Tag archives: music
Composer Jasmine Arielle Barnes most deservedly received that enthusiastic standing ovation at the Lobero – and hugs from star singer Sasha Cooke – following the world premiere of her orchestration of American Lament, her celebrated song cycle. The suite centers around a (somehow) still incredibly timely 1935 Langston Hughes poem “Let America Be America Again”; […]
Back in 2016, Baltimore native Jasmine Barnes was preparing for her senior recital at Morgan State University. But then fellow African American Freddie Gray was murdered by six Baltimore policemen, who left him unsecured in the back of a van during an erratic drive downtown, causing fatal injuries to his spinal cord. “The riots broke […]
Alumnus Sam Renwick (’95) has created a successful career translating scientific uncertainty into economic insight, helping healthcare and life science companies backed by venture capital navigate high-stakes financial decisions. For more than two decades, he has spun a complex track blending biopharma valuation and forecasting with venture capital strategy. “You have concepts on your left […]
James McMurtry found critical and commercial success early in his career when his song “Painting by Numbers,” from his John Mellencamp-produced 1989 debut album Too Long in the Wasteland, connected with disaffected members of America’s heartland and became an MTV video hit. He’s been on the road ever since, almost incessantly touring northwards of 100 […]
There are few places where summer feels quite as complete as it does from the deck of a boat at sunset. The day’s heat softens, the Santa Ynez Mountains begin to glow pink, dolphins occasionally ride the bow wake, and the Pacific settles into that familiar golden calm that somehow makes everyone slow down. For […]
Does music sound better in the great outdoors, or is it just the ambience that adds something special? Does it matter? Not so much when it comes to Santa Barbara’s enormously popular weekly series, which get a new entry this season in a more sporadic format by the beach. The first show of the summer […]
The Music Academy could have brought Jeffrey Kahane to town to conduct an Academy Festival Orchestra concert, engaging the former longtime leader of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (or LACO, which appeared at the Granada under his baton for CAMA back in 2015) to conduct the fellows in the middle of the summer. Instead, Kahane […]
The Music Academy of the West‘s 2026 Summer Music Festival is the Montecito-based institute’s 79th season, an eight-week celebration full of world-class performances, high-level education, and far-reaching programming that ranges from full 100-member orchestral concerts to chamber music events featuring solo, duo and larger ensembles. Over the course of more than 100 events, the repertoire […]
“At Bakersfield College in the ‘70s, Charles put together and choreographed a whole program of those songs that had made Sinatra famous. The marching band played it at the football game on Friday nights. Everybody went to those football games.” Charles Wood III – jazz fiend, music educator, instrumental proselytizer, and a catalyzing match tossed […]
Tom Scott may not be a household name, but it would be safe to bet the farm that someone in your house has heard lots of Scott’s music. That’s his sax solo in the middle of Paul McCartney’s “Listen to What the Man Said,” Toto’s “Rosanna,” Carole King’s “Jazzman”, Blondie’s “Rapture,” and Steely Dan’s “Black […]
Camerata Pacifica Principal Percussionist Ji Hye Jung has been a part of the Santa Barbara-based, internationally praised chamber music ensemble for more than 15 years. She’s held the position of associate professor of percussion at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music for more than a decade. Since she began performing in her native Korea at […]
Hershey Felder has spent a good part of the last 30 years portraying musical geniuses from Tchaikovsky, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff to George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Leonard Bernstein in his ongoing solo composer series. Now with his latest musical play, Felder is revealing the life and musical experiences of someone he knows much more intimately: […]
The Music & Meditation Santa Barbara series co-founded by pianist Antonio Artese winds up its quite successful first full season next month when flutist Jill Felber joins the pianist in a one-hour offering that brings together the timeless beauty of live music with the calming practice of guided meditation. Each concert is designed as a […]
As the academic year draws to a close, the Westmont music department is set to showcase a global repertoire in a series of final concerts and recitals. The season’s highlights include two major choral performances that celebrate Latin American traditions and serve as a formal send-off for the college’s upcoming international tour. The choral program […]
We’re stretching things to suggest Camerata Pacifica is a community organization. Though it was founded and is still based here, most of the principal players live elsewhere. But tried and true Santa Barbara-via-Ireland import Adrian Spence is still the mastermind, as evidenced by pianist Gilles Vonsattel’s presence at Hahn Hall on April 10 for a […]
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more perfect pop debut than Marshall Crenshaw’s self-titled 1982 album, which was chock full of indelible hooks and riffs, a sound and a quirky approach to storytelling that were both fresh and classic at the same time. Forty-four years and a dozen albums later, after nearly half a century […]
Booker T. Jones was just 17 years old and still a high school student in 1962 when he was noodling on a Hammond B-3 organ during a studio break at Stax Records. In the course of that noodling he came up with a figure that almost accidentally turned into one of the most influential instrumentals […]
Violinist Nathan Schafer of Highland won the Westmont Music Department’s 14th annual Guild Scholarship Competition and was awarded the $15,000 annual Guild Scholarship on March 7 in Deane Chapel. This year’s incredibly talented group of musicians also included Isaac Wu, a violinist from Glendale; Ava Siebelink, a cellist from Corona; Josiah Mitchell, a baritone from […]
Pilobolus has been reshaping the world of modern dance since its formation more than half a century ago by students at Dartmouth. The continuously evolving cutting-edge company has been exploring the beauty and power of bodies connecting since 1971, performing feats that seem to defy the laws of gravity and physics, deftly intertwining their limbs […]
Camerata Pacifica’s concert this Friday night at Hahn Hall boasts the world premiere of Natural Light, the ensemble’s latest commissioned work by David Bruce, and a sizable one for wind quintet. Bruce, a prolific contemporary classical music composer, has created imaginative works in both the opera and chamber music idioms. He’s received previous commissions from […]
