Tag archives: music

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. […]

Westmont music faculty take the stage for the Fall Faculty Recital on Friday, September 15, at 7 pm in Deane Chapel. The performance is free and open to the public. The recital features Music Director Ruth Lin (piano), Adelle Rodkey (oboe), Christina Ramsey (mezzo-soprano), Erin Bonski-Evans (piano), Egle Januleviciute (piano), and Cam Audras (viola). They […]

Santa Barbara native singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Mendeleyev’s new album won’t actually be available in CD form for his concert at SOhO on September 21, as the record isn’t officially released until eight days later. But that won’t stop him from making this particular homecoming show into a special evening in every way.  For one thing, it will […]

Veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti, who has conducted the Santa Barbara Symphony for 18 years, took center stage at the Lobero when promoting the orchestra’s 71st season for more than 600 guests, who quaffed champagne and noshed on canapés on the Lovelace Esplanade outside the theater beforehand. The new season, which kicks off at the Granada […]

Jazz pianist and composer David Benoit is best known for his big-selling contemporary jazz albums of the 1980-’90s, including three Grammy nominations and a lot of hits. But the 70-year-old Palos Verdes resident whose influences include Leonard Bernstein and Bill Evans has had a much more expansive career. Here are excerpts from our conversation earlier […]

The Music Academy (MA) didn’t waste any time finding a successor to Scott Reed, who announced last spring that the 2023 Summer Festival would be his last as president and CEO after 12 years at the helm. Less than a week after the final symphony concert at the Granada earlier this month, the Music Academy […]

The sensationally versatile and vivacious vocalist Lois Mahalia has been performing in and around Santa Barbara and across the world in a variety of settings for decades. The Guyana-born singer-songwriter has done everything from fronting the R&B-soul-jazz family band Georgetown with her three brothers, to singing backup on many tours with Joe Walsh, to appearing […]