Tag archives: Granada

What is Your Fondest Memory of Living Here? I normally interview each person for this column, but this letter was so good we had to print as is! Hi MJ, I’ve been loving your articles on favorite memories, and wanted to share a few of my own. I was raised here and have great memories […]

Mary Tonetti Dorra has lived the most fascinating, international life you could ever imagine. We are lucky she and her husband, the late Dr. Henri Dorra, professor of art history at UCLA and UCSB and author of many books, decided to live here in Santa Barbara over 50 years ago even though they also spent […]

American British-based writer Bill Bryson, 68, was in fine humorous form at the Granada, when he spoke about his extensive work as part of the UCSB Arts & Lectures program. Bryson, who first visited the U.K. in 1973 as part of a European tour, decided to stay after landing a job at a psychiatric hospital […]

Five of the city’s major entertainment organizations combined forces at the Granada to present a special benefit performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, an enchanting tale of adventure and bravery that transfixed the sold-out young audience. Maestro Nir Kabaretti led the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony, with a narration by English UCSB professor Simon […]

UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) keeps filling up theatres. The latest was a sold-out Granada to listen to columnist David Brooks. As he said, “I can jabber about anything,” and indeed he can. William F. Buckley Jr. heard him speak years ago and offered him a job. How good is that? But before the lecture […]

Quebec-based Cirque Eloize showed its boundless acrobatic talents in a 90-minute show Hotel at the Granada, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series. The talented company has also produced iD, Saloon and Cirkopolis, which have been seen by more than 3.5 million spectators, and performed more than 5,000 times in 550 cities around […]

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 […]

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 […]

I may be prejudice since Broadway is my favorite thing, but I think the best concert I’ve ever seen for UCSB Arts & Lectures was Kristin Chenoweth. She’s a teeny tiny thing (4’ 11”) with a mighty voice that reaches the rafters. And she thinks we Santa Barbarians are so lucky to have Hidden Valley […]

It’s a twofold mystery: 1) How the heck my grandniece, 13-year-old Maile Kai Merrick, had the courage, fortitude, and most of all, talent and poise, to come out cold (the two had never met) and appear onstage at the Granada in front of a full house to sing a duet with veteran Broadway star Kristin […]

It was a decidedly busy night when Santa Barbara Choral Society held a kick-off reception for its 72nd season at the Music Academy of the West. Claudia Scott, who has sung with the choir for half a century, was recognized for her sterling contribution to the choir, while Debra Stewart and Erica Di Bartolomeo, both […]

As the stars in the sky illuminate our lives, so with the Legends to be honored this autumn night” – Carol Wilburn. The Granada always shines a light on its entertainment, but the annual gala called Legends is one of the biggest illuminations of the year. The honorees who shone were Carol Burnett, Opera Santa […]

Veteran Montecito comedienne Carol Burnett, 86, was front and center at the fifth annual Legends gala on the stage of the venerable Granada Theatre. Carol, whose eponymous award-winning show ran on CBS from 1967 to 1978, was introduced by her good friend, fellow Montecito author and film writer Fannie Flagg, as video showed some of […]

If you missed Maile Kai Merrick‘s performance with Kenny Loggins and Sofia Schuster at the Marjorie Luke in August during a special “Footloose” Summer Stock concert, you’ll have another chance to hear the young singer, as Maile is scheduled to join Kristin Chenoweth on stage at the Granada on October 2. Here’s how that happened: […]

Meg and Dan Burnham grew up together in Michigan, married three days after college graduation, and have been on a whirlwind of business and family adventures ever since, more than half a century in all. After earning an MBA and spending time in the Army, Dan Burnham’s career took the couple from coast to coast […]

We’re not pulling your ear – pardon, leg – when we tell you that Carol Burnett, the funny lady whose career dates back nearly six decades – is coming to downtown’s jewel of a theater next month to be honored as a Granada Legend. They could hardly have picked a more worthy or highly decorated […]

Montecito entrepreneur and philanthropist Lynda Weinman and husband Bruce Heavin are selling their Hollywood Hills home for a bargain $21.995 million, $5 million below the original purchase price. The dynamic duo bought the 12,500 square foot, three-level, six-bedroom, eight-bathroom property, which was originally on the market for $29 million, in the achingly trendy “bird streets” […]

It was all a case of location, location, location as the Music Academy of the West’s 72nd annual summer festival entered its second week. Having staged all concerts at Hahn Hall on the Miraflores campus with the fest’s kickoff, the Lobero and Granada were added into the mix this week. The Festival Artists Series at […]