Tag archives: music
It was all two grand for words when the Music Academy launched the first of its Mariposa Series concerts at Hahn Hall with the extraordinary keyboard duo of Anderson and Roe with academy alum Elizabeth Joy Roe and Greg Anderson playing back-to-back Steinway pianos. Since forming their dynamic musical partnership in 2002 as students at […]
The longtime Santa Barbara-based singer-songwriter/rockstar Kenny Loggins retiring from the road is like the pop music equivalent of final go-rounds of baseball stars like Miguel Cabrera or Albert Pujols, except by a factor of more than two as Loggins’ touring career is more than twice as long as any baseball player. Plus, rather than receiving […]
Old and New Worlds were in the spotlight when Camerata Pacifica continued its 34th season with From Bach to Bolivia, the first of the programs in its Baroque series at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall. Featuring period instruments and curated by acclaimed flutist Emi Ferguson, the repertoire included five seminal Bach chamber works. They were […]
More than 250 musicians and singers packed the sprawling stage of the venerable Granada when the Santa Barbara Symphony, under veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti, kicked off its 71st season with An Ode to Joy, Hope and Community. It was the symphony’s first performance of Beethoven’s 9th – marking the 200th anniversary of the German composer’s […]
A tony triumvirate of award-winning classical musicians wowed at the Granada. French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, 62, joined countryman Gautier Capuçon, 42, playing a 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello, and Georgia, Russian-born Lisa Batiashvili, 44, playing a 1739 Guarneri del Gesu violin, kicked off UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Great Performances series for a hugely entertaining evening of […]
Chamber music is alive and well in Santa Barbara, if having three qualifying, locally-generated concerts in a single week is any indication. Camerata Pacifica, the ensemble series founded originally as Bach Camerata by flutist Adrian Spence in 1990 that has become widely respected and revered for the virtuosity exhibited by its world-class musicians and the […]
You can’t fault Elizabeth Roe for expressing unbridled enthusiasm for returning to the Music Academy for her first purely public performance in town since spending the summer of 2001 as a fellow at the institute. Jerry Lowenthal was her mentor and Michael Towbes her compeer during the idyllic eight weeks, and now she’s heading back […]
CAMA Masterseries’ 40th anniversary season opens with a recital by a somewhat left-of-center duo, at least by instruments, as mandolinist Avi Avital and accordionist Hanzhi Wang team up to perform at the Lobero Theatre. The two are veritable virtuosos – Avital’s skill has been compared to Jascha Heifetz while Wang is the only accordionist ever […]
José Limón – or at least the dance company founded by the famed dancer and choreographer from Mexico who developed a technique that employs visceral gestures to communicate emotions – runs deeply through the new season from Santa Barbara Dance Theater (SBDT), the professional dance company in residence at UCSB. Which is not surprising, given […]
Neither Santa Barbara-raised electronic-pop-music pioneer Jimmy Tamborello nor Ben Gibbard, singer-songwriter-guitarist of the pop band Death Cab for Cutie, imagined that their collaboration 20 years ago would be anything more than an enjoyable one-off. But suddenly The Postal Service – so named because the pair put the project together by the U.S. mail, with Tamborello […]
Retired lawyer Robert (Bob) Montgomery, probably the longest serving president in the Community Arts Music Association’s 106-year history, received the organization’s top Bravo! Award for his extraordinary service at a packed dinner of 70 guests at the Birnam Wood clubhouse. Fittingly enough, it was presented by former award winner Deborah Bertling, immediate past president of […]
Siegwart ‘Zig’ Reichwald was officially installed as Adams chair of music and worship at Westmont in a day that featured chamber musicians, the college choir, orchestra and chapel band performing music from the Psalms, Felix Mendelssohn, and rock band U2. As part of the formal installation ceremony, President Gayle D. Beebe urged Reichwald to bring […]
Opera Santa Barbara kicked off its 30th season on a particularly high note at the Granada when it staged Bizet’s 1875 masterpiece Carmen, the first time in seven years. The hugely entertaining three-hour, four-act show with Kostis Protopapas, general director, conducting, featured mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino, a Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, in […]
Charley Crockett, a Texas original who draws from traditional hillbilly music, vintage soul, and R&B to give his old-school country twang an extra earthy feel, opened UCSB A&L’s season at the Arlington almost exactly a year ago. The Americana Music Awards’ Emerging Artist of the Year for 2021 heads back to the venue on Friday, […]
Club jazz gets its due at SOhO this week, with a series of local shows. M.O.B. Quintet reconvenes for an eclectic blend of Euro-Brazil progressive jazz and music from the 1970s ECM/Fusion era on October 8. Italian pianist Antonio Artese, who oscillates between our local foothills and the hills of Tuscany, hooks up again with […]
Westmont presents Godspell, one of the most popular musicals of all time, on October 12-15 at 7:30 pm and October 14 at 2 pm in Westmont’s Porter Theatre. Music and theater students join together to stage a production for the first time since 2019. Tickets, which cost $20 for general admission and $12 for students […]
Santa Barbara musician Chris Shiflett, who gracious gives his hometown a Christmas gift each December via performance parties at the 300-max SOhO, shows up at the slightly bigger venue of the Santa Barbara Bowl (capacity 4,600) with his somewhat more famous band Foo Fighters on September 28, a late add to the venue’s schedule but […]
In a public ceremony replete with orchestral and choral music, Siegwart ‘Zig’ Reichwald will be installed as the Adams professor of music and worship on Friday, September 29, at 10:30 am in Murchison Gym. The formal ceremony serves as a prelude to a day of public events that include a keynote address and chamber concert. […]
The 34th season for Camerata Pacifica was celebrated with a Director’s Cut event at a private club in Goleta on Monday, September 11. The focus was the formal introduction of its new Executive Director Ana Papakhian by its founder and Artistic Director Adrian Spence. There was also a lovely meet and greet with four of […]
Camerata Pacifica launched its 34th season in fine style at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall with works by Beethoven, Mozart, and Elgar. Musical lovers turned out in force to see the chamber music group founded by Irishman Adrian Spence at the age of 25, with an inaugural performance at the Lobero as the Bach Camerata. […]
