Bringing on the Serious Musical Summer

Geothermally speaking, Santa Barbara is famous/infamous for having a fickle flow of seasons. Clear delineations between annual seasonal time are rarely apparent, with degrees of heat, chill, overcast skies in summer, and blue skies in winter confusing our sense of what happens when.

In our classical music season calendar, however, we can count on comforting regularity and an uncommonly rich tapestry of concert-going options, almost year-round. Case in point: Just as the traditional fall-to-spring classical concert season has all but wrapped up, the Ojai Music Festival brings its international and contemporary-geared gleam in early June, and then the spotlight all but belongs to the world-renowned Music Academy.

For eight weeks, the Academy (née the Music Academy of the West for its first 74 years), keeps an innately talented roster of fellows more than busy with studies and performances, ushers some of the top classical musicians into the 805, and, for the serious music-hungry public, an embarrassment of concert riches to keep summer ennui at bay.

For all of the predictable bounty of programming, this 77th annual edition brings with it a change of the administrational and conceptual guard. Former Academy head Scott Reed has passed the leadership baton over to Shauna Quill, whose résumé includes time leading the Grammy-winning New York Youth Symphony. Nate Bachhuber — with experience as administrator with the respected likes of the L.A. Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony — takes the reins as Chief Artistic Officer. 

The first official event of the 2024 season is the fundraising gala dinner and performance at the Academy’s picturesque Montecito home base of Miraflores on June 1, a high-priced occasion for a cause. Food and drink in gala-ville are always top-notch, as is the talent on hand — this year, famed cellist and Music Academy alum Joshua Roman.

But the Academy’s dense schedule of performances — often with intentionally affordable ticket options — begins in earnest with the return of the Takács Quartet, at Hahn Hall on June 14 and closes on August 3 at the Granada Theatre, with the Academy Festival Orchestra performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, Tragic, conducted by Finnish maestro Hannu Lintu. 

Apart from such regular weekly concert series as the “x2” Thursday encounters with professional artists and fellows, and the “Fellows Friday” programs designed and performed by an all-fellow cast, there are many other special calendar-marking events this season. High on that list is the “Fauré Project” with violinist Joshua Bell, pianist Jeremy Denk and cellist Steven Isserlis on July 5 at Hahn Hall. Denk and Bell also perform a twofer recital at the Granada on July 2. 

Faculty member (and badass pianist/thinker) Denk gives a performance-lecture on Charles Ives’s epochal Concord Sonata (June 19 at Lehmann Hall) while two other famed pianists, Timo Andres and Connor Hannick — aided by select fellows — offer up a special showcase performance of the complete Philip Glass Piano Études (July 13 at Hahn Hall).

Each summer features a fully staged opera, along with other performances showcasing the superlative voice department. Among the world-class singers ennobling this department’s pedagogy have been Lotte Lehmann and Martial Singher early in the Academy’s history, and a long stint led by the dynamic (and generous-spirited) diva Marilyn Horne (after whom the main house at Miraflores was named). This year, we get our second Carmen of the year (July 12 and 14, at the Granada Theatre), after last fall’s Opera Santa Barbara (OSB) production. But if the OSB version heeded traditional values, the Music Academy production is something else again, in what promises to be an elaborately reimagined and rethought treatment by director Ken Cazan and flamenco choreographer Manuel Gutierrez, conducted by famed repeat visitor to the Academy, Daniela Candillari.

Among the many on-the-town traditions, the list of Saturday-night orchestra concerts at the Granada, by the always strong fellow-filled Academy Festival Orchestra (AFO), ranks among the most satisfying symphonic evenings in town all year. This year’s overall AFO program is unusually broad and adventurous, including a rare performance of Stravinsky’s proto-modernist masterpiece Rite of Spring (June 29), on a program with music of L.A.-based composer Joan Huang and the late, revitalized African-American composer Florence Price, conducted by Anthony Parnther.

AFO circa 2024 is also stretching out on a notably inclusive roster of orchestral works, as well as repertoire pillars worth hearing, as with the Wagner, Sibelius, and Mahler triple-play menu of the opening orchestra concert, led by Osmo Vänskä on June 22.

Another keen point of orchestral interest is the night when John Adams’s moving post-modern Violin Concerto lands in the AFO’s hands at the Granada on July 27, under the baton of great American composer David Robertson. The concert also features eminent violinist Leila Josefowicz — who made the debut recording (listen here) and recently performed a Hahn Hall recital hosted by UCSB Arts & Lectures.

For those wanting to dive deeper, the aforementioned highlights are extensively expanded upon by a bevy of masterclasses and other performances.

At a festival preview event in March, the self-described “newbie” Quill emphasized that, at the Music Academy, “the strength of the program is why we received over 1,800 applicants for fellows. It’s quite something. We have a great program, and having it here in Santa Barbara is a huge part of what makes it special.” Soon enough, Santa Barbara music lovers will be invited to join in the feast of a fest. 

See musicacademy.org for the entire summer festival schedule and program.