the families. The highly effective centers in many ways more than fill the gaps between what the public schools […]
Lawrence Brownlee is one of today’s most celebrated bel canto tenors, in demand for opera performances as well as song cycle recitals with major orchestras across the country and around the world. He’s particularly praised for his interpretations of Rossini – his Grammy-nominated album Virtuoso Rossini Arias prompted famed New Yorker critic Alex Ross to […]
Heroes, Tom Stoppard’s loose translation of Gérald Sibleyras’ 2003 French play Le Vent des Peupliers (“The Wind in the Poplars”), won the 2006 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy – the highest honor in British theater, equivalent to Broadway’s Tony Awards. A year later, the funny, heart-warming work – about three aging World War I […]
Back in the day, mention of home movies got folks scattering as fast as they could. After all, who wanted to watch other family’s foibles or vacation videos on some flickering screen in a living room? But the term takes on a different meaning in the new “Santa Barbara Home Movies’’ series launching July 20 […]
Mark your calendar for July 20. That’s the date when the contractors will hand over the keys to the new building serving the Visual Arts and Design Academy (VADA) at Santa Barbara High School. “We’re on schedule and on budget for the substantial completion date,” said Andy Beall, President of Friends of VADA, the nonprofit […]
Ken Cazan, the director of the Music Academy 2024 opera Carmen, last helmed a production of the famed and beloved work nearly 30 years ago, and has been happily ensconced in recent years taking on smaller, more experimental pieces. But he was tempted to field the fiery fan favorite once again by both the offer […]
Ensemble Theatre Company’s two upcoming presentations were already terrifically timely as they arrive within four months of November’s national election. That was part of the purpose behind ETC executive director Scott DeVine’s decision to schedule short productions of Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground and What the Constitution Means to Me as special events this summer. […]
It was almost half a century ago, but I can still remember driving home after seeing Jaws in the movie theater on a rainy night in New Jersey – so much so that when we came to a freeway underpass that had flooded with several feet of water, I was happy that the police were […]
It’s also time for the 15th Asian American Film Series, whose films speak to the Asian American experience as an exploration of the history and cultures of the Asian communities that once thrived in and around the Santa Barbara Presidio area. Held at 6 pm on Fridays in July at the Alhecama Theatre, the 2024 […]
Lady Leslie and Lord Paul Ridley-Tree, considered one of Montecito’s premier philanthropic power couples, generously supported the Santa Barbara Museum of Art for more than a quarter of a century. To help fulfill SBMA’s mission to integrate art into the lives of people, the Ridley-Trees made major gifts to aid in acquiring art to build […]
Timo Andres’ first visit to the Music Academy will include – for the fellows’ brass concert – the west coast premiere of the rising star pianist-composer’s “Land Lines”for triple brass quintet, as well as his “Tides and Currents” in the faculty concert at the Lobero. Andres once served on the judges panel for the fellows’ […]
Jazz at the Ballroom’s latest show, “Flying High: Big Band Canaries Who Soared,” is committed to keeping the Great American Songbook and swinging, classic jazz thriving. The producing organization is a California-based nonprofit that is as much about education as entertainment, and “Flying High,” which celebrates female jazz vocalists Billie Holiday, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald […]
Montecito-based music makers Doublewide Kings have had a pretty busy summer. But their attention is also focused on the fall, as the country/classic rock band is once again headed to the grand stage at the Granada Theatre. One year after The Kings and the Santa Barbara Symphony rocked our world with the Van Morrison tribute […]
The early events of the 100th edition of Old Spanish Days Fiesta fired up in fine fashion last week at Fiesta Ranchera, the annual dine, drink, and dance gathering at the still spectacular Rancho La Patera gardens. There were plenty of appetizers to go around, with all the vendors serving generous pours of both wine […]
The Music Academy audience has already seen a lot of Jeremy Denk. The piano great is in his 10th season as a faculty teaching artist on campus, which assignment began less than two years after Denk was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the summer after he served as the Ojai Festival’s music director. In […]
The RUNX1 gene provides instructions for making RUNX1 protein, which plays a vital role in the production of blood stem cells and the maintenance of a healthy blood system throughout life. RUNX1-FPD patients have a hereditary mutation that causes symptoms such as bleeding and easy bruising, which can require limiting daily activities and cause allergic […]
Concerts in the Park is a long-cherished Santa Barbara institution, a summertime frolic featuring free live music on the Great Meadow in Chase Palm Park along Santa Barbara’s waterfront on Cabrillo Blvd. The gently-sloping hill facing the permanent concrete stage (often the setting for weddings and other private functions) provides sensational sightlines and surroundings with […]
When Paige Cameron enrolled at Northwestern in her home state of Illinois to study vocal performance, the plan was to sing her way to stardom. “I really thought I was going to be an opera singer,” said Cameron, who goes by either she or they and has recently decided to lop off her hyphenated last […]
I’ve been singing the Solvang Festival Theater’s praises for decades, and the little amphitheater downtown in the Danish-themed village – call it the Santa Ynez Valley’s scaled-down version of the Santa Barbara Bowl – has only burnished that bountiful reputation with the recent renovations. While concerts and other events now also take place on the […]
Turning from the stage to the page, it took a full century for Santa Barbara to buddy up to Bloomsday, the annual celebration of the life and work of Irish writer James Joyce every June 16; the day his 1922 novel Ulysses takes place in 1904, and named after its protagonist Leopold Bloom. Dublin’s been […]
Maybe the Music Academy of the West had some unanticipated smarts in scheduling the annual Percussion Fest for the first Saturday of the season, just four days into the 2024 Summer Festival. With the fellows flying in from San Francisco, Cleveland, Houston, and New York and driving up from L.A. they’d all have to arrive […]
