Crowded Classical Calendar

The “core four” of Camerata Pacifica’s chamber musicians chairs – violinist Paul Huang, violist Richard O’Neill, cellist Ani Aznavoorian, and pianist Warren Jones – congregate in various formats for an enticing program at Hahn Hall on Friday, February 7. Sandwiched around 250th birthday boy Beethoven’s Sonata in C Major for Piano & Cello, Op. 102, No. 1, and String Trio in C Minor, Op. 9, No. 3, are Mozart’s Duo for Violin & Viola in B-flat, K. 424, and Brahms’ Sonata in G Major for Violin & Piano, Op. 78. It’s the first CamPac concert since the Music Academy of the West, where Hahn Hall resides, announced that the opening night gala for its 2020 Summer Festival will be a tribute to O’Neill, who will be joining the renowned Takacs Quartet later this year… Also on Friday, 2018 Grammy Award-winning Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, who was Musical America’s 2019 Artist of the Year, makes his Santa Barbara debut with an all-Bach program at UCSB Campbell Hall. Trifonov has received plaudits for combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity and depth, moving even a publication as staid as The New York Times to dub him “One of the most awesome pianists of our time.”

Pianist and director emeritus of the Santa Barbara Music Club Robert Else plays three works by another director emeritus, Hal Isbitz, including Caterina, Dolores and Tulsey Town Rag to kick off the SBMC’s next free concert on Saturday afternoon, February 8, at the Faulkner Gallery. Also performing are current director, pianist Leslie Hogan, who will premiere one of her own compositions, and flutist Tracy Harris and pianist Svetlana Harris who will offer Ronda Larsen’s Be Still My Soul, the world premiere of Dancing Wings by Todd Harris, and Joachim Andersen’s Scherzino.

On Sunday, UCSB flute professor Jill Felber presents a chamber music concert titled “Fantasy” with oboist Thomas Gallant and pianist Dianne Frazer. The trio will perform works by Madeleine Dring, Benjamin Britten, Gaetano Donizetti, Jacques Ibert and more at 2 pm in Karl Geiringer Hall on campus.