UCSB Arts & Lectures - Fall Program 2024

Fall Program 2024

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Dear Friends,

Arts & Lectures turns 65 this season, and it has been my great honor to have led this incredible organization for 25 years. We’re celebrating with a lineup emblematic of the diverse programming that makes A&L a world-class presenter of arts and culture.

Just look at opening week and you’ll see what I mean: Join us for our 65th anniversary kick off Jazz & Gelato party before Snarky Puppy gets funky at the Arlington. One of the world’s reigning sopranos, Julia Bullock makes her first of two very different performances. Hear how AI can revolutionize education from Khan Academy’s Salman Khan. Roots legend Mavis Staples meets The War and Treaty’s joyful fusion of Southern soul, gospel, country and rock ’n’ roll. And the venerable hundred-member London Philharmonic Orchestra performs with incomparable violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja

In December, say goodbye to the Sugar Plum Fairy and hello to Sugar Rum Cherry, when Dorrance Dance puts its tap and jazz twist on a holiday classic set to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s The Nutcracker Suite.

Discover literary heavyweight Percival Everett and other just-added lectures on Justice for All. New this fall, we’re providing FREE books at all JFA events, including Everett’s recent tour-de-force James.

Unlock your inner creative genius with free Thematic Learning Initiative events spotlighting Imagination in Action – there’s no shortage at A&L.

Join us for another 65 years of entertaining, educating and inspiring!

With deepest gratitude,

Celesta M. Billeci

Miller McCune Executive Director

Community members enjoying FREE Summer Cinema at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden

photo: Isaac Hernández de Lipa

Chef, restaurateur and humanitarian

José Andrés with Celesta M. Billeci

Community Partners

Illuminating a wide spectrum of systemic injustice, the Justice for All programming initiative looks to today’s great minds and creators and to the courageous leaders across the globe who are forging a new path forward. Join us as we learn from those confronting uncomfortable questions, solving difficult problems, and guiding us all toward a more equitable world.

Josie Cox, Oct 17

Advancing gender financial equity

Dr. Uché Blackstock, Nov 20

Closing the gap in racial health inequities

Percival Everett, Oct 25

Disrupting conceptions of race in American culture

Tommy Orange, Jan 29

Highlighting the complexities of Indigeneity

Look for additional events to be added throughout the season.

JUSTICE FOR ALL Lead Sponsors: Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Eva & Yoel Haller, Dick Wolf, and Zegar Family Foundation

JUSTICE FOR ALL UCSB Faculty Advisory Committee: Gerardo Aldana, Daina Ramey Berry, Charles Hale, Beth Pruitt, Susannah Scott, Jeffrey Stewart, Sharon Tettegah

Arts & Lectures’ Thematic Learning Initiative (TLI) extends the conversation from the stage into the community, enriching lifelong learning and initiating dialogue and empowerment through special events, book giveaways and more.

2024-2025 Theme: Imagination in Action

For 65 years, Arts & Lectures has been a hotbed of art and ideas – a place where great minds and movers from across the globe converge. They leave us changed, challenged and ready to bust through our perceived limitations. Come behind the scenes, go beyond the barriers and discover the creative forces drawing outside the lines to redefine what we think is possible.

Fall Book Giveaway

James

by Percival Everett

A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Percival Everett’s James is told from Jim’s point of view and shows the fugitive slave’s agency, intelligence and compassion in a radically new light. An instant New York Times bestseller, James was longlisted for the Booker Prize and hailed as “genius” by The Atlantic.

FREE copies of James will be available starting September 27 at Arts & Lectures’ Campbell Hall Box Office at UCSB and the Santa Barbara Public Library (40 E. Anapamu St.). Books available while supplies last.

Percival Everett, Oct 25 (p. 44)

With thanks to our visionary partners, Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin, for their support of the Thematic Learning Initiative

2024-2025 Theme: Imagination in Action

Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles

Documentary screening and Q&A with film director Laura Gabbert

Thu, Oct 10 / 7 PM / Campbell Hall

FREE (registration recommended)

Perfectly capturing the heights of human achievement and the frailty of decadence, chef Yotam Ottolenghi assembles a team of the world’s most innovative pastry chefs to bring the sumptuous art of Versailles to life in cake form. (Laura Gabbert, 2020, 75 min.)

An Evening with Yotam Ottolenghi, Oct 14 (p. 25)

Move: Season 1, Episode 1

Documentary screening and Q&A with Lil Buck and Jon Boogz

Wed, Oct 23 / 7 PM / Campbell Hall

FREE (registration recommended)

Discover the brilliant dancers and choreographers who are shaping the art of movement in the first episode of this documentary series. With artistry and originality, Jon Boogz and Lil Buck turn to popping and jookin to tell powerful stories that take street dance to the next level.

(Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai, 2020, TV-MA, 48 min.)

An Evening with Lil Buck and Jon Boogz, Oct 24 (p. 32)

Community Dance Class

with Michelle Dorrance

Sun, Dec 8 / 1 PM / Carrillo Ballroom, 100 E. Carrillo St.

FREE (registration recommended)

Michelle Dorrance, artistic director of the award-winning New York City-based Dorrance Dance, shares her deep dedication to tap dance, its traditions and its possibilities. All levels welcome, no tap shoes required.

Dorrance Dance, The Nutcracker Suite, Dec 5 (p. 60)

Look for additional events to be added throughout the season.

Michael League, Bandleader, bass guitar

Nate Werth, percussion

Bob Lanzetti, guitar

Nikki Glaspie, drums

Justin Stanton, trumpet, keyboards

Bobby Sparks, keyboards

Maz Maher, trumpet

Chris Bullock, tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet

Jay Jennings, trumpet

Zach Brock, violin

Snarky Puppy

Tue, Oct 1 / 7:30 PM Arlington Theatre

Jazz Series Lead Sponsor: Manitou Fund

Presented in association with UCSB Department of Music

After more than a decade of relentless touring and recording in all but complete obscurity, Texas-bred quasi-collective Snarky Puppy suddenly found itself held up by the press and public as one of the major figures in the jazz world. But as the category names for all five of the band’s Grammy awards would indicate (Best R&B Performance in 2014, Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2023), Snarky Puppy isn’t exactly a jazz band.

It’s not a fusion band, and it’s definitely not a jam band. It’s probably best to take Nate Chinen of the New York Times’ advice, as stated in an online discussion about the group, to “take them for what they are, rather than judge them for what they’re not.”

Snarky Puppy is a collective of sorts with as many as 20 members in regular rotation. At its core, the band represents the convergence of both black and white American music culture with various accents from around the world. Japan, Argentina, Canada and the United Kingdom all have representation in the group’s membership. But more than the cultural diversity of the individual players, the defining characteristic of Snarky Puppy’s music is the joy of performing together in the perpetual push to grow creatively.

Their latest Grammy-winning album – Empire Central –was released in September 2022. Its sound is big and bold, chill and laid back, rooted in its native culture while reaching outward, forward bound. With 16 new compositions, the group looks fondly at where it’s come

photo: Ignacio Orrego

from, confident in the polished power from which its members continue to build the unique Snarky Puppy sound.

Their sound now rises like a skyscraper from a 21st century orchestra comprising guitarists, keyboardists, brass, reeds, a violinist, percussionists and drummers and the accomplished, yet modest, Michael League keeping it all together with his bass.

“Our soundscape has expanded dramatically over the years,” says League. “When the band started, we were jazzier, brainy and music oriented. Moving into the Dallas scene we became groovier, more emotional, deeper in a sense. We focused more on communicating a clear message, understandable to a listener without dumbing things down.”

Always evolving in its musical output, each new record brings a new vision and progressive direction. “Snarky Puppy has always been a band that prioritizes the sound of music, our rule is that it can’t sound like it sounded before,” comments League. “The music has to feel like it’s moving somewhere.”

And move it most definitely has. The Empire Central World Tour, which started in the USA in April 2022, took the band to 30 U.S. states and 33 countries around the world. It’s incredible, although not at all surprising, how far Snarky Puppy have come since ten friends got together at the University of North Texas in 2004. It also raises the question – where will Snarky Puppy go next? For Snarky Puppy fans, the answer to this question is a very exciting prospect.

Special Thanks

Coming in Winter

Lakecia Benjamin and Phoenix

“Lakecia Benjamin plays jazz that is sprinkled with the rich flavors of funk and soul – she’s a crafty traditionalist who remains in step with the rhythms of the young generation.”

The New Yorker

Fri, Feb 7 / 8 PM / Campbell Hall

Jazz Series Lead Sponsor: Manitou Fund

photo: Elizabeth Leitzell

Music and Text by Olivier Messiaen

Julia Bullock, soprano

Conor Hanick, pianist

Bobbi Jene Smith, dancer Or Schraiber, dancer

Zack Winokur, Director

Bobbi Jene Smith, Choreographer Or Schraiber, Choreographer

John Torres, Lighting Designer*

Chris Gilmore, Lighting Supervisor*

Mark Grey, Sound Designer*

Victoria Bek, Costume Designer*

Betsy Ayer, Production Stage Manager*

Julia Bumke, Producer

Translations by Julia Bullock

Supertitle design by Landon Wilson

* Denotes guest artist

Co-presented with

HARAWI

An AMOC* Production

Fri, Oct 4 / 8 PM / Campbell Hall

Running time: approx. 60 minutes, no intermission

A conversation/Q&A with Julia Bullock will follow the performance

Great Performances Suite Sponsors:

G.A. Fowler Family Foundation and The Shanbrom Family Foundation

Presented in association with UCSB Department of Music

About the Program

HARAWI realizes Olivier Messiaen’s deeply affecting, hour-long song cycle for voice and piano in new physical and dramatic dimensions, featuring soprano Julia Bullock, pianist Conor Hanick, choreographer/ dancers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, with direction by Zack Winokur. Moving from duet to quartet, this production breaks open Messiaen’s cycle, connects movement to music and grapples with the intensity of love and loss.

HARAWI performed its world premiere in July 2022 at France’s Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, with a European Tour in spring 2023 at Belgium’s De Singel and Germany’s Leverkusen and Elbphilharmonie.

Program Notes

By Julia Bullock and Zack Winokur

Express living archives in the body – Articulate complex rhythms and patterns – Utilize repetition in order to better understand – Encourage improvisation – Invite movement and sound to become extensions of each other – Voice one’s surroundings as a way to be immersed in and expanded by them – Utter broken words.*

These are some values intrinsic to the traditions of Harawi (Qarawi) – Andean music which is still expressed across the diverse cultures and peoples in Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and beyond.

photo: Hanne Engwald

Olivier Messiaen only became aware of Andean Harawi traditions through an ethnographic anthology written by Marguerite and Raoul d’Harcourt, however the melodies and themes seemed to provide a space where Messiaen could process why love, loss, absence and presence are human preoccupations; and how shattered realities give way to expansiveness.

Messiaen’s life circumstances, relationships and beliefs always seemed to infuse his compositions, oftentimes with explicit symbols and associations. Messiaen began to write this song cycle when he returned home after being a prisoner of war during World War II. Shortly after his return, the mind and body of Claire Delbos – a fellow musician, source of inspiration and his wife – had begun to slowly degenerate, including total amnesia; all while a new love partner began entering his life.

While appropriating elements of Quechuan languages and Andean Harawi traditions, Messiaen’s song cycle HARAWI explores dichotomies: life and death, pain and joy, spirituality and sensuality, sacrifice and preservation, fulfillment and loss. He seems to be asking from a place of personal grief: how do you stay connected to someone you love while the accumulated memories of your relationship begin to fade or drift? How do you recover and move on?

Our desire to perform this work originated from an intuitive interest in Messiaen’s expressions through his poetry and music. However, our discussions with current practitioners of Harawi, along with a direct acknowledgement of Olivier Messiaen’s difficult life circumstances while he wrote this piece, have informed the realization of this piece and revealed deep threads of resonance. We look forward to sharing where these explorations have led us.”

* These are fragments and impressions from conversations with Luz Zenaida Hualpa García, dancer and choreographer and Karen Michelsen Castañón, visual artist. Both are current practitioners of Harawi.

About the Company

Now in its seventh year, American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*) is broadly recognized as one of the most consequential companies, producing and presenting some of the most significant interdisciplinary art. Founded in 2017 by composer Matthew Aucoin and director, choreographer and dancer Zack Winokur, AMOC* was established with the mission of building and sharing a body of collaborative work. The company is comprised of 17 of today’s most sought-after

composers, choreographers, directors, vocalists, instrumentalists, dancers, writers and producers, all united by a commitment to collective authorship and long-term, generative relationships with other creators. AMOC* connects artists and audiences in visceral and surprising ways. Frequent collaborations with guest artists and partner organizations are also essential to the development of AMOC*’s productions, enriching the company’s core artistic vision.

AMOC* maintains a robust national and international touring schedule, upholds a rigorously equitable compensation model, and is deeply committed to making its performances financially accessible. In its inaugural 2018-2019 season, AMOC* launched the Run AMOC! Festival at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass, which The New York Times described as “blindingly impressive.” In 2022, AMOC* served as music director for the 75th Ojai Music Festival, presenting 18 performances, eight world premieres, and six new theatrical productions.

In 2022-2023, AMOC* reached audiences through 34 performances across 10 U.S. venues and digital platforms, including the world premiere of Bobbi Jene Smith’s Broken Theater at La MaMa Moves! in New York City, as well as New York City premieres of Carolyn Chen’s How to Fall Apart at Baryshnikov Arts Center and Anthony Cheung’s the echoing of tenses at 92nd Street Y. AMOC* made its international debut at Festival d’Aix with HARAWI in July 2022, offering a fresh interpretation of Olivier Messiaen’s song cycle. In 2023, HARAWI then toured across Europe and Gay Guerrilla premiered at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

In 2023-2024, AMOC* expanded its annual collaboration with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC with sold-out performances of a new arrangement of John Adams’ El Niño, and formed co-production partnerships with DACAMERA (Houston), MOCA (Los Angeles), Opera Omaha, Stanford Live and Yale University, among others. In June 2024, AMOC* premiered The Comet/Poppea, a groundbreaking new opera directed by Yuval Sharon, created in collaboration with composer George Lewis and The Industry. The Los Angeles Times praised the production as “…what American opera needs most of all… It has huge ramifications for the wide world we now occupy.” In spring and summer 2024, AMOC* engaged in interdisciplinary performance residencies at Yale and Brown universities and presented a concert of new music at the Clark Art Institute. AMOC* plans to announce an expansive slate of future programming in late fall 2024.

