ON the Beat | Danish Delights, Continued

Mads Tolling | Credit: Courtesy

Call it a great Danish spring. Certainly, one of the finest musical evenings of the year in Santa Barbara landed at The Granada Theatre a few weeks ago, when the eminent Danish String Quartet met the Danish National Girls Choir for a concert that included a brand-new piece by David Lang.

This weekend, Mads Tolling, the Copenhagen-born and Bay Area–based jazz violinist, appears not once, but twice in the Danish burg of Solvang. Tolling, whose sparkly résumé includes a long stint with the Grammy-graced Turtle Island String Quartet and work with the Stanley Clarke Band, has logically performed in Solvang before. This time out, he shows up for an official concert at the Elverhøj Museum, with pianist/accordionist Sam Reider, on Saturday, as well as a pop-up performance Friday at the Solvang Theatre Festival, in a VIP reception before a splashy fundraiser with Santa Barbara–based pop star P!nk.

For anyone who has yet to experience the Elverhøj, be alerted: The picturesque museum celebrates the history and culture of both Denmark and this West Coast Danish outpost of a town, hosts art exhibits, and occasionally a world-famous jazz violinist of Danish origin. Fittingly, Tolling’s program promises to serve up music from his own songbook as well as Danish folk songs and delicacies — and the rougher stuff.

Here is a ripe chance to show our support and solidarity for one of the many nations abused and insulted by the insane clown posse currently hijacking the White House.

But we digress.

Quire Practice

Speaking of live music in synchrony with its venue, it is Quire of Voyces’s time again this weekend. For many years, the a cappella choir, founded and directed by the intrepid Nathan Kreitzer and one of the jewels in Santa Barbara’s choral music scene, has established its concert home in the spacious acoustic and old-worldly ambiance of the St. Anthony’s Chapel. The Quire only comes out to sing a few times a year, and this spring’s program, performed on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, counts as something special. Kreitzer will lead Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil (Vespers). It’s one of those “have to be there” occasions. (Hear here).

On the Organ Beat

Joseph Peeple, First United Methodist Church | Photo: Josef Woodard

Organ geeks among us, we know who you are. First United Methodist Church again hosted another of its compact organ recitals last Sunday morning. This time, the featured performer was Joseph Peeples, who was the church organist from 2017-19 and moved up to a gig as one of five organists at the Mormon Tabernacle.

He was back in town and gave us a cleanly delivered and varied half-hour program of organ music. Two festive works by Belgian Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens and French Henri Mulet framed a set of music that also included J.S. Bach and Bach’s main man mentor, Dieterich Buxtehude, as well as settings of hymns, including

Peeple’s own take on “There is a Green Hill Far Away.” Peeples’s precise, accomplished playing was a treat unto itself, while also putting this church’s fine instrument — one of our town’s few impressive organs — to good public use.

So, in fact, did the church’s current organist, Thomas Mellan, who performed an organ arrangement of Wagner’s Lohengrin overture as a prelude to last Sunday’s service. Wagner never sounded so religious.

Brick and Mortar Music Store Update

Santa Barbara’s music scene has felt the loss of the great Jensen’s Music, which Chris Jensen ran for 50 years and closed earlier this year (the Jensen’s space is currently open for business on the lesson front). Meanwhile, in an era when online music retailing threatens brick-and-mortar models, the new store, Riviera Music, has filled a critical gap. Opened in July of last year, the store has expanded to include roomier retail space and offers lessons and instrument repairs, not to mention an all-important musician hang zone. That’s a valuable asset not available online.

Check it out: On Saturday, May 9, from noon to 4 p.m., the store is hosting what it advertises as a “Gear Swap & Bluegrass Spectacular!” Salty Strings and Salt Martians will be cranking up the bluegrass action, and anyone is welcome to “bring guitars and gear to share, trade, and sell.”

TO-DOINGS:

Further musings on music in atmospheric places: This afternoon, May 7, marks the time when the magical compound of Lotusland has a rare concert in its Theatre Garden, with acclaimed classical pianist Katya Grineva. A Russian-born pianist who has hailed from N.Y.C. and performed many times at Carnegie Hall, she will play in Lotusland’s great outdoors setting, in the aptly named “Music in Paradise: a Piano Concerto.”

Carpinteria’s Alcazar Theatre is a renovated historic gem of a venue, suitable for many purposes and sensory manifestations. This Saturday, May 9, the space will be taken over by rhythm-powered and healing-minded sounds of Lauren Monroe and her show, The Magnetic Stage, which promises a “powerful fusion of ambient Americana with dynamic, percussion-driven rock, delivering a compelling live experience built around connection and genuine reflection.” Moore, whose résumé includes work in the therapeutic arts and trauma recovery, will lead an eight-piece band, playing music from a forthcoming album, Magnetic.

Hear some of her past work here.