Dive into a unique Reiki-infused sound bath with guided hypnosis in Yoga Soup’s ongoing Sunday Soundscape series every third Sunday of the month (February 16; $35). The 75-minute journey with Danielle Elese focuses on harmonizing our internal waters, the element that comprises most of our bodies. Sound has a profound impact on water, affecting its […]
Last Sunday night, actor Clarence Maclin spoke to a sold-out Arlington Theatre audience at SBIFF’s Virtuosos Awards about why he had spent years co-writing and then acting in Sing Sing, the feature film up for Best Picture at next month’s Academy Awards. The movie depicts his earlier life, when he was sentenced to 17 years […]
The London Symphony Orchestra’s initial partnership with the Music Academy of the West officially came to its pandemic-paused close a couple of summers ago. But the relationship between the two classical music institutions continues with a three-event, two-day residency starting on February 17. President’s Day kicks off at 1 pm with a violin master class […]
Although there are only three days left in SBIFF 40, much remains to be seen. That includes a third screening on February 14 of The New Yorker Theater: The Talbots’ Legacy. This 26-minute short is about the movie theater founded by the couple – a theater that not only became one of the most influential […]
Eighteen months ago, White Buffalo Land Trust (WBLT) celebrated the culmination of its year-long pilot of the organization’s Artist in Residence program. The program represents the dipping of a toe into expressing – through fine art – the Trust’s work to restore the ecosystem by practicing, promoting, and developing systems of regenerative agriculture at Jalama […]
The wait is over. SBIFF 40 is here, with a full day already in the rearview mirror. The festival covers a lot of ground with its impressive slate of awards and panels, and screenings of almost 200 films domestic and foreign, documentary and fiction, shorts and full-length features, animation and live action. What follows is […]
Surprisingly, SBIFF isn’t the only major festival in town this week, as Santa Barbara once again hosts the annual festival of festivals, aka FestForums. The three-day conference, now at the Mar Monte Hotel, brings together festival producers, organizers and industry leaders to network, collaborate, and pick up tips about events in a single location February […]
Shakespeare is hot in the Santa Barbara region: Hot on the heels of Rubicon Theatre presenting The Acting Company’s reinterpreted version of A Comedy of Errors, both Ensemble Theatre Company and PCPA are readying new productions of classics by the Bard. L.A. theater veteran Margaret Shigeko Starbuck is directing her own reimagined adaptation of Hamlet, […]
Tales from the Tavern – the Santa Ynez singer-songwriter series that has now outlasted the late, lamented Lobero trend-setter Sings Like Hell by almost seven years – has announced its schedule for spring, which begins February 12 with Steve Poltz, who, ironically, played Hell in the last series in 2018. All of the other series […]
For a nonprofit whose main asset is a modest seven-acre farm in Summerland known as Sweet Wheel Farms, the Santa Barbara Agriculture and Farm Education Foundation (SBAFE) has a rather large and lofty goal. Namely, to upend our “modern” food systems and reconnect people to the understanding that our food comes from the land, and […]
The glittery path from Hollywood to Santa Barbara for the annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival got covered with ashes earlier this month from the devastating Los Angeles area wildfires that are still wreaking havoc on the greater community. The concept of rolling out the red carpet might have lost some of its luster, with […]
April Amante hasn’t had a whole lot of opportunities to sing in Santa Barbara since earning her Doctor of Musical Arts at UCSB in June 2023. There was the concert in May 2024, where the soprano returned to campus for the UCSB Opera Gala, directed by her mentor Isabel Bayrakdarian, the soprano who heads the […]
SOhO serves as host of a celebration of life and musical tribute to Gary Fruin, the longtime K-LITE Morning Show co-host who passed away in January. The event, at 1 pm on February 2, is an opportunity for listeners, fans, community members and all those whose lives were brightened by Fruin to remember and celebrate […]
Dr. John Philip Newell is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on Celtic spirituality, a self-described “wandering teacher” who follows the ancient path of many lone teachers before him in the Celtic world, seeking the well-being of the world. Newell’s teaching is known for combining the head and the heart, the intellectual and the […]
Health insurance companies and even Medi-Cal still think of orthodontics as a non-essential, even esoteric expense, even for kids – one that they’re not willing to cover. But brace yourself for the truth: getting braces is by no means simply a cosmetic procedure. For kids who have misaligned teeth – including crooked teeth, gaps between […]
Teen Star Santa Barbara started as a small event meant to employ the American Idol model to highlight the vocal talents of local students in the wake of arts budget cuts in the schools, but it quickly outgrew its original home at San Marcos High’s auditorium. A few years at the Granada turned into an […]
After briefly considering canceling the milestone 40th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival in the wake of the Los Angeles fires, SBIFF did postpone announcement of the full lineup and schedule for a few days. But the slate is now complete for the fest, which runs February 4-15, its longest iteration yet, showcasing a total […]
Whether for confronting, coping or merely cackling, topical comedy abounds this week, including three shows within five days at the Lobero. Paula Poundstone sets the pace as perhaps the most politely political of the trio. The veteran stand-up from Boston – now better known for her regular appearances on the NPR news-quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t […]
Get your classic rock on with a pair of tribute concerts playing the music of two of the biggest bands in the land back in the 1970s at two different venues this week. Queen Nation, which promotes itself as one of the most accurate re-creations of a Queen concert in the United States circa 1975-85, […]
Thirty-seven years after its founding in the parking lot at Transition House – where the goal was simply to create safe play spaces for children experiencing homelessness – the nonprofit now known as Storyteller has gone through some transitions of its own in the last year. All of that is represented in the organization’s name, […]
