Tag archives: CAMA
Maybe the headline is a bit misleading, as some things have changed at the Sphinx Organization, the classical music umbrella founded in Detroit in 1997. Sphinx’s program initiatives include education, artistic development, and arts leadership, in addition to its more visible performing artists priorities, which includes the Sphinx Virtuosi, the nonprofit’s premier touring ensemble. It’s […]
The opening concert in the International Series segment of CAMA’s 107th season represents the continuation of its long association with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This early date for the annual performance also represents the end of an era, as maestro Gustavo Dudamel leads the orchestra in his final Santa Barbara appearance before departing to assume […]
After a delay due to a medical treatment, American pianist Garrick Ohlsson performed an all-Chopin concert at the Lobero at part of CAMA’s Masterseries. It was the first time returning to CAMA since his virtuosic all-Brahms in March 2019. With works including “Nocturne in F Major,” “Fantasy in F Minor,” “Impromptu in F-sharp Major,” and […]
The Santa Barbara Symphony’s adventurous 2024-25 season comes to a close this weekend with another unusual entry, as the pair of concerts represent the first time the organization has booked a soloist – in this case the very estimable violinist Gil Shaham – to perform different repertoire in the Saturday and Sunday concert. The Grammy-decorated […]
CAMA – the Community Arts Music Association – closed its 106th season’s International Series with the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by beloved conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, joined by French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the Granada. The concert hailed maestro Salonen’s 16th appearance conducting for CAMA over the past three decades – 12 with the L.A. Phil […]
This year’s annual Santa Barbara visit by the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Friday, May 9, at the Granada not only closes out CAMA’s orchestral International Series for 2025-26, but also serves as the penultimate concert in president Mark Trueblood’s CAMA career after 27 years at the helm. It’s rather appropriate, as the LA Phil was […]
Russian pianist Yefim Bronfman, 66, playing in our Eden by the Beach for the first time in more than 25 years, showed off his technical brilliance to the full. Bronfman, who studied at Juilliard in New York and the Curtis Institute of Music, was part of the CAMA Masterseries, having won an Avery Fisher Prize […]
Mark E. Trueblood, who has guided Community Arts Music Association (CAMA) of Santa Barbara to new programming heights over the course of his 27-year tenure as executive director and later president, will retire once the current concert season concludes. Elizabeth Alvarez, currently CAMA’s director of development, will succeed him as managing director of the venerable […]
It was clearly worth the wait when the London-based Chineke! Orchestra made its West Coast debut at the Granada, part of CAMA’s 106th season. The talented company’s 2020 tour had been unfortunately cancelled in the wake of the COVID pandemic, just weeks before its scheduled concert. A champion of diversity in classical music, Chineke’s vibrant […]
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 […]
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 […]
Closing out a crowded week in classical music, Garrick Ohlsson returns to CAMA Masterseries at the Lobero in a full-circle concert. The highly praised pianist, whose early triumph at the 1970 Chopin Piano Competition launched his career, will play an all-Chopin program on January 23. Ohlsson, whose half-century-plus of performing has put him at the […]
CAMA – Community Arts Music Association – hosted its latest Masterseries concert at the Lobero when violinist Anne Akiko Meyers showed off her undoubted talents. The hugely entertaining program, with Grammy nominee Meyers, 54, playing her 1741 “ex-Vieuxtemps” Guarneri del Gesu, included Corelli’s “La Folia Sonata,” Beethoven’s “Sonata No. 5 in F Major ‘Spring,’” Lauridsen’s […]
CAMA’s latest international concert at the Granada was La Serenìssima at its best with mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital conducting San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Grammy-winning soprano Esteli Gomez interspersing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with gondola songs. It was also the 300th anniversary of Vivaldi’s enduringly popular Baroque masterpiece which I last heard on a misty New […]
Red tape caused major problems for the kickoff concert of CAMA’s 106th season with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at the Granada when singer Thomas Bauer was unable to make the event because of visa issues. Baritone and three-time Grammy winner Dashon Burton came in as a last-minute replacement, singing Mahler’s “Songs of a Wayfarer” […]
Our Eden by the Beach’s Community Arts Music Association ended its 105th International Series on a particularly high note when the U.K.’s 66-year-old Academy of St. Martin in the Fields – under the directorship of legendary Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell – played a sold-out concert at the Granada. The wonderfully entertaining show featured the […]
CAMA, the Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara. hosted its last concert of its current Masterseries with the 18-member Sphinx Virtuosi at the Lobero. The talented ensemble was founded in Detroit in 1997 to champion black and Latinx composers and musicians to bring more diversity to the arts. The tony troupe performed four commissioned […]
Just six weeks after its disastrous sprinkler mishap the venerable Granada Theatre was back to its sparkling self when the 27-time Grammy winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performed as part of the CAMA Masterseries. Conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, music director since 2022 and only the second woman in history to lead a major American orchestra, joined Chinese […]
French pianist Hélène Grimaud made her third CAMA Masterseries appearance at the Lobero and, true to form, was at the top of her game. In the penultimate show of her U.S. tour, Grimaud, 54, played the “B” list with works including Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major,” Brahms’ 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117 and […]
Magnificent classical music reigned supreme with three impressive concerts in our Eden by the Beach, two at the venerable Granada and one at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall. Kicking off the week was the Community Arts Music Association’s first concert of the new year with London’s 79-year-old Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko, […]