Everything for AMOC* is sacred in that it needs to perform at the highest level, but nothing is so sacred that it can’t be rethought. – New York Times

About the Artistic Team

Julia Bullock

One of Musical America’s 2021 Artists of the Year, Julia Bullock is an American classical singer who “communicates intense, authentic feeling, as if she were singing right from her soul” (Opera News). Combining versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence, she has headlined productions and concerts at preeminent arts institutions around the world. An innovative curator in high demand from a diverse group of organizations, she has held positions including collaborative partner of Esa-Pekka Salonen and 2019-2020 Artist-in-Residence at the San Francisco Symphony, 2020-2022 Artist-in-Residence of London’s Guildhall School and 2018-2019 Artist-in-Residence at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bullock’s opera debuts include San Francisco Opera in the world premiere of Girls of the Golden West; Santa Fe Opera in Doctor Atomic; Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Dutch National Opera in The Rake’s Progress; the English National Opera, Teatro Real and Bolshoi Theatre in the title role of The Indian Queen; and Dutch National Opera, Bregenzer Festspiele and Park Avenue Armory in the premiere of Michel van der Aa’s Upload. In concert, she has collaborated with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and London’s Philharmonia and London Symphony orchestras, while her recital highlights include appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Celebrity Series, Washington’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Mostly Mozart and Ojai Music festivals. Released by Nonesuch, Bullock’s solo album debut, Walking in the Dark, was featured in the New York Times’ Best Classical Music Tracks of 2022 and named one of the Ten Best Classical Albums of 2022 by NPR. Her growing discography also includes Grammy-nominated accounts of West Side Story and Doctor Atomic, as well as the soundtrack of Amazon Prime Video’s 2021 The Underground Railroad, composed by Nicholas Britell. Committed to integrating community activism with her musical life, Bullock is also a prominent voice for social consciousness and change.

Conor Hanick

Pianist Conor Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old whose “technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation benefit works by any master” (The New York Times). Hanick has recently worked with conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ludovic Morlot, Alan Gilbert and David Robertson, and collaborated with the San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Juilliard Orchestra. He has been presented by the Gilmore Festival, New York Philharmonic, Elbphilharmonie, De Singel, Centre Pompidou, Cal Performances, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Park Avenue Armory and the Ojai Music Festival, where in 2022 with AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company) he served as the festival’s artistic director.

A fierce advocate for the music of today, Hanick has premiered over 200 pieces and collaborated with composers ranging from Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho and Steve Reich, to the leading composers of his generation, including Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, Anthony Cheung and Samuel Carl Adams, whose piano concerto, No Such Spring, he premiered in 2023 with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony. This season, Hanick presents solo and chamber recitals in the U.S. and Europe, including concerts at the Wallis, Cal Performances, Segerstrom Center, Stanford Live, Guild Hall, Musikverein and elsewhere. He appears with the Phoenix and Alabama symphonies, and collaborates with Julia Bullock, Seth Parker Woods, Timo Andres and the JACK Quartet. He premieres solo and chamber works by Tania León, Nico Muhly, Matthew Aucoin and others.

Hanick is the director of Solo Piano at the Music Academy of the West and serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School, Mannes College and the CUNY Graduate Center. He lives with his family in the Hudson Valley.

Or Schraiber

Or Schraiber was born in 1992 in the city of Jerusalem, where he studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. In 2010, Schraiber joined the Batsheva Dance Company, with whom he danced for seven years. In 2017, Schraiber moved to New York City to study acting at the Stella Adler Studio. In 2018, he co-choreographed and starred in Boaz Yakin’s feature film AVIVA. In 2019, Schraiber joined The Band’s Visit national

tour. Throughout the years, Schraiber has appeared in numerous films, choreographed with his partner, Bobbi Jene Smith, numerous original dance works for some of the world’s finest companies (including the Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Ballet BC, Ensemble Batsheva, L.A. Dance Project, to name a few), and directed various award-winning short films and music videos. Schraiber made his off-broadway debut in 2023, choreographing (in collaboration with Bobbi Jene Smith) Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. He is a founding member of the American Modern Opera Company.

Bobbi Jene Smith

Bobbi Jene Smith is from Ames, Iowa. She is an alumnus of The Juilliard School, North Carolina School of the Arts and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. From 2005-2014, she was a member of the Batsheva Dance Company under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin. In collaboration with Or Schraiber, she has choreographed original works for the Paris Opera Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Royal Danish Ballet, Theater Basel, L.A. Dance Project and The Batsheva Dance Ensemble, among others. She is a founding member of American Modern Opera Company and an artist in residence at L.A. Dance Project.

Zack Winokur

Described as “the vanguard of his generation’s artistic leaders” (The New York Times), director and producer Zack Winokur is co-founder and artistic director of AMOC* as well as producing artistic director of Little Island. Recent directing highlights include: Mammoth, featuring Yo-Yo Ma 400 feet underground inside Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky; Tristan and Isolde at the Santa Fe Opera; Messiaen’s HARAWI at the Aix-enProvence Festival, De Singel, Elbphilharmonie; Only an Octave Apart starring Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo at St. Ann’s Warehouse, the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Opera, Wilton’s Music Hall in London and the Spoleto Festival USA; his “rich, seamless” (The New York Times) production of The Black Clown at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center and the American Repertory Theater; his “darkly captivating” (The New York Times) production of Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine by Tyshawn Sorey and Claudia Rankine, starring Julia Bullock on the grand staircase of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and other productions at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Dutch National Opera and Stanford Live.

Winokur served as artistic director of NY PopsUp, an initiative to reopen the performing arts across New York State with over 300 free and public performances featuring hundreds of artists from February to July 2021. He co-teaches a transdisciplinary storytelling class at Harvard with Davóne Tines.

Salman Khan

Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That’s a Good Thing)

Sat, Oct 5 / 4 PM / Arlington Theatre

Major Corporate Sponsor: Sage Publishing

Presented in association with Santa Barbara County Education Office and UCSB Gevirtz Graduate School of Education

As founder and CEO of the nonprofit Khan Academy, Salman Khan seeks to remove the barriers to education that leave over 600 million children lacking basic math and reading skills. His free, world-class curriculum –available to anyone, anywhere – has made a massive impact, with the academy’s videos reaching more than one billion views. Now, Khan is using the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to make education even more accessible to students around the world. He’s giving every student a personal tutor with the introduction of the revolutionary Khanmigo, an AI-powered teacher that The Washington Post calls “the best model we have for how to develop and implement AI for the public good.” In talks, Khan shares how we can revolutionize education with technology, open interaction and a personalized approach to learning.

Recognized for his incredible influence in the field of education, Khan has been profiled by 60 Minutes, featured on the cover of Forbes and named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. His passion project, the Khan Academy, started humbly when he began tutoring his cousins and a few family friends in math. Soon, word spread, demand grew and the Khan Academy was born. Today, the platform has more than 62 million registered users across 190 countries, each able to access practice exercises, instructional videos and a personalized dashboard to help students learn at their own pace.

With the AI explosion, Khan saw an opportunity to use this new technology to revolutionize education. With this

new technology, every student gains an edge. It “could take your average student and turn them into an exceptional student,” says Khan. “It can take your below-average student and turn them into an above-average student.”

Boasting a state-of-the-art, adaptive technology, Khan Academy has partnered with world-class institutions such as NASA, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and MIT. The technology has had a reported meaningful impact for students attending top schools such as Stanford, Princeton and Yale, especially those who are firstgeneration college students.

In his book The One World Schoolhouse – praised by both Bill Gates and Al Gore – Khan outlines his vision for the future of education: liberating teachers from mandated curriculums and encouraging human interaction in classrooms. The ideas in One World are the basis for Khan Lab School, an independent offshoot of the Khan Academy that offers a collaborative, project-based learning approach to a mixed-age student group.

Khan holds three degrees from MIT in mathematics, electrical engineering and computer science, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. While at MIT, he taught MCAT prep courses and was named teacher of the year by a national prep test company.

Special Thanks

Mavis Staples

Mavis Staples, lead singer

Rick Holmstrom, guitar, background vocals

Greg Boaz, bass guitar

Steve Mugalian, drums

Saundra Williams, background vocals

Kelly Hogan, background vocals

Double Billing Mavis Staples The War and Treaty

Tue, Oct 8 / 7:30 PM / Arlington Theatre

Running time: approx. 120 minutes plus intermission

Roots Series Sponsor: Laura & Geof Wyatt

“I’m the messenger. That’s my job – it has been for my whole life – and I can’t just give up while the struggle’s still alive. We’ve got more work to do, so I’m going to keep on getting stronger and keep on delivering my message every single day.”

– Mavis Staples on the eve of her 80th birthday

That message – a clarion call to love, to faith, to justice, to brotherhood, to joy – lies at the heart of We Get By, Staples’ spectacular twelfth studio album and first full-length collaboration with multi-Grammy Award-winner Ben Harper. Backed by her longtime touring band, Staples breathes extraordinary life into Harper’s compositions on the record, delivering roof-raising performances with both a youthful vigor and a commanding maturity. The arrangements here are spare but weighty, matched by Harper’s suitably lean and thoughtful production, and Staples seizes the opportunity to showcase her remarkable and continued evolution as an artist, one still growing and exploring more than half a century into her storied career. We Get By is undoubtedly a timely

collection, arriving such as it does in the face of deep social divisions and heightened political tensions, but like everything Staples touches, it’s also larger than any particular moment, a timeless appeal to the better angels of our nature that’s universal in its reach and unwavering in its assurance of better things to come. “When I first started reading the lyrics Ben wrote for me, I said to myself, ‘My God, he’s saying everything that needs to be said right now,’” Staples remembers. “But the songs were also true to my journey and the stories I’ve been singing all my life. There’s a spirituality and an honesty to Ben’s writing that took me back to church.”

Hailed by NPR as “one of America’s defining voices of freedom and peace,” Staples is the kind of once-in-ageneration artist whose impact on music and culture would be difficult to overstate. She’s both a Blues and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, a civil rights icon, a Grammy Award-winner, a chart-topping soul/gospel/R&B pioneer, a National Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement recipient and a Kennedy Center honoree. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration and sang in Barack Obama’s White House. She’s collaborated with everyone from Prince and Bob Dylan to Arcade Fire and Hozier, blown away countless festivalgoers from Newport Folk and Glastonbury to Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, and performed with The Band at The Last Waltz. She graced the airwaves on Fallon, Colbert, Ellen, Austin City Limits, Jools Holland, the Grammys and more. At a time when most artists begin to wind down, Staples ramped things up, releasing a trio of critically acclaimed albums in her 70s with Wilco’s

Jeff Tweedy that prompted Pitchfork to rave that “her voice has only gained texture and power over the years” and People to proclaim that she “provides the comfort of a higher power.”

In between records with Tweedy, Staples teamed up with a slew of other younger artists – Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Nick Cave, Valerie June, tUnE-yArDs and M. Ward among others – for Livin’ On A High Note, an album The Boston Globe called “stunningly fresh and cutting edge” and which first introduced her to Harper. “Ben wrote a song for that album called ‘Love and Trust,’” explains Staples. “When he said that he wanted to produce me, I told him, ‘Well shucks, if you write another song like that, count me in.’”

Harper did more than write just another song, instead penning an entire album of emotionally riveting and spiritually uplifting tracks that hit Staples directly in the heart. The tunes fit her like a glove – due in no small part to the decades Harper spent listening to Staples’ music, both with The Staple Singers and as a solo artist – and Staples found herself fighting back tears as she fell in love with the beauty and sincerity of those early stripped down demos.

“I come from a family of Mavis fans,” explains Harper, “so her music has been woven into the fabric of my life from the very start. When I got the call for this gig, it felt like my entire career, everything I’d ever written, had been pre-production for this.” Leading up to the recording sessions, Harper sat in the audience for several of Staples’ concerts, approaching her performances now as a student more than a fan. As brilliant as Staples’ studio output was over the years, Harper came to understand the stage as her home and her touring band as her family, and capturing as much of that spirit as possible seemed like the obvious approach for We Get By

It’s impossible to listen to a voice like Staples’ without contemplating all she’s been through in her life – the album cover features a heartrending Gordon Parks photo that speaks to the casual cruelty of racial segregation in 1950s Alabama – but it only serves to make her optimism and resilience that much more inspiring and contagious.

“I sing because I want to leave people feeling better than I found them,” Staples concludes. “I want them to walk away with a positive message in their hearts, feeling stronger than they felt before. I’m singing to myself for those same reasons, too.” Even the messenger needs a reminder every now and then.

The War and Treaty

Michael Trotter, Principal Artist

Tanya Trotter, Principal Artist

Maxwell “Max” Fecteau Brown, guitar

Jonathan “Bam” Holmes, drums

Thomas “Tom” Davis, bass

Terrance “Slim” Holmes, organ/keys

Angela Andrews, Tour Manager

Founded in 2014 by the husband-and-wife duo Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter, The War and Treaty has emerged as one of the most electrifying new acts in American music.

They recently earned their first ever Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best American Roots Song for “Blank Page.” They also received their first ever Duo of the Year nomination from the Country Music Association, Vocal Duo nomination from the Academy of Country Music, plus recognition by the Country Music Hall of Fame, Grand Ole Opry and Americana Music Association, including earning AMA Duo/Group of the Year for the second straight year.

