The Music Academy audience has already seen a lot of Jeremy Denk. The piano great is in his 10th season as a faculty teaching artist on campus, which assignment began less than two years after Denk was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the summer after he served as the Ojai Festival’s music director. In […]
The RUNX1 gene provides instructions for making RUNX1 protein, which plays a vital role in the production of blood stem cells and the maintenance of a healthy blood system throughout life. RUNX1-FPD patients have a hereditary mutation that causes symptoms such as bleeding and easy bruising, which can require limiting daily activities and cause allergic […]
Concerts in the Park is a long-cherished Santa Barbara institution, a summertime frolic featuring free live music on the Great Meadow in Chase Palm Park along Santa Barbara’s waterfront on Cabrillo Blvd. The gently-sloping hill facing the permanent concrete stage (often the setting for weddings and other private functions) provides sensational sightlines and surroundings with […]
When Paige Cameron enrolled at Northwestern in her home state of Illinois to study vocal performance, the plan was to sing her way to stardom. “I really thought I was going to be an opera singer,” said Cameron, who goes by either she or they and has recently decided to lop off her hyphenated last […]
I’ve been singing the Solvang Festival Theater’s praises for decades, and the little amphitheater downtown in the Danish-themed village – call it the Santa Ynez Valley’s scaled-down version of the Santa Barbara Bowl – has only burnished that bountiful reputation with the recent renovations. While concerts and other events now also take place on the […]
Turning from the stage to the page, it took a full century for Santa Barbara to buddy up to Bloomsday, the annual celebration of the life and work of Irish writer James Joyce every June 16; the day his 1922 novel Ulysses takes place in 1904, and named after its protagonist Leopold Bloom. Dublin’s been […]
Maybe the Music Academy of the West had some unanticipated smarts in scheduling the annual Percussion Fest for the first Saturday of the season, just four days into the 2024 Summer Festival. With the fellows flying in from San Francisco, Cleveland, Houston, and New York and driving up from L.A. they’d all have to arrive […]
When Hospice of Santa Barbara officially opened its doors back in 1974, only one other hospice organization existed in the entire United States, making HSB just the country’s second nonprofit that focused on the nonmedical care, comfort and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is approaching the end of life. […]
A writer’s conference might seem like an esoteric enterprise, considering that the actual act of writing is as solitary as such things go, save for maybe collaborating in a writer’s room for a TV sitcom, which is a lot less literary. The once-daunting barriers to entry to “seeing one’s work in print” have been obliterated […]
You might say Navasard Hakobyan had a pretty good summer in Santa Barbara last year. The Armenian baritone not only made his debut as Marcello, one of the principal roles in La Boheme at the Granada, he also secured the most coveted and longstanding prize of the festival in the Music Academy’s 2023 Marilyn Horne […]
An impact report is normally more of an obligation or a chore for a nonprofit rather than something to brag about. But for Explore Ecology, publishing its 2023-2024 Impact Report – its first ever – was an especially exciting development. That’s because it’s the first document to not only succinctly tie together the multiple programs […]
In just about every city across America, summer is when the classical music season grinds to a halt, with both professional and university institutions going on hiatus until the fall. But for more than three-quarters of a century, Santa Barbara has had the great distinction of having two months at the beginning of summer bring […]
The Music Academy of the West’s annual Summer Gala, set for Saturday, June 1, not only serves as an elegant appetizer to the enviable eight-week festival that follows, but also an official welcome to new Music Academy President and CEO Shauna Quill. The 2024 gala, appropriately titled “A New Era,” features an Italian-themed culinary journey […]
Pianist and conductor Mitsuko Uchida, Musical America’s 2022 Artist of the Year and a Grammy nominee in 2023, serves as music director of this year’s Ojai Music Festival, the 78th edition of four days of musical brainstorming in an enchanted setting amid audiences eagerly anticipating challenge and discovery. The 2024 Ojai Festival takes place June […]
The Santa Barbara Music Club Scholarships – which regularly produces free concerts featuring professional and other classical musicians in town – has been awarding scholarships to instrumental and vocal music students from Santa Barbara County. The scholarships provide a measure of support, aid, and encouragement to students from local schools and teaching studios. The hope […]
Opera Santa Barbara’s 2024-25 season doesn’t start until November, but the opportunity to purchase single (non-subscription) tickets to OSB’s three productions for less than $30 ends with the month of May. The season features Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (November 8 & 10), Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (February 21 & 23) and Donizetti’s The Daughter of the […]
Dean Noble, executive director of Elings Park, is fond of comparing Elings to some famous public parks in urban areas. “What Central Park is to New York, and Golden Gate Park is to San Francisco, Elings Park is to Santa Barbara,” said Noble, who previously served as ED of the Santa Barbara Zoo. But there […]
Pete Muller didn’t set out to make a record in Memphis with an entirely new band when he visited producer/engineer Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell) on the advice of his manager. But the two hit it off, and when his previous producer Rob Mathes proved too busy with his Sting projects to get away, Muller committed […]
Natalie Merchant, the New York-bred singer-songwriter who a lifetime ago was the lead singer and lyricist for the alt.rock faves 10,000 Maniacs (1981-93) before embarking on an even more successful solo career, returns to town to perform at the Santa Barbara Bowl on May 23. Merchant’s latest album, 2023’s Keep Your Courage, continues to prove […]
Although there’s only one degree of separation between Santa Barbara and Kevin Bacon, the star of the movie Footloose – soundtrack superstar Kenny Loggins, on the other hand, has lived in town for decades – neither will be involved in Lights Up! Theatre Company’s production of the stage musical this weekend. But what we do […]
