Camerata Pacifica Starts Up in the Town of Rach

Pardon the pun, but Santa Barbara has been going through a Rach-y patch of late. 

On Thursday at Hahn Hall, Camerata Pacifica kicked off its new season with meat-and-potatoes double dosing of Schubert and Rachmaninoff. And this after the Music Academy of the West closed its Summer Festival with the Russian composer’s popular Second Symphony and then opened its recent “Mariposa” series with the composer’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor (arranged by featured violist Richard O’Neill).

As if to further stoke concerns of conspiracy theorists among us, the Santa Barbara Symphony commences its season this weekend at The Granada Theatre with Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, the piece touted in the film Shine as “Rach 2.” 

Is there some sort of secret intra-organizational scheme afoot here? Is there an anniversary or subdivision thereof that we don’t know about? 

Whatever the case, Rachmaninoff fans have much to cheer about in our town, especially considering the lofty caliber of performances being given, another example having been displayed at Hahn Hall last week. There, new and formidable in-house pianist Irina Zahharenkova gave impressive heat and intellect to her treatment of Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme by Chopin, an early and refreshingly off-the-radar piece from the composer’s oeuvre. 

Camerata Pacifica, the hardy classical ensemble founded by flutist-entrepreneur Adrian Spence in 1990, has launched the new series in solid form, if on conservative grounds the first concert out, with more variety to come. Official recognition is in order, and has arrived in the form of Chamber Music America’s decreeing the group as “2026 Chamber Music Ensemble of the Year.” Even locally, mayor pro tem Kristin Sneddon showed up to introduce the season by reading a mayoral proclamation honoring this Santa Barbara–born and semi-based institution. (CamPac also performs each program in Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks, and at the Huntington in San Marino.)

Accepting the certificate, Spence responded, with a wry Irish grin, “Thank you so much, your royal highness.” Spence is well-practiced in the art of keeping a comic flair and communicative ease while tending his serious music operation. 

Zahharenkova opened the Rachmaninoff moment by performing the Chopin theme in question, the funeral-esque quality of which would be then treated to all manner of variations — 22 in all. Temperaments vary widely, from exuberant to mournful and shades between. The pianist is a bold and sensitive interpreter, attentive to the critical elements of what makes the piece work — including passages of Rachmaninoff-ian romantic overkill.

The piece may not have the grandeur and depth of such famous variation sets as JS Bach’s landmark Goldberg Variations or Beethoven’s mythic Diabelli Variations. But Rachmaninoff’s set is an illuminating small wonder, especially when delivered with the controlled passion and precision shown by Zahharenkova in Hahn Hall this night. 

From a relatively obscure corner of classical repertoire to a core favorite of chamber literature, the spotlight then turned to Schubert’s B-Flat Major Piano Trio, in which two other newcomers to the CamPac fold, violinist Grace Park and cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia, joined Zahharenkova. Over the course of its 40-minute canvas, the Trio work — written in 1828, the final year of his 31-year life — carries with it a sense of the creator’s impending demise woven into the lines and moods of the piece, and also his expansive genius. 

By the final vibrancy and contrapuntal verve in the Rondo, death is the last thing on the mind of this finalizing movement, and the trio played it accordingly. 

After this week, Rach may be outta the 805 house, at least for a spell. For its next trick, CamPac returns to Hahn Hall on November 13, for a more historically diverse program of music by Michael Daugherty, Sarah Gibson (who taught at UCSB briefly, before her untimely death at age 38, in 2024), Missy Mazzoli, and a world premiere from Niloufar Nourbakhsh. Oh, and a splash of Mozart.

See cameratapacifica.org for more info.