Tag archives: UCSB

Going back to its first concerts and recordings 50 years ago, Bay Area-based Kronos Quartet has made it a mission to revolutionize the string quartet as a living art form that not only sonically challenges the status quo but responds to the challenges of our era and issues. Dedicated to playing work almost exclusively by […]

Shpilkes is Yiddish for “pins,” as in “sitting on pins and needles.” The Jewish English Lexicon defines the term more colloquially as “Nervous energy, anxiousness, restlessness.” But for local playwright Barbara Gural, Shpilkes is the Yiddish equivalent of “ants in your pants,” an appropriate title for her new comedy, which was inspired by her close […]

UCSB Arts & Lectures packed the Arlington Theatre on two consecutive nights with jazz legend Herbie Hancock and a very different performance with drag queen RuPaul, who was promoting his new memoir The House of Hidden Meanings. Before 14 Grammy-Award-winner Hancock’s energized show with his extraordinarily talented quintet, a dinner was thrown at Villa & […]

Campbell Hall at UCSB was the place to be when the popular Arts & Lectures program staged two more major entertaining concerts. The first was the Danish String Quartet, joined by Finnish cellist Johannes Rostamo, for the eagerly anticipated capstone to their Doppelgänger Project, which I have watched over the past three years at Campbell […]

Roger and Robin Himowitz opened the doors of their charming Provencal-style Montecito estate to host a sunset soirée honoring former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich before he spoke at UCSB’s Campbell Hall, part of the popular Arts & Lectures program. Reich, 77, who studied at Dartmouth College, Yale Law School, and won a Rhodes […]

Shabbat Shalom! The 12th Annual Mega Shabbat event by Chabad of UCSB was held outside on Friday, April 5, at the Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center, established 2007 by the Rohr Family of NYC in memory of Mrs. Charlotte Rohr (née Kastner).  The attendance was approximately 1,100 people, the largest single shabbat in the history […]

Grad Slam, the annual event in which UCSB graduate students present their research in three-minute talks meant to quickly spotlight the exciting work they are doing on campus, wraps up its 11th year with presentations from the seven finalists on April 5 at Campbell Hall. The pitches are designed to captures the students’ research in […]

After postponing their concert in February given a mandatory evacuation warning because of heavy rain, the charmingly named Grammy Award-winning octet Roomful of Teeth with pianist-guitarist Gabriel Kahane, performed in a UCSB Arts & Lectures show at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall. The tony troupe is dedicated to reimagining the expressive potential […]

Considered one of America’s foremost experts on jobs and the economy, Robert B. Reich was part of the administrations of three presidents – Ford and Carter and Secretary of Labor for Bill Clinton’s first term – and is also a bestselling author, award-winning documentarian, and a respected commentator. Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at Berkeley […]

UCSB Dance Company, the ensemble that changes every year as it’s composed of senior dance majors, once again has no male members. But rather than deciding to double down again by creating a program with all female choreographers as in 2023, director Delila Moseley instead chose to diversify. In Different Realms… el arte perdura, which […]

Neo-cabaret diva Meow Meow, who has performed to sold-out to audiences worldwide including the Sydney Opera House and Lincoln Center, was in outrageous form when she sang at the Lobero as part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. The show Sequins and Satire, Divas and Disruptors: The Wild Women of the Weimar Republic […]

The Chabad of Montecito led by Rabbi Chaim presented a talk with disaster management specialist Gavriel “Gavy” Friedson on Sunday, February 25 at the private home of Ben and Cheryl Trosky. The event program commenced with a welcome by Rabbi Chaim. He shared, “One of the most famous words in Hebrew is l’chaim – which […]

Singer Renée Fleming, who has performed at the world’s greatest opera houses and concert halls, was at the top of her game when she made her second appearance as part of UCSB’s Arts & Lectures series at the Arlington, after the performance was switched from the Granada following the sprinkler disaster. Fleming, who became the […]

The week kicked off with another UCSB Arts & Lectures concert at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall with cellist Zlatomir Fung and pianist Benjamin Hochman with a mixed program featuring works by Britten, Schumann, Tsintsadze, and Marshall Estrin, a longtime collaborator of Fung’s. Estrin’s composition “Cinematheque” was based on the creative pair’s mutual love of […]

UCSB Arts & Lectures’ fall season was one for the ages, with enviable events throughout the breadth of its programming. The dance program boasted an era-spanning array, from the launch of the Martha Graham Dance Company’s Graham100 programs to the stunning West Coast debut of Turn it Out with Tiler Peck & Friends. Pop music […]

I spoke with Writer/Director Iris Ortega Quevedo and Producer Isabella Leonard about their UCSB Film Studies project; a short, wordless feature called Overture that is already creating buzz. “Student film” suggests the fledgling efforts of young academic cinephiles feeling their way forward. On the other hand we have George Lucas’ THX 1138 [Star Wars], Greta […]

UCSB Arts & Lectures provided a wonderful double bill at Campbell Hall when unparalleled Broadway singer Audra McDonald and Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho performed within 24 hours of each other. McDonald, winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards and an Emmy, was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, and received a National […]

As if starring in the Fox Texan firefighting drama 9-1-1: Lone Star for four seasons isn’t enough, Montecito actor Rob Lowe is set to host a new game show, The Floor, in the New Year. The ultimate trivia conquest quiz show, which Lowe, 59, will helm and produce, is described as “a spectacular battle of […]

Organizational psychologist and best-selling author Adam Grant’s new book Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things, explores a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations, including how to build the skills and structures for success and create opportunities for those who have been overlooked. Grant will share his concepts in a paradigm-shifting conversation […]

UCSB Arts & Lectures was on a roll at the Granada last week with two major productions within 48 hours. Kicking off the impressive program was Japanese violinist Midori and the Festival Strings Lucerne, under artistic director Daniel Dodds. Founded in 1956, the Swiss company is now considered one of the world’s most distinguished chamber […]