Tag archives: musicians
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 […]
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 […]
NAMM (The National Association of Music Merchants), the largest global nonprofit music trade organization, celebrated NAMM’s 125th anniversary, and 50 years of the show in the city of Anaheim. Taking place January 20-24, 2026, at the Anaheim Convention Center, the trade show featured immersive education – 75 TEC Tracks (up from 55 last year); continuous […]
Thousands turned out in Santa Barbara and across the country for last Saturday’s No Kings rally protesting the increasingly autocratic administration in Washington. So it feels important to point out that there are no kings in the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, meaning no music director, no artistic director, not even a conductor. Everyone who is part […]
It’s almost unbelievable. It’s been nearly six decades since Steppenwolf scored its first hit single with the generation-defining rock anthem “Born to Be Wild,” and only now is there a documentary film about the band. As it is, the 2024 film Born to Be Wild: The Story of Steppenwolf won’t yet be available at cinemas […]
Then-Juilliard graduate student violinist Anthony Chan got quite a shock when he opened an email from the Music Academy of the West in spring 2024 to check on his chamber music assignments for the summer festival. “I was just curious where the other fellows I’d be playing with might be studying, and then I saw […]
Eight talented young musicians and vocalists took home a total of $36,000 in scholarships after competing in the annual music contest organized by the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation. A professional panel of judges selected first and second place winners in the Adult Instrumental, Junior Instrumental, Adult Vocal and newly added Junior Vocal categories. Fourteen finalists […]
There have been two tribute concerts for David Crosby in the 28 months since the legendary singer-songwriter passed away at his Santa Ynez home in 2023. But Locals and Legends: Celebrating the Music of David Crosby, slated for May 24 at the Granada Theatre, offers two significant additions. The show is co-presented by Santa Barbara […]
Three Dog Night – which surprisingly was not named for its innovative idea of a trio of lead singers – was one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, selling more than 50 million records for such singles as “One,” “Easy To Be Hard,” “Joy to the World,” “Mama Told […]
Owls, a New York-based string quartet collective, wooed the audience at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall with their original, visceral performance, part of UCSB Arts and Lectures. The entertaining foursome, which unusually included two cellists rather than two violinists – Gabriel Cabezas and Paul Wiancko, violist Ayane Kozasa, and violinist Alexi Kenney […]
Livingston Taylor is just two years younger than his famous rock star brother James, and two years behind him in launching his solo singer-songwriter career. Both have written truly memorable songs, including early efforts about growing up in North Carolina, although both returned to their native Boston area early in adulthood and still maintain homes […]
CAMA – Community Arts Music Association – hosted its latest Masterseries concert at the Lobero when violinist Anne Akiko Meyers showed off her undoubted talents. The hugely entertaining program, with Grammy nominee Meyers, 54, playing her 1741 “ex-Vieuxtemps” Guarneri del Gesu, included Corelli’s “La Folia Sonata,” Beethoven’s “Sonata No. 5 in F Major ‘Spring,’” Lauridsen’s […]
For some reason, UCSB Arts & Lectures has decided to open its season on a mocking note dripping with sarcasm. Make that a lot of notes, as Snarky Puppy arrives at the Arlington Theatre on Tuesday, October 1, to kick off the 2024-25 slate of events. Not that the Texas-bred quasi-collective that boasts around 25 […]
By 1973 I had a red Panasonic ball radio parked in the darkened little hutch that was built into the headboard of my bed, and was discovering both the inchoate power of music, and words like ‘inchoate’. I’d bought my first LP with my own money, Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, played McCartneys’ RAM album till […]
The Santa Barbara Acoustic Instrument Celebration launched as an annual guitar convention back in 2016, branched into presenting a series of concerts that included workshops, and arguably peaked with bringing fingerstyle wizard Tommy Emmanuel back to town. But when the pandemic struck in 2020, it was hard to get audiences to return, and after trying […]
Fret not that the Music Academy summer festival 2024 came to a close last weekend with the triumphant fellows-powered orchestra concert of Mahler’s “Symphony No. 6.” Classical music abounds in the upcoming 2024-25 season, everything from touring major orchestras to intimate recitals at venues all over town. Camerata Pacifica launches its series back at Hahn […]
Clarinet fellow Katia Sofia Waxman is winding up her first and likely only summer at the Music Academy of the West after earning a master’s degree from Juilliard while majoring in both music and economics at Oberlin. The Chicago native said she was lucky to get to attend the “pinnacle summer festival” for its faculty […]
If you somehow missed Mezcal Martini at their romp through the July calendar of free outdoor concerts – including Music at the Ranch, Concerts in the Park, and Meet Me in Old Town Goleta – you’ve got another chance this week as the Latin jazz band heads to Fiesta’s Mercado De La Guerra for a […]
I talked with Tommy Faragher this week about his band, The Faragher Brothers, who will be doing a two-night residency at the Alcazar Theatre, Carpinteria, August 9 and 10. The original band was formed in the 1970s up in Redlands, CA by four brothers, Tommy, Davey, Jimmy,and Danny Faragher. While their long history in the […]
Bill Lanphar wasn’t the best-known singer-songwriter-guitarist who called Santa Barbara home. But he might very well have been the best-loved among his peers. Lanphar, who had a rock band when he lived in L.A. before relocating to Santa Barbara and La Conchita, started playing music during open mic nights at Dargan’s Pub and quickly became […]
