Tag archives: Music Academy of the West
Timo Andres’ first visit to the Music Academy will include – for the fellows’ brass concert – the west coast premiere of the rising star pianist-composer’s “Land Lines”for triple brass quintet, as well as his “Tides and Currents” in the faculty concert at the Lobero. Andres once served on the judges panel for the fellows’ […]
Westmont alumnus and local resident Tim Beccue (’18) is back on campus, this time as a fellow of the Music Academy of the West. Since 2016, Westmont houses 140 exceptional young classical musicians each summer for the academy, which provides live events through Aug. 3. Visit musicacademy.org for a full calendar of concerts. “I have […]
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 […]
Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä, 71, former musical director of the Seoul Philharmonic, was in fine form at the Granada when he led the Academy Festival Orchestra in its first performance of the summer festival season. The highly entertaining concert opened with Wagner’s Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. and Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, concluding […]
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 […]
The ever-entertaining Takács Quartet was in superb form at the sold out Lobero as they performed in the first week of the Music Academy of the West’s 77th Summer Festival. The Fab Four – violinists Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes, cellist András Fejér, and Grammy-winning violist Richard O’Neill, formerly with Camerata Pacifica – are currently […]
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 […]
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 […]
Just days before the kickoff of its 77th summer festival, the Miraflores campus of the Music Academy of the West was packed with 225 supporters for the “Magic of the Music Academy: A New Era” gala with a special solo performance by top cellist Joshua Roman in Hahn Hall. Roman, 40, attended the academy in […]
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 […]
After postponing their concert in February given a mandatory evacuation warning because of heavy rain, the charmingly named Grammy Award-winning octet Roomful of Teeth with pianist-guitarist Gabriel Kahane, performed in a UCSB Arts & Lectures show at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall. The tony troupe is dedicated to reimagining the expressive potential […]
Social gridlock reigned at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall when VIP donors got a sneak peek at this year’s 77th annual summer festival “The Magic of Music.” Featuring 150 performances with more than 137 fellows between June 12 and Aug. 3, new academy president and CEO Shauna Quill outlined the many programs […]
Santa Barbara Museum of Art held its annual fundraiser titled, “Artful Affairs: Seasons of Change, Midwinter Night’s Dream,” on Saturday, February 24, at the museum galleries. The coveted upscale attire event saw the mix of art and music, as the SBMA joined with the Music Academy for a collaborative affair, accented with art themed hors […]
Meghan Markle gave paws for thought when she made a surprise appearance via video link to open the new wing of an animal charity named in honor of her late friend Oli Juste. The Riven Rock resident emotionally told how the dog trainer suddenly died in January 2022, leaving her heartbroken as his family and […]
While we were busy with winter rains and staring at stars strolling down the red carpet for SBIFF at the Arlington, the Music Academy – Montecito’s great claim to fame in the classic music world – has been brewing up some bright new things. Make that the Music Academy of the West. Thankfully, the strange […]
The Westmont Orchestra will perform one of Tchaikovsky’s most well-known compositions at the Fall Orchestra Concert on Friday, October 20, at 7 pm in Westmont’s Page Hall; and Sunday, October 22, at 3 pm in Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West. The concerts are free and open to the public. For more […]
The Montecito-based Music Academy – “of the West” got dropped midway through last summer – looks like it will have no trouble maintaining the momentum of its milestone 75th anniversary last year, at least according to the roster of artists and ambitious programming unveiled earlier this week. The “Summer of the Artist” season boasts soprano […]
The Music Academy launches its new season of projecting Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series at the recently technically upgraded Hahn Hall with Luigi Cherubini’s rarely performed Medea, with Met soprano star Sondra Radvanovsky as the mythic sorceress who will stop at nothing in her quest for vengeance. The Met-premiere production recorded live transmission at […]
Music Academy (they lopped off “of the West” from the name this summer) doesn’t just have a new moniker, they’ve also created a brand-new series to continue the celebration of its milestone 75th year. Think of the new Mariposa Series as “homecoming” recitals held on campus to showcase what Academy alumni and faculty are up […]