With a lionhearted sonic blend, both roaring with passion and tender to the touch, The Tennessean notes, “they are unlike any other act in music.” The War and Treaty’s major label debut album Lover’s Game (Mercury Nashville) was met with critical praise, with Associated Press writing, “the colossally talented pair continue their commando, no limits journey to the top of the music world.” Drawing respect across the board, they have gone on to appear as top-flight collaborators including “Hey Driver” with Zach Bryan.

The War and Treaty has also captivated audiences across the globe, from North America to Europe, Australia and beyond, while headlining their own shows and opening for a diverse group of living legends: Al Green, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, John Legend, Lauren Daigle and Van Morrison among them.

Special Thanks

Program

Tania Leon: Raices (Origins)

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Edward Gardner, Principal Conductor Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin

Sat, Oct 12 / 7 PM / Granada Theatre

Running time: approx. 120 minutes including intermission

Great Performances Suite Sponsors: G.A. Fowler Family Foundation and The Shanbrom Family Foundation

Additional support from Anne Smith Towbes honoring the memory of Michael Towbes

Presented in association with Special Thanks to Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery

About the Program

Tania León (b. 1943): Raices (Origins)

Dmitri Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, op. 77

Nocturne: Adagio

Scherzo: Allegro non troppo

Passacaglia: Andante

Cadenza

Burlesca: Allegro con brio

- Intermission -

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, op. 36

Andante sostenuo; Moderato con anima; Moderato assai, quasi Andante

Andantino in modo di canzone

Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato

Finale: Allegro con fuoco

The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Autumn 2024 U.S. tour is made possible with the support of Dunard Fund USA and the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

By Tania León based on a conversation with Paul Griffiths

The title of this work is a Spanish word that means “roots,” or “origins.” I prefer “origins,” because it’s more general. It’s also a word I’ve used before as a title, in my Origines for brass and percussion, which I wrote in 2012. In the case of this new piece, the origins are partly mine and therefore very mixed, for, like many people in Cuba, where I come from, I have quite a lot in my heritage: Spanish, Cuban, Chinese and French. Like a jambalaya. That’s why I’m not threatened by any culture; in fact, I’m very curious, and I want to learn. Living now in the United States, there’s a lot I have absorbed, to the point that when I go back to Cuba they think I’m from Arizona!

Every time I read a book by Gabriel García Márquez it’s like going back home to my childhood. I grew up in a poor neighborhood and there was always a tapestry of sound in the background; somebody always had a radio on. Also, in Cuba, and indeed all over Latin America, we have a very strong dance element in our culture, and that’s how I grew up: dancing – Cuban, Spanish, even Scottish dancing. You’ll certainly hear dancing in this piece. And then there’s a touch of Latin America in the orchestra, including an instrument that I’m using for the first time, which is a chime made from animal nails. It’s found in various areas of Peru and Colombia.

photo: Mark Allan

The piece is in three main sections, but first of all there’s a short introduction, which I’ve marked “Calm.” It’s scored for the strings, playing harmonics, and it has an internal character. It’s a state I try to find in myself: contemplative. Even when the music is much more active, this contemplation is going on behind the scenes. Towards the end of the second section it comes right forward.

When the introduction has come to a stop, there’s a pause and then the big first section comes in, with the marking “Jovial.” It’s a dance-inspired movement that explodes. This is where I really went ethnic, especially in the transition at the end, where the piano and percussion continue but in the strings, especially the basses, you immediately recognise a Cuban style of syncopation. And then it totally disappears and goes into the second section.

This is really for the woodwinds, under the heading “Enchanted” . . . It’s like a forest. And then the brass come in, like the wind, that pushes things. I didn’t use the trumpets so much here, because I was reserving them for the finale. It’s like a walk through a forest. It always impressed me tremendously, something I heard as a child, that Beethoven used to walk through the forest to gain inspiration. Whenever I have the opportunity, I do that. Also, I owed a lot to Hans Werner Henze, and when we first met, and were discussing how we composed, we did so as we walked through a forest. He invited me to come and see him in Castel Gandolfo. He sent me a fax, and I thought it was a prank until I telephoned him. We spoke in Spanish, and he asked me to be on the jury at his Munich Biennale in 1992. From then on, he became like a father to me in Europe.

The last part of the piece is very upbeat. It’s a conversation between Latin American influences and jazz influences. It’s a way of questioning everything that I have become. And it’s a way of leaving the stage.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975):

Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, op. 77

During the summer of 1947, in the icy political atmosphere that followed military victory in World War II, Dmitri Shostakovich began what seemed an entirely “safe” composition. For years, he had been an admirer of violinist David Oistrakh, and that summer – in the village of Kellomäki on the Gulf of Finland – he began a violin concerto for his friend. He sketched the first movement that July and completed it in November after returning to his teaching position in Moscow. The second

movement, a scherzo, came quickly and was done by the first week in December, while the third movement, a passacaglia, was completed in January 1948. But as Shostakovich continued to work on the concerto, the political and artistic climate around him turned deadly. This was the period of the crackdown on Soviet artists led by Stalin’s ideological pointman, Andrei Zhdanov. At the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Composers in February 1948, Shostakovich, along with Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Miaskovsky and others, were attacked for their “formalistic distortions and anti-democratic tendencies” and for writing “confused, neuropathological combinations which transform music into cacophony,” music that “dwells too much on the dark and fearful aspects of reality.” Forced to read a humiliating apology and to promise to mend his ways, Shostakovich quickly learned that the government’s demand for conformity took more menacing forms: he was dismissed from his teaching positions, his music was effectively banned and there is evidence that the Shostakovich family subsisted during this period on the savings of their housekeeper.

Stunned but alert to the dangers before him, the composer responded in two ways. The public Shostakovich wrote the music demanded by Stalin’s government – film scores and patriotic cantatas like Song of the Forests and The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland. The private Shostakovich wrote the music he wanted to, but these scores went into his desk, waiting for a safer day. Among the latter was the manuscript for the violin concerto for Oistrakh. Years later, Shostakovich took pleasure in showing friends where he was in the composition of the finale of this concerto when he heard of the Congress’ denunciation of him. It was in the middle of a run of sixteenth-notes, and he pointed out that the music before and after that news was exactly the same.

The death of Stalin in 1953 seemed to promise a more liberal artistic atmosphere in Russia, but Shostakovich held the concerto back for two more years. It was finally premiered by Oistrakh and the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeni Mravinsky on October 29, 1955, eight years after its composition. The concerto had a popular success, though Soviet critics – still fearful of saying the wrong thing in that uncertain atmosphere – were noncommittal. Oistrakh, however, loved the concerto and played it with American orchestras on his first tour of this country later that fall.

From the perspective of a half-century later, it seems extraordinary that this music could have been

considered dangerous, either to its audience or its composer. In many respects, the most remarkable feature of this concerto is how old-fashioned it is. It is a big virtuoso piece, conceived with the talents of a specific performer in mind and offering that soloist a cadenza so spectacular that it almost becomes a separate movement in itself. The Concerto in A Minor has become so much a feature of our musical lives that the fact that Shostakovich had to keep it hidden for so many years speaks volumes about the political and artistic climate in Russia during Stalin’s paranoid final decline.

We need not know any of its history, however, to feel the greatness of this music. The concerto has some unusual features. It has two dark slow movements, both of them almost night-music movements (one of them in fact is called Nocturne), and these alternate with two bright fast movements, both of which have titles that imply a degree of play: Scherzo and Burlesque. The scoring is also unusual – Shostakovich does without trumpets and trombones, but his use of xylophone, harp and celesta gives this concerto a distinct, sometimes eerie, sound.

The opening Nocturne truly is night-music. The lower strings’ rocking opening supplies the shape of the movement’s main theme, and the solo violin ruminates on this shape as it rises above their somber sound. The music builds to a climax marked appassionato, and then Shostakovich mutes the violin and the music turns subdued and dark. Much of the writing for the solo violin is very high here, and eventually the violin comes swirling down out of the dark moonlight. Some aggressive double stopping leads to the wonderful close, where the muted violin climbs to the top of its range, its high E shimmering above the icy suspension of the orchestra’s final chord.

By contrast, the Scherzo is all hard edges, dancing and skittering along its 3/8 meter. While there are episodes on other themes, it is the strident energy of the opening that drives this movement to its unrelenting close.

With horn fanfares ringing above them, lower strings stamp out the ground bass of the Passacaglia theme, which stretches out over seventeen measures, then begins to repeat quietly. A woodwind choir sings a somber variation before the solo violin enters, soaring above the ominous tread of the passacaglia subject far below. Its plaintive opening melody gives way to more impassioned material, and at the climax the violin stamps out the passacaglia ground in fortissimo double stops. Gradually this falls away, the orchestra drops out and – as a bridge between the third and

fourth movements – Shostakovich offers his soloist a tremendous cadenza. This begins simply (the marking is “quiet but majestic”) as the violin explores bits of the passacaglia ground, but gradually it gathers speed and accelerates straight into the concluding Burlesque. Shostakovich had originally composed a beginning in which the soloist himself announced the movement’s opening theme, but Oistrakh – coming off that treacherous cadenza – begged for some relief at this point: “Dmitri Dmitryevich, please consider letting the orchestra take over the first eight bars in the Finale so as to give me a break, then at least I can wipe the sweat off my brow.” Realizing that he had a point, the composer quickly re-wrote the beginning to give the soloist twenty seconds to wipe his brow.

The title Burlesque implies a mocking or joking character, and this movement is at times almost sneering. The stinging sound of the xylophone colors its jaunty main idea, and this finale, in the general shape of a rondo, does not relax its pace for an instant. At the close, the violin rushes from the bottom of its range to the very top as the music hurtles to its brusque final chords.

It is no surprise that Shostakovich kept this music hidden during Stalin’s repressive final years. There is nothing tragic about this concerto, nor is there anything ideologically dangerous about it beyond the fact that it is simply a very serious piece of music. That may have been enough to make it dangerous in those uncertain years. Beautifully written for one of the great violinists, the concerto makes a brilliant impact in live performance, especially in its glittering final movement. But long after the brilliance of the finale has ended, it is the haunting power of the slow movements – the somber Nocturne and the heartfelt Passacaglia – that stays to haunt the memory.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893):

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, op. 36

The Fourth Symphony dates from the most tumultuous period in Tchaikovsky’s difficult life, and its composition came from a moment of agony. When he began work on the symphony in May 1877, Tchaikovsky had for some years been tormented by the secret of his homosexuality, a secret he kept hidden from all but a few friends. As he worked on this score, one of his students at the Moscow Conservatory – a deranged young woman named Antonina Ivanovna Milyukova – declared her love for him. Knowing that such a prospect was hopeless, Tchaikovsky put her off as gently as he could, but she

persisted, even threatening suicide at one point. As fate would have it, Tchaikovsky was also at work on his opera Eugen Onegin at this time and was composing the scene in which the bachelor Onegin turns down the infatuated young Tatiana, to his eventual regret. Struck by the parallel with his own situation – and at some level longing for a “normal” life with a wife and children –Tchaikovsky did precisely the wrong thing for some very complex reasons: he agreed to Antonina’s proposal of marriage. His friends were horrified, but the composer pressed ahead and married Antonina on July 18, 1877. The marriage was an instant disaster. Tchaikovsky quickly abandoned his bride, tried to return, but fled again and made what we would today call a suicide gesture. He then retreated to St. Petersburg and collapsed into two days of unconsciousness. His doctors prescribed complete rest, a recommendation Tchaikovsky was only too happy to follow. He abandoned his teaching post in Moscow and fled to Western Europe, finding relief in the quiet of Clarens in Switzerland and San Remo in Italy. It was in San Remo – on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean and far from the chaos of his life in Moscow – that he completed the Fourth Symphony in January 1878.

The Fourth Symphony has all of Tchaikovsky’s considerable virtues – great melodies, primary colors, and soaring climaxes – and in this case they are fused with a superheated emotional content. The composer’s friends guessed, perhaps inevitably, that the symphony had a program, that it was “about” something, and Tchaikovsky offered several different explanations of the content of this dramatic music. To his friend Serge Taneyev, Tchaikovsky said that the model for his Fourth Symphony had been Beethoven’s Fifth, specifically in the way both symphonies are structured around a recurring motif, though perhaps also in the sense that the two symphonies begin in emotional turmoil and eventually win their way to release and triumph in the finale. For his patroness, Madame Nadezhda von Meck, who had supplied the money that enabled him to escape his marriage, Tchaikovsky prepared an elaborate program detailing what his symphony “meant.” One should inevitably be suspicious of such “explanations” (and Tchaikovsky himself later suppressed the program), but this account does offer some sense of what he believed had shaped the content of his music.

The symphony opens with a powerful brass fanfare, which Tchaikovsky describes as “Fate, the inexorable power that hampers our search for happiness. This power hangs over our heads like the sword of Damocles,

leaving us no option but to submit.” The principal subject of this movement, however, is a dark, stumbling waltz in 9/8 introduced by the violins: “The main theme of the Allegro describes feelings of depression and hopelessness. Would it not be better to forsake reality and lose oneself in dreams?” This long opening movement (it is nearly half the length of the entire symphony) has an unusual structure: Tchaikovsky builds it on three separate theme-groups which evolve through some unusual harmonic relationships. Like inescapable fate, the opening motto-theme returns at key points in this dramatic music, and it finally drives the movement to a furious close: “Thus we see that life is only an everlasting alternation of somber reality and fugitive dreams of happiness.”

After such a turbulent opening, the two middle movements bring much-needed relief. The contrast is so sharp, in fact, that Taneyev complained that these were essentially ballet music made to serve as symphonic movements; Taneyev may have a point, but after that scalding first movement, the gentle character of the middle movements is welcome. The Andantino, in ternary-form, opens with a plaintive oboe solo and features a more animated middle section. Tchaikovsky described it: “Here is the melancholy feeling that overcomes us when we sit weary and alone at the end of the day. The book we pick up slips from our fingers, and a procession of memories passes in review...”

