Tag archives: Santa Barbara Symphony
One of the perks of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s decision to dive into digital rather than completely forgo its 2020-21 season is the opportunity to celebrate an important milestone for Beethoven, perhaps the most important composer in the classical music canon. The symphony is marking his 250th birthday with “Beethoven @ 250,” a chamber music […]
With the virulent coronavirus pandemic sweeping the nation impacting innumerable cultural programs, the orchestra, under veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti, has not been deterred in any way whatsoever and has launched a series of seven virtual concerts to sate the appetites of its many local fans. Last week I was at the cavernous Granada Theatre where […]
The Santa Barbara Symphony’s reimagined 2020-2021 performance season launches this weekend first as an online-only series – although the musicians are performing live in person. And while plans have already been put in place to allow audiences up to about 30 percent capacity at its home venue of the Granada Theatre starting in January, the […]
PCPA previews America’s annual fall feast two month’s early with Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play, the second in its new series of staged reading previews of relatively new works of current interest. The “bitingly funny satire” find good intentions colliding with absurd assumptions as a troupe of supposedly racially awakened white teaching artists are tasked […]
The next episode of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s live broadcast series takes place at 3:30 pm on August 23, when the Music-Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti will be joined by the symphony’s new Director of Music Education, Kristine Pacheco, to shine the spotlight on students of all levels from the youth program. The young musicians persevered […]
The Santa Barbara Symphony next episode of its live streamed series is the first to feature its former concertmaster of a decade, the almost unbearably charismatic fiddler Gilles Apap. Curated and hosted by Music and Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti, the 30-minute broadcast, produced by local videographer David Bazemore, features an interview and performance of Fritz […]
Having your CEO depart in the middle of a pandemic that caused cancellation of the rest of the season’s concerts probably isn’t the best thing for building the confidence of the local classical music community. Fortunately, the Santa Barbara Symphony was able to announce its Interim CEO, Kathryn Martin, even before the then-current Executive Director/CEO […]
Santa Barbara Symphony’s Music Education Center is now offering virtual programming through the orchestra’s Youth Ensembles programming and the private lessons Scholarship Program. The center continues to retain and employ a teaching staff of 12 local professional musicians and two conductors to lead classes and lessons. Each year the center impacts more than 10,000 students […]
Kevin Marvin, CEO of the Santa Barbara Symphony, is leaving our Eden by the Beach and returning to Colorado for personal and family reasons. Kevin, who previously headed the now defunct Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, has led the orchestral organization, under maestro Nir Kabaretti, for three seasons. He was responsible for organizing the benefit concert […]
The concerts everywhere are all canceled, at least for the remainder of the 2019-20 season, and on into the summer, but the classical music organizations are doing their level best to keep in touch and keep you entertained. Camerata Pacifica might be leading the charge, as the chamber music ensemble is not only upgrading its […]
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 […]
Celebrate the great Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman on both film and in person as UCSB A&L first presents Alison Chernick’s 2017 documentary Itzhak, which details Perlman’s struggles as a polio survivor and Jewish émigré who rises to vast artistic success, at Campbell Hall on Thursday, January 16, then lets the musician himself share the tales […]
Montecito Bank & Trusts’ MClub spent an evening with Santa Barbara Symphony music and artistic director Nir Kabaretti. It began in the Founders room of the Granada for light bites and wine and a chance to meet and greet Janet Garufis, who is the Symphony board chair and CEO of MB&T, and Kevin Marvin, president […]
Maybe the Santa Barbara Symphony was taking a cue from the old commercials for Wrigley’s Doublemint chewing gum when they launched a second pops concert last December to go along with its longstanding New Year’s Eve show. As in, “Double your pleasure, double your fun.” Whatever the motivation, Year 2 for the Christmastime concert brings […]
Renowned Croatian soprano Lana Kos, who was scheduled to sing in her debut at Santa Barbara Symphony’s Mozart to Mahler concert at the Granada, had to cancel at the very last minute because of bronchial problems. But luckily help was at hand locally with Anya Matanovic, who recently moved to our tony town and was […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
On a personal note, I remember Geoffrey Rutkowski, former principal cellist of the Santa Barbara Symphony, who has died aged 78. A charming, gentle and enormously talented individual, Geoffrey joined the music faculty at UCSB in 1968 until his retirement in 2013 as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He played all over the world, including two […]