When Hospice of Santa Barbara officially opened its doors back in 1974, only one other hospice organization existed in the entire United States, making HSB just the country’s second nonprofit that focused on the nonmedical care, comfort and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is approaching the end of life. […]
A writer’s conference might seem like an esoteric enterprise, considering that the actual act of writing is as solitary as such things go, save for maybe collaborating in a writer’s room for a TV sitcom, which is a lot less literary. The once-daunting barriers to entry to “seeing one’s work in print” have been obliterated […]
You might say Navasard Hakobyan had a pretty good summer in Santa Barbara last year. The Armenian baritone not only made his debut as Marcello, one of the principal roles in La Boheme at the Granada, he also secured the most coveted and longstanding prize of the festival in the Music Academy’s 2023 Marilyn Horne […]
An impact report is normally more of an obligation or a chore for a nonprofit rather than something to brag about. But for Explore Ecology, publishing its 2023-2024 Impact Report – its first ever – was an especially exciting development. That’s because it’s the first document to not only succinctly tie together the multiple programs […]
In just about every city across America, summer is when the classical music season grinds to a halt, with both professional and university institutions going on hiatus until the fall. But for more than three-quarters of a century, Santa Barbara has had the great distinction of having two months at the beginning of summer bring […]
The Music Academy of the West’s annual Summer Gala, set for Saturday, June 1, not only serves as an elegant appetizer to the enviable eight-week festival that follows, but also an official welcome to new Music Academy President and CEO Shauna Quill. The 2024 gala, appropriately titled “A New Era,” features an Italian-themed culinary journey […]
Pianist and conductor Mitsuko Uchida, Musical America’s 2022 Artist of the Year and a Grammy nominee in 2023, serves as music director of this year’s Ojai Music Festival, the 78th edition of four days of musical brainstorming in an enchanted setting amid audiences eagerly anticipating challenge and discovery. The 2024 Ojai Festival takes place June […]
The Santa Barbara Music Club Scholarships – which regularly produces free concerts featuring professional and other classical musicians in town – has been awarding scholarships to instrumental and vocal music students from Santa Barbara County. The scholarships provide a measure of support, aid, and encouragement to students from local schools and teaching studios. The hope […]
Opera Santa Barbara’s 2024-25 season doesn’t start until November, but the opportunity to purchase single (non-subscription) tickets to OSB’s three productions for less than $30 ends with the month of May. The season features Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (November 8 & 10), Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (February 21 & 23) and Donizetti’s The Daughter of the […]
Dean Noble, executive director of Elings Park, is fond of comparing Elings to some famous public parks in urban areas. “What Central Park is to New York, and Golden Gate Park is to San Francisco, Elings Park is to Santa Barbara,” said Noble, who previously served as ED of the Santa Barbara Zoo. But there […]
Pete Muller didn’t set out to make a record in Memphis with an entirely new band when he visited producer/engineer Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell) on the advice of his manager. But the two hit it off, and when his previous producer Rob Mathes proved too busy with his Sting projects to get away, Muller committed […]
Natalie Merchant, the New York-bred singer-songwriter who a lifetime ago was the lead singer and lyricist for the alt.rock faves 10,000 Maniacs (1981-93) before embarking on an even more successful solo career, returns to town to perform at the Santa Barbara Bowl on May 23. Merchant’s latest album, 2023’s Keep Your Courage, continues to prove […]
Although there’s only one degree of separation between Santa Barbara and Kevin Bacon, the star of the movie Footloose – soundtrack superstar Kenny Loggins, on the other hand, has lived in town for decades – neither will be involved in Lights Up! Theatre Company’s production of the stage musical this weekend. But what we do […]
Indecent is a 2015 play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, inspired by the controversial events surrounding the play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch. God of Vengeance was briefly produced on Broadway in 1923 before the producer and cast were arrested and convicted of obscenity due to the play’s depiction of lesbian love. Vengeance […]
Although Summerland had relatively minor flooding and damage following the torrential rainstorm and resulting debris flow in January 2018, the town suffered several days of isolation due to the closure of the 101 freeway and debris blocking other access points. Having her hometown turn into a virtual island was a wake-up call for Summerland resident […]
Normally at this time of year, UCSB Music’s voice program would either mount a full-scale opera or a collection of staged opera scenes, but for 2024, the show has morphed into an Opera Gala, which is not only a collaboration between the music and theater-dance departments, but also a tale of two cities as UCSB […]
Incandescent is the intriguing title of this year’s MFA Thesis Exhibition at UCSB’s Art, Design & Architecture Museum (AD&A), on view May 17 to June 9. The seven grad students with heritage from Mexico, Nigeria, Iran, the Philippines, and elsewhere, drew on Michel Serres’ notion of incandescence to create art that emphasizes the interconnectedness of […]
Nashville-based singer-songwriter and recording artist Jordan Asher Huffman, who has been named One805’s 2024 Mental Wellness Ambassador and is lending his single “Out Loud” to serve as this year’s anthem for all One805LIVE! events, has been added to the all-star lineup put together by Steve Postell for the nonprofit’s afternoon bash at Sunstone Winery. Jordan […]
Celtic Woman returns to the Chumash Casino on their “20th Anniversary Tour,” marking the milestone since the ensemble rose to fame after their 2005 PBS concert special that was initially intended as a one-time-only event. But the response propelled their album to the top of Billboard’s World Music chart and a second album a year […]