Tag archives: Santa Barbara Symphony

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 […]

As the stars in the sky illuminate our lives, so with the Legends to be honored this autumn night” – Carol Wilburn. The Granada always shines a light on its entertainment, but the annual gala called Legends is one of the biggest illuminations of the year. The honorees who shone were Carol Burnett, Opera Santa […]

Veteran Montecito comedienne Carol Burnett, 86, was front and center at the fifth annual Legends gala on the stage of the venerable Granada Theatre. Carol, whose eponymous award-winning show ran on CBS from 1967 to 1978, was introduced by her good friend, fellow Montecito author and film writer Fannie Flagg, as video showed some of […]

On a personal note, I remember Geoffrey Rutkowski, former principal cellist of the Santa Barbara Symphony, who has died aged 78. A charming, gentle and enormously talented individual, Geoffrey joined the music faculty at UCSB in 1968 until his retirement in 2013 as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He played all over the world, including two […]

Anais Pellegrini has joined the Santa Barbara Symphony as Vice President of Advancement. Born in Malta and raised in China, Australia, and Hong Kong, she began her career in fundraising at New York’s Katonah Museum of Art in 2005 and has since worked for a range of non-profit organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Community […]

Allen Mask, chief of staff to the CEO and Vice President of product marketing and collaborations at Sonos, is a new member of the board of directors for the Santa Barbara Symphony as it marks its 66th season. “With an unparalleled education program reaching more than 10,000 students each season, the board plays a key […]

Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara raised almost $300,000 when 150 guests attended the organization’s 34th annual scholarship event at the Goleta Valley & Teen Center, with Emmy-winning KEYT-TV anchor Beth Farnsworth as guest host, leading a lively panel discussion with current and former members about the lasting impact of their experience. The Biltmore-catered bash […]

For more than four decades, the Isla Vista Juggling Festival has had to – pardon the expression – keep a lot of balls in the air in order to produce the annual event that began in 1977. Rumor has it that the IV weekend extravaganza is the longest running jugglers festival held at a single […]

Veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti has signed a multi-year extension as conductor of the Santa Barbara Symphony, which is celebrating its 66th season. Nir has been with the orchestra since 2006, when he was chosen from a pool of 300 candidates for the position. Since then he has used his considerable experience and talent in symphonic […]

There’s just one piece on the program for Santa Barbara Symphony’s pair of concerts this weekend, but it’s a big one: Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 6 (“Tragic”). The 112-year-old, nearly 90-minute work scored for more than 100 musicians is finally making its debut with the Symphony 64 years after the ensemble was founded and a […]

The Granada stage was positively heaving when the Santa Barbara Symphony, accompanied by 150 singers from local choirs, performed a rousing concert of Verdi’s Requiem under conductor Nir Kabaretti. Featuring the Santa Barbara Choral Society, City College choirs, and the North County Chorus, I sat in at a rehearsal earlier in the week at the […]

Montecito Bank & Trust chairman and CEO Janet Garufis has now added another hat to her collection. In July Janet takes on the mantle as president of the Santa Barbara Symphony replacing current head honcho Don Gilman. Her extensive community service includes working with the Sansum Clinic, the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, the Music […]

Santa Barbara Symphony was in fine form at the Granada when it presented Amadeus Live, with the talented musicians under Belgian conductor Dirk Brosse, music director of the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra; the symphony chorus; and pianist Natasha Kislenko, a Music Academy of the West faculty member. The film about Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based […]

Four years and at least seven of his own scores ago, the distinguished conductor-composer Dirk Brossé made his debut with the Santa Barbara Symphony with the Granada’s first live-to-screening synchronized musical performance since the installation of the theater’s state-of-the-art rear-projection film system. Brossé and the members of the orchestra who often also frequently freelance on […]

Grammy Award nominees the Danish String Quartet, visiting our Eden by the Beach for the fourth time, gave two very different performances for their UCSB Arts & Lectures appearances. The fab four – violinists Frederik Oland and Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen, cellist Fredrik Schoyen Sjolin and violist Asbjorn Norgaard – kicked off their latest visit at […]

A tony triumvirate – Montecito Bank & Trust chairman Janet Garufis, former chairman of Raytheon Dan Burnham, and Sarah Chrisman, a co-founder of a Silicon Valley telecommunications company – has joined the board of the Santa Barbara Symphony. “Their experience and commitment to the arts in Santa Barbara is unparalleled,” says executive director Kevin Marvin. […]

To Solvang for the memorial service for the late Gene Sinser, former board member of the Santa Barbara Symphony and ex director of the Montecito Fire District, who left us last month at the age of 85. The German Holocaust survivor, whose birth name was Gunther Zinser, was a longtime member of our rarefied enclave […]

Music lovers packed the Granada for the Santa Barbara Symphony’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” concert featuring works by Johannes Brahms and Modest Mussorgsky. The first half of the performance, conducted by veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti, was an all-Brahms affair with his Tragic Overture and Concerto in A minor, featuring the symphony’s principal cellist Trevor Handy […]

It was all two grand for words when Montecito philanthropic dynamic duo Roger and Sarah Chrisman opened the door of their charming Ennisbrook home for a Santa Barbara Symphony prelude party with husband and wife Israeli pianists Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg performing a four-hand keyboard work on the back to back Baldwin and Steinway […]

A Soul Train of Motown music steamed on to the Granada stage when the Santa Barbara Symphony, under energized maestro Bob Bernhardt, staged its annual New Year’s Eve Pops concert, Dancing in the Streets. The highly entertaining show featuring American Idol finalist Michael Lynche, alongside Broadway stars Shayna Steele, who appeared in Rent, Jesus Christ […]