SBMC Valentine’s Day Concert 2/14/26

The Santa Barbara Music Club celebrates its fifty-sixth season of serving the  greater Santa Barbara community with free monthly concerts.  The music club’s VALENTINE’S DAY CONCERT will be presented on February 14 at 3 PM at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 4575 Auhay Drive, Santa Barbara (enter parking lot from Arroyo).  Violist Valerie Malvinni will perform two unaccompanied works, by J.S. Bach and Leslie Hogan, then will be joined by pianist Peter Wittenberg for Glazunov’s richly lyrical Elégie, Op. 44 and Hummel’s playful Potpourri (“Fantasie”) for viola and orchestra, Op.94.  In the second half of the program, soprano Brett Mutinelli and pianist Eben Drost will present a series of delightful German art song miniatures from the 19th century, exploring the many facets of love—from its joys and heartaches to its dangers and rejections, love found and love lost, as well as the exhilaration of new love and the serenity of love matured. Admission is Free.

PROGRAM DETAILS

Valerie Malvinni, an avid performer and teacher on the violin and viola, is currently

Visiting Assistant Professor of Viola at University of Missouri, Columbia where she also serves as Executive Director of the Missouri String Project. She has taught violin, viola and chamber music at many schools and colleges including Santa Barbara City College, Westmont College, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, and the Suzuki Violin School of Santa Barbara.  She will perform two unaccompanied works, followed by two with pianist Peter Wittenberg.

The program opens with J.S. Bach’s bright and cheerful Cello Suite No.3 in C major, BWV 1009, arranged by Valerie Malvinni for viola.  The second unaccompanied work is Leslie Hogan’s Matisse.  Written in 2005 for the choreographer Carol Press, the work was also originally for cello and is by turns lyrical and energetic.

Rounding out the first half of the program are two works for viola and piano, Glazunov’s richly lyrical Elégie, Op. 44 and Hummel’s playful Potpourri (“Fantasie”) for viola and orchestra, Op.94.  The Hummel features quotations from operas by Mozart and Rossini.

Those works, performed by Ms. Malvinni and pianist Peter Wittenberg, will serve as a preview for a full sonata program, sponsored by Santa Barbara City College, on the next day.  The sonata concert will be at 3 PM at First United Methodist Church.  Tickets will be available through the SBCC Garvin Theatre Box Office.

Pianist Peter Wittenberg was born into a musical family of Latvian heritage. His father played viola, double bass, and guitar, and his mother was an opera singer. He began piano studies at an early age and at the age of 16, he won the Bronislaw Kaper award from the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing the Prokofiev 2nd Piano Concerto. Since then he has performed in international concert halls such as the Frankfurt Alte Oper, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, the Grossersaal of the Mozarteum Stiftung, the Athenaeum Bucharest, the Allerheiligen Hofkirche in Munich, Carnegie Weill Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, the Baden-Baden Philharmonie, and many others.

Soprano Brett Mutinelli grew up in Germany’s opera world where her father had a successful career as a Helden tenor. After receiving her own opera training at the Wiesbaden Music Conservatory in Germany and at UCSB, studying with Elizabeth Mannion and receiving a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance, Ms. Mutinelli performed in various local recitals and opera productions. She chose to pursue a career locally as a voice teacher by building the Young Singers Club in 1998, a thriving voice course program for children and teens.

Ms. Mutinelli and her accompanist Eben Drost will present a series of delightful German art song miniatures from the 19th century, exploring the many facets of love—from its joys and heartaches to its dangers and rejections, love found and love lost, as well as the exhilaration of new love and the serenity of love matured. Featured composers will include Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Richard Strauss, and Robert Schumann.

Eben Drost is a professional musician with extensive experience in classical and jazz music. Originally from Redlands, California, he moved to Santa Barbara to attend Westmont College, where he earned a BA in Music. He has also studied theology and the arts at Fuller Seminary and the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies. He directed chapel music for seven years at Westmont College, where he also taught jazz, music theory, and worship studies.

His musical resume includes playing for various voice recitals, jazz combos, and theater productions, and leading gospel choirs, and composing Podcast theme music. He now  also accompanies the Santa Barbara City College Concert Choir.

Founded in 1969, the Santa Barbara Music Club has evolved from a private women’s club to a nine-month long public series of classical music concerts. Supported wholly by membership dues, generous donations and bequests, and grants, the concerts are free of charge to the public.  In addition to the concert series, the SBMC holds annual Scholarship Auditions for Santa Barbara County students.  Like the concert series,  the scholarships are made possible by the generosity of donors who wish to support the club in its mission of providing aid and encouragement to outstanding music students from county schools and teaching studios. For more information, please visit www.sbmusicclub.org.

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.