A Serious Musical Feast in Store
Santa Barbara’s Autumnal Harvest of
Classical and Other Serious Music Prepares to Land
in Our Ears and on Our Calendars
By Josef Woodard | September 17, 2026
Read more of our 2026 Fall Arts Preview here.
Like clockwork, fall brings on the harvest of concert action in town, of the classical and more serious institutional kind. This is the time of year when we can look forward to offerings from the Santa Barbara Symphony, CAMA (Community Arts Music Association), Opera Santa Barbara, Camerata Pacifica, choral groups, and other contenders, alongside the fertile calendar of UCSB Arts and Lectures’ fall-to-late-spring programming. Music Academy of the West, whose programming turns our summers into a classical music wonderland, has also joined the regular concert season sweepstakes, with its Mariposa concert series.
Some of that musical harvest takes advantage of the primary theaters in town — the grand Granada, and the various more intimate splendors of the Lobero and Hahn Hall. As usual, there is much to look forward to and mark calendars for this autumn. Submitted for your approval, here are a dozen selective shows in need of love and attendance, in chronological order.
Santa Barbara Folk Orchestra, the Presidio, St. Mark’s, Trinity Church, The Sixties! (Sept. 18-20): Adam Phillips is the bagpiping and other instrument-wielding mad/inspired founder and leader of this unique aggregate, a 25-plus musician strong ensemble that navigates his custom arrangements of folk traditions from often Celtic sources. The ensemble, a gathering of some of Santa Barbara’s finest folk-and-more musicians, has culled a devoted following over its nine years of life, so far. For the kickoff of its new season, the landscape is that magical land: The Sixties!
Los Vega, ¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara! series (Sept. 25-27): Now into its 21st season, this inspired series — presenting mostly Mexican regional musics, with some Latin-American side trips — brings artists into town for residencies of concertizing, at the Isla Vista School, Guadalupe City Hall, and the climactic Marjorie Luke Theatre show on Sundays — all free! In the fall portion of the series, we’ll hear the Veracruz Son Jarocho tradition from Los Vega and, from November 5-8, the female trio of LADAMA, from Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela, tapping a mix of cumbia, maracatu, onda nueva, and joropo.
Music Academy of the West “Mariposa Series,” Hahn Hall (October 8): Still in its infancy, but a welcome addition to the Music Academy–and the city’s–calendar, the “Mariposa” series of concerts showcases alumni from the Academy, now in full professional bloom and often in a status of high visibility. The first of the four throughout the year brings familiar and beloved violist Richard O’Neill to Hahn Hall, with pianist-composer August Balk, who supplies a piece on a program, also including Britten, Rachmaninoff, Dowland and Frederic Rzewski.
Lang Lang, Granada (Oct. 9):A&L kicks off the rich classical component of its season in grand, celebrity style, with the return of the famed Chinese-born piano virtuoso, who performed in Santa Barbara as a fast-rising tender shoot and returns in a more mature phase of a brilliant career. In a later A&L@Granada night, on December 2, also watch for a special meeting of violinist Hilary Hahn, baritone Matthias Goerne, and young pianist phenom Yakwon Sonwoo.
Camerata Pacifica, Hahn Hall (Oct. 15): Camerata Pacifica, voted the 2026 Ensemble of the Year, is normally Santa Barbara’s seasonal leader of the fall concert pack, with an opening in late September. But it arrives on October 15 this year, in the welcoming home of Hahn Hall, for a kickoff fortified with music of Schuber and Rachmaninoff. Meats and potatoes, in other words.
Bernadette Peters, Granada (Oct. 15): A&L’s musical theater element comes to town with the arrival of celebrated singer Bernadette Peters, star of the worlds of Sondheim and Rodgers & Hammerstein and much more — out of the woods and into the Granada for a career survey evening of song.
Tamir Hendelman, Grand on State (Oct. 16):A local cultural highlight this year has been the birth and continuing success story of a rare jazz-dedicated club in town, smack dab in the middle of the arts district — literally next door to the Granada. Its laudable “visiting artist” series — so far including Tom Scott/Roger Kellaway, Roberta Gambarini, Peter Erskine trio and trumpeter Terrell Stafford — continues with accomplished pianist Tamir Hendelman, in tribute to Bill Evans.
Clarice and Sérgio Assad, Campbell Hall (Oct. 21): Santa Barbara has thankfully been privy to the wondrous classical guitar presence of Sérgio and Odair Assad in the past. This special appearance from a premiere Brazilian family, Sérgio performs with his gifted daughter Clarice, a composer and pianist.
Santa Barbara Symphony, Granada (Oct. 24-25): Speaking of Rachmaninoff (the Rach), who opens Camerata Pacifica’s season and closed the Music Academy of the West festival in August, pops up again at the Granada at the grand opening of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s (SBS) 73rd season. On the menu: his ever-popular second piano concerto (with soloist Michelle Cann), spiced up by Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony after intermission. November 7 finds them in orchestral rock mode, with the Doublewide Kings in a “Psychedelic Symphony” show. The second SBS program proper is the Symphonie Fantastique concert on November 14 and 15. Factoid: This is maestro Nir Kabaretti’s 20th season on the podium.
Terrace Martin, Campbell Hall (Nov. 6): The jazz department of the A&L season is open for business with this hip hop-hip jazz saxophonist, whose resume includes Herbie Hancock and Kendrick Lamar.
Rigoletto, Opera Santa Barbara, Lobero (Nov. 6, 8, and 10): Opera makes its way back to town, courtesy of the Kostis Protopapas–led Opera Santa Barbara (OSB), with Verdi’s classic number Rigoletto. After braving lean pandemic times and other challenges, OSB is on something of a roll, adding Tuesday performances to its usual weekend slots.
Charles Lloyd, Lobero (Nov. 12): The prized “Jazz at the Lobero” series, which has helped earn the historic venue a spot on DownBeat’s best jazz club list, brings back an old favorite in old home week style. Veteran jazz legend Lloyd, who lives in Montecito when not traveling the world, has long had a welcome home homebase in this space. This time, he is joined by the great and nice guy guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Kweku Sumbry.
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with Isata Kanneh-Mason, Granada (Nov. 11): One of the oldest classical presenters on the west coast and a great boon to serious musical culture in our town, CAMA opens its “International Series” of famed visiting orchestras with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, featuring soloist Isata Kanneh-Mason, another returning star of the international classical scene.
In CAMA’s chamber-sized “Masterseries,” at the Lobero, check out the Juilliard Quartet with pianist Simone Dinnerstein on November 21 and a welcome return of virtuosic pianist/semi-Santa Ynez resident Hélène Grimaud on December 14.
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