Indecent is a 2015 play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, inspired by the controversial events surrounding the play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch. God of Vengeance was briefly produced on Broadway in 1923 before the producer and cast were arrested and convicted of obscenity due to the play’s depiction of lesbian love. Vengeance […]
Although Summerland had relatively minor flooding and damage following the torrential rainstorm and resulting debris flow in January 2018, the town suffered several days of isolation due to the closure of the 101 freeway and debris blocking other access points. Having her hometown turn into a virtual island was a wake-up call for Summerland resident […]
Normally at this time of year, UCSB Music’s voice program would either mount a full-scale opera or a collection of staged opera scenes, but for 2024, the show has morphed into an Opera Gala, which is not only a collaboration between the music and theater-dance departments, but also a tale of two cities as UCSB […]
Incandescent is the intriguing title of this year’s MFA Thesis Exhibition at UCSB’s Art, Design & Architecture Museum (AD&A), on view May 17 to June 9. The seven grad students with heritage from Mexico, Nigeria, Iran, the Philippines, and elsewhere, drew on Michel Serres’ notion of incandescence to create art that emphasizes the interconnectedness of […]
Nashville-based singer-songwriter and recording artist Jordan Asher Huffman, who has been named One805’s 2024 Mental Wellness Ambassador and is lending his single “Out Loud” to serve as this year’s anthem for all One805LIVE! events, has been added to the all-star lineup put together by Steve Postell for the nonprofit’s afternoon bash at Sunstone Winery. Jordan […]
Celtic Woman returns to the Chumash Casino on their “20th Anniversary Tour,” marking the milestone since the ensemble rose to fame after their 2005 PBS concert special that was initially intended as a one-time-only event. But the response propelled their album to the top of Billboard’s World Music chart and a second album a year […]
Pulitzer Prize finalist, culture critic, producer, and screenwriter Xochitl Gonzalez is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of its newsletter Brooklyn, Everywhere, about class, gentrification, and the American Dream. Her debut novel, Olga Dies Dreaming, was a critical fave in 2022, while the follow-up, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, came out this […]
There are several nonprofit organizations in town concerned about the health of our oceans and waterways, and a whole lot more in the county, state and nation. For Marine Watchdogs, that’s a blessing, as more focus on the ocean’s ecology benefits from collaboration, if not competition. “Great!” said Managing Director Dave Dahl, a lifelong ocean […]
It seems every orchestra and their third cousins are playing Rhapsody in Blue this season to mark the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s once-controversial 1924 musical composition that combined elements of classical music with jazz piano – billed back then as an Experiment in Modern Music. Our own Santa Barbara Symphony is no exception. But […]
State Street Ballet closes out its 2023-24 season with “Other Voices,” a contemporary rep program that takes a sharp turn from its last production, March’s tried-and-true classical ballet take on Cinderella. Aimed at exploring experimental idioms, “Other Voices,” which performs May 10-11 at the Lobero, showcases choreographers pushing ballet’s boundaries and the company dancers’ limits […]
Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie is an award-winning, New York-based hip-hop “b-girl” with extensive training in ballet and modern dance. Rooted in African American and Latinx street and club dances, her dance company returns to town with her latest exploration of the inherent complexities of the dance forms. Ephrat Asherie Dance‘s latest work ODEON brings together and […]
After focusing on galleries and food purveyors above the 1000 block of State Street in last year’s Downtown Santa Barbara LIVE Art & Wine Tour, the super popular springtime sampling soirée saunters for several blocks south of Carrillo for the May 16 event. The curated tour of museums, other art spots and sundry various venues […]
Sullivan Goss’ new exhibition celebrates mid-Spring with a splash of color and a bit of buoyancy, turning the downtown gallery into a Wonderland with both new works by the gallery’s regularly represented artists and pieces from four artists who have never shown there before. The latter group includes Roland Petersen, the Danish-born painter whose works […]
Santa Barbara’s Mental Wellness Center kicks off National Mental Health Awareness Month with its popular art show on the beachfront lawn opposite Chase Palm Park from 11 am – 3 pm on Saturday, May 4. The 28th annual Arts Faire event showcases the talents of approximately 60 local artists who are living with mental illness, […]
Bryan Tari was just 18 years old when he was one of 84 pianists chosen to simultaneously and collaboratively perform a truncated version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue under the baton of conductor John Williams for the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The pianists – all men, dressed in powder blue tuxedos […]
Montecito’s lawyer turned prolific author-about-town Steven Gilbar, who has written some 20 “shamelessly non-commercial” volumes in and about Santa Barbara since 1979, has spent the last several years more micro-focused on Montecito. Gilbar penned The Little Book of Montecito Writers in 2022 and followed it up a year later with a similarly casual treatise about […]
Can visiting a museum help you conquer feelings of loneliness, or even stave off the advent of dementia? It sure can’t hurt. In their 2023 bestseller Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross explore the wide variety of connections that contemporary neuroscience has established between artistic practice, aesthetic […]
Proud as they are of the ever-increasing quality and innovative nature of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s concerts at the Granada, the folks at the organization often rave even more about their education program. The periodic performance component of those programs takes place this weekend as Camerata Ensemble & Philharmonia Orchestra kick things off on Saturday […]
NatureTrack has a simple but vital mission: To foster a lifelong fascination with nature through outdoor field trips. The nonprofit was founded in 2011 by Sue Eisaguirre, who wanted to reach a broader community than she was able to do through her work heading up the docent and K-12 outreach programs for the UCSB Sedgwick […]
When M.E.R.R.A.G. was formed in 1987 as Montecito Emergency Response and Recovery Action Group, the uber-local organization started serving a vital purpose as the Montecito Fire Protection District’s neighborhood eyes and ears through a cohort of trained, embedded local volunteers augmenting our first responders’ efforts to keep the community safe. Growing out of a newly […]