Tag archives: MAW
It was a summer of truly spectacular performances across chamber concerts, recitals, orchestral evenings and more. That’s to be expected every summer at the Music Academy. There were also several special programs in the “American Mosaic” season, clearly meant to elevate our experiences of democracy and contemplation of the perhaps dwindling American Dream for many […]
No introduction to speak of. No words of explanation from the musicians. No mentioning which paintings or sculptures inspired them to choose their piece(s) to perform. Just a few words from the Music Academy staff before and after the first of three events in the galleries of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, dubbed, with […]
Friday, July 10: After a stirring introduction to the Lehrer Vocal Institute singers for 2026 last week, the vocal season shifts into full swing as the season’s major events rapidly approach. Today, it’s a masterclass with Paul Curran, whose credits include directing productions across the world with opera companies ranging from the Met, Los Angeles, […]
Montecito’s favorite Independence Day tradition returns on Saturday, July 4, as the 30th Annual Village 4th brings neighbors together for the beloved World’s Shortest Parade, followed by a community celebration in Lower Manning Park. The day gets an early start with the Montecito Firefighters’ Association Pancake Breakfast from 7–11 am at Fire Station 91 (595 […]
The Music Academy could have brought Jeffrey Kahane to town to conduct an Academy Festival Orchestra concert, engaging the former longtime leader of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (or LACO, which appeared at the Granada under his baton for CAMA back in 2015) to conduct the fellows in the middle of the summer. Instead, Kahane […]
The SCAPE artist group, aka Southern California Artists Painting for the Environment, held its annual juried exhibit in Lehman Hall at the Music Academy of the West Montecito (MAW) on Friday, September 12 – Saturday, September 13. The artists participating in the show render original works depicting the Central Coast of California, local landscapes created […]
Music by and at the Music Academy of the West also returns shortly courtesy of both the third season of its Mariposa Concerts, which feature pre-concert wine receptions before the Hahn Hall performances, and a pair of special intimate fundraising concerts with longtime MAW faculty artists billed as “Up Close & Unforgettable.” Mariposa makes its […]
The end is here. Just three more days remain in the Music Academy of the West’s 2025 Summer Music Festival. But there are still nine events to choose from, including master classes in Bassoon, Violin, Trombone & Tuba, Lehrer Vocal Institute songbirds on Thursday, August 7, and Oboe and Solo Piano on Friday, August 8. Thursday […]
Dennis Michel still vividly remembers the first time he ever heard the bassoon as a seven-year-old boy growing up on a 480-acre farm in northern Idaho. “Through the magic of television I saw a Leonard Bernstein Young Person’s Concert with the New York Philharmonic, and they had a teenage bassoon soloist for Haydn’s ‘Sinfonia Concertante,’” […]
Great White sharks are known to patrol the waters off Santa Barbara and even the coastline on a regular basis – an occasionally toothy swim zone barely a few hundred yards away from the Music Academy’s Miraflores campus. Tonight’s opening concert –by the fellows-powered Academy Festival Orchestra (AFO) – takes place Saturday night at the […]
Then-Juilliard graduate student violinist Anthony Chan got quite a shock when he opened an email from the Music Academy of the West in spring 2024 to check on his chamber music assignments for the summer festival. “I was just curious where the other fellows I’d be playing with might be studying, and then I saw […]
The Music Academy of the West season is still a solid six weeks away when 150 fellows will arrive on the Miraflores campus in Montecito and, alongside 60 faculty members, collaborate in creating a truly astonishing slate of events over the otherwise fallow months on the classical calendar. There are nearly 125 in-person opportunities in […]
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 […]
The life of Donald McInnes, Camerata Pacifica’s first principal violist, was celebrated at the Music Academy of the West’s Lehmann Hall. McInnes, who studied at the academy from 1954 to 1956 and was a member of the faculty from 1982 to 2012, died in October at his home in Rancho Mirage aged 85. The UCSB […]
The Montecito Association Land Use Committee (LUC) December meeting was held Tuesday, December 3, in person at the Montecito Library community room and on Zoom. The meeting was called to order by its Chair, Dorinne Lee Johnson. Attendees were the Land Use Committee members, MA ED Houghton Hyatt, President Doug Black, Music Academy of the […]
At a lengthy meeting on November 5th, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 3-0-1 to deny the appeal of the Montecito Planning Commission’s approval of the Music Academy of the West’s Revised Conditional Use Permit (CUP). District 1 Supervisor Das Williams moved the vote under the condition that staff recommend no more than […]
Camerata Pacifica’s latest show at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall was an absolute gem with works by Fukushima, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg. Flutist Yoobin Son playing “Mei, for Solo Flute” opened the concert with Rachmaninoff’s “Moments Musicaux.” Stravinsky’s “Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet” with Jose Franch-Ballester was the penultimate performance, with Schoenberg’s […]
Clarinet fellow Katia Sofia Waxman is winding up her first and likely only summer at the Music Academy of the West after earning a master’s degree from Juilliard while majoring in both music and economics at Oberlin. The Chicago native said she was lucky to get to attend the “pinnacle summer festival” for its faculty […]
The Music Academy of the West celebrated the penultimate week of its 77th summer festival with a performance at the Granada of the Academy Festival Orchestra under conductor David Robertson, who was chief director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and formerly led the St. Louis Symphony from 2005 to 2018. Robertson, who is also director […]
The Music Academy of the West launched a directing fellow position three years ago, but MAW still doesn’t have something similar for conductor trainees, despite offering five to six orchestral concerts every summer. If they ever decided to create such a position, luring David Robertson to direct it would be a great idea. The Malibu-raised […]