In the wake of the devastating L.A. fires, it seems an especially poignant moment to pause and take time to reflect on our relationship with the land. For Alexis Slutzky, MA, MFT, a longtime local who works as a mentor, facilitator and educator in a wide variety of depth-oriented practices with a focus on cultivating […]
Although the Baroque ensemble Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) was founded in 1986, it’s taken nearly four decades for the London-based ensemble – which employs period instruments to offer historically accurate performances of the much-beloved repertoire – to make it to Santa Barbara. OAE’s local debut is set for January 21 at the […]
Baroque lovers have an earlier chance to hear even more surprising music from the era as Camerata Pacifica launches its third mini-series of Baroque concerts with Friday’s concert at Hahn Hall featuring series music director-curator and flutist Emi Ferguson, a 2023 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and jazz/Baroque keyboard specialist Dan Tepfer, who […]
The Santa Barbara Symphony kicks off the new year with a weekend pair of performances January 18-19 boasting entirely different programs each concert. The beloved and prolific composer Mozart is the focus for the concerts that boast a total of four concertos featuring different instrumental soloists drawn from the ensemble’s impressive principal players, encompassing flute, […]
The Austin-based Miró Quartet, long considered one of America’s most celebrated and dedicated string quartets, marks its 30th anniversary with a return to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s laudable chamber music series on January 19. The Miró, which in 2005 became the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant, […]
Closing out a crowded week in classical music, Garrick Ohlsson returns to CAMA Masterseries at the Lobero in a full-circle concert. The highly praised pianist, whose early triumph at the 1970 Chopin Piano Competition launched his career, will play an all-Chopin program on January 23. Ohlsson, whose half-century-plus of performing has put him at the […]
Meredith Ventura’s Selah Dance Collective is performing the world premiere of Palermo! (Sure Shot Comedy! Bang Up Fun!) over three shows at Center Stage Theater January 17-18. The piece continues Ventura’s choreographic exploration of early 20th-century performance, building on her acclaimed research project Sound and Smoke, which examines the aesthetics and social undercurrents of 1920s […]
The Santa Barbara Symphony launches into 2025 with yet another first for the increasingly adventurous 72-year-old ensemble: a pair of weekend performances January 18-19 where the program is entirely different on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. The prolific classical composer Mozart is the focus of affection for the weekend of wonder, which highlights four concertos […]
This week’s entries include another intriguing entry in the Santa Barbara Music Club’s 55th season of free community concerts at 3 pm on Saturday, January 11, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Hope Ranch Annex. Composer Eric Valinsky will be joined by piano compatriot Pascal Salomon for the world premiere of Valinsky’s four-handversion of Wisperfal, […]
The Santa Barbara Symphony isn’t the only local arts organization to try something new at the start of 2025. Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre is serving as launch partner for this season’s national tour by The Acting Company, the veteran ensemble co-founded in 1972 by John Houseman with the first graduating class of the Drama Division of […]
Lucinda Lane, Santa Barbara’s self-described “IndieBossaJazzTwang” band formed as a duo a dozen years ago by songwriter-guitarist-singer Josef Woodard and jazz-pop vocalist Nicole Lvoff, has finally released its long-awaited debut album. The title Summer is Over is indicative of the delays in completing the recording, which features guest shots from the likes of local heroes […]
It’s been 20 years since Mean Girls gave us a telling and hilarious glimpse at social cliques in high schools, gave us The Plastics, and made Lindsay Lohan a star. The musical version of the madness, adapted by Tina Fey from her script for the film, was nominated for 12 Tony awards in 2018, including […]
The two theatrical performances that utterly rocked my world and riveted my attention came from UCSB Arts & Lectures dance offerings. Dorrance Dance’s inventive jazz-fueled take on The Nutcracker proved that the old Christmas chestnut can be changed into a charming and cutting-edge work. MOMIX’s Alice showed that the creative mind of artistic director Moses […]
The call-and-response singing of devotional music known as Kirtan can be a joyous experience, but it’s also a healing one that can break down barriers between people. So suggests Darren Marc, the devotional Kirtan artist and singer-songwriter whose eclectic musical career includes more than 30 original songs featured in film and television shows. For Marc […]
Sunburst Sanctuary and Organic Farm, the longtime center for holistic learning, healing and conscious living created and overseen by a cooperative community, jumps right into the new year with a meditation retreat from Thursday-Sunday, January 9-12, at the Lompoc center. The retreat offers an immersive opportunity to learn scientific meditation practices in the lineage of […]
Thirty years ago this coming April, FEMA-Certified Canine Search Specialist Wilma Melville and her black lab Murphy spent a week rummaging through the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma. What stood out was just how few other rescue dogs were on site to search for survivors. When Melville realized only […]
Starring as the Duchess in The Ghosts of Haddon Hall – the 2024 production of “The Christmas Revels: A Winter Solstice Celebration” this weekend – is a real full circle moment 11 years in the making for Gillian Conway. The Montecito native saw her first Santa Barbara Christmas Revels as a family outing back in […]
If Monty Python’s Eric Idle could spoof the Legend of King Arthur with the sweet-and-starchy-ground-pork-and-ham product in Spamalot back in 2004, another expat Brit should be able to do the same for the story of the boy who never grew up. Indeed, it was less than two years later that longtime Santa Barbara theater pro […]
If all you want for Christmas is some tasty blues rock with teeth, look no further than SOhO on Friday night, December 20. That’s when the veteran guitarist-singer-songwriter Alastair Greene will be throwing down at his old stomping grounds, taking to the stage in a reunion with his longtime SoCal based band mates Jim Rankin […]
Nonprofits understandably like to make a big deal about anniversaries, noting with pride and gratitude how long they have been a part of the community and the ways in which they’ve adjusted their services to meet evolving needs. On the other hand, Mission Scholars hasn’t been around long enough to trumpet their decades of service, […]