Tag archives: UCSB
Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights, UCSB Reads’ 2025 selection, is a New York Times bestselling collection of essays – written daily over the course of a year – celebrating small, ordinary wonders. Gay’s humorous, poetic and philosophical essays cover a wide range of topics, with vignettes that include such luminous oddities as sharing a […]
Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theater is described as “an American cultural treasure” and after two performances at the Granada, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series, one can see why, as it brought its unique blend of contemporary and classic movement to the cavernous stage. Showcasing a dazzling range of cultural influences and […]
Famed Santa Barbara architect Robin Donaldson has traveled the world with the recent pair of documentary films – The House: 6 Points of Departure and This Is Not a House – that chronicle his immersive work on two important homes in the Montecito foothills; the Crawford House and Hill House. Donaldson, who studied painting and […]
Donavon Frankenreiter headlines the Saturday afternoon new GauchoFest at the annual All Gaucho Reunion at UCSB. Frankenreiter, a longtime associate of UCSB grad Jack (“Bubble Toes”) Johnson and a regular at SOhO over the years, will close out the 2-6 pm concert on April 26 at the UCSB Campus Green that also features DJ Orbs […]
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 […]
Athleticism ruled supreme when Circa Humans 2.0 – created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Australian Circa Ensemble – performed at the Lobero as part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. The innovative new world show featured tightly woven choreography that was exhilarating, primal, and deeply engaging as the ten performers moved expressively in […]
Given its members’ history and the quartet’s “inverted” composition, it’s no surprise that Owls has been called “a dream group” by The New York Times. Featuring a distinctive instrumentation variation of the traditional string quartet that trades the second violinist for an additional cellist, the individual Owls are also no strangers to our area. Cellist […]
Legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma reigned supreme when he performed to a sold-out crowd at the Arlington, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. The Paris-born musician talked about his fascinating life dedicated to music, and played a number of his favorite pieces. Yo-Yo’s career has been multifaceted and a testament to his belief […]
Shabbat Shalom! It’s time for the 13th Annual Mega Shabbat on Friday, April 4, at 6pm at the Chabad of UCSB’s Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center, 779 Camino Pescadero. The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. Parking is the usual at UCSB, and the event is held outside on the […]
Sultry lounge singer Storm Large lived up to her billing when she sang at the Granada with the Santa Barbara Symphony, under veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti in Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with additional vocals by the Hudson Shad Quartet. Other sensual works in the concert included Jacques Ibert’s “Divertissement,” William Grant Still’s “Seven Little […]
UCSB Arts & Lectures Miller McCune Executive Director Celesta Billeci was honored by the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce in recognition of her 25 years at the university. Celesta, a longtime friend, received the Visionary Arts Leadership Award as part of the Regional Business Awards Gala at the Hilton from Dr. Colin Marlaire, […]
The Kindred Collective at UCSB invites parents and caregivers of Black children to attend their free event, “Raising Liberated Black Youth,” on March 15, from 1-3 pm. This is a support program for parents and caregivers. Food and childcare are provided. Where: Pat O’Malley Fieldhouse and Community Room at Girsh Park, 7050 Phelps Road Contact: […]
A throng of actors, writers, directors, producers and other folks will stroll up to the stage to receive an Oscar on Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. A large percentage of these will almost assuredly have spoken directly to us about their films on stage just a few weeks earlier at the Arlington […]
A park ranger and her trainee find blood in the snow outside a trailer. There’s an open door, but no people. Where they went, what happened and how to figure it all out as an impending winter storm arrives is the story of a new play called Strange Birds that centers on five strong, smart […]
It was definitely a 90-minute production with a difference when Cirque Kalabanté performed at the Lobero, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. The show, Afrique en Cirque, was created by Yamoussa Bangoura, a multidisciplinary artist of Guinean origin, who eventually joined his country’s Circus Baobab touring Africa and Europe. In early 2000 […]
It was the perfect combination when the 30-year-old Boston Brass and three-time Grammy-nominated Imani Winds performed at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lecture series. Adventurous programming and dynamic playing is the wind quintet’s trademark; playing Paquito D’Rivera’s “Selections from Aires Tropicales” and even Stevie Wonder […]
Santa Barbara has always been a community rooted in pride and a spirit of giving back. Its love for the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos runs deep, and nothing embodies that connection more than the recent announcement of a transformative $15 million donation to UCSB Athletics. This incredible gift, the largest ever for the university’s athletic […]
April Amante hasn’t had a whole lot of opportunities to sing in Santa Barbara since earning her Doctor of Musical Arts at UCSB in June 2023. There was the concert in May 2024, where the soprano returned to campus for the UCSB Opera Gala, directed by her mentor Isabel Bayrakdarian, the soprano who heads the […]
The Golden Age of Baroque was on full display at the Lobero when Britain’s Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and soprano Julia Bullock performed as part of UCSB’s popular Arts & Lectures program. With works by Handel, Vivaldi, Bach, Purcell, Pachelbel, Strozzi, Telemann, Lully, and Rameau, there was something for everybody with the musicians, […]
At Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West was brimming for another UCSB Arts & Lectures concert when international Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev showed off his tremendous keyboard talent with works by Schubert, Kabalevsky, Janáček, Liszt, and Scriabin. Now Berlin-based, Malofeev came to international prominence in 2014 when he won the International Tchaikovsky […]