The Scherzo has deservedly become one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular movements. It is a tour de force for strings (which play pizzicato throughout), with crisp interjections first from the woodwinds and then from brass. Tchaikovsky makes piquant contrast between these quite different sounds, combining all his forces only in the final moments of the movement. The composer notes: “There is no specific feeling or exact expression in the third movement. Here are only the capricious arabesques and indeterminate shapes that come into one’s mind with a little wine...”

Out of the quiet close of the third movement, the finale explodes to life. The composer described this movement as “the picture of a folk holiday” and said, “If you find no pleasure in yourself, look about you. Go to the people. See how they can enjoy life and give themselves up entirely to festivity.” Marked Allegro con fuoco, this movement simply alternates its volcanic opening sequence with a gentle little woodwind tune that is actually the Russian folktune “In the field there stood a birch tree.” At the climax, however, the fate-motto from the first movement suddenly bursts forth: “But

hardly have we had a moment to enjoy this when Fate, relentless and untiring, makes his presence known.”

Given the catastrophic events of his life during this music’s composition, Tchaikovsky may well have come to feel that Fate was inescapable, and the reappearance of the opening motto amid the high spirits of the finale represents the climax – both musically and emotionally –of the entire symphony. This spectre duly acknowledged, Tchaikovsky rips the symphony to a close guaranteed to set every heart in the hall racing at the same incandescent pace as his music.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s mission is to share wonder with the modern world through the power of orchestral music, which it accomplishes through live performances, online, and an extensive education and community program.

The Orchestra is resident at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. It also has residencies in Brighton, Eastbourne, Saffron Hall in Essex and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and has since been headed by many great conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In 2021, Edward Gardner became the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, succeeding Vladimir Jurowski, who became Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his transformative impact on the Orchestra as Principal Conductor from 2007-2021. Karina Canellakis is the Orchestra’s current Principal Guest Conductor and Tania León its Composer-in-Residence.

The Grammy-winning London Philharmonic Orchestra can be heard on countless film scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, East is East, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Thor: The Dark World. The Orchestra’s trailblazing digital content reaches millions worldwide: in 2023, the LPO was the most successful orchestra worldwide on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, with over 1.1 million followers across all platforms. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and its own record label features more than 120 albums, with recent releases receiving prestigious

Diapason d’Or and Gramophone awards. In spring 2024, the Orchestra was the focus of a behind-the-scenes TV documentary series on Sky Arts: Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In the upcoming year, the Orchestra will continue to offer digital streams of selected live concerts through its partnership with Marquee TV.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians: its dynamic and wide-ranging Education and Community program provides first musical experiences for children and families; offers creative projects and professional development opportunities for schools and teachers; inspires talented teenage instrumentalists to progress their skills and develops the next generation of professional musicians. Notable are its respected schemes developing the talent pipeline, with recent additions specifically for young artists from communities underrepresented in U.K. orchestras, and programs for adults and young people with disabilities or special educational needs.

In 2024-2025, Principal Conductor Edward Gardner leads the Orchestra in an exciting season featuring much-loved favorites and brand new works. The Orchestra also welcomes back Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis and Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski, as well as guest conductors including Mark Elder, Lidiya Yankovskaya, Robin Ticciati and Kevin John Edusei. Throughout the season, the Orchestra explores the relationship between music and memory in its ‘Moments Remembered’ series. The season also sees major tours to the U.S., Japan, China and Europe, as well as a busy calendar of performances and community events in the Orchestra’s Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden residencies.

Edward Gardner

Edward Gardner has been Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since September 2021, recently extending his contract until at least 2028. He is also Music Director of the Norwegian Opera & Ballet and Honorary Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, following his tenure as Chief Conductor from 2015 to 2024.

In 2024-2025 – his fourth season as Principal Conductor – Gardner conducts nine LPO concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, as well as a U.S. tour culminating at Carnegie Hall, and in major European cities including Vienna, Frankfurt and Hamburg. He is joined by superb

soloists including Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Randall Goosby, Víkingur Ólafsson, Isabelle Faust and Augustin Hadelich, and presents works including Strauss’ mighty Alpine Symphony, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 – an enormous end to the season.

Gardner opened his inaugural season as Music Director of the Norwegian Opera & Ballet; with concert performances of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony. He will then conduct two fully staged operas; Verdi’s La traviata and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, following earlier productions of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy and Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera.

In demand as a guest conductor, this season Gardner appears with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio, Dallas Symphony, New World Symphony, Minnesota, Seoul Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony and West Australian Symphony orchestras. Debuts in recent seasons have included with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras and the San Francisco Symphony, Staatskapelle Berlin, Berlin Radio Symphony and Vienna Symphony orchestras. In the U.K., he has had longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010-2016, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, whom he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms.

In spring 2025, Gardner returns to London’s Royal Opera House to conduct the world premiere of MarkAnthony Turnage’s Festen, and in June he returns to the Bavarian State Opera for Rusalka, following his debut with Peter Grimes in 2022 and Otello in 2023. Music Director of English National Opera for eight years (20072015), Gardner has also built a strong relationship with New York’s Metropolitan Opera, with productions of The Damnation of Faust, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier and Werther. Elsewhere, he has conducted at La Scala, Chicago Lyric Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opéra National de Paris.

In February this year, the LPO Label released a recording of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust with Edward Gardner, recorded live in February 2023 (LPO-0128). This follows his recording of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage, which won the 2023 Gramophone Opera Award. A second Tippett disc (featuring Symphony No. 2 and the Piano Concerto with Steven Osborne) is planned for release in November 2024. In spring 2024, Gardner and the LPO were the subject of a behind-the-scenes

TV documentary series on Sky Arts: Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

A passionate supporter of young talent, Gardner founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has a close relationship with The Juilliard School of Music, and with the Royal Academy of Music who appointed him their inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Chair in 2014.

Born in Gloucester in 1974, Gardner was educated at the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, and gained early recognition as Assistant Conductor of the Hallé and Music Director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. His many accolades include the Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor of the Year Award (2008), an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2009) and an OBE for Services to Music in The Queen’s Birthday Honours (2012).

Edward Gardner’s position at the LPO is generously supported by Aud Jebsen.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja

Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s focus is to get to the heart of the music, to its meaning for us – now and here. With a combination of depth, brilliance and humor, Kopatchinskaja brings an inimitable sense of theatrics to her music. Described by The New York Times as “a player of rare expressive energy and disarming informality, of whimsy and theatrical ambition,” Kopatchinskaja’s distinctive approach always conveys the core of the work, whether it is with an out-of-the-box performance of a traditional violin repertoire classic or with an original staged project she presents as experimental performance dramaturge.

Her absolute priority is music of the 20th and 21st century and the collaboration with living composers such as Luca Francesconi, Michael Hersch, György Kurtág, Márton Illés and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Kopatchinskaja directs staged concerts at venues on both sides of the Atlantic and collaborates with leading orchestras, conductors and festivals worldwide. Starting from the 2024-2025 season, she will serve as the Artistic Partner of the SWR Symphony Orchestra. A virtuoso, storyteller and all-around phenomenon, her artistic direction will involve designing her own programs, which will include both established concert formats and innovative theatrical and interdisciplinary approaches.

Among these is the staged concert The Peace Project, which reflects on centuries of existential suffering caused by war through a kaleidoscope of Baroque and modern works up to the present day. The project addresses the numerous reports from war zones, the violent disruption of daily life and the constant fear for one’s life and loved ones.

Kopatchinskaja will also be Artist in Residence at the 2025 Klarafestival, where she will continue to actively support themes related to environmental protection and sustainability in innovatively curated projects. Furthermore, she holds the position of Associated Artist of the SWR Experimentalstudio, one of the most important international research centers in the field of electronic music.

This season, she channels her creative prowess and versatility into performances at La Biennale di Venezia, BBC Proms, Lucerne Festival and an appearance with the New York Philharmonic. In 2024, Kopatchinskaja is honoring Schönberg’s 150th anniversary and performs his monumental Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker, Dresdner Philharmonie, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, to name just a few.

A trusted partner of the LPO for a decade, Kopatchinskaja will collaborate with the orchestra and Edward Gardner on an extensive U.S. tour culminating in a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York this autumn. Kopatchinskaja also reunites with Ensemble Resonanz for a new project, playground, to light-footedly deconstruct our familiar world, reassemble it back and lead the audience on an adventure of discovery through boundlessness. The program features a new double concerto by Dai Fujikura alongside Claire Chase.

In the past year, Kopatchinskaja curated large-scale residencies at four prominent concert halls: the Southbank Centre in London, Philharmonie Essen, Wiener Konzerthaus (where she is the youngest honorary member of the Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft), and this year’s Golden Decade festival at the Dresdner Philharmonie, which featured her performing six major violin works from the Classical Modern era over three consecutive evenings. In a new production directed by Barrie Kosky at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Songs and Fragments, Kopatchinskaja collaborated with soprano Anna Prohaska on György Kurtág’s Kafka-Fragments.

Highlights of the previous seasons included residencies at the London Barbican Centre, Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Kopatchinskaja’s continued role as artistic partner of Camerata Bern, and a daring musical experiment with Herbert Fritsch – a Neo-Dada opera production Vergeigt at Theater Basel.

Following the international success of her previous collaboration with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Bye Bye Beethoven, Patricia Kopatchinskaja returned for the premiere performances of a new staged concert with the ensemble, Les Adieux, a project confronting the rapid deterioration of the environment and the loss of the natural world.

Kopatchinskaja also performs as a vocal artist in Ligeti’s Mystères du macabre and Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire where she takes on the role of Pierrot himself, as well as her project presenting Kurt Schwitters’ poem Ursonate as a film in the style of Dada.

Kopatchinskaja’s discography includes more than 30 recordings, among them the Grammy award-winning Death and the Maiden with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a project which was also recreated as a semi-staged filmed performance with Camerata Bern, premiered on HarrisonParrott’s digital platform Virtual Circle. Recent CD releases include Les Plaisirs Illuminés with Sol Gabetta and Camerata Bern, which was saluted with a BBC Music Magazine award and Le monde selon George Antheil with Joonas Ahonen (both on Alpha Classics). A revival of the project Maria Mater Meretrix with Anna Prohaska presenting the image of women throughout the centuries in a musical mosaic was also released on CD last season.

Additionally, in 2023, Kopatchinskaja embarked on an extensive tour across Germany with Sol Gabetta, celebrating their album Sol & Pat and their musical connection of more than 20 years. 2024 also saw the release of the album Take 3 with clarinetist Reto Bieri and pianist Polina Leschenko – a testament to the enduring partnership of these three artists, celebrating their shared musical journey and musical origins.

Kopatchinskaja is a humanitarian ambassador for Terre des Hommes, the leading Swiss child relief agency and was awarded the Swiss Grand Award for Music by the Federal Office of Culture for Switzerland in 2017.

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Edward Gardner, Principal Conductor

Karina Canellakis, Principal Guest Conductor

Vladimir Jurowski KBE, Conductor Emeritus

HRH The Duke of Kent KG, Patron

Elena Dubinets, Artistic Director

David Burke, Chief Executive

Pieter Schoeman, Leader

First Violins

Pieter Schoeman, Leader

– Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Alice Ivy-Pemberton, Co-Leader

Vesselin Gellev, Sub-Leader

Kate Oswin

– Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Lasma Taimina

– Chair supported by Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave

Minn Majoe

– Chair supported by Dr. Alex & Maria Chan

Thomas Eisner

– Chair supported by Ryze Power

Martin Höhmann

Alice Hall

Yang Zhang

Cassandra Hamilton

Elizaveta Tyun

Nilufar Alimaksumova

Amanda Smith

Ronald Long

Chu-Yu Yang

Second Violins

Tania Mazzetti, Principal

Emma Oldfield, Co-Principal

Claudia Tarrant-Matthews

Sophie Phillips

Nancy Elan

Fiona Higham

– Chair supported by

David & Yi Buckley

Marie-Anne Mairesse

Ashley Stevens

Sioni Williams

Kate Cole

Jessica Coleman

Alison Strange

Charlie MacClure

Jamie Hutchinson

Violas

Scott Dickinson, Guest Principal

Martin Wray

– Chair supported by

David & Bettina Harden

Katharine Leek

Benedetto Pollani

Laura Vallejo

Lucia Ortiz Sauco

Jisu Song

Kate De Campos

Shiry Rashkovsky

Linda Kidwell

Michelle Bruil

Julia Doukakis

Celli

Kristina Blaumane, Principal

– Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart Roden

Waynne Kwon

David Lale

Hee Yeon Cho

Nina Kiva

Helen Thomas

George Hoult

Sibylle Hentschel

Iain Ward

Jane Lindsay

Double Basses

Kevin Rundell, Principal

Sebastian Pennar, Co-Principal

Hugh Kluger

George Peniston

Tom Walley

– Chair supported by

William & Alex de Winton

Laura Murphy

Charlotte Kerbegian

Lowri Estell

Flutes

Fiona Kelly, Guest Principal

Eleanor Blamires

Stewart McIlwham

Piccolo

Stewart McIlwham, Principal

Oboes

Ian Hardwick, Principal

Alice Munday

Sue Böhling

Cor Anglais

Sue Böhling, Principal – Chair supported by Dr. Barry Grimaldi

Clarinets

Benjamin Mellefont, Principal – Chair supported by

Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton

Thomas Watmough – Chair supported by

Roger Greenwood

Paul Richards

Bass Clarinet

Paul Richards, Principal

Bassoons

Jonathan Davies, Principal – Chair supported by Sir Simon Robey

Dominic Tyler

Simon Estell

Contrabassoon

Simon Estell, Principal

Horns

Annemarie Federle, Principal – Chair supported by Victoria Robey CBE

Martin Hobbs

Mark Vines, Co-Principal

Gareth Mollison

Duncan Fuller

Trumpets

Paul Beniston, Principal

Tom Nielsen, Co-Principal

Anne McAneney

– Chair supported by Peter Coe

Trombones

Mark Templeton, Principal

– Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

Bass Trombone

Lyndon Meredith, Principal Tuba

Lee Tsarmaklis, Principal

– Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

Timpani

Simon Carrington, Principal

– Chair supported by Victoria Robey CBE

Percussion

Andrew Barclay, Principal – Chair supported by Gill & Garf Collins

Karen Hutt

Jeremy Cornes

Harp

Sue Blair, Guest Principal

Piano/Celeste

Catherine Edwards

The LPO also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert:

Sonja Drexler

Friends of the Orchestra

Special Thanks

An Evening with Yotam Ottolenghi

Mon, Oct 14 / 7:30 PM / Granada Theatre

Running time: approx. 110 minutes, including 20 minute intermission

Event Sponsor: Martha Gabbert

Supporting Sponsor: Jane Eagleton

Yotam Ottolenghi is a celebrated chef and bestselling cookbook author. He is the restaurateur and chef-patron of six London-based delis, as well as the NOPI and ROVI restaurants. He is the author of 10 bestselling and multi-award-winning cookbooks. Ottolenghi has been a weekly columnist for The Guardian (U.K.) for more than 16 years and is a regular contributor to The New York Times. His commitment to the championing of vegetables, as well as ingredients once seen as “exotic,” has led to what some call The Ottolenghi Effect. This is shorthand for the creation of a meal which is full of color, flavor, bounty and surprise.

