Tag archives: music
Music & Meditation Santa Barbara continues its second season at Weinman Hall at the Music Academy of the West on Friday afternoon October 23 with well-known locally-based clarinetist Nancy Mathison joining and pianist-artistic director Antonio Artese for an intimate one-hour program. After a guided meditation and period of intentional silence led by Jessica Kolbe, Mathison […]
One week ago, Nir Kabaretti and the Santa Barbara Symphony put the exclamation point on the music director’s record 20th anniversary season with a benefit gala at the Music Academy of the West that included a special concert featuring solo turns from some of its superstars that looked mostly to the orchestra’s past and present. […]
Most pop bands choose names that are merely drawn from their latest album to describe a series of live shows. For Ingrid Michaelson, Cozy Fall Trio Tour is not only descriptive, but also evokes the same sort of warm and playful feeling the singer-songwriter has exuded over her 20 plus-year career, one characterized by indelible […]
Camerata Pacifica, the Santa Barbara-based chamber music collective founded more than 35 years ago by Artistic Director Adrian Spence, had a pretty terrific off-season this summer. Cam Pac was named 2026 Ensemble of the Year by Chamber Music America in recognition of its considerable history of commissioning new works and creating innovative programs. “I was […]
Beatles tribute bands are not uncommon. Heck, one of them, simply named Yesterday, performed at SOhO in mid-September, and another one known as Sgt. Pepper will be playing this Sunday afternoon, October 4, at the Avocado Festival in Carpinteria. But make no mistake, the “Orchestrated Tribute to The Beatles” benefit concert at the Arlington Theatre […]
Music Academy of the West fellows don’t normally return to the Miraflores campus as professionals just 14 months after finishing their residency at the summer festival. But that’s exactly what will happen when young pianist-composer August Baik, a 2025 MAW fellow who just turned 21, performs with violist Richard O’Neill, who was a fellow back […]
Folk Orchestra of Santa Barbara has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 2016 as a one-off jam session fashioned and hosted by Adam Phillips. Back then, the former Voice and Musical Theatre major was singing tenor with Quire of Voyces, the Santa Barbara Chorale Society, and Opera Santa Barbara, and was already […]
Santa Barbara Symphony’s annual Season Kickoff Celebration returns to the Lobero Theatre, located just a few blocks from its home at the Granada, where the esteemed ensemble will launch its seven-concert series next month. The afternoon program on Thursday, September 24, begins at 4:30 pm on the promenade with a no-host reception, where patrons can […]
“There’s something refreshingly human about making music together.” – Liz Caruso MUS Music Montecito Union School has a long history of a strong music department headed by top tier music faculty. When I started covering local news in 2002 for the Montecito Journal, I met the multitalented Pamela McClendon (MUS, 1971-2012). Under her expertise and […]
Classical and jazz pianist Antonio Artese had a straightforward reason for creating the Music & Meditation Santa Barbara series last December. The Italian-born musician is looking for a better breed of audience. “We need to develop a more mindful listening approach to music,” he said. “It’s been on my mind for many, many years, seeing […]
Last year, the Santa Barbara dance organizations Selah Dance Collective and Nomad Tango collaborated on a program called Malena: Between Two Worlds, which brought together champion Boston-based Argentine tango dancers Fernanda Ghi and Silvio Grand with Selah’s contemporary dancers. This weekend, they return to the Lobero with an even more ambitious double bill dubbed Beethoven’s […]
The old adage “write what you know” pretty much has not applied to John Romano. The East Coast scribe holds a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Yale and spent the first years of his career teaching English at Columbia University, authoring a book on Charles Dickens Dickens and Reality and reviewing lit for […]
I’ve been invited to rock ‘n’ roll’s inner sanctum by its madcap custodians; they who will usher me into the catacombs from whose torchlit stores they assemble their annual tent revival at the Lobero theatre. They’ve put together a particularly wig-flipping rock show for José Lobero’s venerable 150-year-old opera house, the curtain rising on their […]
Cory Pesaturo remains the youngest person to win the National Accordion Championships almost 25 years after he achieved the feat in 2002. He’s the only one to ever claim the Triple Crown of World Championships, notching victories on Acoustic, Digital, and Jazz Accordion. Pesaturo was the first musician ever to major and graduate in the […]
LB has an 1898-1902 Symphonion crank-operated tabletop music box whose spinning, perforated 7 ½-inch steel discs play on a double-comb movement patented in Leipzig by Symphonion Musikwerke. The photograph shows a bound album beneath the player which originally contained twelve discs. It is the music played by these discs which tells the story of an […]
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 […]
When you Google Nathaniel Silberschlag, one of the early listings is a feature that ran in the New York Times back in 2022, when the horn player was all of 23, but already tenured as the principal horn with the Cleveland Orchestra, one of the country’s most storied. He’d landed the prestigious position at 21 […]
It’s no accident that dance is at the front of the new oversized magazine promoting the 2026-27 UCSB Arts & Lectures season. After all, among all of the luminous events spread across the arts, entertainment, and spoken word genres, dance has been the sparkling gem in the A&L crown that adorns one of the finest […]
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 […]
The Music Academy of the West’s astonishing guest composer series reaches its crescendo with this pair of weekend performances of Kevin Puts’ annually produced opera Elizabeth Cree, from MAW’s Lehrer Vocal Institute. The one-act opera Elizabeth Cree is a macabre gothic thriller adapted from Peter Ackroyd’s similarly titled book. Set in Victorian times, it serves […]
