Tag archives: UCSB

The Granada was full of Eastern promise when UCSB’s 6th annual Dhadkan Nachle Deewane dance competition, run by founders Soham Tikekar and Nishu Viswanathan, filled the stage with 20 dancers and 24 a cappella artists. The colorful and energized sold-out show included Hindi-film Fusion and Bhangra dance teams representing a host of colleges, including USC, […]

While politics appear more partisan than ever, at least one weekly news show takes pains to pair party opposites in discussions that are polite if still vociferous. “Left, Right & Center,” produced by KCRW, features one panelist from each position to argue, civilly, the particulars of policy and issues as well as the politics. The […]

Multi-talented Scottish actor and performer Alan Cumming brought his highly entertaining show Legal Immigrant to the sold-out Granada, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures program. The almost two-hour intermission-free performance, with a four-member backup band, was a meditation on his ten years as an American citizen and the experiences and change has witnessed […]

Also on the horizon before the opening of the Music Academy’s impressive eight-week 2019 Summer Music Festival in mid-June is the recital featuring the 2018 Marilyn Horne Song Competition Winners mezzo-soprano Kelsey Lauritano and pianist Andrew Sun at Hahn Hall on May 24. The singer joined the Oper Frankfurt studio last September two months after […]

UCSB Arts & Lectures supporters, Richard and Annette Caleel, opened the doors of their magnificent modern and tribal art filled Birnam Wood home for a reception for violinist Jennifer Koh, who later performed to a sold-out audience at St. Anthony’s Chapel, her second consecutive year, featuring works by Philip Glass, David Lang, Bryce Dessner, Andrew […]

To the uninitiated, the Lucidity Festival, which offers its eighth iteration this weekend, might still come off as a haven for hardcore drug users, a three-day escape for spaced-out revelers intent on leaving reality behind. But maybe that mistaken notion will finally be put to rest, as Lucidity was recognized as the world’s best family-friendly […]

To mark its 44th anniversary, Montecito Bank & Trust hosted a grants reception at its majestic State Street headquarters when president and CEO Janet Garufis handed out checks worth $20,000 to 10 local charities. Along with the checks, the nonprofits also received a professionally produced one-minute promotional video. Employees of the bank, which since its […]

Still Alice is considered the definitive and illuminating novel about Alzheimer’s disease and it was written by Lisa Genova. She recently gave a lecture on the subject for UCSB’s Arts & Lectures at Campbell Hall. Prior to the talk, sponsors Hollye and Jeff Jacobs gave a private reception for her at their home. Genova’s TED […]

On March 15, one of our town’s world celebrated authors, Pico Iyer, had an open discussion about travel, literature, and what brings people of different cultures together. Roman Baratiak from UCSB Arts & Lectures led the discussion. The free event was at the SB Public Library downtown. Pico is usually quoted for saying, “We travel, […]

Author Eli Saslow was brought here by UCSB Arts & Lectures and the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life as well as sponsors Tracy and Michael Bollag. Susan Rose had a private reception at her Hope Ranch home for Eli before his presentation at Campbell Hall. This handsome […]

Montecito author Jane De Hart, who spent 15 years researching and writing a hefty tome on Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is reaping the rewards for her Herculean project. Jane, a professor of women’s history at UCSB, tells me her mammoth 752-page work, Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life, is now in its seventh printing […]

Lisa Genova graduated valedictorian, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. But it wasn’t all that long before she took a left turn, employing her scientific knowledge in service of writing fiction in an effort to humanize brain diseases […]

The last week of February was a tough one for Anne-Sophie Mutter. Not only did the famed violinist lose her former husband and longtime musical partner when André Previn died on February 28, but she also came down with influenza, forcing postponement of the Los Angeles opening concert in her upcoming five-city American tour, making […]

by Dr. Peter Brill, with Mariah Miller QUESTION: I hear there are 1,000 non-profits in Santa Barbara. I am newly retired and moved here from Chicago after selling my business. I look at an organization like the Girl Scouts, which provides for a significant portion of their financial needs by selling cookies and other things. […]

The Arlington Theatre was packed with folks eager to hear from the iconic photographer Annie Leibovitz. After seeing her work many years ago in Vanity Fair and Vogue, I was too. UCSB Arts & Lectures was presenting the program. Annie began her career with the Rolling Stones in 1970 while she was still a student […]

The mad social whirl was at full throttle when UCSB Arts & Lectures hosted parties for guest speakers at the Granada and Campbell Hall. The first was held at the charming Montecito residence of Audrey and Tim Fisher, the former home of actor James Brolin, for global photographer James Balog, who spoke about his new […]

Local dance lovers are in for a treat this week when the Joffrey Ballet, the veteran company considered among America’s elite, returns to the Granada for the first time in more than half a decade for two different programs spanning seven works. That’s a tall order even for one of the country’s most revered troupe […]

Los Arroyos, the popular Mexican eatery on Coast Village Road, is celebrating 20 years in business. Owner Tony Arroyo opened his first location in downtown Santa Barbara on West Figueroa Street in 1999 and launched his outlet in our rarefied enclave in 2004. The chain now has branches in Camarillo and Goleta, with a nosheteria […]

World-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times bestselling author Doris Kearns Goodwin packed the Granada when she spoke about Leadership in Turbulent Times, the title of her seventh book published last year. The tome is a culmination of Goodwin’s five-decade career of studying American presidents focusing on Abraham Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, […]