Tag archives: symphony
There’s plenty to celebrate in Santa Barbara these days, and not just the spurt of greenery and wildflowers poking up from the earth in the sunshine following last month’s rains or the fact that the number of daily COVID-19 cases has dropped down to double digits for the first time in nearly two months. Joy […]
Three of the key leaders of the Santa Barbara Symphony, president and CEO Kathryn Martin, artistic director Nir Kabaretti, and board president Janet Garufis, have committed to advancing the organization over the next half decade. It will build upon the 67-year-old organization’s programming innovation, leveraging the symphony’s new momentum and growth to look toward the […]
One of the perks of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s decision to dive into digital rather than completely forgo its 2020-21 season is the opportunity to celebrate an important milestone for Beethoven, perhaps the most important composer in the classical music canon. The symphony is marking his 250th birthday with “Beethoven @ 250,” a chamber music […]
The Santa Barbara Symphony next episode of its live streamed series is the first to feature its former concertmaster of a decade, the almost unbearably charismatic fiddler Gilles Apap. Curated and hosted by Music and Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti, the 30-minute broadcast, produced by local videographer David Bazemore, features an interview and performance of Fritz […]
Having your CEO depart in the middle of a pandemic that caused cancellation of the rest of the season’s concerts probably isn’t the best thing for building the confidence of the local classical music community. Fortunately, the Santa Barbara Symphony was able to announce its Interim CEO, Kathryn Martin, even before the then-current Executive Director/CEO […]
Kevin Marvin, CEO of the Santa Barbara Symphony, is leaving our Eden by the Beach and returning to Colorado for personal and family reasons. Kevin, who previously headed the now defunct Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, has led the orchestral organization, under maestro Nir Kabaretti, for three seasons. He was responsible for organizing the benefit concert […]
Santa Barbara Symphony kicked off its 66th season with Festa Italiana! at the Granada featuring works by Verdi, Paganini, Mendelssohn’s Italiana symphony and Tschaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien under the baton of Nir Kabaretti. International Italian violinist Francesca Dego was at the top of her game playing Paganini’s fiendishly complicated Concerto No.1 in D Major, and then […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Music Academy of the West transforms the Granada Theatre into Mission Control for a special London Symphony Orchestra space-themed family concert next Friday, July 12, kicking off three straight days of different programs with the esteemed British orchestra in the second year of its partnership with MAW. The Voyager program, which incorporates excerpts from […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
Eight decades or so into the Great American Songbook, it would seem to be near impossible for artists to find a new way of taking on the classic show tunes and pop hits of a couple of generations of songwriters. There have been straight-ahead vocal stylists bebop jazz interpretations, soul-shaking R&B rounds, and even a […]
