Tag archives: summer festival
The Music Academy of the West season is still a solid six weeks away when 150 fellows will arrive on the Miraflores campus in Montecito and, alongside 60 faculty members, collaborate in creating a truly astonishing slate of events over the otherwise fallow months on the classical calendar. There are nearly 125 in-person opportunities in […]
It’s a wrap! The Music Academy of the West marked the finale of its 77th Summer Festival with the Academy Festival Orchestra at the Granada under Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu playing Mahler’s “Symphony No. 6 in A Minor, ‘Tragic.’” Lintu, 56, graduated the Sibelius Academy in 1996 and took up the baton as chief conductor […]
Your faithful correspondent was not able to attend as many MAW performances as he would have liked this summer, but the few that were attended revealed that the Academy is making great progress in its ambitious endeavor to be the most important summer institute in the land, a good omen for the just-launched Shauna Quill […]
The Music Academy of the West celebrated the penultimate week of its 77th summer festival with a performance at the Granada of the Academy Festival Orchestra under conductor David Robertson, who was chief director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and formerly led the St. Louis Symphony from 2005 to 2018. Robertson, who is also director […]
Lawrence Brownlee is one of today’s most celebrated bel canto tenors, in demand for opera performances as well as song cycle recitals with major orchestras across the country and around the world. He’s particularly praised for his interpretations of Rossini – his Grammy-nominated album Virtuoso Rossini Arias prompted famed New Yorker critic Alex Ross to […]
Ken Cazan, the director of the Music Academy 2024 opera Carmen, last helmed a production of the famed and beloved work nearly 30 years ago, and has been happily ensconced in recent years taking on smaller, more experimental pieces. But he was tempted to field the fiery fan favorite once again by both the offer […]
The ever-entertaining Takács Quartet was in superb form at the sold out Lobero as they performed in the first week of the Music Academy of the West’s 77th Summer Festival. The Fab Four – violinists Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes, cellist András Fejér, and Grammy-winning violist Richard O’Neill, formerly with Camerata Pacifica – are currently […]
Scott Reed’s brief speech at his last official public appearance as the Music Academy’s president/CEO after 12 years at the helm, which drew an instant standing ovation, set the stage for the emotional rollercoaster ride provided by the Academy Festival Orchestra at the Granada last Saturday night in the final event of the 2023 Summer […]
The final weeks of the Music Academy’s 76th annual Summer Festival have been the icing on the classical cake! Principal players with the London Symphony Orchestra showed their prowess at Lehmann Hall when they performed chamber works by Britten, Villa-Lobos, Perivolaris, Salzedo, Hahn, and Haydn with flutist Gareth Davies, cellist David Cohen, violinist Clare Duckworth, […]
Violinist extraordinaire Augustin Hadelich was back in our Eden by the Beach for the second time in two months when he performed at the Lobero as part of the Music Academy’s summer fest. Grammy Award winner Hadelich, who I saw at a CAMA Masterseries concert in April, his fifth appearance for the organization since 2015, […]
The Music Academy’s 76th annual summer festival reached its halfway mark with a second chamber night concert at Lehmann Hall featuring works by Joan Tower’s “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 3,” Mozart’s “Piano Quartet in E-flat Major” with Qiyan Xing on violin, Molly Prow on viola, Simon Housner on cello, and Robert Brooks Carlson […]
Italian composer Puccini’s beloved opera La bohème took on a whole new tone at the Granada as part of the Music Academy’s 76th annual Summer Festival. Instead of Paris’ Latin Quarter in the 1830s, as in the original 1895 work, the setting was Brooklyn and Manhattan in 2011, a time of restless energy and a […]
It is hard to believe the Music Academy’s annual festival Summer of the Artist is almost halfway through. The third week of the highly entertaining program kicked off at Hahn Hall on the Miraflores campus with Avery Fisher Prize winning pianist Jeremy Denk playing an all-Bach program of five partitas. The New York City resident, […]
Anthony Parnther never picked up a musical instrument until eighth grade, and even then, only because he discovered it could be an avenue to free admission at a Virginia amusement park. “I was sitting in math class and I heard the announcement over the intercom that the students who were part of the middle school […]
The second week of the Music Academy’s Summer Festival lineup goes from strength to strength. Hahn Hall on the 10-acre Miraflores campus was the venue for the String Quartet showcase featuring the Vela Quartet – violinists Aaron You-Xin Li and Harin Kang, violist Vincenzo Keawe Calcagno, and cellist Hamzah Zaidi – kicking off the highly […]
As part of its ever-expanding efforts to simultaneously raise the level of artistry for its summer festival while also deeply engaging the local Santa Barbara community, the Music Academy is making its first real foray into reaching the Latino population in the area by bringing in soprano Ana María Martínez as a Mosher Guest Artist. […]
After 75 years of having the Music Academy (née “of the West”) in our backyard – marked last summer by a celebratory return to fully in-person programming – it can be easy to take the institute’s summer festival for granted. But the truth is, the Academy not only keeps the classical music scene afloat during […]
The Montecito-based Music Academy – “of the West” got dropped midway through last summer – looks like it will have no trouble maintaining the momentum of its milestone 75th anniversary last year, at least according to the roster of artists and ambitious programming unveiled earlier this week. The “Summer of the Artist” season boasts soprano […]
The 2022 Music Academy Summer Festival came to a close on Saturday night with the symphony-vocal extravaganza at the Granada. Coming up next: three different recitals from the five fellows who claimed top prize in the musical competitions, plus perhaps a new product from the winner of the Music Academy Innovation Institute’s 2022 Fast Pitch […]
The Music Academy wrapped up its 75th anniversary summer festival in fine form at the Granada when alumna Italian Speranza Scappucci conducted the Academy Festival Orchestra. With the hugely entertaining program including Rossini’s “William Tell Overture,” “The Pines of Rome” by Respighi, and vocal works by Donizetti, Verdi, Gounod, Bizet, Serrano, Chapi, and Puccini, the […]
