SB Music Club Free Concert Saturday Apr. 11 🎶

The Santa Barbara Music Club celebrates its fifty-sixth season of serving the  greater Santa Barbara community with free monthly concerts.

Its April concert will present Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ‘s Clarinet Quintet in A Major, Serhiy Bortkevych’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, and Mykola Lysenko’s Second Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes, featuring Susannah Hoffman, viola, Nicole McKenzie, violin, Katherine Mendenhall, cello, Kristine Pacheco, violin, and David Singer, clarinet, as well as  Myroslava Khomik, violin, and Myroslava Kisilevitch, piano.

The concert will be presented on Saturday, April 11, at 3:00 at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 4575 Auhay Drive, Santa Barbara (enter parking lot from Arroyo Road).

Admission is free and parking is convenient.

See concert notes at www.SBMusicClub.org.

The concert:

Mykola Lysenko’s Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes No. 2, Dumka-Shumka, played a pivotal role in the development and recognition of Ukraine’s musical culture.  It opens with a reflection of folk music in its wistful opening theme. As an ethnomusicologist, Lysenko consciously draws on harmonic patterns in folk music to inform his composition. The Dumka is in fact a musical form coined by Lysenko.  He was the first to specifically analyze the melodies and accompaniment played on the bandura or lira, instruments indigenous to the Ukraine. The term dumky or dumka in the Ukrainian language means “thought” and derives from the term duma which specifies an epic Ukrainian ballad, thoughtful or melancholic in manner. Following the sadness of the introduction, the music segues into a virtuosic solo cadenza, followed by the Shumka. The Shumka is a lively, joyful stamping dance. This juxtaposition of contrasts is a key feature of the piece and reflects the broader tradition of Ukrainian folk music.Sonata for Violin and Piano by early twentieth-century Ukrainian born composer Serhiy Bortkevych is romantic and virtuosic.  Bortkevych’s craftsmanship is meticulous, his imagination colorful and sensitive, his piano writing idiomatic. A lush instrumentation underlines the essential sentimentality of his melodic invention and reflects certain elements of Ukrainian folk culture. Clarinet Quintet in A Major is Mozart’s only completed clarinet quintet and is one of the earliest and best-known works that was written especially for the instrument. It remains to this day one of the most admired of the composer’s works.

The first movement sets the mood for the entire piece. It has beautiful moving lines in all of the parts and in the second half there is a virtuoso run that is passed throughout the strings, based on material from the second section of the exposition.The second movement, Larghetto, opens with a six-bar transition in place of a central development section, which opposes a first section consisting mostly of a clarinet melody over muted strings against a second group of themes in which – as in the first movement – several upward runs of scales are given to the first violin, alternating with brief phrases of clarinet melody. The third movement, Menuetto with Trio, consists of a minuet and, unusually, two trios. The first trio is for the strings alone; the second trio is a clarinet solo over the strings, whereas in the minuet the roles are distributed more evenly.The final movement, Allegretto con variazioni, is in variation form, unexpectedly substituting for the more conventional rondo.  There are five variations.  While the clarinet dominates, this is nonetheless chamber music work of the finest kind and the roles are distributed more equally than they would be in a conventional quintet for wind and strings.

The performers:

Susannah Hoffman, violist, is the assistant music director at Goleta Valley Junior High.  She teaches strings in the Goleta, Santa Barbara, and Hope School Districts and with the Santa Barbara Youth Ensembles.  She plays viola in the Santa Barbara City College Symphony.

