Tag archives: MAW

A New Sun Rising Over the Music Academy
By Richard Mineards   |   June 14, 2022

As Montecito’s Music Academy of the West celebrates its 75th anniversary, it’s a whole new image for the storied 10-acre Miraflores oceanside campus, I can exclusively reveal. For the past eight months, a team of academy board members, administration, and professional consultants – 21C Media Group from New York and My Brilliant Friend from Los […]

The Grand Return of Opera SB
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 7, 2022

Grand opera is returning to the Granada Theatre. After Opera Santa Barbara’s (OSB) two-plus years filled with ways to creatively cope with the COVID pandemic that ranged from virtual performances, to two Concerts in Your Car outdoor staged adaptations (that included, appropriately, a version of Carmen) and a season of smaller, shorter one-acts, reworkings, and […]

Hike Through History
By Richard Mineards   |   June 7, 2022

A new exhibit at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum celebrates the region’s hiking trails and public lands through historic photographs, paintings, and historic items from the museum’s collections. Take a Hike, Save the World is a visual journey through our Eden by the Beach’s most scenic areas, as seen by artists and photographers beginning in […]

A Galaxy of Music with Orion Weiss
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 24, 2022

Lots of locals who have lived here long enough fondly remember the single summer pianist Orion Weiss spent in Montecito as a fellow at Music Academy of the West in 2000. Not only because the then-20-year-old pianist captured the prestigious Concerto Competition back when there was no contest just for the pianists. Weiss also won […]

MAW Music: Competition Winners Congregate for Concerts
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 5, 2022

The official launch of the Music Academy of the West’s special 75th anniversary summer festival is still more than two months away, but in the span of less than three weeks, Santa Barbara will have been witness to the wildly divergent extremes offered by the revered institute. Hot on the heels of three landmark performances […]

More From MAW
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 31, 2022

Even more accomplished alumni of the Music Academy’s summer festival are returning to Hahn Hall this week, if only via streaming via satellite in a re-broadcast of the Met Opera’s Live in HD presentation of Strauss’ Ariadne Auf Naxos on April 3. Former fellows Brenda Rae and Isabel Leonard appear as Zerbinetta and the Composer, […]

From MAW to LSO
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 24, 2022

The pandemic sure played havoc with the Music Academy of the West’s (MAW) landmark transcontinental partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), postponing both the orchestra’s second appearance in 2021 and nixing the opportunity for fellows who won the annual Keston MAX competition to travel to London to a week with the LSO for the […]

Falling for Lillian
By Richard Mineards   |   March 15, 2022

David Cale’s Lillian, which just opened at the Ensemble Theatre Company’s New Vic, is a wonderful one-woman show about love, life, and loss. The 75-minute production about a bookish middle-aged British woman, who falls for a man half her age, taking her on a whirlwind adventure, stars Nancy Travis, who co-starred with Tim Allen in […]

Buck Up for the Cadillac Angels
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 10, 2022

With apologies to all of the other rock groups, solo travelers, and dedicated duos who might lay claim to being “The Hardest Working Band in Rock,” Tony Rock and the Cadillac Angels take a backseat to nobody. Rock – who recently changed his last name from Balbinot for personal reasons – no biggie, since the […]

MAW Board Welcomes New Members
By Richard Mineards   |   February 1, 2022

The Music Academy of the West has added seven new members to its board as it launches its 75th anniversary. The new community leaders encompass a broad profile, representing well-known corporations and nonprofit entities nationwide. The new names comprise MAW Women’s Auxiliary chair Judy Astbury, attorney and entrepreneur Mally Chakola, arts curator and nonprofit executive […]

MAW-LSO Tickets Go on Sale
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 18, 2022

Tickets for the unprecedented and thrilling three-concert residency of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) with the Music Academy of the West this March go on sale Monday, January 18. The divergent programs under the leadership of LSO Music Director Sir Simon Rattle culminates on March 27 with a community concert featuring 39 MAW alumni playing […]

2021: The Year in Review
By Montecito Journal   |   January 4, 2022

It was a year full of questions, sometimes without many answers. But we persevered. As a staff, we took a few moments to reflect on our 2021s, which featured a few tears, triumphant returns, overwhelming innovation, and news that no one likes to report. Here’s a look at eight of our standout stories from the […]

Healing Vibes
By Richard Mineards   |   December 28, 2021

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 […]

Man Behind the Lens
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 14, 2021

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 […]

Preparing for a Sparkling Anniversary
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 2, 2021

To many, the 2021 Music Academy of the West Summer School and Festival was nothing short of a miracle. Despite the need to plan well in advance of the state’s reopening in mid-June, MAW not only managed to pull off a spectacular hybrid season that brought more than 100 fellows from around the world to […]

Oh, Henry: ‘Project Resonance’ is MAW’s New Listening Then & Now Series
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 30, 2021

New music — or at least its place in the history of classical music — is also the topic of the first installment of a new in-depth multimedia presentation curated by Henry Michaels, the Music Academy of the West’s Director of Audience Experience and Engagement, that begins this week. “I Hear Dead People: The Cult […]

Sunset Soirée
By Richard Mineards   |   November 30, 2021

Condor Express owner Hiroko Benko made sure everyone had a whale of a time when she hosted a sunset cruise for her good friend Dolores Johnson, organizer of the Montecito Motor Classic at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, which attracted more than 200 exotic and luxury cars.  “It was a truly wonderful event,” gushed Hiroko, […]

Music Academy Recital: Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, What a Little Moonlight Can Do
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 16, 2021

It was more than 27 months ago that Sun-Ly Pierce captured the Music Academy of the West’s much-coveted Marilyn Horne Song Competition during the 2019 summer festival. Among the prize package was the opportunity to share the stage with the winning collaborative pianist Chien-Lin Lu for a recital featuring a world premiere of a song […]

Going for Baroque: Symphony’s Musical Pyrotechnics
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 16, 2021

Moving on with Music Academy connections, Baroque master Nic McGegan — who led chamber orchestra fellow concerts for MAW’s summer festival for several seasons dating back a few years — makes his debut as guest conductor of the Santa Barbara Symphony for its Royal Fireworks program November 13 and 14 at the Granada Theatre.  The […]

Petite Goes Big
By Richard Mineards   |   November 2, 2021

Enterprising sisters, Malia Christensen and Makena McGinley, who lives in San Luis Obispo, used the enforced downtime cause by the pandemic to launch their own business, the charmingly named Petite Fleet, which consists of a converted horse trailer and two vintage mail cars. “We love events and everything they entail,” says Santa Barbara-based Malia. “Planning, […]