Tag archives: CAMA
“They are excellent, they sing really well,” David Crosby tweeted last October, hours after seeing The Brother Brothers open for I’m With Her at the Lobero Theatre. The folk-rock icon surely wasn’t the only music lover who was pleasantly surprised, as the sustained applause and cheers proved that many were basically blown away by the […]
Not surprisingly, the Moldovan-born virtuoso violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja turned out to be one of the most ambitious and active music directors of the Ojai Music Festival when she headed up the venerable classical music festival this past summer. Her four-day visit to the mountain village veered from a solo performance unplugged in Libbey Park to […]
The ballroom at the Hilton was packed when Human Rights Watch held its 12th annual Voices for Justice dinner, which raised around $600,000 for the 40-year-old nonprofit, which is a leading defender of fundamental freedoms, the activists who uphold them, and vulnerable people worldwide in 90 countries globally. The bustling bash for 460 guests, co-chaired […]
Actor Jeff Goldblum, who has starred in many of Hollywood’s top-grossing films, including Jurassic Park and Independence Day, showed off his musical talents at UCSB’s Campbell Hall when his Mildred Snitzer Orchestra entertained a packed house. An accomplished pianist, Goldblum, 66, and his jazz band of friends play regularly at L.A.’s Rockwell Table and Stage […]
An even newer work also gets its Santa Barbara debut over the same two weekends as UCSB Theater presents Vanity Fair, based on William Makepeace Thackery’s classic 1848 novel, and adapted for the stage with a modern twist by playwright Kate Hamill. Thomas Whitaker directs the tale of misadventures, friendship, and morally questionable acts, which […]
CAMA – the Community Arts Music Association – kicked off the first concert of its centennial series at the Granada in grand style when the 1,500 music lovers were treated to a bounteous champagne reception an hour before the performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which is also celebrating its centenary. The talented L.A. musicians […]
Bringing Return to the Forbidden Planet back to the Rubicon Theatre just two years after the Ventura debut of the hit early-1990s jukebox musical based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet was a case of a trite theater cliché actually turning out to be true. “It very definitely is […]
Philanthropist Sara Miller McCune was front and center when CAMA – the Community Arts Music Association – threw its centennial gala at the Biltmore, with 110 guests raising around $210,000 for the organization that brings many of the world’s most famous orchestras and performers to our Eden by the Beach. Sara, who has donated millions […]
It was like a scene from a Merchant-Ivory movie when CAMA – the Community Arts Music Association – kicked off its 100th anniversary season with a Music on the Riviera reception for major donors at Riviera Park. More than 100 guests strolled the grounds, seeking shade under the umbrellas from the blazing sun, as the […]
One last “Viva” and one last cascaron happened on August 12 at the end of Fiesta. It’s the Fiesta Finale given by the Profant Foundation at the El Paseo Restaurant – the perfect venue. This was the center of the celebration at one time. Rita Hayworth danced here in her father’s troupe. This is where […]
Food writer and inveterate traveler Michael Cervin has just completed his eighth work and fifth travel book, The Santa Barbara Know-It-All: A Guide to Everything that Matters. “I really wanted to write a travel book that was fun, entertaining, and funny,” says Michael, who I used to work with at the News-Press when he was […]
CAMA – the Community Arts Music Association – is celebrating its century with 12 concerts featuring the world’s finest instrumentalists. Highlights will include appearances by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, violinist extraordinaire Itzhak Perlman, the Russian National Orchestra, and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen in its International series at the Granada. The […]
Hungarian pianist Sir Andras Schiff, making his seventh CAMA appearance since 1985, mesmerized with his Master Series performance at the Lobero. The concert, the penultimate show in the popular series, featured 65-year-old Schiff, who is appearing with the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony this season, on his Bosendorfer grand playing works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, […]
Community Arts Music Association (CAMA) has been presenting the world’s finest classical artists since 1919. This concert at the Granada was the last of their 99th year. The next show will be the beginning of its 100th anniversary. What a testament to all the people who founded CAMA and to all those who have supported […]
Our tony town’s Rescue Mission hosted its annual Easter Feast for our community’s more impoverished residents, and for the 11th year my trusty shutterbug, Priscilla, and I volunteered our services as waiters. Kitchen director Wesley Jones served 320 pounds of ham, 200 pounds of potatoes, 360 pounds of carrots, and 75 pounds of peas to […]
Hector Sanchez appeared in so many of the pieces performed at last year’s BASSH – the theatrical showcase for local dance professionals and their protégés to show off their choreography in a wide variety of social dance genres – that one was thinking they might have to change the name of the two-decades old production […]
Pioneering winemaker Fred Brander was honored as Vintner of the Year at a socially gridlocked gala in aid of Direct Relief at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara. The biennial oenophile bash and wine auction, which attracted 600 guests and was emceed by The Bachelor host Chris Harrison, raised a hefty $1.2 million, with a third of the […]
Montecito nun Pauline Krismanich, 88, who has lived at La Casa de Maria for 48 years, is retiring and moving to the Immaculate Heart Community center in Los Angeles. After being displaced by both the Thomas Fire and the mudslides, Pauline saw them as her sign to finally retire. She has been a figure around […]
Anthony Giardina‘s 2010 play The City of Conversation has proven to be even more prophetic than even he might have imagined. Set in Washington, D.C., during three important periods in recent American politics, the play spans nearly 30 years, from Fall of 1979 to January 2009, and traces the evolution of 1960s-raised Hester Ferris from […]
It was child’s play when Kids Helping Kids, the 10-year-old organization launched by students at San Marcos High School, raised a record $501,251 to help local children in need with two sold-out concerts at the Granada. The group, headed by economics teacher James DeVries, has raised more than $2.5 million since it started. Singer-songwriter Andy […]