Ukranian-American violinist and arts entrepreneur Myroslava Khomik brings her passion for music making not only to the most prestigious concert halls and festivals around the world, but also to notable film and television projects while based in Los Angeles. Known for her musical depth and sensitive approach, Ms. Khomik is dedicated to innovative programming, mixing different art forms, new works and commissions, and rediscovering the forgotten music gems. After her last tour in South America, Ms. Khomik was awarded a New Artist of the Year award in Argentina, and was featured on many TV and radio broadcasts worldwide. Most recent highlights include her commissions for solo violin and the release of her debut album “Protest”; performances with Orquestra Sinfônica do Theatro da Paz (Belém, Brazil), Orchestra del Teatro Goldoni di Livorno (Italy), Orquesta Filarmónica del Desierto Coahuilla (Mexico), Orquestra Sinfonica EAFIT (Medellin, Colombia), Orquesta Filarmónica de Zacatecas (Mexico), Orquestra de la Societat de Concerts de Barcelona, Kyiv Kamerata, as well as residencies in Brazil and Argentina with music programs for underprivileged children. A devoted chamber music advocate, Ms. Khomik frequently appears in chamber series in the US and Europe, and had the privilege of collaborating and performing alongside distinguished artists, such as members of the Borromeo, Jerusalem, Ysaye and Tokyo String Quartets, Midori Goto, Oleh Krysa, Carol Wincec, Fred Sherry, Ronald Leonard, to name a few. As an active educator and entrepreneur, Ms. Khomik received her Doctorate in Musical Arts degree in 2015 and has served on the faculty at several universities, given master classes, and lectures throughout the US, Mexico, and in Malaysia, co-founded one of the largest online international festivals during the pandemic, the Nextus Festival. Her international recital series Muse Ukraine had four editions of collaborative presentations and partnering with prestigious institutions in the UK, Germany and the US.  It is a part of her Beyond the Muse foundation that focuses on music with meaning in today’s challenging world, and young arts mentorship. As her cultural diplomacy work, Dr. Khomik was invited as a keynote speaker and performer at the Belin’s conference on peace and diplomacy in 2023, and has appeared as a featured artist at the Finnish Embassy in London and most recently, at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington DC. www.myroslavakhomik.com (Edited May, 2025)

Myroslava Kisilevitch, pianist, was born in Ukraine into a family of professional musicians. She earned MM and DMA degrees from both the Lviv Higher State Music Academy and the University of Minnesota, and has concertized in Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and the U.S. She has received critical acclaim for her large and varied repertoire, including many works of prominent Ukrainian composers. Miroslava was invited to perform chamber recitals on the Smithsonian Institute Recital Series by the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, DC, and in Chicago in a concert sponsored by the Ukrainian Museum of Chicago.

Nicole McKenzie, violinist, has performed widely as soloist and chamber musician. The Santa Barbara Independent declared, “McKenzie made a splash… she performed with gorgeous musicality.” Winner of the Sutton Chamber Music Award, she graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy, earned a BM degree from Oberlin Conservatory, an MM degree from Florida State University, and studied with Gary Kosloski at the Music Academy of the West. She has studied improvisation with Christian Howes. Ms. McKenzie is concertmaster of the Santa Barbara Folk Orchestra, and performs in the accordion/violin duo Continental Cafe. She played electric violin in M.O.B. Jazz Ensemble, and regularly concertized with renowned pianist, Betty Oberacker. She has taught music to students of all ages, and is currently the elementary music teacher for the Carpinteria School District. She has worked at UC Santa Barbara as a lecturer and as a music director and music performer in the Theater and Dance Department. She has created a collaborative dance and music improvisation group and has performed in various music styles including classical, jazz, folk, klezmer, and musical theater. She performs on a violin created for her by Michel Eggimann of Rome, Italy.

A Santa Barbara native, Kathryn Mendenhall has given solo and chamber music performances across Eastern Europe, Italy, Korea, and Indonesia.  An avid supporter of new music, she was a long-time member of the Illustrious Theatre Orchestra, a composer-performer ensemble dedicated solely to the performance of modern and new works.  Over the years, she has performed for both Lynn Harrell and Yo Yo Ma and studied primarily under Ben Hong, Bongshin Ko and Geoffrey Rutkowski.

