Tag archives: UCSB
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 […]
Founded in 2013, UCSB’s Zero Waste Committee was formed to address the university’s goal to reduce waste and redesign their consumption. As a national leader in sustainability initiatives and awareness, the university’s goals are in part maintained by the Zero Waste Committee, represented today by public outreach coordinator Caroline Bancroft. In our interview, Caroline talked […]
It was certainly a plucky performance when the Grammy award-winning Attacca Quartet, a decidedly funky and exuberant foursome, played at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall, as part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. The works, all by Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-winning composer Caroline Shaw, known for “a world of sound never heard before,” […]
It has been a long, long time, eight years to be exact, since Chinese piano legend Lang Lang has played at the Granada. But it was clearly worth the wait as the man, described by The New York Times as “the hottest artist on the classical music planet,” mesmerized the sold-out audience at the concert, […]
After the Soweto Gospel Choir and Step Afrika! at UCSB’s Campbell Hall, courtesy of the Arts & Lectures program, it was time for the venerable Lobero, celebrating its 150th anniversary, to host Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a nine-member Durban-based South African male choral group, who have won five Grammy awards. The highly entertaining troupe, founded in […]
UCSB Dance Company’s 2023 company consists entirely of female or non-binary dancers, which wasn’t a conscious choice but simply the result of having no male senior dance majors on campus this year. But rather than fighting against what is, Artistic Director Delila Moseley decided to double down. “I just decided to go with it, and […]
The classical 1877 Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake took on a whole new complexion when France’s 27-year-old Ballet Preljocaj, based in the charming university city of Aix-en-Provence, performed at the Granada, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures program. With extremely creative video and lighting design by Boris Labbé and Eric Soyer, the 110-minute work […]
Cancer physician and researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee, who has been praised for making scientific discoveries read like riveting mysteries, is coming to town to talk about his new book, The Song of the Cell, an exploration of medicine and our radical new ability to manipulate cells. The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Emperor of All Maladies […]
Step Afrika!’s Campbell Hall performance Tribute paid homage to the African American step show technique combining the distinct styles from different African American fraternities and sororities, blending them together in an energized, exuberant and frenzied 90-minute show, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures program. It included all the exciting elements of “stepping,” with […]
After hundreds of screenings and appearances by more Academy Award-hopefuls (and likely winners) gathered in one place this side of the Oscar luncheon, the 38th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival wrapped last weekend. But there’s still plenty of movie magic around beyond the cineplex and streaming. UCSB Arts & Lectures’ annual visit from the […]
Pink Martini, the 11-member group of talented multi-lingual musicians, made their 10th appearance in our Eden by the Beach, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. The venerable Granada was sold-out as pianist Thomas Lauderdale, the Portland, Oregon-based founder, and his fellow Harvard classmate China Forbes led the group singing songs in Armenian, […]
Anita Hill never wanted to testify before the Senate Judiciary committee. In fact, despite a stellar academic record, you probably would not know the name Anita Hill if not for veteran NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg. The same way you wouldn’t know the Watergate Hotel, if not for Woodward and Bernstein. How it came […]
UCSB’s popular Arts & Lectures series has been working overtime with three major shows in the last week, two at the Granada and a third at the more intimate Lobero. Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato’s EDEN, a call to action to build a paradise for today fertilizing, nourishing, and protecting the pure bliss that is Earth, with […]
