Tag archives: 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 […]
Pianist Bruce Liu, 27, showed his very obvious talent in a 90-minute concert at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures program, with works by Chopin, Kapustin, Rameau, and Prokofiev. Born in Paris and brought up in Montreal, Canada, Liu was the first prize winner of […]
Normally at this time of year, UCSB Music’s voice program would either mount a full-scale opera or a collection of staged opera scenes, but for 2024, the show has morphed into an Opera Gala, which is not only a collaboration between the music and theater-dance departments, but also a tale of two cities as UCSB […]
It seems every orchestra and their third cousins are playing Rhapsody in Blue this season to mark the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s once-controversial 1924 musical composition that combined elements of classical music with jazz piano – billed back then as an Experiment in Modern Music. Our own Santa Barbara Symphony is no exception. But […]
State Street Ballet closes out its 2023-24 season with “Other Voices,” a contemporary rep program that takes a sharp turn from its last production, March’s tried-and-true classical ballet take on Cinderella. Aimed at exploring experimental idioms, “Other Voices,” which performs May 10-11 at the Lobero, showcases choreographers pushing ballet’s boundaries and the company dancers’ limits […]
Santa Barbara Revels, under founder Susan Keller, held its 16th annual May Day Celebration at the Paseo Nuevo. Mica Basilici, the tony troupe’s song leader, taught fascinated members of the public spring-themed songs, while the Revels dancer leader Helen Pasley taught “Sellinger’s Round,” a May Day circle dance dating from 1670. The dancers also performed […]
Bryan Tari was just 18 years old when he was one of 84 pianists chosen to simultaneously and collaboratively perform a truncated version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue under the baton of conductor John Williams for the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The pianists – all men, dressed in powder blue tuxedos […]
Proud as they are of the ever-increasing quality and innovative nature of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s concerts at the Granada, the folks at the organization often rave even more about their education program. The periodic performance component of those programs takes place this weekend as Camerata Ensemble & Philharmonia Orchestra kick things off on Saturday […]
The Westmont Orchestra and the Westmont College Choir join forces in May for the college’s first combined tour. Traveling from Los Angeles to Northern California, about 120 students will perform scenes from “Elijah” by Felix Mendelssohn as well as other pieces. “It’s a big undertaking and will show the breadth of music at Westmont,” says […]
Ava Kimmel, a junior soprano who is majoring in vocal performance at Westmont, won the Adult Vocal Division of the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation competition on April 28 at the Music Academy. The foundation provides financial assistance to students of the performing arts and to support music educational outreach organizations in the Santa Barbara community. […]
Supporters of Santa Barbara Choral Society were clearly in the right aria when the popular 76-year-old choir hosted Toi, Toi, Toi, an evening of operatic enchantment at the Rockwood Woman’s Club with 110 guests, many in Tosca attire, raising around $70,000 during the sunset soirée. After cocktails on the terrace, followed by a musical toast […]
Going back to its first concerts and recordings 50 years ago, Bay Area-based Kronos Quartet has made it a mission to revolutionize the string quartet as a living art form that not only sonically challenges the status quo but responds to the challenges of our era and issues. Dedicated to playing work almost exclusively by […]
The musician was shredding on his solos, fingers flying all over the instrument as the notes emerged with spectacularly blazing speed. The player’s face contorted and his body bent and swayed as he soared up to high notes that seem to defy the instrument’s capabilities. A rock guitarist raging at a local club? No. It […]
Santa Barbara Symphony wrapped its 71st season on a high note at the Granada with Mahler Meets Klezmer: Titans of Sound. The concert, conducted by veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti, featured Grammy and Juno-nominated clarinet soloist, band leader and composer David Krakauer. The entertaining musical journey started with Mozart’s Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio, […]
UCSB Arts & Lectures packed the Arlington Theatre on two consecutive nights with jazz legend Herbie Hancock and a very different performance with drag queen RuPaul, who was promoting his new memoir The House of Hidden Meanings. Before 14 Grammy-Award-winner Hancock’s energized show with his extraordinarily talented quintet, a dinner was thrown at Villa & […]
Singer-songwriter Paula Cole was a household name back in the mid to late 1990s, when her commentary on gender stereotypes “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” and “I Don’t Want to Wait,” picked up as the theme song of TV’s Dawson’s Creek, were all over the airwaves. She was nominated for seven Grammys, including Record, […]
Santa Barbara Symphony’s law-firm sounding April adventure makes its connections through klezmer, the traditional Jewish & East European music that often doesn’t get a lot of orchestral opportunities. After the concert opens with Mozart’s “Overture to Abduction from the Seraglio, K.384,” his first opera written in Vienna, David Krakauer takes another star turn as the […]
Campbell Hall at UCSB was the place to be when the popular Arts & Lectures program staged two more major entertaining concerts. The first was the Danish String Quartet, joined by Finnish cellist Johannes Rostamo, for the eagerly anticipated capstone to their Doppelgänger Project, which I have watched over the past three years at Campbell […]
Over a 60-hour period before finals, the Weller Organ in Deane Chapel, controlled by Professor Steve Hodson, will be playing “ORGAN2/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible)” by John Cage (1912-1992). This 1987 work explores how slowly a piece of music might unfold. Westmont’s performance will begin at 8 am on April 26 (with a rest) and […]
Last week saw two thrilling chamber orchestra performances of vastly different scopes in Academy of St. Martin in the Fields’ triumphant return to the Granada in a preview of its upcoming Marriner 100 celebration in London, and a charming concert with the local outfit Santa Barbara Chamber Players at First United Methodist Church. This week’s […]
