Tag archives: Music Academy of the West
When Pearl Chase was attending the founding meeting of Santa Barbara Beautiful (SBB) in 1965 she offered this quote from Abraham Lincoln, “I like to see a man proud of the place he lives.” And so Santa Barbara Beautiful was born. Arriving at the Music Academy of the West for the annual awards, I was […]
Margaret Jane Dyruff (née Stivers), age 92, died peacefully of natural causes at home on October 7. She was born on December 27, 1927, in Ripley, Ohio to the late AJ Stivers II and Eliese Bambach Stivers. “Baby Jane” was the middle of five children, and was an active 4-H member and Girl Scout camper. […]
Music Academy of the West’s Sing! program – a free, after-school choral initiative that, in normal times, takes place at six elementary schools for Santa Barbara County kids age 7-12 – was only in its second year when the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close back in March, obviously also ending any possibilities for the […]
Faced with closing down the campus this summer, the Music Academy of the West’s summer festival performed a pivot so dramatic that anyone watching in person might have suffered whiplash. Rather than having the 134 fellows from around the world immersed in studies, classes, rehearsals, and performances on the Miraflores campus in Montecito, everything would […]
Back in January, 2020 was looking to be a pretty exciting year for the Music Academy of the West. Not only had the summer music institute respected around the world just hired Jamie Broumas, the former Director of Classical and New Music Programs at Washington’s famed Kennedy Center, for the newly created position of Chief […]
The Music Academy of the West, whose 73rd annual summer festival was due to kick off on June 15 until July 10, is launching the Music Academy Remote Learning Institute to connect with audiences online during the lockdown. “Our hope is to bring the faculty and fellows to Santa Barbara and enjoy music together with […]
Despite coronavirus concerns, there were few cancellations when Elliot Wuu, winner of the Music Academy of the West’s solo piano competition, performed at Hahn Hall. The 20-year-old, an undergraduate of New York’s Juilliard School showing great finesse, won the recital and a future one at the Chicago Cultural Center on April 1, based on his […]
Ray Winn and Peter Kavoian opened the doors of their magnificent Birnam Wood home for a Musicale featuring Italian pianist Jacopo Giacopuzzi on the dynamic duo’s Bosendorfer grand piano, one of only seven of its type in the world. The Music Academy of the West fundraiser, catered by Elena Wagner, featured Verona native Jacopo, who studied […]
It was a very B-list performance when classical guitarist Miloš, who hails from Montenegro, made his debut at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall along with a quintet from the British 12 ensemble, playing works by Bach, Boccherini and the Beatles. The highly entertaining UCSB Arts & Lectures show, part of the Up […]
Montecito’s Erland Wanberg, Director of Musicology SB located at the Music Academy of the West (MAW), and John Lucchetti, CEO of Green Room Strategy, are producing a benefit concert with 100% of the proceeds going toward the Musicology’s free one-on-one music lessons to low income youth at the Santa Barbara Police Activities League teen center. […]
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 […]
Canadian Barbara Robertson, who has held a succession of finance, operations and administrative positions with several area nonprofit organizations, has been named president and CEO of the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. Robertson studied business economics at the University of British Columbia and accounting at the British Columbia Institute of Technology before working as a […]
On a personal note, I remember Santa Barbara realtor Chip Lawson, who has moved to more heavenly pastures at the all too early age of 62. A jovial soul, we first met at Cafe Del Sol, the former popular local bar hangout by the Andree Clark Bird Refuge, now the Magic Castle. Chip, a former […]
Eileen Sheridan, partner at the local account firm Bartlett, Pringle & Wolf, is the new board chair of the Music Academy of the West. She has served on the board for nine years and is a former vice chair under Warren Staley. Ellen Barger, who works for the Santa Barbara County Education Office, joins the […]
There was a lot of sole searching going on at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall when violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja performed in a UCSB Arts & Lectures concert with cellist Jay Campbell, playing on an instrument crafted in the 1750s by Italian luthier Paolo Antonio Testore of Milan. Moldovan Kopatchinskaja, 43, who was […]
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 […]
Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West was socially gridlocked when the Z.E.N. Trio, made up from the initials of pianist Zhang Duo, violinist Esther Yoo, and cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, performed as part of UCSB’s popular Arts & Lectures series. The concert, part of the long-running Robert Weinman-sponsored Up Close & Musical Series, […]
It was another high note when the Women’s Auxiliary of the Music Academy of the West hosted its second annual benefit Music in the Gardens on the Miraflores campus, with a record 400 guests raising around $80,000 to benefit the community access program, which provides subsidized and free tickets to MAW events. Themed American Rhythms, […]
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 […]
The Music Academy of the West suffered social gridlock when Santa Barbara Beautiful hosted its 55th annual awards, co-chaired by Mark Whitehurst and Kerry Methner, at the Miraflores campus. Ubiquitous KEYT-TV senior reporter John Palminteri emceed the ceremony in the Lehmann Ballroom after a welcome by organization president Penny Haberman, who revealed SBB had provided […]
