Tag archives: Classical Music

Man Behind the Lens
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 14, 2021

Carpinteria native Mike Eliason has taken tens of thousands of photos over the course of his 35-year career as a photographer in town. Eliason spent the first quarter-century as a newspaper photojournalist who worked for just about every paper in town, capturing sunsets and shooting alongside wildlife and wildfires before the Santa Barbara County Fire […]

Preparing for a Sparkling Anniversary
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 2, 2021

To many, the 2021 Music Academy of the West Summer School and Festival was nothing short of a miracle. Despite the need to plan well in advance of the state’s reopening in mid-June, MAW not only managed to pull off a spectacular hybrid season that brought more than 100 fellows from around the world to […]

Oh, Henry: ‘Project Resonance’ is MAW’s New Listening Then & Now Series
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 30, 2021

New music — or at least its place in the history of classical music — is also the topic of the first installment of a new in-depth multimedia presentation curated by Henry Michaels, the Music Academy of the West’s Director of Audience Experience and Engagement, that begins this week. “I Hear Dead People: The Cult […]

Music Academy Recital: Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, What a Little Moonlight Can Do
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 16, 2021

It was more than 27 months ago that Sun-Ly Pierce captured the Music Academy of the West’s much-coveted Marilyn Horne Song Competition during the 2019 summer festival. Among the prize package was the opportunity to share the stage with the winning collaborative pianist Chien-Lin Lu for a recital featuring a world premiere of a song […]

Opera Santa Barbara is on a Roll!
By Richard Mineards   |   November 9, 2021

Just a couple of weeks after launching its new season with mariachi opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna at the Granada, the singers, accompanied by talented dancers from the State Street Ballet and the Opera Santa Barbara Orchestra under artistic director Kostis Protopapas, were at the top of their game with a delightful double […]

Orchestra Returns Live for ‘Four Seasons’
By Scott Craig   |   October 26, 2021

The Westmont College Orchestra returns to the stage for live, in-person performances of the Fall Orchestra Concert on Friday, Oct. 22, at 7 pm and Sunday, Oct. 24, at 3 pm in Hahn Hall at Music Academy of the West. Tickets, which cost $10 for general admission (students are free), may be purchased at westmont.edu/music […]

Opera Santa Barbara is Back with a Bang!
By Richard Mineards   |   October 12, 2021

The singers, under artistic director Kostis Protopapas, launched its first post-pandemic season with mariachi opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon), a 2010 commission from the Houston Grand Opera with music and lyrics by Jose “Pepe” Martinez. With inspiring music from Grammy winners Mariachi Los Camperos, the production, […]

‘Chance to Reflect’: Camerata Pacifica Finds Ways to Improve Despite Time Off
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 5, 2021

Prior to the pandemic, Camerata Pacifica wasn’t really looking for an excuse to do some tweaking to its approach. After all, the chamber music ensemble had grown over its 30 years from performing sporadic concerts at a single small stage in town to largely selling out an eight-show season at four venues from Santa Barbara […]

An Ode to Santa Barbara’s Roots
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 28, 2021

It’s not much of an exaggeration to suggest that Opera Santa Barbara General Director Kostis Protopapas almost single-handedly kept live music alive in town during the worst months of the pandemic. In February, Operation Eurydice, part of Opera Santa Barbara’s Arts Advocacy campaign, created three live music series to bring in-person concerts to the public, […]

Grand Reveal
By Richard Mineards   |   September 28, 2021

It was music to everyone’s ears when veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti outlined the Santa Barbara Symphony’s upcoming season at the venerable Granada Theatre at a program reveal party at the Lobero. Symphony chairman Janet Garufis enthused: “It will be so nice to hear live music in person again. We are active and thriving!” The season […]

Swank and Swagger
By Lynda Millner   |   September 7, 2021

You can be sure when the Music Academy of the West (MAW) has an affair it will be elegant. Their opening night gala, “The Return of Miraflores,” was no exception. There were more than 300 guests in attendance dressed in festive attire and excited to see their old friends once again. The whole event was […]

Summing up a MAW Summer
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 24, 2021

Despite the pandemic, the Music Academy of the West managed to complete what seemed a remarkably ambitious, largely in-person season that brought together 100 fellows – the vast majority of the virtual-only “student” participants from last year – a full complement of faculty members, and an audience eager to once again enjoy classical music from […]

Pitches with a Purpose
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 24, 2021

In the online realm, the MAW fellows hit the ball out of the park in this year’s Fast Pitch Awards, the academy’s second-year Shark Tank-style competition for the fellows to propose innovative ideas for products, services, or performances related to new approaches to classical music. Nearly all the eight hopefuls who made it onto the […]

‘Mirrorflores’: The Music Academy Looks Back — and Forward
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 19, 2021

Concern for safety protocols with the ever-changing pandemic caused the Music Academy of the West to commit to converting its annual Opera Scenes production into an audience-free, socially distanced cinematic opus this summer. But for James Darrah, the creative director of Music Academy of the West’s Vocal Institute, Mirrorflores — a clever play on words […]

Quite the Mayes: Baritone Talks Unique South Coast Journey
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 12, 2021

If vocal fellow Byron Mayes’ name seems familiar, you’re not imagining things. The baritone, like all the other 2021 fellows matriculating at MAW’s Miraflores campus in Montecito this year, was part of MARLI, the Music Academy’s virtual-only season during the early part of the pandemic last summer. But the singer’s Santa Barbara-connected tenure goes back […]

Think Fast: Real-time Competition, Digital Challenge on Tap for MAW
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 5, 2021

The Music Academy of the West morphed into a virtual institute by necessity because of the COVID pandemic last summer, employing its inventive MARLI program — Music Academy Remote Learning Institute — to maintain connection with its faculty and fellows from around the world via a variety of platforms on the Internet and the use […]

Busy, Busy: Sitting Down with Two MAW Artists with Plenty on Their Plates
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 29, 2021

Juggling all the tasks and opportunities a fellow faces at the Music Academy of the West is a stiff if rewarding challenge in a normal summer, what with private lessons and sectional coaching, studying new pieces of repertoire, practicing as an individual and rehearsing for chamber, orchestra, and duo concerts, performing in master classes and […]

‘Everything I was Involved in Just Disappeared’ Violist Richard O’Neill Relishes Being Back on Stage
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 22, 2021

Life since March 2020 has been a whirlwind of activity and emotion for violist Richard O’Neill. Like everyone else, he was deeply affected by the pandemic, as precautions shut down all the arts worldwide — “All my concerts, solo projects, summer festivals, and everything I was involved in just disappeared, like they’d been written on […]

Taking on the Challenge: Rachleff Leads MAW into Uncharted Territory
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 15, 2021

Imagine stepping in to lead a fully established orchestra with your wits and a baton your only weapons to mold the symphony musicians into at least a shared vision for a performance. That’s the job of most visiting conductors who travel the world for one-off concerts. Now imagine coming to an organization where the players […]

‘Transformative Experience’: A MAW Season Preview with Jamie Broumas
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 8, 2021

Jamie Broumas, the Music Academy of the West’s second year chief artistic officer, had the unenviable task of trying to program a performance-packed summer music festival during the ups and downs of the pandemic and the ever-changing protocols.  “It was very, very, very challenging,” she admitted over the phone the other day. “Were we going […]