The Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra (SBCO), launched in 1978 by Jeffrey Evans, ceased operations in 2017, succumbing to financial strains after a valiant survival effort toward the end. And yet the memory and the legacy carry on in the annals of local culture. Some rippling echoes of the SBCO experience have manifested in town recently, including the creation of the Santa Barbara Chamber Players and occasional special evenings featuring longtime SBCO conductor Heiichiro Ohyama.
The next such occasion will take place on Friday, July 31, at 7 p.m., at the Lobero Theatre — for decades, the headquarters of the Chamber Orchestra’s special Tuesday night concerts. On this evening, titled Dessert with Mozart: A Music Dialogue and Chamber Music Performance, the menu includes discussions with Ohyama, “concert navigator” Miho Ito, and others; musical performances; and, true to the title, dessert served on the Lobero’s esplanade during intermission.
The Japan-based Ohyama knows from whence he plays and speaks, as a veteran maestro in Santa Barbara — going back to 1983 — and beyond, and as former principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. At last year’s inaugural dialogue-performance event of this series, Ohyama was joined by SBCO alumni Amy Hershberger, Elizabeth Hedman, Erick Rynearson and Paula Fehrenbach in dealing with — in musical and dialogue terms — Dvořák’s String Quintet No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97, “American” 1st Movement Allegro non tanto.
Coming up, the second such program focuses on Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478, to be tackled by violist Ohyama, pianist Timothy Durkovic, violinist Elizabeth Hedman, and cellist Trevor Handy.
Notably, this Mozart opus, penned in 1785 — when he was all of 29 — has a place in repertoire history as the first major entry in the Piano Quartet format, expanding the existing standard piano trio setting with the addition of, drum roll… viola. Enter Ohyama.
In this edutainment-oriented program concept, the evening’s dialogue will include onstage program notes. As the promotional material promises, “audiences will gain rare insight into the decisions, discoveries, and collaborative process that shape every note.”
Underscoring the nature of this evening is the point that SBCO may be a thing of the past but is hardly forgotten in these parts.
For more information, see lobero.org/events/music-dialogue-2026/
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