Tag archives: UCSB

RLBY Parent Meet and Greet
By Montecito Journal   |   March 11, 2025

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: […]

SBIFF at the Oscars 
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 4, 2025

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 […]

‘Strange Birds’ Takes Flight
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 25, 2025

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 […]

The Family Circus
By Richard Mineards   |   February 18, 2025

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 […]

A Smash of Wind and Brass
By Richard Mineards   |   February 11, 2025

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 […]

A Game-Changing Boost for UCSB Baseball
By Jamie Knee   |   February 4, 2025

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 […]

Chamber Players Highlight Arias with Amante 
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 4, 2025

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 […]

Baroque Ain’t No Joke
By Richard Mineards   |   February 4, 2025

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, […]

Magnificent Malofeev
By Richard Mineards   |   February 4, 2025

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 […]

Sending Support Down South
By Richard Mineards   |   January 21, 2025

Guy, Meghan Markle’s rescue beagle, has died. The Duchess of Sussex shared the sad news of her “sweet” pooch, who is appearing in her new Netflix homemaking show With Love, Meghan which was due to debut this week, but has now been postponed to March 4 given the conflagration in Los Angeles which has now […]

Highlights from Days of Yore, aka 2024
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 7, 2025

The two theatrical performances that utterly rocked my world and riveted my attention came from UCSB Arts & Lectures dance offerings. Dorrance Dance’s inventive jazz-fueled take on The Nutcracker proved that the old Christmas chestnut can be changed into a charming and cutting-edge work. MOMIX’s Alice showed that the creative mind of artistic director Moses […]

‘Nutcracker’ with a Twist… and a Swing
By Richard Mineards   |   December 17, 2024

Tchaikovsky might not have approved, but a packed audience at the Arlington Theatre watching the New York-based Dorrance Dance company’s Nutcracker Suite, part of UCSB’s popular Arts & Lectures series, showed their approval after a 75-minute jazzy new version of the Christmas tradition. Set to a new arrangement of the Yuletide classic by Duke Ellington […]

UCSB’s Dr. Joel Rothman and Vistas Lifelong Learning 
By Joanne A Calitri   |   December 3, 2024

Vistas Lifelong Learning organization held its annual Margerum Distinguished Speaker Program featuring Dr. Joel Rothman, at the Music Academy, Montecito, on Thursday, November 21. The event co-chairs were Leslie White and Jill Breedon.  The program, entitled “Extending Healthy Lifespan: Promises and Societal Challenges of Longevity Science,” was sold out at standing room only. Rothman has […]

Saturday Night’s Alright: Famous Film Folk from Here Fighting It Out This Weekend
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 26, 2024

Are you a big Josh Brolin fan, especially ever since his character Llewellyn Moss got his buff cowboy body blown away by Javier Bardem’s methodical and passionless hitman Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, one of the Coen Brothers’ finest films? Or perhaps your taste runs to Jeff Bridges, another locally resident actor […]

Perlman and a Little Help from His Friends
By Richard Mineards   |   November 19, 2024

Itzhak Perlman, one of the world’s greatest violinists with 16 Grammys and four Emmys, played in a truly memorable chamber music concert at the Granada with the stellar Juilliard String Quartet and two global piano stars Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Emanuel Ax. The event, part of UCSB’s popular Arts & Lectures program, included Leclair’s “Sonata for […]

The Threepenny Opera: More Meaningful than Ever
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 19, 2024

If truth be told, UCSB Theater’s Annie Torsiglieri probably would have preferred that The Threepenny Opera, which she is directing at UCSB’s Performing Arts Theater, wouldn’t have turned out quite so resonant for its November 15-23 run. But she very intentionally chose Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s groundbreaking musical – and dark satirical commentary on […]

‘13 Tongues’ and Fast Feet
By Richard Mineards   |   November 12, 2024

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre’s 13 Tongues at the Granada brought the sights and sounds of Taiwan’s legendary night markets to life in all their human and spiritual dimensions. Mixing traditional storytelling with futuristic imagery and shifting between folk, classical and electronic music sources, the energized production, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series, […]

Arrivederci Billeci
By Richard Mineards   |   November 5, 2024

Miller McCune Executive Director Celesta Billeci, the longest serving director of UCSB Arts & Lectures, is retiring after 25 seasons. Though Celesta’s next chapter will take her beyond the Santa Barbara campus, her legacy of leadership will continue to inspire the community. She is the third director of the organization, following in the footsteps of […]

News Bytes
By Montecito Journal   |   October 22, 2024

UCSB Black Alumni Invited to Attend the Legacy Reception Attention all Black UCSB alumni from 1965 through 2024! Register to join the UCSB Black Alumni Legacy Reception on Friday, November 1, 2024, at the Mosher Alumni House, UCSB Campus, from 5-8 PM. UCSB Black Alumni Affinity Group is in charge of the event which will […]

An Evening with the London Phil
By Richard Mineards   |   October 22, 2024

One of the world’s most historic orchestras, the London Philharmonic, founded in 1932 by the legendary conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, showed off its talents at the Granada, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures program. Led by principal conductor Edward Gardner the entertaining performance featured “Raices, (Origins),” a new piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuban […]