Tag archives: music
If all you know about the Doublewide Kings is their name, you might think the band is all about trailer park tailgating. That idea goes out the window, though, in favor of thinking this might be a vanity band when you realize the Kings were formed by Palmer Jackson, Jr., whose famous family members are […]
Exuberance and energy were the order of the night when the 20-year-old three-time Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir sang at a concert at UCSB’s Campbell Hall, part of the popular Arts & Lectures program. The singers, long associated with late South African president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, impressed with a variety of South African […]
After another discordant election season, it’s time to heal the rifts and find ways to live together in loving community. As simple as it may sound, singing together helps us come together. To explore this further, I recently sat down with therapist and singer-songwriter Marilee Gordon to ask about her experience using music as an […]
Jumping from high school to college, and from a harrowing drama to an absurdist comedy, there’s also UCSB Theater’s offering of a long weekend of The Government Inspector at the Hatlen Theater on campus November 16-20. UCSB faculty member Michael Bernard, whose tenure in town following 10 years as Associate Artistic Director of the 52nd […]
“My favorite thing is having all the fellows show up to a rehearsal and not know what’s going to happen,” Artistic and Creative Director James Darrah told me this summer in an interview during the leadup for Hahn Hall 1922-2022: An Original Cabaret. He continued, “It also helps highlight where you can push and everyone […]
The Music Academy launches its new season of projecting Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series at the recently technically upgraded Hahn Hall with Luigi Cherubini’s rarely performed Medea, with Met soprano star Sondra Radvanovsky as the mythic sorceress who will stop at nothing in her quest for vengeance. The Met-premiere production recorded live transmission at […]
Palo Alto-raised, Boston-trained, Nashville-based guitarist/singer-songwriter Molly Tuttle inspires critics to manufacture metaphors to describe her dexterity on an acoustic six-string guitar – “her fingers are like 10 Olympic athletes” or “she could pick your pocket without breaking stride.” That’s not surprising since after years of participating in bluegrass jams all over Northern California, Tuttle broke […]
High school choirs from across the Southern California region join the Westmont College Choir and Choral Union to share an off-campus concert of vocal music from an array of different musical traditions. The high school choirs, who have received coaching from Westmont’s music faculty, get a chance to shine individually as well as part of […]
After an almost three-year hiatus, Santa Barbara’s renowned music director Heiichiro Ohyama flew in from Japan to return to the Lobero for an evening by an artfully created ensemble in the Chamber Music Project’s season premiere. Ohyama, who led the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra for 35 years until it played its final concert in 2017 […]
Adrian Spence’s Camerata Pacifica, which is celebrating its 33rd season, put on a doozy of a show at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall. Yura Lee, a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, mesmerized on both violin and viola with her frenzied renditions of Kodály’s “Sonata for Solo Cello in B Minor,” specially […]
There were many COVID casualties, beyond the loss of precious life. Like ceremony. So many of us were forced to say goodbye to loved ones without the spiritual and emotional closure that comes with gathering closely with community to celebrate the lives that were lost. One such loss that hit hard here was the passing […]
Music Academy (they lopped off “of the West” from the name this summer) doesn’t just have a new moniker, they’ve also created a brand-new series to continue the celebration of its milestone 75th year. Think of the new Mariposa Series as “homecoming” recitals held on campus to showcase what Academy alumni and faculty are up […]
As the saying goes, Ruth Lin has some big shoes to fill as she steps into the dual role of chair of the Westmont music department and conductor of its orchestra. Her predecessor, Michael Shasberger, who retired this summer, not only served as the department’s first chair but also created both the orchestra and the […]
On Saturday, October 22, the downtown library’s Make SB Celebration brings three out-of-town rock bands – Pancho & the Wizards (San Luis Obispo), Jacklen Ro (Los Angeles), and Outwest (Ventura) – in a concert event that marks the closing of its speculative-inspired art show “Through Many Windows: A World Reimagined”… The Latin rock band Mezcal […]
Violist Heiichiro Ohyama led the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra for 35 years, shepherding its growth as a training ground for classical musicians while serving as one of the finest ensembles in town that was also willing to make forays into new territories. Faced with financial challenges, the SBCO closed operations in late 2017, so Ohyama […]
Breezing into town after a three-year hiatus, Johnny Irion and his band U.S. Elevator, with members Erich Riedl, Brett Long, Nate Modisette, and Anders Bergstrom, took the stage to a standing-room only show at SOhO on Sunday, October 9. Irion started with a solo acoustic set on guitar and piano. Invited guest Khasy Modisette sang […]
Former Santa Barbara Yacht Club commodore Roger Chrisman and his wife, Sarah, who recently bought the 83-foot steel-hulled schooner Mystic Whaler, which boasts 110-foot masts and 3,000 square feet of sail, sailed it up to our tony town’s harbor from its Channel Islands base in Oxnard for a three-week stay, just a tiara’s toss from […]
It was music of a very different kind when Kathryn Martin, President and CEO of the Santa Barbara Symphony, celebrated the tenth anniversary of her half century with an ABBA-solutely fabulous fête for 70 guests at the La Lieff tasting room in the Funk Zone. Featuring a cover band of the Swedish singers, Abba Dabba […]
Santa Barbara Choral Society, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary and the 30th anniversary of its artistic director and conductor Jo Anne Wasserman, hosted a donor appreciation and season kickoff bash in the Lobero Theatre Courtyard. On Saturday the choir will be joining 150 other performers, including Quire of Voyces, the State Street Ballet, and […]
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, whose history dates back to just one year after CAMA hosted its first concert with the brand-new Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1919, reached international fame under British conductor Sir Simon Rattle, who was recently in town himself to lead the London Symphony Orchestra at the Granada Theatre for the […]