For Ottolenghi, food is about more than what we eat. It is about joy, pleasure and surprise. It is about a sense of place and home. It is about commonality, an act which brings people together. The popular chef has stated, “It’s tragic that we are so good at adapting ourselves to different cuisines and enjoy being super international, yet we are not able to apply the same level of tolerance to the actual people that cook them.” Simply put, this philosopher of the kitchen is passionate about making people happy through food full of harmonious contradictions.

Ottolenghi is widely beloved for his beautiful, inspirational and award-winning cookbooks, yet he had an unlikely beginning. In 1997, Ottolenghi completed a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in comparative literature at Tel Aviv University; his thesis was on the philosophy of the photographic image. That same year, he moved to Amsterdam, where he worked at a

Dutch-Jewish weekly and considered getting his doctorate at Yale. Instead, and against the advice of his father, family and friends, he moved to London to study French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu. Soon, Ottolenghi found work as a pastry chef, and eventually met the Palestinian chef Sami Tamimi.

Ottolenghi and Tamimi discovered they had grown up just a few miles apart on opposite sides of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, in Jerusalem. They became friends and eventual business partners, bonding over shared language and a joint “incomprehension of traditional English food.”

Ottolenghi’s debut cookbook, Ottolenghi, co-authored with Tamimi, was published in 2008. Many more internationally bestselling volumes have followed: a collection of recipes exploring the flavors of his home-city, Jerusalem with Tamimi (2012); the vegetable cookbooks Plenty (2010) and Plenty More (2014); a cookbook from his acclaimed London restaurant, Nopi (2015); a dessert cookbook, Sweet (2017); Ottolenghi Simple (2018); Ottolenghi Flavour (co-written with Ixta Belfrage) and Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love and Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things (both co-written with Noor Murad). His books have sold over 1.5 million copies in North America and 5 million worldwide.

Ottolenghi’s cookbooks have proven influential, with The New York Times noting they are widely imitated for their plain-spoken instructions and enticing photographs (overseen by Ottolenghi himself). They have been

photo: Elena Heatherwick

praised by Nigel Slater, David Lebovitz, Deborah Madison, Food & Wine and The Wall Street Journal. Mark Bittman said, “Plenty... is among the most generous and luxurious non-meat cookbooks ever produced, one that instantly reminds us that you don’t need meat to produce over-the-top food.” Ottolenghi now celebrates the release of his highly anticipated new cookbook, Comfort, his most personal work since his era-defining publications Simple and Flavour.

In 2014, the London Evening Standard noted Ottolenghi had “radically rewritten the way Londoners cook and eat,” while Bon Appétit wrote that he had “made the world love vegetables.” Jerusalem was awarded Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals and Best International Cookbook by the James Beard Foundation. Ottolenghi’s books have been named among the best books of the year by The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and NPR. A documentary film, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles, directed by Laura Gabbert, was released in theaters in 2020 and can be viewed on demand. Yotam Ottolenghi is an instructor with MasterClass, the streaming platform.

Ottolenghi grew up in Israel to parents of Italian and German descent, and spent childhood summers in Italy. Long based in London, where he co-owns an eponymous group of deli shops and the fine dining restaurants NOPI and ROVI, Ottolenghi spends much of his time creating and testing recipes for his weekly column in The Guardian and monthly column in The New York Times. When he is not cooking, he oversees the day-to-day running of his business and makes occasional television programs. Family life with his husband and two young sons and Pilates are much-loved distractions.

Books are available for purchase in the lobby, including pre-signed copies of Comfort

Fight Night

Directed by Alexander Devriendt

Written by Alexander Devriendt and Angelo Tijssens

Performers:

Angelo Tijssens, Aurélie Lannoy, Jonas Vermeulen, Julia Ghysels, Bastiaan Vandendriessche, Michaël Pas, Prince K. Appiah

Voting System: Samir Veen and Nick Mattan

Design: Nick Mattan

Costumes: Valerie Le Roy

Production Manager: Lynn Van den Bergh

Fight Night by Ontroerend

Goed

Tue, Oct 15 / 8 PM / Campbell Hall

Running time: approx. 90 minutes, no intermission

A Q&A with the artists will follow the performance.

Presented in association with UCSB Department of Theater and Dance

About the Program

Fight Night puts five actors into the position of “candidates” struggling to get the audience’s sympathy and, ultimately, their vote. Only one of them will survive the relentless series of eliminations and they apply all possible tactics and strategies to assure their victory.

Technical: Tuur Decoene, Gerrit De Bremme, Bent Dujardin, Diederik De Cock, Ine Van Bortel

Software: Florian Van Belleghem, Mixx

Production: Ontroerend Goed

Coproduction: Perpodium

Beth Thyrion, Producer

Justine Boutens, Press & Communications

In cooperation with NTGent with the financial support of The Flemish Community and the city of Ghent. This show was made possible with the support of the Tax Shelter measure from the Belgian Federal Government & Casa Kafka. Special thanks to UMS Ann Arbor, Charleston Gaillard Center and the original co-creators The Border Project.

Set on a platform reminiscent of a boxing ring, the competition is fought not with fists but with words and looks. The audience, armed with a voting keypad, decides who stays and who goes, but gets entangled in an increasingly complex and puzzling system of rules and manipulations. As in mediatized political campaigns, polls and predictions, debates and charm offensives challenge the voters’ loyalty and common sense, in the end toppling their notion of free choice.

Fight Night is thoroughly political, but never explicitly so. The candidates don’t voice a particular ideology, nor do they comment on social issues or economic realities. By stripping their discourse of identifiable political messages, the show draws attention to the very reasons and motivations that compel voters to vote. At stake is the way the concept of “rule of the people” is put into practice in contemporary democratic societies. Fight Night illustrates how content and ideas are only relevant if they make a difference in statistics and increase the chance to gain power through numbers.

Ten years after the premiere of Fight Night, the world has changed, and Ontroerend Goed has since updated the

photo: Michiel Devijver

performance to correspond to the changing political climate. Back then, distrust in the system was a rather marginal phenomenon. Today, more than ever, trust in democracy is faltering. It has permeated the broadest segments of the population – and political parties.

During this event, the world will remain outside. No political statements, only a sharp analysis of how democracy works.

About the Company

The Belgian theater-performance-group Ontroerend Goed (a punning name, roughly translated as “Feel Estate”) produces self-devised work grounded in the here and now, inviting their audiences to participate as well as observe. Whether they are performing backwards, turning spectators into voters who eliminate actors, guiding strangers through a labyrinth of mirrors and avatars to meet themselves, or placing the audience at the controls of the financial system, the company has made it its trademark to be unpredictable in content and form.

They first emerged on the international scene in 2007, with The Smile Off Your Face, a one-on-one show in which the audience is tied to a wheelchair and then blindfolded. Their hit show Once and For All... was an uncompromising celebration of raw teenage energy on stage. Since then, the Belgian company has won

numerous prizes across Europe and has hit New York, Berlin, Sydney, Singapore and London to critical acclaim. Ontroerend Goed tours worldwide and creates remakes of their productions in other languages: there are versions in Russian, French, Mandarin, Cantonese and Kazakh, among others.

Ontroerend Goed delivers intense experiences built in the reality of theater. Convinced that life goes on during a performance, the group fabricates possible realities that question how we as individuals position ourselves in the world today. Led by artistic director Alexander Devriendt, the collective is convinced that every idea deserves its own brand of artistic expression; the company cherishes a sense of ownership for every single contributor to their work, from actors to light designers, scenographers to conceptual thinkers.

photo: Michiel Devijver

Josie Cox Women

Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality

Thu, Oct 17 / 7:30 PM / Campbell Hall

Lead Sponsor: Dorothy Largay

Justice for All Lead Sponsors: Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Eva & Yoel Haller, Dick Wolf, and Zegar Family Foundation

Presented in association with the following UCSB partners: Feminist Futures; Non-traditional Student Resource Center; Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Women’s Center; and Department of Feminist Studies

Josie Cox’s first book, Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality, traces the fight toward closing the gender pay gap throughout history and assesses the tremendous work that remains. It has been heralded as “a deeply researched story of how generations of workplace promises failed, and why progress is not only infuriatingly slow but often sabotaged and squandered” by Semafor business and finance editor Liz Hoffman. A narrative history told through profiles of women who fought for equal pay, the book shines a light not on the influential figures who were written out of history, but rather on the trailblazers who were never written into it. She pens important histories and discusses the modern inequities women still face today.

Cox was moved to write the book after a prominent business leader said women just aren’t as professionally ambitious as men, especially after they choose to start a family. It was an infuriating explanation for the gender pay gap that demonstrated that while laws have caught up to the importance of gender pay equity, our culture and the mindsets of those in power are lagging far behind. Cox makes the case that inequality affects us all and thus it is everyone’s problem to fix, not just a burden to be shouldered by women.

As a journalist, Cox has worked for Reuters, The Wall Street Journal as a financial markets correspondent, and The Independent, where she served as a business editor. As a freelancer, her work has appeared in publications such as Forbes, Fortune, Washington Post, Business Insider,

Huffington Post and The Guardian, among others. She is a frequent guest on CNN, ABC, PBS, CNBC, BBC and various public radio stations. Cox is also a writer for and founding editor of The Persistent, a digital journalism platform committed to amplifying women’s voices, stories, ideas and perspectives.

Cox holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Bath in the U.K. and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She was a 2020-2021 Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia Journalism School and currently serves as an associate instructor within the Strategic Communications program at Columbia’s School of Professional Studies.

photo: Nancy Borowick

Lead singer: Aida Cuevas

Backup singer: Valeria Cuevas

Aida Cuevas Canta a

Juan Gabriel 40 años después

Sun, Oct 20 / 7 PM / Arlington Theatre

Presented in association with Santa Barbara Mariachi Festival and UCSB Department of Music

Violins: Joe Anthony Flores, Sofía Ozuna, Carolina Rodríguez, Melanie Olivares, Charlie García-González

Trumpets: David Moreno, Adolfo Torres

Harmony Section: Rodolfo De Santiago, Austin Rosales, Pedro García

Percussion: Luis Torres

Keys: Jonathan González

Monitors: Mario Verdayes

Stage Manager: Baltazar Pérez

The “Queen of Ranchera Music,” Aida Cuevas presents a mariachi spectacle celebrating Mexico’s bestselling artist, Juan Gabriel, and the release of her latest album, Aida Cuevas Vuelve a Cantar a Juan Gabriel (August 2024).

Performing her legendary friend and mentor’s biggest hits, Cuevas exhibits her stunning vocals on “Te Lo Pido Por Favor,” “Te Sigo Amando” and “La Diferencia,” among others.

Juan Gabriel passed away in August 2016 as Mexico’s bestselling artist of all time, with over 100 million albums worldwide. Gabriel, a six-time Grammy nominee, was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009. Aida Cuevas is the only artist given permission by the Juan Gabriel estate to perform a tribute to the Latin American icon.

With a nearly 50-year career and 40-plus album releases, Cuevas is an esteemed figure in Mexico, beloved for her unswerving devotion to traditional mariachi music and for her mastery of its demanding vocal forms. She is the recipient of a Grammy award, a Latin Grammy award and 11 Grammy nominations in the Best Mariachi/Ranchero Album category.

Cuevas became the first female singer in the mariachi genre to win a Grammy when she was honored at the 2018 awards with Best Regional Mexican Music Album for Arrieros Somos (Versiones Acústicas). The album is a collection of acoustic versions of Mexican classics by renowned composer Cuco Sánchez. She previously won a Latin Grammy for Best Tango Album for her 2010 release De Corazón a Corazón... Mariachi Tango.

Cuevas’ recent releases Antología de la Música Ranchera, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, both received Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations.

Special Thanks

Co-presented with

Dr. Jennifer Doudna

CRISPR Gene Editing and the Future of Human Health

Tue, Oct 22 / 7:30 PM / Granada Theatre

Supporting Sponsors: Martha Gabbert and Judy Wainwright-Mitchell & Jim Mitchell

Dr. Jennifer Doudna is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and a Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her groundbreaking development of CRISPR-Cas9 as a genome-engineering technology, with collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, earned the two the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and forever changed the course of human and agricultural genomics research.

This powerful technology enables scientists to change DNA – the code of life – with a precision only dreamed of just a few years ago. Labs worldwide have redirected the course of their research programs to incorporate this new tool, creating a CRISPR revolution with huge implications across biology and medicine.

