Fiesta Music 
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 6, 2024

If you somehow missed Mezcal Martini at their romp through the July calendar of free outdoor concerts – including Music at the Ranch, Concerts in the Park, and Meet Me in Old Town Goleta – you’ve got another chance this week as the Latin jazz band heads to Fiesta’s Mercado De La Guerra for a […]

Going South 
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 30, 2024

Continue motoring down the 101 this weekend for more musical adventures, including the first installment of the 2024 Ventura Music Festival, the seaside city’s long-running boundary-busting fest that extends to various venues and genres. Grammy winner and 12-time IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year Michael Cleveland brings boffo bluegrass to Olivas Adobe Historical Park with […]

 

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The Rise of Brownlee
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 23, 2024

Lawrence Brownlee is one of today’s most celebrated bel canto tenors, in demand for opera performances as well as song cycle recitals with major orchestras across the country and around the world. He’s particularly praised for his interpretations of Rossini – his Grammy-nominated album Virtuoso Rossini Arias prompted famed New Yorker critic Alex Ross to […]

Cazan & ‘Carmen’
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 16, 2024

Ken Cazan, the director of the Music Academy 2024 opera Carmen, last helmed a production of the famed and beloved work nearly 30 years ago, and has been happily ensconced in recent years taking on smaller, more experimental pieces. But he was tempted to field the fiery fan favorite once again by both the offer […]

Bravo to Bell
By Richard Mineards   |   July 16, 2024

Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell, music director of London’s Academy of St, Martin-in-the-Fields, joined iconic pianist Jeremy Denk in a dazzling duo performance at the Granada. The tony twosome’s concert, part of the Music Academy of the West’s Summer Festival, featured works by Franck, Beethoven, and Mozart. The sold-out 90-minute performance featured Mozart’s “Sonata No. 18 […]

The Tides and Currents of Timo Andres
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 9, 2024

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’ […]

Cellist Returns to Perform at MAW
By Scott Craig   |   July 2, 2024

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 […]

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  • Flying High at the Lobero
    By Steven Libowitz   |   July 2, 2024

    Jazz at the Ballroom’s latest show, “Flying High: Big Band Canaries Who Soared,” is committed to keeping the Great American Songbook and swinging, classic jazz thriving. The producing organization is a California-based nonprofit that is as much about education as entertainment, and “Flying High,” which celebrates female jazz vocalists Billie Holiday, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald […]

    MAW’s Directing Fellow: Turning the Paige on Opera
    By Steven Libowitz   |   June 25, 2024

    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 […]

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    Playing with Percussion
    By Steven Libowitz   |   June 18, 2024

    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 […]

    New Heights for Hakobyan
    By Steven Libowitz   |   June 11, 2024

    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 […]

    Magical Music in the Er-a
    By Richard Mineards   |   June 11, 2024

    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 […]

    MAW Makes Magic Happen
    By Steven Libowitz   |   June 4, 2024

    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 […]

    MAW Gala: Roman Through the Piazza
    By Steven Libowitz   |   June 4, 2024

    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 […]

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