Ms. Mendenhall currently teaches mathematics at Dos Pueblos High School.  She holds bachelor’s degrees in both music performance and physics from California State University, Fullerton, and a master’s degree in music performance from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Kristine Pacheco-Bernt is a professional violinist, arts administrator, and music educator motivated to make instrumental music relevant within the community. Raised at the intersection of mariachi and minuets, she draws upon over a decade of performing and teaching experience. Kristine strongly believes in the power of creative youth development through music and is proud to bring her perspective and skills to all kinds of projects.  Prior to her work at the Music Academy of the West, Kristine served as a Teaching Artist at the Incredible Children’s Art Network (iCAN) music program, an El Sistema-inspired initiative in Santa Barbara providing free after-school music classes and academic enrichment to 120 elementary school children from an under resourced community. More recently Kristine served as the Director of Education at the Santa Barbara Symphony where she managed a continuum of music programs serving over 8,000 children throughout Santa Barbara County. She currently maintains a private violin studio designed to support students at all levels of musical development. She enjoys bringing together school administrators, families, and music professionals to create dynamic music education programs.

Ms. Pacheco-Bernt holds a master’s degree in violin performance from San Francisco State University and dual bachelor’s degrees in music and premedical studies from University of California, Berkeley.  She performs regularly throughout the central coast with the Santa Barbara Symphony, the San Luis Obispo Symphony, and the Santa Maria Philharmonic.

Of David Singer, clarinetist, Joseph Horowitz wrote in The New York Times, “To describe his playing would be to enumerate a catalogue of virtues.” Internationally acclaimed clarinetist David Singer has built a distinguished career through performances and recordings as a Principal Clarinetist of the multi–Grammy Award-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (1978–2014), guest appearances with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, and collaborations with some of the world’s most celebrated classical musicians, including Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Rudolf Serkin, Branford Marsalis, and members of the Guarneri and Emerson String Quartets.  Singer’s career highlights include two performances at the White House—first for President Jimmy Carter (1980) and later for President Bill Clinton (2000)—six summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, appearances at the Spoleto and Edinburgh Festivals, and over 100 recordings with Orpheus, including Grammy-winning albums (Gershwin’s World with Herbie Hancock and Music of Stravinsky). His acclaimed recording of the Aaron Copland Clarinet Concerto was hailed by Gramophone Magazine in England as “one of the finest accounts around… exceptional… sensitive and expressive… technically brilliant.” 

He has performed on stages from Carnegie Hall to concert halls in Vienna and Tokyo, on the BBC, and today his recordings mostly as a principal performer with Orpheus can be heard on Sirius XM’s Symphony Hall. His collaborations include a 1977 recording of a Max Reger Clarinet Sonata with Rudolf Serkin, later remastered by Pristine Classical, (pristineclassical.com) has inspired original compositions, such as Grammy Award-winning Robert Aldridge’s Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra, written for Singer and premiered with both Orpheus (East Coast) and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (West Coast), both to critical acclaim.

Beyond the concert stage, Singer appeared alongside Stockard Channing in The Lady and the Clarinet at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut, performing the play’s score  unaccompanied. He also played the role of a 1920s Polish klezmer musician in the May, 2024 UCSB’s production of Indecent.

Today, he performs with the Singer Chamber Players and the Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Kuan Fen Liu.  His debut memoir, From Cab Driver to Carnegie Hall, captures his extraordinary life in music—sharing behind-the-scenes and often humorous stories of the legendary figures he has known, and offering inspiration not just to musicians, but to anyone chasing a dream.   In September, 2025, it was announced that David Singer and From Cab Driver to Carnegie Hall is the WINNER of The NYC Big Book Award in the category of – Autobiography.  An audiobook of From Cab Driver to Carnegie Hall with possibly one big surprise addition is in the process of being made.  For more information, visit www.singerclarinet.com.

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This and all concerts offered by the Santa Barbara Music Club are open to the public with free admission.

For more information about this concert as well as future and past concerts, see our website www.SBMusicClub.org

The mission of the Santa Barbara Music Club is to contribute to the musical life of our community through the following:

1. Presentation of an annual series of concerts, free to the public, featuring outstanding performances by Performing Members and invited guests;

2. Presentation of community outreach activities, including bringing great music to residents of area retirement homes;

3. Aiding and encouraging musical education by the disbursement of scholarships to talented music students whose permanent address is in Santa Barbara County.

For more information about programs, to join or to donate, please visit our website, http://sbmusicclub.org.