Tag archives: UCSB

Five-time Grammy Award-winning music genius Jacob Collier, making his Santa Barbara debut, wowed the audience at Campbell Hall when USCB Arts & Lectures launched its 64th season. London-born Collier, 29, creates mesmerizing soundscapes using layered vocal tracks and sophisticated editing techniques. His multi-frame, multi-instrumental viral videos and impressive Grammy wins have earned him a devoted […]

What does it mean to retain innocence in the age of information? This week, 22-year-old Daian Martinez answers this question for us. Daian is a talented young writer whose recent work as a Raab Writing Fellow at UCSB explored the big and little things that affect today’s youngest generation. After seeing her zine “In the […]

Nearly 30 artists from near and far are saddling up for the 13th annual SLOPOKE Art of the West Show on September 22-24 at Flag Is Up Farms in Solvang. Former longtime president of the California Art Club Peter Adams serves as the featured guest artist and juror for the fine art show – appropriately […]

“You don’t have to be a scientist to love and protect the ocean,” says marine biologist Scott Simon. Simon is the director at UCSB’s teaching aquarium, the Research Experience and Education Facility (or REEF for short). Although used as a lab facility by the university, the REEF is primarily devoted to public outreach and serves […]

The annual discount derby for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival next year is going on right now. SBIFF returns to town – or more accurately, dominates the entertainment calendar – from February 7-17, 2024, with its usual slate of celebrity tributes, industry panels, and 200 or so new independent and international films, including daily […]

This week I spoke to Cassidy Miller, one of the publicity coordinators of UCSB’s Students for Reproductive Justice committee, to learn more about how students promote health care advocacy and reproductive rights on campus.  Q. What does Students for Reproductive Justice do? A. Students for Reproductive Justice is a subcommittee of the UCSB Associated Students’ […]

Jenna Hamilton-Rolle, former director of education at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and the Sea Center, is the new director of education and community engagement for UCSB Arts & Lectures. She brings many community connections to her new role, including administrators and educators at the Goleta and Santa Barbara Unified school districts, and […]

Santa Barbara is by no means unique in taking advantage of the warmer temperature and sunny weather to bring music and movie entertainment to the masses in the great outdoors. But, at least for our size, we sure do have a plethora of places to put up performances, each with its own flavor. Read on […]

I have a real interest in how UCSB organizations support student life. When I scheduled a meeting with the Basic Needs Committee chair Tessa Veksler, I expected to hear about all my pet favorites – food bank initiatives, menstrual health events, etc. But as the academic term comes to a close, Tessa reflected more broadly […]

Social gridlock reigned at the Santa Barbara Club when 245 guests converged on the historic venue when UCSB Arts & Lectures, which is celebrating its 64th anniversary, revealed its slate of performances for the 2023-2024 season that features 48 events. These include recitals by Broadway star Audra McDonald and Kristin Chenoweth, jazz legend Herbie Hancock, […]

From DakhaBrakha and The Linda Lindas to Lang Lang and Ballet Preljocaj, UCSB Arts & Lectures’ 2022-2023 season included a luminous lineup of both world-renowned and up-and-coming musicians in a variety of genres, dance companies of far-reaching dimensions, and a full slate of forward-thinking and timely speakers and spoken word artists.  The season was a […]

It was a very in-tents occasion when Santa Barbara’s Polo Training Center hosted its sixth annual dinner for 120 guests at the Carpinteria venue, raising around $100,000. Each year, the 11-year-old organization makes $10,000 grants to UCSB and Westmont polo team members to cover expenses at the Santa Barbara Polo Club’s polo academy. In addition […]

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, the allegorical play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis (Between Riverside and Crazy), already turns typical storytelling on its ear as it involves a courtroom trial over the ultimate fate of perhaps the most famous sinner in the story of the Bible. To examine existing understandings of heaven, […]

This week I am joined by the co-editor of UCSB’s WORD Magazine, Makenna Gaeta. As a junior studying Communications and Journalism, Makenna reflects on her transition into a leadership role at WORD and what it means to be in creative control.  Q. What is WORD Magazine? A. WORD is a completely student-run arts and culture […]

The Art, Design & Architecture [AD&A] Museum at UCSB’s newest acquisition is the hire of Orianna Cacchione, PhD, as its Assistant Director. Filling a long vacant position, she brings new perspectives, background, and for certain, relief, to its Executive Director Gabe Ritter, PhD.  Our interview on Wednesday May 17, was at the museum, during the […]

I don’t have many heroes. Maybe because I’m too easily disappointed. Or that just beneath my optimistic surface lives a somewhat jaded self. Or perhaps it’s simply that it’s hard to find heroes these days who stand up to the test of time, not to mention under the harsh glare of modern-day journalism. But when […]

It was anything but glacial when Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson perfumed a 95-minute Mozart and Contemporaries concert at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall. The hugely entertaining show shed light on lesser-known musical figures, including Italian composers Domenico Cimarosa and Baldassare Galuppi, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the fifth child and second son of Johann Sebastian […]

Songwriting legend Burt Bacharach, who died in Los Angeles in February at the age of 94, was commemorated in energized fashion when the Brooklyn, New York-based Mark Morris Dance Company performed to his many hits at the Granada, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. The “Look of Love” show, a music collaboration […]

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and vocalist Caroline Shaw and the chamber music-redefining ensemble Sō Percussion weren’t planning on recording an album full of songs together back in 2019. Rather they were in the studio to lay down tracks for Shaw’s quartet “Taxidermy” and the Dawn Upshaw collaboration Narrow Sea – which later won a 2022 Grammy […]

World renowned trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, bandleader and composer, who I’ve seen many times on the Granada stage courtesy of UCSB Arts & Lectures, was back at the historic venue after a tour of Asia with the Wynton Marsalis Septet. Marsalis, 61, artistic director of Jazz at the Lincoln Center and director of Jazz Studies at […]