Just before he passed away at his home in Santa Ynez, David Crosby was in the midst of rehearsing with a new band that was slated to make its debut at the Lobero Theatre last February as part of the venue’s milestone 150th anniversary. Next weekend, the members of that band and a handful of […]
Patti Smith’s legacy as one of the most provocative, literary, and influential rock singer-songwriters in history is just part of her artistic achievement. Perhaps the only artist whose accolades include induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a National Book Award, and a Legion of Honor from the French government, Smith remains a […]
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After a bit of a mid-summer lull, the Santa Barbara Bowl is back in action, and exudes eclecticism in its quartet of concerts this week. The August 4 show is a conglomeration of its own as co-headliners Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and Ziggy Marley are supported by Mavis Staples and the Robert Randolph Band […]
Don’t confuse Samuel Watson with the speed climbing champion of the same name, a teenager who holds the U.S. records and international gold medals in the new Olympic sport, although Sam Watson the Music Academy fellow has also made a meteoric rise. The 20-year-old contrabassoonist can’t scale an indoor wall in five seconds, but his […]
The final weeks of the Music Academy’s 76th annual Summer Festival have been the icing on the classical cake! Principal players with the London Symphony Orchestra showed their prowess at Lehmann Hall when they performed chamber works by Britten, Villa-Lobos, Perivolaris, Salzedo, Hahn, and Haydn with flutist Gareth Davies, cellist David Cohen, violinist Clare Duckworth, […]
Take a look at the photo in the online calendar promoting the Duo Competition taking place on July 31. The violinist is brightly lit, his facial features and instrument fully visible, while the pianist is in the background, comparatively dark and blurry with even her hair blending into the background, and no piano keys visible. […]
You’re at the symphony, so your socks match for once. You’ve made several such concessions to high art and anxiously await the concert. Finally, the enormous, pleated curtain slowly rises with the seriousness and gravity of stone, the audience bursts into applause, and here we have a hundred-plus musicians in their finery, staring out at […]
The Music Academy’s 76th annual summer festival reached its halfway mark with a second chamber night concert at Lehmann Hall featuring works by Joan Tower’s “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 3,” Mozart’s “Piano Quartet in E-flat Major” with Qiyan Xing on violin, Molly Prow on viola, Simon Housner on cello, and Robert Brooks Carlson […]
It’s not necessary to be a big fan of bluegrass music to enjoy PCPA Theaterfest’s Bright Star, the Tony-nominated musical created by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell playing at Solvang Festival Theater through July 23. But it sure helps. Based on real events in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the show has a gentle pace, with […]
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Anthony Parnther never picked up a musical instrument until eighth grade, and even then, only because he discovered it could be an avenue to free admission at a Virginia amusement park. “I was sitting in math class and I heard the announcement over the intercom that the students who were part of the middle school […]
This summer, Westmont violinist Sophia Chan (’25) performs at the Aspen Music Festival and School (June 29-August 20), one of the top classical music festivals in the United States that features more than 600 classical music students from around the world. “It’s insanely competitive – she is joining students from top conservatories around the world, […]
Jimmy Webb was a 14-year-old working the family farm when he heard a Glen Campbell song on the radio. It brought him to his knees. “I was driving a tractor in the middle of a wheat field in the Oklahoma Panhandle – which is a pretty remote area – listening to my transistor radio. They […]
It is hard to believe the Music Academy’s annual festival Summer of the Artist is almost halfway through. The third week of the highly entertaining program kicked off at Hahn Hall on the Miraflores campus with Avery Fisher Prize winning pianist Jeremy Denk playing an all-Bach program of five partitas. The New York City resident, […]
Osmo Vänskä made his Music Academy debut back in 2005, when the Finnish-born and Grammy Award-winning longtime conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra coaxed the fellows-powered Academy Festival Orchestra (AFO) into delivering a marvelous Mahler’s “Symphony No. 5.” That would be the same 70-minute work that served as the musical centerpiece of Tár, the 2022 multi-Oscar […]
