Tag archives: music
Santa Barbara Choral Society wrapped its 75th anniversary season with a “Mozart to Modern” concert at First Presbyterian Church under veteran conductor JoAnn Wasserman, herself celebrating her 30th anniversary. The performance featured soprano soloist Tamara Bevard and tenor Jimmer Bolden with Mozart’s Requiem and works by Palestrina, Durufle, Gjeilo, Lauridsen, Aaron Copland and Christopher Tin. […]
Santa Barbara Symphony concluded its seven-event Concert Aperitif series with a quintessential performance. Todd and Allyson Aldrich opened the doors of their stunning Montecito aerie for a recital by Russian violinist Philippe Quint, 49, who played in the orchestra’s Platinum Sounds: The Symphony Turns 70 concert at the Granada two days later. Playing a 1708 […]
Banjo player Noam Pikelny and guitarist Chris Eldridge of the Punch Brothers have teamed up with bassist and founding former member, Greg Garrison of Leftover Salmon fame, and mandolinist Andrew Marlin (Watchhouse) to form a bluegrass bound band called Mighty Poplar. Born out of impromptu backstage jams at festivals, Mighty Poplar lets the members return […]
Several neighbors living by the Music Academy have filed appeals to the Montecito Planning Commission’s approval of the Academy’s proposal to revise its Conditional Use Permit. Last month, the MPC voted 3-1 (with Commissioner Sandy Stahl dissenting) to approve the proposed revisions, which include changes to events at the Academy’s property, located on Fairway Road […]
The Black Keys saunter onto the Santa Barbara Bowl stage on the heels of their latest album, 2022’s Dropout Boogie. The garage rock/raw blues duo, with singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, was founded in Akron, Ohio, more than two decades ago. They saw their commercial breakthrough with the studio album and hit single […]
The programming for the Santa Barbara Symphony’s milestone 70th anniversary has resulted in a sensational and supremely successful season, a nine-month musical journey that has weaved together a variety of collaborative explored genres and cultural traditions. Concerts have cut a wide swath across and beyond what is traditionally considered classical music, including such uniquely Santa […]
First stop, the Innovation Lounge for AI with an immersive speaker system by Genelec and hosted by GPU Audio. I went to the Neural Synthesis machine learning (ML) music-making demo by CJ Carr, head of audio research at Harmonai and band member of DADABOTS. He did live ML sampling, and to make it real he […]
Love & Justice: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Rebel Opera – is the second film in Lompoc native and former Santa Barbara resident Kerry Candaele’s Beethoven trilogy, and an effort we may safely describe as a case of art imitating life imitating art. Candaele, who taught for years at Cate School, spent the last decade […]
China was very much in the spotlight when the 106-year-old Garden Club of Santa Barbara presented In the Gardens of Splendor and Delight at the Music Academy, the club’s first two-day show in half a decade. The first night reception featured a host of colorful floral arrangements and individual specimens. More than 250 guests attended, […]
Camerata Pacifica’s latest concert at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall was an absolute gem featuring pianist Irina Zahharenkova, cellist Jonathan Swensen, flautist Sooyun Kim, and Ben Goldscheider on horn. The eclectic program featured Yun’s “Etude No. 5” for solo flute, Ravel’s “Kaddish” for cello and piano, Pärt’s “Partita, Op. 2”, Rachmaninoff’s “Andante” from the G […]
The NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Foundation stepped up to the plate on diversity, equity, and inclusion by acknowledging, awarding, and celebrating Hip Hop music “from the lens and expertise of its musicians, engineers, music brands, and gear used to create Hip Hop” during its NAMM Show (April 13-15) at the Anaheim Convention Center. […]
The Montecito-based Music Academy – “of the West” got dropped midway through last summer – looks like it will have no trouble maintaining the momentum of its milestone 75th anniversary last year, at least according to the roster of artists and ambitious programming unveiled earlier this week. The “Summer of the Artist” season boasts soprano […]
The EPIC International Summit, an intimate three-day creativity and innovation conference featuring themed panels, spotlight interviews, and experiential workshops led by international leaders and experts, has its annual gathering April 27-29 at the Music Academy; just the second in-person event since launching in 2019. Aimed at sparking insights for creative leadership and development and formulating […]
Santa Barbara Symphony’s 2023-24 season promises to be an absolute cracker! Veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti has enlisted a record-breaking 23 guest artists, including eight vocal soloists, four choral groups, two trios, and a guest conductor to perform at the venerable Granada. “They cost a lot, but enrich the community,” he told VIP donors at a […]
Barbareño has already proven themselves on the plate – crafting dishes that blend central coast tradition with colorful flavors and engaging plating. Their ingredient choices highlight the abundance of the area while emphasizing the locale in which they are served that seemingly captures the laid-back yet sophisticated style of Santa Barbara. But the upcoming event, […]
A large crowd packed into the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art to see the stunning capstone projects of six senior art majors on April 6. A Space of Her Own – which features art projects ranging from paintings to prints, and from photography to sculptural installation – will be on display through May 6 at […]
After a bunch of years, most bands either turn into a shell of what they used to be or fade away entirely. But unlike the famed Dickens character they were named for, Marley’s Ghost has both deepened its roots-Americana-pop approach and expanded its vocabulary over the decades. That’s the sort of thing that a while […]
World renowned trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, bandleader and composer, who I’ve seen many times on the Granada stage courtesy of UCSB Arts & Lectures, was back at the historic venue after a tour of Asia with the Wynton Marsalis Septet. Marsalis, 61, artistic director of Jazz at the Lincoln Center and director of Jazz Studies at […]
Life is capricious – to put it as charitably as possible – and “First Responder” has become too familiar a term. The full weight of what “First Responder” means bears some quick recollecting. When the Thomas Fire raged across 440 square miles of central coast some five years ago, it blasted all vegetation off the […]
It was a double anniversary celebration when the Santa Barbara Choral Society hosted a 75th anniversary gala at the Music Academy’s Lehmann Hall, which also marked the 30th season of its veteran conductor JoAnne Wasserman. Before repairing to the Duo Catering dinner, guests were at Hahn Hall, just a tiara’s toss away, for a highly […]
