Santa Barbara Music Club Free Concert

On Saturday, May 9, 2026, at 3 PM, the Santa Barbara Music Club presents Franco-Russian Echoes, the last regular concert of the 2025-2026 season.  Oboist Pam Johnston, clarinetists Nancy Mathison and Christian Morgan, and pianist Pascal Salomon will perform solo, duo, and trio works by Marina Dranishnikova, Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Edouard Destenay.  The concert will take place at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, 4575 Auhay Dr. Santa Barbara, CA  93110.  Admission is free and plenty of parking is available (enter the parking lot from Arroyo Dr.).

Marina Dranishnikova (1929-1994) was born into a musical family. Her father was conductor and composer Vladimir Alexandrovich Dranishnikov, who was music director at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg (1925-1932), and a friend and contemporary of Prokofiev.  While very little else is known of her life, she is believed to have studied piano with N. I. Golubovskaya of the Leningrad Conservatory.  Written in 1953, the Poème for oboe and piano is by turns somber and joyous and is generally thought to have been written in response to a tragic love affair with V.M Kurlin, solo oboist of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, to whom the work is dedicated.

French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was one of the most original and sophisticated musicians of the early 20th century.  More neo-classical than his contemporary Claude Debussy, his music nonetheless is vividly evocative. Une Barque sur l’Océan (A Boat on the Ocean) is the third movement of Miroirs (Reflections), a set of piano pieces completed in 1905.  Melodic fragments emerge from a murmuring figuration made up of arpeggios, tremolos, and glissandi, suggesting to some that the melody is the boat and the figuration is the water. Sudden shifts in dynamics and register capture the unpredictability of the ocean.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) was a composer, pianist, organist and writer. One of the leaders of the French musical renaissance of the 1870s, he contributed to every genre of French music.  Completed in 1921, the Sonata for clarinet and piano in E-flat major, Op. 167 is a solidly neo-classical work, with echoes of Mozart in its textures and structure.  It is the second of three wind sonatas composed in that year (the others for oboe and bassoon), part of an attempt to add to the repertory of instruments that seemed somewhat neglected at the time.

Edouard Destenay (1850-1924) was born in the Algerian capital of Algiers. He later moved to Paris, where he studied music with Claudius Blanc.  Little else is known of his life.  His Trio for piano, clarinet and oboe, Op. 27 (1906) is in three movements. It combines elements of German romanticism with the musical language of Saint-Saëns and Gounod.

Performer Biographies

Pam Johnston, oboe, is a recently retired senior executive with thirty-five years of global revenue and operating experience, in executive leadership positions across a broad range of high-tech industries. Pam has a MBA from Harvard Business School, a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor of Music in Oboe Performance from Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, which she attended on a full performance scholarship, while studying with oboists from the Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland Symphony Orchestras. Now retired, she is a freelance oboist, having resumed her playing during the 2020 Pandemic after a 40-year hiatus. Pam is currently principal oboist with the SBCC Concert Band and second oboist with the SBCC Symphony Orchestra. She participates regularly in Chamber Music Workshops in Santa Barbara and Humboldt, California, and at Kinhaven in Vermont.

Clarinetist Nancy Mathison grew up in Southern California and is a member of the New West Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Players, Santa Maria Philharmonic, Symphony of the Vines, and the San Luis Obispo Master Chorale Orchestra. She has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Symphony, Orchestra Novo, and the San Luis Obispo Symphony. She has also had the privilege of performing with Leonard Bernstein, the Houston Opera, American Ballet Theatre, Rudolf Nureyev Ballet, Andrea Bocelli, the Temptations, was a member of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, and played principal clarinet and reeds with the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera for its 20-year tenure. Nancy attended the Music Academy of the West and received her degrees in clarinet performance from the University of Southern California (bachelor’s) and UCSB (master’s). She studied with Gary Foster, James Kanter, and Mitchell Lurie.

Christian Morgan is a clarinetist and SoCal native from Santa Clarita, California and graduate of the University of California-Santa Barbara. As a community member, Christian is currently principal clarinetist of the SBCC Concert Band, 2nd clarinetist of the UCSB Chamber Orchestra, an avid chamber musician in Santa Barbara chamber workshops, and the clarinetist of the local Cabeceo Quintet.

Since 2023, Christian has been working in Santa Barbara’s non-profit sector providing housing and homeless services for at-risk populations at New Beginnings Counseling Center. There he helps US military veterans and their family’s experiencing homelessness within Santa Barbara county to obtain and sustain permanent housing. Christian also works remotely as a Foster Youth Ambassador for the Child & Family Policy Institute of California. There he helps to address educational disparities for current foster youth with his lived experience for the Marin County Office of Education and Child Welfare Services.

Christian first began playing the clarinet in junior high school. In senior year of high school, he successfully auditioned and participated in the 2018 California All-State Honor Band. Christian first began taking private clarinet lessons in high school with CalArts MFA alumnus, and performance artist, Louis Coy.

While attending UCSB, Christian continued his clarinet studies with Paul Bambach, and was principal clarinetist of the wind ensemble and member of the chamber orchestra. To help pay for his college studies, Christian worked several part-time jobs supporting various underserved populations. He has worked with the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clarita Valley, worked as a behavioral interventionist supporting children and adults with autism and developmental disabilities, and has worked in both long-term and acute care settings with adults with persistent and/or severe mental illness.

Pascal Salomon, pianist, was born in Israel, grew up in France, and has concertized as recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber music pianist to great acclaim in China, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Moldova, Spain, Switzerland, and the U.S. He has been featured soloist with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Sinfonietta of Lausanne, La Sinfonietta de Genève, Orchestre du Capital-Toulouse, and the National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova, and has performed in major concert venues including Toulouse Capitole (France), Iasi Philharmonic Hall (Romania), Ernest Ansermet Concert Hall-Geneva and Stravinski Auditorium-Montreux (Switzerland), and Forbidden City Concert Hall-Beijing (China).

He studied at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris, earned the Virtuosity Degree at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Genève, Switzerland, and was selected for master classes with Paul Badura-Skoda, Jeremy Denk, Murray Perahia, Andras Schiff, and György Sebök. In 2017 he completed his DMA Degree at UCSB, under the mentorship of Paul Berkowitz and Dr. Lee Rothfarb; his research lecture was an in-depth study of music phenomenology from a performer’s standpoint.

Awarded “Best French Pianist” at the Senigallia International Competition in Italy, he was winner of the Maria Canals International Competition in Barcelona and received the Young Performers Scholarship from the “Société de Musique d’Yverdon-les-Bains” (Switzerland). UCSB honors included the Martin Kamen Fellowship, Ernö Daniel Memorial Prize for Distinguished Performance in Piano, Humanities and Social Sciences Research Grant, and Graduate Division Dissertation Fellowship.

His CD recordings include Pascal Salomon Plays Schumann, by ART Records, Czech Portraits, with violist Jacob Adams, by Centaur Records, and a live concert recording, Chopin, Ravel, Schubert, by the National Radio in Iasi, Romania.

Dr. Salomon taught piano at the Geneva Conservatory for nine years and presented master classes in Romania (University of Art and College of Music in Iasi), in Hungary (Crescendo Summer Institute of Art), and in China (Yunnan Institute of Arts). He is currently building the upcoming Santa Barbara Conservatory of Music, which will offer a complete music education for grades 1-12 in the Santa Barbara area with a mentorship approach and possible scholarships.

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.