Tag archives: Choral Music
The Santa Barbara Choral Society’s season finale at the Trinity Lutheran Church was a sellout, the 70-voice chorus accompanied by a 28-piece orchestra with guest soloists soprano Elissa Johnston, Michal Dawson Connor, Jimmer Bolden, and choral society alto section leader Becca Clarke in a “Visionaries, Then & Now” concert. The entertaining program began with a […]
Santa Barbara Choral Society showed its true colors when it staged a Red, White, and Blues concert under veteran conductor JoAnne Wasserman at Trinity Episcopal Church. In a nod to America’s rich multi-cultured heritage of musical traditions featuring works by Leonard Bernstein, Randall Thompson, Shawn Kirchner, and Eric Whitacre, the entertaining show was a musical […]
Choral concerts don’t come much more compelling than the Quire of Voyces, which Nathan Kreitzer founded at SBCC back in 1993 and still enthusiastically leads 30 years later. The a cappella sacred music ensemble has a remarkably crystalline sound cultivated by both Kreitzer’s exacting ear and regular rehearsals. There are but two full weekend programs […]
Choir lovers rejoice: It’s the most wonderful time of year as several of the city’s classical vocal groups perform holiday concerts this week. Sing! – the Music Academy’s free community youth choral program – gets things going at 6 pm December 7 with a free one-hour concert featuring Christmas carols and holiday songs from across […]
The entire opera world and other cultural institutions are all taking note of Maria Callas again as the 100th birthday of the soprano who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century approaches on December 2. That includes both Angelina Jolie, who will star in an upcoming biopic, and […]
Santa Barbara Choral Society wrapped its 75th anniversary season with a “Mozart to Modern” concert at First Presbyterian Church under veteran conductor JoAnn Wasserman, herself celebrating her 30th anniversary. The performance featured soprano soloist Tamara Bevard and tenor Jimmer Bolden with Mozart’s Requiem and works by Palestrina, Durufle, Gjeilo, Lauridsen, Aaron Copland and Christopher Tin. […]
Santa Barbara Choral Society, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, put on a heavenly concert at Trinity Episcopal Church under veteran conductor JoAnne Wasserman, herself celebrating 30 years at the helm. The performance, For the Love of Music, with Music Academy graduate David Potter on piano, featured works by Pachelbel, Byrd, Bradbury, and Morten Lauridsen’s […]
The Santa Barbara Gay Men’s Chorus (SBGMC) will give our town its second concert on Monday, May 23, at 7:30 pm at the First United Methodist Church, 305 East Anapamu Street. Tickets are on sale now and at the door. The concert titled “Tomorrows: Songs For a Brighter Future!” is a one-hour, no intermission program […]
Heal the Ocean, the popular Santa Barbara nonprofit, received a tidal wave of support when it threw its Christmas party at the Carpinteria art gallery, Lobster Town USA, which in the New Year will be turning into the town’s first cannabis dispensary, owners Patrick and Maire Radis tell me. More than 150 guests turned out […]
Carpinteria native Mike Eliason has taken tens of thousands of photos over the course of his 35-year career as a photographer in town. Eliason spent the first quarter-century as a newspaper photojournalist who worked for just about every paper in town, capturing sunsets and shooting alongside wildlife and wildfires before the Santa Barbara County Fire […]
Despite the presence of a number of highly regarded professionals over the years, UCSB’s Music Department has not enjoyed a reputation as a top-notch music school on par with, say USC Thornton 100 miles south. Now, a couple of professors and directors of the school’s performing ensembles, hired since COVID first came to town in […]
Nicole Lamartine, PhD, is the new Sorenson Director of Choral Music at UCSB, filling a position vacant since Michel Marc Gervais retired in 2016, and will oversee all UCSB’s choruses and ensembles. Originally from New Mexico, she comes to Santa Barbara from the University of Wyoming Department of Music faculty (2008-2020), where she won the […]
It was an event of high note when the Santa Barbara Choral Society celebrated its 70th anniversary and the 25th anniversary of its director, JoAnne Wasserman, with two well-attended concerts at the First Presbyterian Church, which included alumnae from past decades. Highlight of the performances was German composer Franz Joseph Haydn’s 1798 work Missa in […]
