Summer’s Serious Music Bounty Heads-Up

Spring has not quite sprung, but the summer is already bursting with promise for classical music fans in the area, as the Music Academy of the West (MAW) unveiled what’s to come in its annual season preview event at Hahn Hall last Thursday. Each year, the Music Academy becomes the best reason to get out of the house on a regular basis, for a roster of public concerts — on the Miraflores campus and in such downtown venues as the Granada and Lobero theaters — as well as masterclasses and other activities. 

What would be a fallow season for classical music in town instead comes alive with fervor and calendar-marking opportunities.

A sense of evolution and a “new era” was palpable in the preview. On hand as tour guides for the event were MAW president/CEO Shauna Quill, now in her third season as head, and two allies in newly created posts — Vice President of Artistic Planning Indigo Fischer and faculty member, noted pianist, and now officially the Academy’s Creative and Artistic Advisor Conor Hanick. Quill said, “It is with deep pleasure that I am going to get to work with the dream team as we plan this new era of the Music Academy.”

Hanick also supplied an evocative mini-recital for the occasion. His compact recital program touched on contemporary composers and colleagues who will be featured this summer — Samuel Adams (son of John Adams and a gifted composer in his own right), Christopher Cerrone, and Missy Mazzoli. As one of the highlights of the festival plan, at the August 1 orchestra concert, Hanick will also perform Adams’s piano concerto No Such Spring, written for Hannick and premiered with the Esa-Pekka Salon–led San Francisco Symphony in 2023.

Timed with the upcoming occasion of America’s 250thbirthday, the summer season bears the thematic title American Mosaic. Among the related features on the schedule are performances of Gershwin’s An American in Paris in the July 3 Academy Festival Orchestra concert, and Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait in the July 18 orchestra concert, with Santa Barbara–based actor Josh Brolin doing narration honors. 

The popular Saturday night Academy Festival Orchestra concerts at the Granada will be led by a stellar list of noted conductors, including Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Xian Zhang, Gemma New, Hannu Lintu, and David Danzmayr. 

On the long list of performances, with weekly chamber concerts by faculty and fellows (especially on the Friday “Picnic Concerts”), the schedule includes appearances by internationally known artists, including Lobero concerts by the Takács Quartet (June 27), the ever-popular MAW faculty member Jeremy Denk, Jennifer Koh’s Bach and Beyond program (July 25), and Grammy winners ARKAI at Hahn Hall (June 19). 

Contemporary has a stronger profile this year, no doubt partly due to Hannick’s input. For the annual opera production (July 24 and 26 at the Granada), the Academy steers away from his customary standard repertoire fare to present the new opera Elizabeth Cree by Kevin Puts (The Hours). Composers-in-residence are the acclaimed Puts, Mazzoli, Jasmine Arielle Barnes, and Cerrone, who offers the West Coast premiere of his piece Anne’s Garden, to be performed both at Miraflores and in the plaza of the Santa Barbara Public Library.

Another always popular item on the agenda, the Percussionfest, moves back to Hahn Hall, after a Granada landing last year, and expands to two different concerts, one geared toward young listeners — also a target audience for The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, at the Lobero on July 25. Returning this year is the Brass @ the Bandshell on August 2, a free-to-the-public event, replete with vendor food, show, and free McConnell’s ice cream.  

Among the features of new developments for the Music Academy on the list is the ongoing construction of a dramatic new MAW building downtown, the Music Education Center, which will open for the summer of 2028. The site, made possible through funding by longtime MAW donor Cheryl Goldberg in honor of her late husband, Michael Goldberg, will be a home for the respected Lehrer Voice Institute, the youth-oriented SING! program, concert action, and more functions to come. 

It promises to be a vital link between the Montecito home of the Academy and the Santa Barbara community. In addition, the building combines with the newly opened SBIFF Film Center across the street in the 900 block of State Street to give a vibrant new cultural buzz in a downtown in need of such energy.

There is much abuzz this summer at the Music Academy, which celebrates its 80th anniversary next year but seems to be in forward-motion mode.

Subscriptions for the 2026 Summer Music Festival are on sale April 9. Individual tickets are available starting April 30. The Music Academy is committed to ensuring the Santa Barbara community has access to experience the 2026 Summer Music Festival, and$10 community access tickets are available for the festival beginning on June 12 at 10 a.m., subject to availability. See musicacademy.org.