Tag archives: Classical Music
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was founded by renowned conductor-pianist Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian scholar/author Edward Said 20 years ago to bring together outstanding young Palestinian and Israeli musicians in a collaboration superseding national and cultural boundaries. The group, Barenboim has said, was conceived as a project against ignorance and aims to promote understanding […]
Elliot Wuu doesn’t have a direct memory of the first time he slept next to the bench while his older sister Rebecca practiced on the family’s piano, something his parents told him he started doing as a baby barely one year old. But he does recall frequently taking naps as a toddler while Rebecca, who […]
German conductor Christian Reif, 30, showed off his talents with the Santa Barbara Symphony at the Granada. Reif, who studied at Juilliard in New York and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, was on the top of his form, having just completed a three-year post as resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony. The entertaining program […]
Westmont music professors have brought back the popular Select House Concert Series, performing four chamber concerts on Saturdays, March 21, April 25, May 30 and June 20; all at 3 pm in homes to be announced once tickets have been purchased. Individual concert tickets, which go on sale beginning March 1 at westmont.edu/music, cost $50 […]
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, […]
World-renowned cellist, composer, and curator Joshua Roman is an alumnus of the Music Academy of the West (MAW) since 2002. He sent out letters of inquiry around the U.S. to secure a space undisturbed for composing a 16-minute piece for the Cleveland Orchestra. Scott Reed, President and CEO of MAW, reached out to Ashley Woods […]
Celebrate the great Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman on both film and in person as UCSB A&L first presents Alison Chernick’s 2017 documentary Itzhak, which details Perlman’s struggles as a polio survivor and Jewish émigré who rises to vast artistic success, at Campbell Hall on Thursday, January 16, then lets the musician himself share the tales […]
Camerata Pacifica kicks off the second half of Season 2 of its two-year “Why Beethoven?” project with a program wind program featuring flutist Jasmine Choi, oboists Nicholas Daniel and Claire Brazeau, clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester and Pascal Archer, and bassoonists Judith Farmer and William Short, who no doubt are up to the task of tackling Beethoven’s […]
Violinist Benjamin Beilman was slated to make his debut with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra in the 2017-18 season, but then the venerable ensemble closed operations after nearly 40 years. Now, barely more than two years later, Beilman has been booked for an even bigger role in the Lobero Theatre Chamber Music Project, a new collaboration with […]
Stephen Dombek had the unusual experience of hearing one of his compositions from the audience when the Quire of Voyces performed his setting of “Hodie – Christus Natus Est (Today Christ is Born)” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art at December’s 1st Thursday art walk. Normally, Dombek would have been among the baritone section […]
Montecito Bank & Trusts’ MClub spent an evening with Santa Barbara Symphony music and artistic director Nir Kabaretti. It began in the Founders room of the Granada for light bites and wine and a chance to meet and greet Janet Garufis, who is the Symphony board chair and CEO of MB&T, and Kevin Marvin, president […]
Maybe the Santa Barbara Symphony was taking a cue from the old commercials for Wrigley’s Doublemint chewing gum when they launched a second pops concert last December to go along with its longstanding New Year’s Eve show. As in, “Double your pleasure, double your fun.” Whatever the motivation, Year 2 for the Christmastime concert brings […]
Renowned Croatian soprano Lana Kos, who was scheduled to sing in her debut at Santa Barbara Symphony’s Mozart to Mahler concert at the Granada, had to cancel at the very last minute because of bronchial problems. But luckily help was at hand locally with Anya Matanovic, who recently moved to our tony town and was […]
Dance Theatre of Harlem, celebrating its half century, put on a most impressive display when the company performed at a sold-out show at the Granada. The two hour show, part of UCSB Arts & Lectures program, consisted of four works, starting with a classical amber alert, Orange, featuring six dancers and music by Vivaldi, beautifully […]
Westmont student musicians and composers show off their talents at free concerts this week in Westmont’s Deane Chapel on lower campus. For more information, please contact the music department at (805) 565-6040. The Composer’s Concert, highlighting original works by Westmont student composers and performers, is Friday, November 8, at 7 pm. “The concert is an […]
Surf movies, especially those with a Santa Barbara connection, have been a popular sidebar at SBIFF for many years. This weekend the genre steps to a fest of its own with the first annual event celebrating the “Santa Barbara Surf Culture” on film. The two-day fest, slated for full 12-hour plus schedules on both Saturday […]
If you have a yen for opera, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Granada was definitely the production for you. Opera Santa Barbara’s 25th anniversary season opener was a cracker with artistic director Kostis Protopapas working musical magic with soprano Eleni Calenos in the pivotal role. She was joined by a superb cast, including tenor Harold […]
Santa Barbara Symphony kicked off its 66th season with Festa Italiana! at the Granada featuring works by Verdi, Paganini, Mendelssohn’s Italiana symphony and Tschaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien under the baton of Nir Kabaretti. International Italian violinist Francesca Dego was at the top of her game playing Paganini’s fiendishly complicated Concerto No.1 in D Major, and then […]
Korean-American Richard O’Neill, longtime violist for Adrian Spence‘s Camerata Pacifica, is joining the internationally acclaimed lineup of the 45-year old Takacs Quartet. He will replace Geraldine Walther, who is retiring after 15 years in May. Richard, 41, joins founding member, cellist Andras Jejer, English first violinist Edward Dusinberre and American second violinist Harumi Rhodes, in […]
Pianist Zhang Zuo, violinist Esther Yoo, and cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan met as BBC New Generation Artists in 2015, and hit it off so well they decided to continue working together as a piano trio for chamber music concerts as The Z.E.N. Trio, employing their first initials as an acronym. Since the three are all also […]