In addition to her scientific achievements, Doudna is a leader in public discussion of the ethical implications of genome editing for human biology and societies, and advocates for thoughtful approaches to the development of policies around the safe use of CRISPR technology.

She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Doudna is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and has received numerous other honors including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2015), the Japan Prize (2016), Kavli Prize (2018), the LUI Che Woo Welfare Betterment Prize (2019) and the Wolf Prize

in Medicine (2020). Doudna’s work led Time magazine to recognize her as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2015 and a runner-up for Person of the Year in 2016.

She is the co-author of A Crack in Creation, a personal account of her research and the societal and ethical implications of gene editing.

Learn more at innovativegenomics.org/jennifer-doudna

An Evening with Lil Buck and Jon Boogz

Thu, Oct 24 / 8 PM / Campbell Hall

Major Sponsor: Jody & John Arnhold

Presented in association with UCSB Department of Theater and Dance

About the Program

This evening length program includes an exclusive performance from Lil Buck and Jon Boogz created especially for Arts & Lectures, along with screenings of their award winning work and an in-depth conversation/ Q&A with the audience.

Lil Buck

Charles “Lil Buck” Riley is a world-renowned and awardwinning performing artist, entrepreneur and advocate for the arts and humanities. His dance repertoire spans a multitude of styles including Memphis Jookin’, ballet, hip hop and modern, just to name a few.

Over the course of his career, he has performed and collaborated with some of the world’s finest artists and brands including Yo-Yo Ma, Madonna, Alicia Keys, Janelle Monáe, Lizzo, Nike, Chanel, Versace, Louis Vuitton, Apple, Jordan, Lexus, Gap and many others.

Outside of dance, Lil Buck is a true creative and has provided a unique skill set to top-notch projects which include being a choreographer on the Starz television series Blindspotting, seasons 1 and 2, a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance and roles in both the movie Emperor and the feature film Her. Lil Buck designed a capsule collection for Versace and has provided artistic consultation to numerous brands over his lengthy career. Recently, Lil Buck’s story and creative process were

captured in the documentary Lil Buck: Real Swan, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and in the Netflix documentary series Move

Lil Buck has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. In 2014, he was presented with The Wall Street Journal’s Innovator of the Year award. His strong business acumen is ever present in the many projects that he is involved in outside of dance, which include ventures related to food and beverage, brand management, fashion and production.

He has personally produced multiple major stage shows including the awe-inspiring production Memphis Jookin’: The Show, which takes Lil Buck back to his roots, brings his career full circle and is emblematic of his efforts to distill the essence of dance as a tool to change the world.

Jon Boogz

An Emmy Award-winning movement artist/ choreographer/director, Jon Boogz is a groundbreaker and leader in today’s street dance community who –along with his collective – is committed to uplifting the art form of street dance. Boogz is passionate about getting the authenticity of the story right, while crafting dance and drama to speak to today’s audience in powerful and inspiring ways.

Boogz recently received an Emmy Award for his choreography work on the Lionsgate/Starz hit television series Blindspotting, created by Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. He is also directing and writing a Broadway show with the Public Theater and is developing a first-of-its-kind action-adventure dance television series with David Levine at Anonymous Content.

Boogz’s many credits include choreography for Mikhail Baryshnikov, Naomi Campbell and Gloria Estefan. He choreographed Pharrell’s Adidas Originals campaign and creative directed, choreographed and performed in the Adidas Standing Rock campaign at ComplexCon. He has also worked as a director and choreographer for campaigns for Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh tribute, Banana Republic, the NFL (Emmy nominated), Apple and Lexus. His collaborators include Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Dom Perignon, Terrence Malick, TEDx and Flying Lotus.

Special Thanks

Coming in Spring

“An American cultural treasure.” Chicago Sun-Times

Two Nights! Two Programs! Tue, Apr 15 & Wed, Apr 16 7:30 PM / Granada Theatre

Lead Sponsor: Jody & John Arnhold

Dance Series Sponsors:

Margo Cohen-Feinberg, Barbara Stupay, and Sheila Wald

photo:

Dario Calmese (Alvin

Ailey

Americna

Dance

Theater’s

Yannick Lebrun)

Your Legacy: Our Future

Arts & Lectures has an unwavering commitment to bringing big ideas and stellar performances to our community, and to fostering connection through the arts and conversation.

If you share our mission to Educate, Entertain and Inspire, we invite you to include Arts & Lectures in your estate plans.

To learn more about Legacy Giving, contact Stacy Cullison, Senior Director of Development, at (805) 893-3755 or Stacy.Cullison@ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu

The Benefits of Giving

Your seat is waiting! Become a member and join a network of arts advocates that enable us to deliver remarkable programming on and off stage.

The Benefits of Giving

Invitation to a reception or meet-and-greet opportunity with featured artist or speaker

Complimentary parking at all ticketed A&L events at UCSB Campbell Hall

Opportunity to introduce guests to Arts & Lectures with a pair of complimentary tickets to an A&L public event, as available

VIP Ticketing Concierge Service and Priority Seating

Complimentary ticket exchange when your plans change

Invitations to Producers Circle Receptions with featured artists and speakers

Access to Intermission Lounge in the McCune Founders Room during A&L performances and lectures at The Granada Theatre

Invitation to A&L’s exclusive Season Announcement Party

Opportunity to attend master classes and other educational activities

Invitation to a member appreciation event

Recognition in A&L event programs or digital media

To inquire about membership, please call Rachel Leslie, Membership Director, at (805) 893-3382.

Leadership Circle includes all the benefi ts of Executive Producers Circle plus your own personalized membership experience.

To inquire about a customized Leadership Circle experience, please call Elise Erb, Director of Development, at (805) 893-5679.

Access for ALL | Arts & Lectures Learning

Through Access for ALL, inspirational, dynamic learning experiences are possible for students and lifelong learners across classrooms, our community and the UCSB campus.

UCSB Students

• Classroom visits

• Master classes

• Panel discussions

• Lecture-demonstrations

• Discounted and free admission to A&L mainstage events

K-12

• Matinee field trips for students from across the county

• Assemblies

• Workshops

• Q&As

Lifelong Learners

• Thematic Learning Initiative (TLI): Extending the conversation through film screenings, special events and book giveaways

• Author signings

• Pre-show talks and post-show Q&As

• Community workshops

Access for ALL serves more than 30,000 students and community members annually.

Please consider a contribution to A&L’s award-winning educational outreach programs. Call Stacy Cullison, Senior Director of Development & Special Initiatives, at (805) 893-3755 to learn more.

1. Randall Goosby leads a workshop at Goleta Valley Junior High School

2. Community members in a free surf lesson with The Sea League, part of A&L’s Thematic Learning Initiative 3. Robert B. Reich in conversation with UCSB history students 4. Story Pirates visits Guadalupe Elementary School

“Every child moved by art is a victory / inspired to learn history but also to make it / To shape it, to speak it / Until the world glows with sound.” –

Amanda Gorman, “House of Light”

Thank you to our Education and ¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara! Sponsors

Arnhold A&L Education Initiative

Connie Frank & Evan Thompson

WILLIAM H. KEARNS FOUNDATION

Sara Miller McCune

Audrey & Timothy O. Fisher

Eva & Yoel Haller

Kath Lavidge & Ed McKinley

Dorothy Largay & Wayne Rosing

University Support: Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor

Office of the Chancellor Office of Education Partnerships

¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara! brings people together to share the rich cultural heritage of Latin America, serving more than 15,000 students and community members each year throughout Santa Barbara County.

Created in 2006 out of a commitment to arts access for all, Viva works with dozens of local partners to present high-quality artists who share their knowledge and passion. Schools, neighborhood spaces and community centers come alive in these free programs for youth and families.

¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara! is a collaboration between The Marjorie Luke Theatre, the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center and the Isla Vista School Parent Teacher Association and UCSB Arts & Lectures serving Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, Goleta, Lompoc, Santa Maria and Guadalupe.

Coming in Fall of 2024

Las Cafeteras

September 6-8

Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuellar

November 22-24

1. Dancers from Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles perform at Franklin Elementary School 2. Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles performs a free concert at The Marjorie Luke Theatre 3. Members of Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles with Viva Coordinator Alíz Ruvalcaba and her family

4. Young audience members enjoy a free family performance

5. Charro Esteban Escobedo delights audiences at The Marjorie Luke Theatre 6. Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles performs a free concert at The Marjorie Luke Theatre

Performances are FREE (no registration required)

Learn more about the award-winning ¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara! program. Call Jenna Hamilton-Rolle, Director of Education & Community Engagement, at (805) 893-5829 for information.

photos: Isaac Hernández de Lipa

“Everyone should have access to art and music. Viva is awesome. It provides world-class musicians and artists to the community at no charge.”

– Salud Carbajal, U.S. Congressman Representing

California’s 24th District

Thank You Arts & Lectures Members!

Arts & Lectures Council

Arts & Lectures is privileged to acknowledge our Council, a group of insightful community leaders and visionaries who help us meet the challenge to educate, entertain and inspire.

Rich Janssen, Co-Chair

Kath Lavidge, Co-Chair

Marcy Carsey

Timothy O. Fisher

Dorothy Largay

Patricia MacFarlane

Susan McCaw

Sara Miller McCune

Jillian Muller

Natalie Orfalea

Arts & Lectures Ambassadors

Tom Sturgess

Anne Smith Towbes

Lynda Weinman

Merryl Snow Zegar

Arts & Lectures is proud to acknowledge our Ambassadors, volunteers who help ensure the sustainability of our program by cultivating new supporters and assisting with fundraising activities.

Winnie Dunbar

Donna Fellows

Belle Hahn

Eva Haller

Robin Himovitz

Luci Janssen

Maxine Prisyon

Lily Hahn Shining

Arts & Lectures Program Advisor

Bruce Heavin

Leadership Circle

Heather Sturgess

Anne Smith Towbes

Sherry Villanueva

Crystal Wyatt

Our Leadership Circle members, a group of key visionaries giving $10,000 to $100,000 or more each year, make a significant, tangible difference in the community and help bring A&L’s roster of premier artists and global thinkers to Santa Barbara. We are proud to recognize their philanthropy.

$100,000+

Jody & John Arnhold

Audrey & Timothy O. Fisher ◊ ‡

G.A. Fowler Family Foundation

Connie Frank & Evan Thompson

Martha Gabbert

Eva & Yoel Haller ◊

$50,000+

Patricia & Paul Bragg Foundation

Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara

Marcy Carsey

$25,000+

Betsy Atwater

Mary Becker ‡

Marcia & John Mike Cohen ‡

Margo Cohen-Feinberg

Robin & Roger Himovitz

Luci & Rich Janssen ‡

Manitou Fund

Sara Miller McCune ◊ ‡

Jillian & Pete Muller

Natalie Orfalea & Lou Buglioli

Sage Publishing ‡

The Shanbrom Family Foundation

Justin Brooks Fisher Foundation

William H. Kearns Foundation ‡

Dorothy Largay & Wayne Rosing ◊

Ellen & Peter O. Johnson

Siri & Bob Marshall

Marilyn & Dick Mazess

Montecito Bank & Trust

Merrill Sherman

Lynda Weinman & Bruce Heavin ◊ ‡

Dick Wolf

Laura & Geofrey Wyatt

Zegar Family Foundation

Anonymous (2)

Laura & Kevin O’Connor

Barbara Stupay

Heather & Tom Sturgess ◊ ‡

Russell Steiner

Sheila Wald

Dr. Bob Weinman

Susan & Bruce Worster

Crystal & Clifford Wyatt

$10,000+

Allyson & Todd Aldrich

Jennifer & Jonathan Blum

Tracy & Michael Bollag

Albert & Elaine Borchard Foundation

Gary Bradhering & Sheraton Kalouria

Christine Bruce & John Hilliard

Scott Charney & Ellen McDermott Charney

Sarah & Roger Chrisman

Tana & Joe Christie

NancyBell Coe & William Burke ‡

David & Debby Cohn

Bettina & Glenn Duval

Jane Eagleton

Donna M. Fellows & Dave Johnson

Robyn & Larry Gottesdiener

Lisa & Mitchell Green

John T. Kuelbs

Chris & Mark Levine

Little One Foundation

Lucky One Foundation and Hahn Shining Family

Jacquie & Harry McMahon

Holliday McManigal

John C. Mithun Foundation

Northern Trust

Stacy & Ron Pulice

Sharon & Bill Rich

Julie Ringler & Richard Powell

Linda Stafford Burrows

Stone Family Foundation

Anne Smith Towbes ‡

US Bank Foundation

Judy Wainwright Mitchell & Jim Mitchell

Williams-Corbett Foundation

Nicole & Kirt Woodhouse

Anonymous

Arts & Lectures gratefully recognizes the commitment and generosity of our Producers Circle members, who have made gifts between $2,500 and $9,999. Recognition is based upon a donor’s cumulative giving/pledges within a 12-month period.

$5,000+

Executive Producers Circle Producers Circle

Leslie Sweem Bhutani

Elizabeth & Andrew Butcher

Annette & Dr. Richard Caleel

Olivia Erschen & Steve Starkey

Katrina Firlik

Andrea & Mark Gabbay

Pamela Gann & David Hardee

Linda Hedgepeth & Michael Millhollan

Nanette & Jeff Giordano

Shari & George Isaac

$2,500+ Producers Circle

Martha & Bruce Atwater

Marta Babson

Nancy Barasch

Jill & Arnie Bellowe

Deirdre & Fraser Black

Susan D. Bowey

Victoria Hendler Broom

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An Evening with Percival Everett

Fri, Oct 25 / 7:30 PM / Campbell Hall

Justice for All Lead Sponsors:

Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Eva & Yoel Haller, Dick Wolf, and Zegar Family Foundation

Presented in association with UCSB Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Department of Black Studies

Percival Everett is one of the most innovative, provocative and prolific writers of our time. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, he has produced a captivating and immensely diverse collection of genre-bending literary works that challenge and inspire readers to contemplate and reconsider the societal and cultural forces that shape our worldviews.

