Serious Music of Other Colors

When the Sphinx Virtuosi came on the scene in 2004, the presence of Black and Latinx composers and musicians in the classical music sphere — a dedicated focus of the group — was much smaller than it is today. As the spirited and gifted ensemble returned to the Lobero Theatre last week, again presented by CAMA, as in 2024, the state of things has gradually improved, with greater access to stages and classical music’s inner circles. 

One of the composers on the Lobero program, Jessie Montgomery, has established herself in the upper tier of composers, gaining attention locally and internationally, under the auspices of the Music Academy of the West. While there remains much room for improvement on the inclusivity front, these are positive signs of advancement in the realm of exposure for underrepresented voices in the classical world in an age of repressive retrogression of DEI and other racial equity measures from the current thuggery in the White House. 

When the charismatic, conductor-less 18-piece string orchestra took the stage, many of us knew what we were in for, and we weren’t disappointed. Questions of balance, accessibility, musical challenge, and varying color palettes informed the arc of the night. In this program, dubbed Visions of Peace after Quenton Xavier Blache’s ear-pleasing new piece and a general theme running through it, things started on a light note, with Jose White Lafitte’s genteel La Bella Cubana, and closed with the beloved and familiar melodic strains of Mexican composer Manuel Ponce’s Estrelita, arranged by Ruben Rengel (local music-goers will remember the tune from violinist Nicola Benedetti’s recent Campbell Hall performance).

Speaking of the Music Academy of the West (MAW), dazzling violin soloist Randall Goosby returns to Santa Barbara, having appeared twice in recital form at MAW’s Hahn Hall since his 2024 appearance with the group. On this program, his seamless showpiece was his starring role as both soloist and arranger of eminent Black composer William Grant Still’s Suite for Violin or Cello and String Orchestra. For the rest of the concert, Goosby joined the rank-and-file ensemble.

As it happened, Montgomery’s piece of the program, Chemiluminescence, was a highlight of the evening. Premiered a year ago, the piece is idiomatically tailored for this ensemble and lives up to its underlying concept of proffering musical impressions of diverse light qualities. Montgomery’s score uses the ensemble in a uniquely expressive way, with a palette of gestures and energy waves. Stravinsky-esque swatches also weave into the alternately lyrical and tonally variegated.

Another concert highlight arrived as the main event in the second half, and the only piece penned by a white composer, Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat “Stalingrad,” arranged for this string orchestra setting by Rengel. Rengel’s arrangement brilliantly translates the thorny harmonic design of the piano original into Sphinx-fitted terms, realizing the innate angst of the piece, one of three “War Sonatas” written by the famed Russian in 1942, a personal response to the former strictures of Stalin.

Steering the program’s ship into cheerier waters, the concert closed on the infectiously tuneful turf of Ponce’s hum-along worthy Estrellita, capping off another satisfying and well-rounded musical evening with Sphinx. We’ve got to keep meeting like this.