Come to the Cabaret… With an Open Mind
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 26, 2022

Don’t walk into the Music Academy’s Cabaret at Hahn Hall next Thursday, July 28, expecting to see a knockoff of the 1966 Kander and Ebb Broadway musical or Bob Fosse’s 50-year-old film adaptation. While both are set in Berlin’s cabaret culture during the Weimar Republic, the Academy event is an originally devised cabaret with a […]

A Hand for Hannu
By Richard Mineards   |   July 12, 2022

How fitting that Hannu Lintu, a graduate of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, should be conducting the Finnish composer’s The Oceanides with the Academy Festival Orchestra at the Granada, part of the Music Academy’s 75th anniversary summer festival celebrations. Lintu, 54, chief conductor of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet, was in extraordinary form for […]

 

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A Crescendo of Dance
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 5, 2022

Arianna Hartanov, who moved to Santa Barbara to join State Street Ballet (SSB) in 2016, has danced lead roles in the company’s productions of Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, among others. But ballet isn’t her only bailiwick.  As a choreographer for SSB’s Evenings and Modern Masters events, she indulged her contemporary side back in 2019 […]

Titan Lintu
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 5, 2022

The Music Academy (MA) represents a bit of a beachhead for Hannu Lintu, the Finnish conductor who has extensive experience leading orchestras and opera performances in his homeland and across Europe and the Eastern U.S. but has rarely ventured to the Western states. Helming the Academy Festival Orchestra for this weekend’s concert at the Granada […]

Special News Edition: Laura B. Whitmore and Annual NAMM Report
By Joanne A Calitri   |   June 28, 2022

Launching the Women’s International Music Network (WiMN) 12 years ago to create a support system for women in the Music Industry (MI), and the She Rocks Awards in 2012, Laura B. Whitmore believes we have a lot more to do to level the playing field. “We are making progress by asking the difficult questions and […]

A Shapeshifting Solstice Performance
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 28, 2022

Shapeshifting, in mythology and folklore, is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, or sorcery, Wikipedia says. Metaphorically, at least, and leaving out the part about demonic manipulation, that pretty much sums up Santa Barbara’s The ShapeShifters, the new supergroup/house band hosts created by Randy Tico.  “It’s about changing […]

Pursuing a Love, Talent for Opera
By Scott Craig   |   June 28, 2022

Westmont senior Sibongakonkhe (“Sibo”) Msibi joins an elite group of 20 Fellows this summer at the Vocal Institute at the Music Academy in Santa Barbara. The first Westmont student to achieve this honor, he aspires to become “one of the best opera singers out there.” Chosen from an international pool of talented applicants who seek […]

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  • The Sound of Cipullo
    By Steven Libowitz   |   June 28, 2022

    For Tom Cipullo, MAW’s 2022 composer-in-residence, collaborating with two other faculty members in putting together an evening of his vocal works sung by the Academy’s fellows has been both a challenge and a joy. “There are 14 singers in all vocal ranges, and we have to give everybody an experience that fits them and also […]

    The Grand Return of Opera SB
    By Steven Libowitz   |   June 7, 2022

    Grand opera is returning to the Granada Theatre. After Opera Santa Barbara’s (OSB) two-plus years filled with ways to creatively cope with the COVID pandemic that ranged from virtual performances, to two Concerts in Your Car outdoor staged adaptations (that included, appropriately, a version of Carmen) and a season of smaller, shorter one-acts, reworkings, and […]

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    Quire’s ‘Sacred Love’ of Singing
    By Steven Libowitz   |   May 31, 2022

    With public performances back in vogue now that the pandemic has eased its stranglehold, at least for the time being, Quire of Voyce’s director Nathan Kreitzer is thrilled to be programming performances at St. Anthony’s Seminary again. Following a special Christmas recital, the a cappella choir is returning to the acoustically stunning hall at the […]

    Santa Barbara Gay Men’s Chorus in Concert
    By Joanne A Calitri   |   May 24, 2022

    The Santa Barbara Gay Men’s Chorus (SBGMC) will give our town its second concert on Monday, May 23, at 7:30 pm at the First United Methodist Church, 305 East Anapamu Street. Tickets are on sale now and at the door. The concert titled “Tomorrows: Songs For a Brighter Future!” is a one-hour, no intermission program […]

    A Galaxy of Music with Orion Weiss
    By Steven Libowitz   |   May 24, 2022

    Lots of locals who have lived here long enough fondly remember the single summer pianist Orion Weiss spent in Montecito as a fellow at Music Academy of the West in 2000. Not only because the then-20-year-old pianist captured the prestigious Concerto Competition back when there was no contest just for the pianists. Weiss also won […]

    Aqua: Turning on the Waterworks at UCSB
    By Steven Libowitz   |   May 24, 2022

    Back in 2019, veteran UCSB dance professor Valerie Huston and Arizona State University’s dance faculty member Carley Conder teamed up to create Avian for UCSB’s dance students. This casual piece was inspired by Huston overhearing two students talking about a class they were taking called The Mathematics of Origami and featured nine-foot origami birds above […]

    A Peaceful Tune
    By Richard Mineards   |   May 24, 2022

    Peace and love were on the musical menu when the 74-year-old Santa Barbara Choral Society performed a Pax + Amare concert at the First Presbyterian Church under veteran conductor JoAnne Wasserman. Latvian baritone soloist Valdis Jansons, a voice coach at UCSB, sang in both pieces – French composer Maurice Duruflé’s 1947 “Requiem” and Ralph Vaughan […]

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