In his wide-ranging literary works, Everett examines a plethora of questions at the core of what it means to be human. From “western” and epistolary novels and wild capers to retellings of Greek mythology, short stories and poetry, Everett boldly tackles different styles and formats, turning each into his own in the process. With his sharp observations and biting wit, he explores everything from race, politics, gender and power to family, purpose, the battle between love and intellect and what it truly means to be alive.

Everett’s newest novel, James, is a brilliant, actionpacked reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – both harrowing and ferociously funny – told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view. An instant New York Times bestseller, James was longlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award and hailed as “genius” by The Atlantic. A film adaptation, produced by Steven Spielberg, is currently in development. His other recent books include Dr. No (winner of the 2023 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction), The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Jean

Stein Book Award), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, Erasure and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. He has also written acclaimed short story and poetry collections.

Everett received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction – among many other literary awards – and was also the recipient of a 2023 Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.

Books are available for purchase in the lobby and a signing follows the event

photo: Michael Avedon

Yung Pueblo

Yung Pueblo in

Conversation with Pico Iyer

Tue, Oct 29 / 7:30 PM / Campbell Hall

Event Sponsor: Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli

Speaking with Pico Series Sponsors: Martha Gabbert, Robin & Roger Himovitz, Siri & Bob Marshall, and Laura & Kevin O’Connor

Diego Perez, widely known by his pen name Yung Pueblo, has emerged as a powerful voice for our times. Through Instagram and various social media platforms, he has captured the hearts and minds of millions with his profound insights on self-healing, self-love, relationships and the transformative power of self-discovery. As a New York Times bestselling author, meditator and poet, Pueblo has become a beacon of wisdom and inspiration for those seeking a path toward authentic living and emotional well-being. Proclaiming that misery has gone out of style, and the healing generation is here – Pueblo is the herald for a new pathway forward. He champions the idea that embracing the transformative power of self-awareness and personal growth is the key to healing. He imparts invaluable lessons that resonate deeply through his writing and speaking engagements.

His first book, Inward, initially self-published, quickly soared to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list, capturing the hearts of readers worldwide. This early success served as a springboard for his subsequent works, including his third book, Lighter, which debuted as a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, solidifying his status as a literary powerhouse.

Yung Pueblo’s poetic trilogy, which includes Inward, Clarity and Connection and The Way Forward, is a testament to his mastery of the written word. Building upon his favorite themes, this final installment guides readers further on their journey toward a life lived authentically,

intuitively and in harmony with others. It is a profound exploration of self-knowledge in times of turmoil, offering readers the tools they need to navigate the challenges of today and emerge stronger and more fulfilled.

In a world of uncertainty and unrest, Pueblo’s voice shines through as a beacon of hope. Born in Ecuador, Perez brings a unique perspective to his work, blending his fluency in Spanish and his Vipassana meditation practice; he embodies the teachings he shares with his audience.

Pueblo guides readers through the transformative journey of self-love and the art of letting go, introducing practical tools such as meditation, therapy and journaling that can help connect with intuition and drive decision-making. He highlights the three pillars of self-love: radical honesty, self-acceptance and positive habit-building, and how these principles can lead to personal healing.

Pico Iyer

Pico Iyer is the author of 16 books, translated into 23 languages, and dealing with subjects ranging from the XIVth Dalai Lama to Islamic mysticism and from globalism to the Cuban Revolution. They include such long-

photo: Fernando Samalot

photo: Derek Shapton

running sellers as Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul and The Art of Stillness. His latest, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, has been a national bestseller, and he’s just completing his next work, on his first 32 years with a community of Benedictine monks in Big Sur. He has also written the introductions to more than 70 other books, the liner notes for many Leonard Cohen albums and Criterion Collection movies and a screenplay for Miramax. Since 1986 he has been a regular essayist for TIME, The New York Times, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books and many others.

His four TED talks have received more than 11 million views, and he has been featured in program-length interviews with Oprah, Krista Tippett and Larry King, among others. Born in Oxford, England in 1957, Iyer was a King’s Scholar at Eton and was awarded a Congratulatory Double First at Oxford, where he received the highest marks of any student on English Literature at the university. He received a second master’s degree at Harvard and was recently a Ferris Professor at Princeton.

Coming in Winter

Richard Powers in Conversation with Pico Iyer

“One of our country’s greatest living writers. He composes some of the most beautiful sentences I’ve ever read. I’m in awe of his talent.”

– Oprah Winfrey

Sun, Feb 23 / 7:30 PM / Campbell Hall

Includes a copy of Powers’ new book Playground (pick up at event)

Speaking with Pico Series Sponsors:

Martha Gabbert, Robin & Roger Himovitz, Siri & Bob Marshall, and Laura & Kevin O’Connor

photo: Michel De Bock

Habib Koité, lead vocals, guitar

Aly Keïta, balafon

Lamine Cissokho, kora Mama Kone, percussion

Three standard bearers of West African musical traditions come together to celebrate Mandé Sila: the way of the Mandingo empire, symbolizing languages, cultures, music and the entire organology of West Africa. Malian guitar player Habib Koité, kora player Lamine Cissokho and balafon master Aly Keïta are linked by the same cultural heritage, a melting pot that inspires their compositions. They will be joined by percussionist Mama Kone.

Habib Koité

Malian guitarist Habib Koité is one of Africa’s most popular and recognized musicians. Koité comes from a noble line of Khassonké griots, traditional troubadours who provide wit, wisdom and musical entertainment at social gatherings and special events. He grew up surrounded by 17 brothers and sisters, and developed his unique guitar style accompanying his griot mother. He inherited his passion for music from his paternal grandfather who played the kamele n’goni, a traditional four-stringed instrument associated with hunters from the Wassolou region of Mali. “Nobody really taught me to sing or to play the guitar,” explains Koité, “I watched my parents, and it washed off on me.”

Habib Koité Aly Keïta Lamine Cissokho

Mandé Sila

Wed, Oct 30 / 8 PM / Campbell Hall

Presented in association with UCSB Department of Music

Koité was headed for a career as an engineer, but at the insistence of an uncle who recognized his musical talent, he enrolled at the National Institute of Arts (INA) in Bamako, Mali. In 1978 after only six months, he was made conductor of INA Star, the school’s prestigious band. He studied music for four years, graduating at the top of his class in 1982. His talent was so impressive that upon graduation, the INA hired him as a guitar teacher.

During his studies, Koité had the opportunity to perform and play with a series of recognized Malian artists, including Kélétigui Diabaté and Toumani Diabaté. He sang and played on Toumani Diabaté’s 1991 release Shake the World (Sony), and Kélétigui Diabaté became a full-time member of Koité’s band.

Koité takes some unique approaches to playing the guitar. He tunes his instrument to the pentatonic scale and plays on open strings as one would on a kamale n’goni. At other times Habib plays music that sounds closer to the blues or Afro-Cuban, styles he studied under Khalilou Traoré, a veteran of the legendary AfroCuban band Maravillas du Mali. Unlike the griots, his singing style is restrained and intimate with varying cadenced rhythms and melodies.

Mali has rich and diverse musical traditions, which have many regional variations and styles that are particular to the local cultures. Koité is unique because he brings together different styles, creating a new pan-Malian approach that reflects his open-minded interest in all types of music. The predominant style played by Koité

is based on the danssa, a popular rhythm from his native city of Keyes. He calls his version “danssa doso,” a Bambara term he coined that combines the name of the popular rhythm with the word for hunter’s music (doso), one of Mali’s most powerful and ancient musical traditions. “I put these two words together to symbolize the music of all ethnic groups in Mali. I’m curious about all the music in the world, but I make music from Mali. In my country, we have so many beautiful rhythms and melodies. Many villages and communities have their own kind of music. Usually, Malian musicians play only their own ethnic music, but me, I go everywhere. My job is to take all these traditions and to make something with them, to use them in my music.”

With more than 400,000 albums sold, more than 1,700 concerts around the world, Koité has built, step by step, an exemplary career, with always a foot firmly rooted in Mali’s rich culture.

Aly Keïta

Aly Keïta, a virtuoso of the balafon, was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. From a young age, he was introduced to the instrument by his father, himself a balafon player. The West African musician gained worldwide recognition for his mastery of the balafon, and has played alongside Omar Sosa, Joe Zawinul, Rhoda Scott, Paco Séry, Pharoah Sanders, Paolo Fresu, Hans Lüdemann Trio Ivoire, L. Subramaniam, Trilok Gurtu and Jan Garbarek, to name just a few.

Today, Keïta lives in Berlin and connects musical worlds with impressive virtuosity. He wanders between spectacular African rhythm, polyphony and jazz elements, and combines them to create a wonderful and unique sound world – two magical hands and a thousand and one strokes. In 2022, Keïta won the German Jazz Prize in the Special Instruments category.

Lamine Cissokho

Lamine Cissokho is a griot born in Casamance, south of Senegal. In Western Africa, a griot is a member of a hereditary caste whose function is to keep an oral history and entertain with stories, songs and music.

Cissokho is the descendant of a famous griot family whose traditions date back to the 14th century. He was introduced to the kora as a child by his own father, Sana Cissokho, one of the great names of this generation. Lalo Keba Drame, considered as the king of the kora, was Lamine’s grand-uncle and inspirer.

At the beginning of his career, Cissokho learned and performed traditional Mandingo melodies. These traditional pieces passed are down from generation to generation, and he quickly developed a taste for composition and arrangement. He has so far composed and arranged about 200 of his own songs that are inspired by the Mandingo tradition but revisited by touches of jazz, nordic folk and other genres. Cissokho is constantly seeking to extend the musical possibilities of his kora and to integrate various influences into his creation. His tune of the kora makes him quite unique.

Between 2011 and 2023, Cissokho recorded six albums. Bringing together musical traditions and growing through collaborations is what he loves above all. Cissokho performs as a soloist and has three duos with which he tours. The first one with the indian raga master Manish Pingle, the second one with the famous french jazz pianist Olivier Hutman and the third one with Fanta Yayo, Guinean diva.

He has collaborated with American blues and jazz artist Eric Bibb. Among other things, he played with him at Marciac Jazz Festival and Philarmonie de Paris. Another great collaboration was with Malian kora master Ballake Sissoko during Aarhus International Guitar Festival.

Cissokho’s kora is played in a melodic and continuous flow of tones that are nicely woven together with other instruments in perfect harmony. It is difficult to sit still to all the rhythms in the music, but despite that, you can also get a meditative and calm feeling from it. Cissokho has an indomitable, contagious energy with which he charges his compositions and stage performances. He treats his kora with technical finesse but also with a great sensitivity.

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

13 TONGUES

Sat, Nov 2 / 7:30 PM / Granada Theatre

Running time: approx. 65 minutes, no intermission

A conversation/Q&A with the artists will follow the performance

Dance Series Sponsors:

Margo Cohen-Feinberg, Barbara Stupay, and Sheila Wald

Presented in association with UCSB Department of Theater and Dance

Cheng Tsung-lung, Choreography

Lim Giong, Music

Ho Chia-hsing, Art Design

Shen Po-hung, Lighting Design

Ethan Wang, Projection Design

Lin Bing-hao, Costume Design

Tsai Pao-chang, Voice Coach

Cast: Chan Pui Pui, Chang Hung-mao, Chen Lien-wei, Chen Tsung-chiao, Chou Chen-yeh, Fan Chia-hsuan, Hou Tang-li, Hsu Chih-hen, Huang Mei-ya, Huang Yen-cheng, Lee Tzu-chun, Shao Hsing-wen, Yen Hsueh-hsin

Commissioned by the National Performing Arts Center – National Theater & Concert Hall in Taipei. Premiered on March 11, 2016, at the Taiwan International Festival of Arts at the National Theater, Taipei, Taiwan.

About 13 TONGUES

As a child in the 1980s, Cloud Gate Artistic Director Cheng Tsung-lung would contribute to the family business by helping his father sell slippers on the streets of Bangka/Wanhua, the oldest district of Taipei. Bangka was known for its vibrantly diverse and bustling street scene that embraced religious and secular life, rich and poor, work and play, and legal and illegal activities. The young Tsung-lung was transfixed by his mother’s accounts of the legendary 1960s street artist and storyteller known as Thirteen Tongues who had adopted Bangka for his informal stage.

It was said that Thirteen Tongues’ could conjure up all the Bangka characters – high and low-born, sacred and profane, men and women – in the most vivid, dramatic and fluently imaginative narratives. Thirty years on, Tsung-lung’s fascination with Thirteen Tongues became his inspiration as he transformed his childhood memories into dance.

Beginning and ending with the sound of a single hand bell, the music accompanying 13 TONGUES ranges from Taiwanese folk songs to Taoist chant to electronica. The stage is awash with projections of brilliant colors, shapes and images and the dancers gather, interact, separate and re-gather in a thrilling representation of the clamor of street life. As the religious heritage of ancient Bangka/Wanhua fuses with the secular space it is today, time appears to dissolve. The spirit realm and the human realm also coalesce as the audience is taken on

photo: Lee Chia-yeh

an immersive journey – via imagination and storytelling that recalls the art of Thirteen Tongues – through centuries of human endeavor, behavior, and belief.

About Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

Cloud Gate is the name of the oldest known dance company in China. In 1973, choreographer Lin Hwai-min adopted this classical name and founded the first contemporary dance company in the greater Chinese-speaking community. In 2020, Cheng Tsung-lung became the company’s artistic director, bringing together his creative works with traditional roots and excitingly innovative perspectives from the digital and globalized world. In 2023, Cloud Gate ushered in its 50th anniversary.

Cloud Gate dancers receive training in meditation; Qi Gong, an ancient breathing exercise; internal martial arts; modern dance; and ballet. Manifesting in choreographies, the company transforms ancient aesthetics into a thrilling and modern celebration of motion.

