Tag archives: Q&A
Two-time Grammy-nominated guitarist Tommy Emmanuel – whose ability to approach his instrument by using all 10 fingers to play a variety of parts simultaneously has earned him worldwide respect – actually doesn’t care all that much about technique. The veteran Australian axeman, who has been playing professionally since age six, and at 44 became one […]
The Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College has taken on a new director, John C. Connelly. An art aficionado since birth, Connelly hails from the metro NYC area where he received his MA in Art History at Hunter College and began his career as an art curator and director for the Andrea Rosen Gallery […]
Maybe the Santa Barbara Symphony was taking a cue from the old commercials for Wrigley’s Doublemint chewing gum when they launched a second pops concert last December to go along with its longstanding New Year’s Eve show. As in, “Double your pleasure, double your fun.” Whatever the motivation, Year 2 for the Christmastime concert brings […]
“Perfect singing is boring.” That might seem like a strange declaration coming out of the mouth from Irish star Emmet Cahill, the widely hailed 28 year old who was named “Most Promising Young Singer” while still a student at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, awarded “Irish Tenor Of The Year” by the Irish American […]
Winning a Living Legend Award at the annual FestForums Santa Barbara is film director Penelope Spheeris. A not-to-miss three-day event is filled with a VIP Speaker Line-Up that includes Steve Baltin from Forbes Magazine, former World Surfing Champion Shaun Tomson, Skip Martin (Kool & the Gang, The Dazz Band), Jon Anderson (Yes), Grammy Songwriter Ray […]
Oakland’s Ensemble Mik Nawooj is an innovative 10-piece ensemble featuring winds, strings, piano, drums, and a lyric soprano – plus two MCs, the kind you find at a hip hop concert. That’s because EMN founder and composer JooWan Kim, who was classically trained in composition at Berklee College of Music and San Francisco Conservatory, also […]
Pianist Zhang Zuo, violinist Esther Yoo, and cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan met as BBC New Generation Artists in 2015, and hit it off so well they decided to continue working together as a piano trio for chamber music concerts as The Z.E.N. Trio, employing their first initials as an acronym. Since the three are all also […]
Béla Fleck (banjo), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Edgar Meyer (double-bass), and Rakesh Chaurasia (flute) will perform for the first time in Santa Barbara on October 19 at UCSB Campbell Hall, coming in from their tour and work in Nashville on a new LP. With over 20 Grammy Awards collectively, we can expect this collaboration to be […]
At the beginning of our telephone conversation, when I said to the former governor of Ohio and 2016 presidential candidate John Kasich that my most impressive memory of him was in the mid-1990s, when he teamed up with then Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich as the face of the Republican Contract With […]
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is no stranger to the camera as the actress has starred as Elaine in the iconic sitcom Seinfeld and the title character in the just-concluded HBO hit VEEP, as well as several feature films. She’s collected 11 Emmy Awards, a SAG prize and a Golden Globe. But perhaps her most personal work appears […]
The Great American Songbook has captivated singers from Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra to modern pop stars such as Rod Stewart and Linda Ronstadt. But rarely has success with the timeless tunes from the 1930s-50s come so surprisingly as with Steve Tyrell. A throaty crooner with roots in Houston’s gritty Italian neighborhood whose first love […]
Jeff Rypysc, owner of Montecito Deli and Catering, is celebrating his 18th year in business. The deli is located at 1150 Coast Village Road, the same location since Jeff took over the ownership on September 11, 2001 and also purchased the prior owner’s secret recipe for piadina, special flatbread made in Italy. The deli continues […]
Tony Award-winning actress/singer Kristin Chenoweth has no illusions about who she is and what she can do. Blessed with a brilliant voice, plucky determination, and such a bubbly personality that The Daily Beast called her “the human version of just-popped champagne,” Chenoweth has soared on Broadway as Glinda in Wicked, and earned accolades, Emmy awards […]
When Priscilla, our photographer, asked Dr. Gulhan Guitenkin, the cardiologist traveling with former Prime Minister of Turkey (from 2016 to 2018) Binali Yildirim, how we should address Mr. Yildirim, we were advised that the proper way would be “Your Excellency, Mr. Prime Minister.” So we did, though it seemed especially formal in such an informal […]
Guitarist Al Di Meola was merely fantasizing when he told a friend back in 1974 that he’d “give anything” to be able to play in Chick Corea’s Return To Forever jazz fusion band. After all, the Jersey City-bred Di Meola was only 19 and still studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston. But the […]
If the members of the Zombies were truly oracles, they probably wouldn’t have broken up in 1968 before their song “Time of the Season” became a big hit and eventually a timeless classic heard in commercials and movies. The song eventually propelled Odessey and Oracle, the astounding album it was drawn from, up the sales […]
Peggy Ferris knew she wanted to be an artist ever since her childhood on Long Island, when she used to escape a chaotic family that included four sisters by heading into her room to draw. “I was really intrigued with capturing images, particularly of horses, trying to catch its spirit in a drawing,” she said, […]
We’re not pulling your ear – pardon, leg – when we tell you that Carol Burnett, the funny lady whose career dates back nearly six decades – is coming to downtown’s jewel of a theater next month to be honored as a Granada Legend. They could hardly have picked a more worthy or highly decorated […]
Melissa Manchester’s career began at an early age, including studying piano and harpsichord at the Manhattan School of Music, singing commercial jingles at 15, and serving as a staff writer for Chappell Music while still attending Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts. After serving as a member of the Harlettes, Bette Midler’s back-up singers, Manchester […]
Despite the fact that she is Kenny Loggins’ youngest daughter, and half-sister to Crosby Loggins, once a stalwart on the Santa Barbara music scene who was the winner of MTV’s Rock the Cradle back in 2008, it wasn’t pre-ordained that Hana Aluna would become a professional musician. Sure, Kenny wrote and recorded the lullaby with […]
