Forced by COVID to find ways to bring the music to a house-bound audience, the Granada Theatre teamed up with the Santa Barbara Symphony to create intimate podcasts that both illuminated and entertained. Out of this collaboration grew the idea of presenting cross-genre performances, the first one being Moondance which featured the music of Van […]
Opera Santa Barbara has neatly transformed itself into an efficient juggernaut that seems to have made the company more sustainable, at least for the moment, by staging all of their opera productions twice at the Lobero, rather than ranging from the grand stage of the Granada to the Lobero and the intimate Center Stage theatre. […]
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Santa Barbara Choral Society marked the conclusion of its 77th season with The Many Shades of Choral under veteran director JoAnne Wasserman with accompaniment by Kevin Su Fukagawa at Trinity Lutheran Church. The entertaining concert featured a wide range of composers beginning with selections from Mozart, including his final work for his hometown Salzburg Cathedral […]
Santa Barbara blues from native sons covering both electric and acoustic approaches are on the menu from the Santa Barbara Blues Society, the nonprofit still-thriving nearly half a century since its founding. Headlining is a band fronted by Mitch Kashmar, the singer and harmonica player who co-founded the legendary Pontiax back in the early 1980s […]
Music professor Steve Hodson has retired after teaching at Westmont for nearly 30 years. He appreciates the variety of roles he has filled: directing choral activities, conducting the Westmont College Choir, founding and leading the ensemble New Sounds, teaching a music survey class as well as basic and advanced conducting, and directing piano studies. “I […]
Hale Milgrim is arguably better equipped than the average fan to wax quixotic about music back in the day when LPs were actually referred to as “wax.” The former President and CEO of Capitol Records – who got his start as a clerk in an Isla Vista record store – created Quips & Clips to […]
There have been two tribute concerts for David Crosby in the 28 months since the legendary singer-songwriter passed away at his Santa Ynez home in 2023. But Locals and Legends: Celebrating the Music of David Crosby, slated for May 24 at the Granada Theatre, offers two significant additions. The show is co-presented by Santa Barbara […]
Three Dog Night – which surprisingly was not named for its innovative idea of a trio of lead singers – was one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, selling more than 50 million records for such singles as “One,” “Easy To Be Hard,” “Joy to the World,” “Mama Told […]
State Street Ballet closes out its 30th season with The Brilliance Program: Balanchine, Arpino, and Beyond, a title meant to characterize the works featured on the May 9-10 performances at the Lobero Theatre – but also apropos for the company’s spectacular season, the first full one under the leadership of Artistic Director Megan Phillips and […]
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In a strange situation for an often ballet-starved town, the Arlington Theatre is also hosting a prime example of the art form this week – for the first time since the local Festival Ballet’s annual performances of The Nutcracker last December – as the State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine presents Sleeping Beauty on May 13. […]
This year’s annual Santa Barbara visit by the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Friday, May 9, at the Granada not only closes out CAMA’s orchestral International Series for 2025-26, but also serves as the penultimate concert in president Mark Trueblood’s CAMA career after 27 years at the helm. It’s rather appropriate, as the LA Phil was […]
Santa Barbara Symphony under veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti debuted its new eponymous chorus at the Granada with Brahms’ “German Requiem” which took the composer nearly three decades to complete. Joining the voices was the Westmont College Choir in Brahms’ poetic work from the Bible and the Psalms along with Gustaf Mahler’s haunting Rückert-Lieder. Soloists were […]
The Music Academy of the West season is still a solid six weeks away when 150 fellows will arrive on the Miraflores campus in Montecito and, alongside 60 faculty members, collaborate in creating a truly astonishing slate of events over the otherwise fallow months on the classical calendar. There are nearly 125 in-person opportunities in […]
Fans of talented teens singing and dancing in school versions of Broadway musicals rejoice this time of spring, as each of the major public high schools mounts their big musicals of the year. Hadestown, which winds up its run at Santa Barbara High May 1-3, has already had two productions by teen companies in town […]
