Tag archives: Music Academy of the West
Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West was gridlocked when Moldovan violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, accompanied by pianist Polina Leschenko, put on a sizzling display of her musical dexterity. The Grammy-nominee, clearly at the top of her form, played works by Bartok, Poulenc, and Romanian composer Georges Enescu. Afterwards major supporters of UCSB Arts […]
The 175-strong Women’s Auxiliary of the Music Academy of the West has clearly got a winner with its latest fundraising effort in 47 years, Music in the Gardens, with 400 guests raising around $80,000. The new event, which replaces its May Madness rummage sale, was co-chaired by a tony triumvirate of Evie Vesper, Kaye Willette, […]
The Music Academy of the West’s [MAW] esteemed Women’s Auxiliary [MAWWA] under the dynamic leadership of chair Evie Vesper, is launching a new direction for the first time in 47 years, with its first – and soon to be annual – Music in the Garden event on Sunday, October 21, at the academy. The occasion […]
Santa Barbara Beautiful hosted its 54th annual awards celebration Growing Resiliency at the Music Academy of the West for 200 guests. The fab fete, co-chaired by Mark Whitehurst and Kerry Methner, and emceed by ubiquitous KEYT-TV reporter John Palminteri, donated half of the day’s proceeds to the Montecito Trails Foundation, one of the event’s honorees, […]
Herb Kendall and Sara Jane Lind have been recognized by Opera Santa Barbara and officially installed as honorary board members at the start of the 25th anniversary season. Herb, a successful builder and community developer in Princeton, New Jersey, joined the organization’s board in 2011 until his retirement last year. He served on CAMA’s board […]
Santa Barbara Choral Society, which kicks off its 71st season of song in December with its popular Hallelujah Project at the Lobero, hosted a pre-season reception at the Music Academy of the West’s Marilyn Horne House. One of the highlights of the new season is Visions of Peace and Freedom, featuring Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis […]
One last “Viva” and one last cascaron happened on August 12 at the end of Fiesta. It’s the Fiesta Finale given by the Profant Foundation at the El Paseo Restaurant – the perfect venue. This was the center of the celebration at one time. Rita Hayworth danced here in her father’s troupe. This is where […]
It couldn’t have been a more splendiferous end to the Music Academy of the West’s 71st annual summer fest when the Academy Festival Orchestra, under Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel, in his academy debut, performed with the L.A. Master Chorale, under artistic director Grant Gershon, at a sold-out Santa Barbara Bowl. Soprano Susanna Phillips […]
Like just about every other community across the nation and around the world, Santa Barbara had to wait 40 years to see the singer-songwriter Rodriguez perform in concert in town – something they didn’t even realize they were missing until the movie Searching for Sugar Man appeared five years ago – when he performed at […]
Normally, classical musicians who end up collaborating might meet in a conservatory or perhaps sharing a seminar or the stage at a summer program. Maybe they’re introduced by colleagues or are drawn in by listening to each other’s recording. Not so much with SB native flamenco-influenced guitarist Chris Fossek and Paul Merkelo, the principal trumpet […]
For soprano Susanna Phillips, returning to the Music Academy of the West (MAW) this Saturday to take part in the big community concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl, when Gustavo Dudamel leads the massive Fellows-powered Academy Festival Orchestra and special guests mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung and the L.A. Master Chorale in Mahler’s Resurrection symphony (No. 2), […]
It was certainly a night on the tiles when the Polo Training Center, a charitable organization which supports youth polo, held a sunset soirée on the Mirador roof of the Hotel Californian, courtesy of the ritzy hostelry’s manager, Carlos Lopes. The reception for more than 50 guests was the precursor for a golf tournament the […]
It couldn’t have been a more perfect evening when the Music Academy of the West threw its annual gala at the impeccably manicured Miraflores campus with 300 guests raising around $750,000 for its scholarship fund and community initiatives. After quaffing cocktails in the garden, the music lovers repaired to Hahn Hall for a 90-minute concert […]
The Music Academy of the West’s 71st annual summer music festival is drawing to a close, with the Lobero and Hahn Hall hosting two well-attended concerts. The Festival Artists Series program featured Janacek’s Mladi, wrapping with Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence with Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes on violin, Geraldine Walther and Karen Dreyfus on viola, […]
The Music Academy of the West probably never had a more lively campus than the other day when 350 Fun in the Sun kids visited for some fun in the sun. I had a bit of a problem getting there because of a school bus stuck in the gate and driveway. It was so stuck […]
Like most of the vocal Fellows at the Music Academy of the West (MAW), Benjamin Dickerson has an affinity both for art song and opera. But Dickerson has already reached the top tier in both endeavors at the Montecito summer festival. Dickerson claimed the coveted Marilyn Horne Song Competition in his only other summer in […]
Director Brad Carroll said it was just a coincidence that the sequel to the movie version of Broadway smash-hit musical Mamma Mia opened just days before PCPA Theaterfest’s production opens at the Solvang Festival Theater this Friday night, July 27. But there’s no accident that the long-standing conservatory booked the show as the centerpiece of […]
The Music Academy of the West’s (MAW) annual gala benefit concert is anchored by a quintet of distinguished alumni artists. Among the former Fellows performing at this year’s special fundraiser are soprano Brenda Rae (2008), whom Opera News has praised for her “dazzling, pinpoint coloratura,” and bass-baritone Brandon Cedel (2010-11), whom The New Yorker‘s Alex […]
Oenophiles and gourmands were out in force when the California Wine Festival, which encompasses three different events, celebrated its 15th anniversary, kicking off with its Old Spanish Nights tasting fiesta at the historic De La Guerra Adobe courtyard, which attracted a record 500 guests. Montecito-based Blaine Lando, one of the fest’s three owners, along with […]
The Music Academy of the West’s popular 71st annual summer festival has been in full swing with concerts at Hahn Hall, the Lobero, and the Granada. At the Lobero, the festival artist series featured the world premiere of instrumentalist Timothy Higgins‘s entertaining work Nursery Crimes with soprano Deborah Voigt and a multi talented sextet, accompanying […]
