Tag archives: Classical Music
Béla Fleck (banjo), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Edgar Meyer (double-bass), and Rakesh Chaurasia (flute) will perform for the first time in Santa Barbara on October 19 at UCSB Campbell Hall, coming in from their tour and work in Nashville on a new LP. With over 20 Grammy Awards collectively, we can expect this collaboration to be […]
Paul Willis, Westmont professor of English, will read selections from his award-winning collection, To Build a Trail: Essays on Curiosity, Love and Wonder, Tuesday, October 15, at 5:30 pm in the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara Street. The Westmont Downtown Lecture, “Not about the Numbers: What Really Matters in How We Learn,” is free and […]
Santa Barbara Music Club, which provides free concerts to the public, is celebrating its half century! The organization has evolved from a private women’s club to the largest public series of classical music concerts in Santa Barbara County, and is supported wholly by membership dues, donations, bequests, and grants. In addition to the twice-monthly concerts, […]
Westmont President Gayle D. Beebe and alumnus Stan Anderson cut the ribbon to the new Stan Anderson Golf Complex at a public dedication ceremony September 10 on Westmont’s lower campus. Anderson then sank a ceremonial first putt surrounded by hundreds of cheering Westmont student-athletes and supporters. The new facility features an 8,000-square-foot artificial putting green, […]
Supporters of The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County got a sneak peek of the charity’s forthcoming 8th annual Table of Life event at the Ennisbrook home of John and Betsey Muller when a reception was hosted at Marge Cafarelli‘s Public Market. Guests at the sunset soirée were able to taste bites from a number of […]
Opera Santa Barbara, which is also being honored as a Granada Legend, was founded by Montecito couple Marilyn Gilbert and Nathan Rundlett as Santa Barbara Grand Opera in 1994, with a vision of creating a professional opera company based in town to serve audiences on the Central Coast. From its humble beginnings when the sets […]
The Music Academy of the West concluded its 72nd annual summer festival on a high note when the Academy Festival Orchestra, under conductor Marin Alsop, performed Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7 at the Granada. The entertaining program also comprised of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon‘s 13-minute piece blue cathedral, just a week after her well received […]
Marin Alsop is a serious classical musician, perhaps even more so than the average conductor, given what she had to go through to accomplish what she has over a 35-year career. Along with her many other achievements, Alsop became the first woman ever to lead a major American orchestra when she was appointed music director […]
For its 2019 opera presentation, Music Academy of the West is providing the vocal and instrumental fellows the chance to take on a very modern work that has only had a handful of previous productions. Cold Mountain – the 2014 saga from the prolific composer Jennifer Higdon – is adapted from Charles Frazier’s epic Civil […]
Five-time Grammy Award winner and 2002 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Award recipient double bassist Edgar Meyer negotiates a rarely traveled road as a star in both the classical music and bluegrass worlds, where he works as both a performer and a composer. Hailed dryly by The New Yorker as “the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively […]
The “Cocoon” world premiere arrived in a sold-out concert on July 19 at the Music Academy of the West (MAW) Hahn Hall, as part of the MAW Fellows “Picnic Concert Series.” The guest artist composition titled “Cocoon,” by Jim Stephenson, is a trifecta Artist in Resident project which started July 2018 incorporating science, music, and […]
Classical musicians don’t come much more ambitious and open-minded than flutist Claire Chase. The accomplishments of the soloist, collaborative artist, curator, and advocate for new and experimental music are numerous, including founding the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) in 2001, which has premiered more than 800 works since its inception, while her recognition includes being named […]
The London Symphony Orchestra’s four-year partnership with the Music Academy of the West, which came on the heels of a similar groundbreaking deal with the New York Philharmonic from 2014-17, officially began last year. But this summer is when the entire LSO – one of the world’s great orchestras that is also well known for […]
Jerome Lowenthal is one of the most electric pianistic personalities before the public,” so says one of his reviewers. Santa Barbara’s The Music Academy of the West (MAW) claims him for their own because he has been a part of their eight-week summer program for an amazing 50 years mentoring students. Yet he has appeared […]
The Music Academy of the West transforms the Granada Theatre into Mission Control for a special London Symphony Orchestra space-themed family concert next Friday, July 12, kicking off three straight days of different programs with the esteemed British orchestra in the second year of its partnership with MAW. The Voyager program, which incorporates excerpts from […]
In just his third season at the Music Academy of the West, Los Angeles-based director and designer James Darrah has already had a dramatic effect on the seven-decades-old summer festival – employing his unique collaborative focus and vision at a convergence of opera, classical music, and theater to the already well-respected program at the stunning […]
Piano legend Jerome Lowenthal was honored for his half century of teaching at the Music Academy of the West and the launch of the institution’s 72nd annual summer school and festival at a record-breaking gala, which netted $475,000 towards scholarships and other funding. New York-based Lowenthal, 87, who is also chair of the prestigious Juilliard […]
Michael Werner, who left college when he was appointed Principal Percussionist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, also played percussion with the Metropolitan Opera for 13 years before joining the Seattle Symphony as its principal in 2009. So the 15-year MAW veteran faculty member pronounced himself pretty thrilled that the academy will perform the West Coast […]
Finding a selection of events to highlight from the new Music Academy of the West summer festival isn’t an issue. Distilling the 200-some offerings over the eight weeks down to a manageable preview is a much greater challenge. That’s because MAW has been moving in leaps and bounds in its wildly successful recent efforts to […]
It’s no surprise that Jerome Lowenthal responds to interview questions with the same sort of erudite yet playful tone anyone familiar with his master classes has come to know and love, as well as a particular precision, with personal flair, that mark his piano performances. So when asked what it means to be notching his […]
