My congratulations to my near neighbor Prince Harry, who celebrated his 40th birthday at his $14 million Riven Rock estate, on Sunday. Needless to say, the phone at Maison Mineards Montecito was ringing off the hook with innumerable enquires from the British media, including the Daily Telegraph and The Sun, asking how he planned to […]

French pianist Hélène Grimaud made her third CAMA Masterseries appearance at the Lobero and, true to form, was at the top of her game. In the penultimate show of her U.S. tour, Grimaud, 54, played the “B” list with works including Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major,” Brahms’ 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117 and […]

Santa Barbara Choral Society showed its true colors when it staged a Red, White, and Blues concert under veteran conductor JoAnne Wasserman at Trinity Episcopal Church. In a nod to America’s rich multi-cultured heritage of musical traditions featuring works by Leonard Bernstein, Randall Thompson, Shawn Kirchner, and Eric Whitacre, the entertaining show was a musical […]

Richard Schultz, recently widowed, anticipated a quiet, uneventful winter at his home in Montecito, California. Instead he found himself confronted by two terrifying natural disasters – first, the Thomas Fire, the worst in California’s history at the time, burning 273,000 acres and over 200 Montecito homes, followed by the subsequent mudslide that left 23 people dead. […]