Cloud Gate has toured worldwide with frequent engagements at Next Wave Festival in New York, Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, Moscow Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Russia, Movimentos International Dance Festival and Internationales Tanzfest NRW directed by Pina Bausch in Germany. International press heralded the company as “Asia’s leading contemporary dance theater” (The Times), and “one of the best dance companies in the world” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).

About Choreographer Cheng Tsung-lung

From street hawker selling slippers to internationally recognized choreographer, Cheng Tsung-lung succeeded Lin Hwai-min as artistic director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan in 2020.

Tsung-lung took his first dance class at the age of 8. Upon graduation from the Dance Department, Taipei National University of the Arts, he joined Cloud Gate in 2002 and became the artistic director of Cloud Gate 2 in 2014.

He won top prizes in international choreography competitions, including the Premio Roma Danza International Choreography Competition, and became widely known in the dance world for breathtaking works inspired by the street life and folk religion that was part of his upbringing in the oldest commercial district of Taipei.

Tsung-lung’s works exude a humble beauty rooted in Asian culture. His 13 TONGUES (2016) incorporated folk steps, religious rites and Taoist chanting into a contemporary expression, and received rave reviews from France, Germany and China. French media credited it as “a triumph... appealing to the eyes.” Full Moon (2017), commissioned by Sydney Dance Company, has been acclaimed in Paris and Sydney. Set to music specially arranged by Sigur Rós and hailed as a work of “fierce beauty,” Lunar Halo (2019) brought the house down in its premiere season and garnered invitations from around the world. Sounding Light (2020) reflects on the relationship between humans and nature, and was praised praised as a “beautifully crafted work, bearing repeated viewings.” Visually stunning, Send in a Cloud (2022) displays in shifting colors a panorama of dancers’ life journeys.

Tsung-lung has been a fixture of Routledge’s respected annual survey of dance practitioners, Fifty Contemporary Choreographers (2020), alongside the likes of William Forsythe, Akram Khan, Hofesh Shechter and leaders in the form.

His most recent choreographic work, WAVES (2023), a collaboration with Japanese media artist Daito Manabe, explores societal and individual facets affected by the rapid progress of technological advancements.

Administrative and Production Team on Tour:

Chuang Ting-chi, Project Manager

Tseng Mei-hua (Margaux), Project Assistant

Chung Pin-yueh (Jason), Deputy Production Director

Chen Chia-ju, Stage Manager

Kao Tang-chieh, Technical Director

Tseng Yen-min, Lighting Supervisor

Hsu Wen-wen, Wardrobe Supervisor

Yang Buo-an, Swing Technician

Liou Yun-chang, Sound Engineer

The tour is made possible in part by grants from the Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan).

Special Thanks

Itzhak Perlman, violin

Emanuel Ax, piano

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Juilliard String Quartet

Areta Zhulla, violin

Ronald Copes, violin

Molly Carr, viola

Astrid Schween, cello

Program

Jean-Marie Leclair:

Sonata for Two Violins in E minor, op. 3, no. 5

Allegro ma poco

Gavotte – Andante grazioso

Presto

Itzhak Perlman and Areta Zhulla

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493

Allegro

Larghetto

Allegretto

Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Molly Carr and Astrid Schween

Itzhak Perlman and Friends

Thu, Nov 7 / 7 PM / Granada Theatre

Running time: approx. 100 minutes including intermission

Great Performances Suite Sponsors:

G.A. Fowler Family Foundation and The Shanbrom Family Foundation

Presented in association with UCSB Department of Music

- Intermission -

Ernest Chausson:

Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet, op. 21

Décidé – Animé

Sicilienne: Pas vite

Grave Très animé

Itzhak Perlman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Juilliard String Quartet

About the Program

Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764):

Sonata for Two Violins in E minor, op. 3, no. 5

Born into a musical family that included three violinist brothers, French polymath Jean-Marie Leclair began his artistic career as a ballet-master in Turin. Widely considered the founder of the French violin school, Leclair’s legacy rests upon his keen ability to combine the refinement of Jean-Baptiste Lully with the innovations of Italian violinist Arcangelo Corelli. In his own lifetime, he was held up as an exemplar of the French style over the Italian, even participating in a violin duel in London against Italian virtuoso Pietro Locatelli, a successor to Corelli and predecessor of the famed virtuoso Niccolò Paganini.

Though he composed in several genres and taught composition (Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de SaintGeorge may have been a pupil), Leclair’s works for violin overshadow his other pieces. He published this sonata in 1730 as part of a collection of six sonatas for two violins; of the six, only No. 5 is in a minor key. Three years later, Leclair was appointed by Louis XV ordinaire de la musique du roi, and for years afterward he continued a storied career as a musician to several royal courts. Eventually he moved to Paris, where he was stabbed to death one evening upon returning home. Though the murder was never solved, scholars believe Leclair’s nephew to be the most likely culprit.

The first movement, in simple binary form, opens with the instruments in near exact canon. Short phrases and a crisp, détaché melody exemplify Leclair’s training in the French style of Lully’s dance music. Both violins share equal voice throughout, including at the ends of both sections where they swap roles. However, the first violin takes the lead in the graceful second movement, a gavotte (a French dance form popularized by Lully in the court of Louis XIV), as the second violin provides a steady eighth-note accompaniment. Virtuoso fireworks flash throughout the final movement, a structural twin to the first. Rapid, simultaneous sixteenth notes build to an emphatic conclusion.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791):

Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493

The tightrope of balancing commercial success, artistic integrity and accessibility is a well-worn trope among artists, one Mozart spent his life struggling to negotiate. He composed his two piano quartets at a career high: his operas Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Le nozze di Figaro shared successful premieres, he was in demand for public and private concerts, and completed, among many other works, a dozen piano concertos. Yet only five short years separated him from these triumphs and burial in a pauper’s grave.

In 1785, Mozart received a commission from Franz Anton Hoffmeister, one of the era’s foremost Viennese publishers, for three piano quartets. Upon receiving the first, the G minor quartet (K. 478), he allegedly told Mozart not to bother sending him the remaining two pieces because the quartet, which eschewed the traditional “piano with accompaniment” model of the day, was too difficult to play. Undeterred, Mozart proceeded to write a second quartet, anyway.

That same year, Mozart published his six “Haydn” string quartets. Though these works now form a cornerstone of the repertoire, they were received with a mixture of enthusiasm and confusion. One of Mozart’s colleagues, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, wrote to the publisher, “I offer you the original manuscript … for the same price you paid for Mozart’s … and I am certain that you will do better with [them] than [you did] with Mozart’s (which, indeed, I and still greater theorists consider to deserve the highest praise, but which because of their overwhelming and unrelenting artfulness are not to everyone’s taste).”

The players enter together, with the violin first taking up the melody. The piano introduces a two-measure interjection, first played in the treble then imitated by the violin. This fragment, with its wide leaps and trill, appears throughout the development. Following a repeat of the development, the movement concludes in a galloping coda.

Piano initiates the graceful second movement. The Larghetto features rapt dialogue between the piano and strings and brief yet profound moments of silence. Strings and keyboard share equally in the movement’s lyricism. While the keyboard sometimes serves merely as accompanist, Mozart uses its solo passages to transition between sections.

In the finale, however, Mozart brings the piano front and center. A rondo, the movement provides flashy, concerto-like solo keyboard passages. Nestled amidst these virtuoso solos are episodes including tender string chorales and playful exchanges between the piano and strings.

Ernest Chausson (1855-1899):

Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet, op. 21

The son of a public works contractor, Ernest Chausson grew up surrounded by comfort and connections. As a teenager he visited the Parisian salons where he became acquainted with some of France’s rising musical figures. Despite family pressure to become a lawyer (he obtained his doctorate and was sworn in as a barrister), Chausson could not be dissuaded from a life in music. He traveled to Munich to hear Richard Wagner conduct two of his operas, and within a month of returning home he had enrolled in the Paris Conservatory. There he studied with Jules Massenet (composer of such operas as Manon and Cendrillon) and César Franck; the latter would become one of Chausson’s greatest influences.

Despite his affinity for Wagner, he made several trips to Germany to hear his operas, including on his honeymoon. Chausson came to repudiate the German’s influence; an 1888 letter to a friend insisted that for the evolution of French classical music to occur, “deWagnerization is necessary.” Chausson came of age following France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. During the war, the musically conservative Société Nationale de Musique formed in Paris; Chausson later served as its secretary for thirteen years. For a time, the Société banned all non-French music from its halls. This resentment of the popularity of foreign music — but especially modern German music — was inseparable from the centuries-long rivalry between the two powers and the rising tides of nationalism that had been sweeping across Europe for decades.

Like many of his contemporaries (including Ravel and Debussy), Chausson sought to bring about a renaissance of French music in part by turning toward the past. He looked to the works of old French masters including François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau. He also revived Baroque-era French tempo and movement indications in his works, including in the Concert, whose first, third and fourth movements are marked Décidé, Grave and Très animé, respectively. Even the form and title point to bygone models: Chausson chose “Concert” to evoke the concerts of Rameau and Couperin, more egalitarian chamber works with mixed instrumentation rather than the Romantic-era “orchestra vs. soloist” concerto.

The first movement opens with a simple, three-note figure played in octaves. Following a slow introduction the violin enters with a restatement of these three notes, at first accompanied only by the piano then joined by the quartet. Chausson uses this short motive as a building block of the main theme, woven throughout the movement. This technique of developing a theme from a small, repeated cell was a hallmark of César Franck, Chausson’s favorite teacher. As Chausson introduces and develops new material, the music swells in intensity; the tension breaks with a dramatic, unison return of the three-note cell followed by a moment of dreamy tranquility. A brief violin cadenza transitions into the final section of the movement, which grows to an ecstatic climax before ending in calm repose.

Like those of the other three movements, the second movement’s title, Sicilienne, hearkens to the Baroque era. While Chausson adheres to many of the genre’s conventions – a lilting, minor-key dance in 6/8 time –

the lush orchestration and chromatic harmonies are resolutely modern.

Critics have long noted the melancholy strain in Chausson’s music, which reaches its apotheosis in the dour third movement. It opens with a dirge-like violin-piano duo in F minor, the traditional key of lamentation. Lean harmonies and slinking chromatic lines in the piano convey a sense of forlorn emptiness. Obstinately gloomy, the music allows only brief glimpses of light to emerge. The movement concludes with the piano marching along, a multi-octave descent into the lowest depths of its range. Of all four movements, the finale comes closest to the spirit of the Romantic concerto in its energetic virtuosity. Here Chausson, again echoing Franck, pulls together themes from earlier movements, including an impassioned return of the Grave melody in unison strings.

Belgian virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe, the Concert’s dedicatee, played the solo violin part at its inaugural performance. The premiere was a triumph: Chausson, who spent much of his career wracked in self-doubt, wrote in his diary, “never have I enjoyed such a success… I feel giddy and joyful, such as I have not managed to feel for a long time… It seems to me that I shall work with greater confidence in the future.” Tragically, his career was cut short by a tragic bicycling accident that took his life at the age of forty-four.

Program notes © Andrew McIntyre, 2024.

Itzhak Perlman

Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music.

Having performed with every major orchestra and at concert halls around the globe, Perlman was granted a Presidential Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest civilian honor – by President Obama in 2015, a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 2000 and a Medal of Liberty by President Reagan in 1986. Perlman has been honored with 16 Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Genesis Prize.

In the 2024-2025 season, Perlman makes appearances as conductor, soloist, recitalist and presenter. He brings

his iconic PBS special In the Fiddler’s House program to venues across the country joined by klezmer stars including Hankus Netsky, Andy Statman and members of the Klezmer Conservatory Band. He continues touring An Evening with Itzhak Perlman, which captures highlights of his career through narrative and multimedia elements intertwined with performance, and he plays recitals across North America with longtime collaborator Rohan De Silva.

Over the past 30 years, Perlman has been devoted to music education, mentoring gifted young string players. Alongside his wife Toby, his close involvement in the Perlman Music Program (PMP) has been a particularly rewarding experience; he has taught full-time at the Program each summer since its founding in 1994. With close to 800 alumni, PMP is shaping the future landscape of classical music worldwide.

Perlman has an exclusive series of classes with MasterClass, the premier online education company that enables access to the world’s most brilliant minds including Gordon Ramsay, Wolfgang Puck, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Helen Mirren, Jodie Foster and Serena Williams, as the company’s first classical-music presenter.

Emanuel Ax

Born to Polish parents in what is today Lviv, Ukraine, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and in 1974 won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975, he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize.

The 2024-2025 season begins with a continuation of the Beethoven For Three touring and recording project with partners Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma which takes them to European festivals including BBC Proms, Dresden, Hamburg, Vienna and Luxembourg. As guest soloist, he will appear during the New York Philharmonic’s opening week which will mark his 47th annual visit to the orchestra. During the season, he will return to the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, National, San Diego, Nashville and Pittsburgh symphonies and Rochester Philharmonic. A fall recital tour from Toronto and Boston moves west to include San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles culminating in the spring in Chicago and his annual Carnegie Hall appearance. A special project in duo with clarinetist

Anthony McGill takes them from the west coast through the midwest to Georgia and Carnegie Hall and in chamber music with Itzhak Perlman and Friends to Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Francisco. An extensive European tour will include concerts in Paris, Oslo, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, Warsaw and Israel.

Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987 and following the success of the Brahms Trios with Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, the trio launched an ambitious, multi-year project to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies arranged for trio of which the first two discs have recently been released. He has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. Ax contributed to an International Emmy Award-winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2013, Ax’s recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th Century Music/Piano).

Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University and Columbia University.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Over the course of three decades, Jean-Yves Thibaudet has performed worldwide, recorded more than 50 albums, and built a reputation as one of today’s finest pianists. From the start of his career, he delighted in music beyond the standard repertoire, from jazz to opera, which he transcribed himself to play on the piano. His profound professional friendships crisscross the globe and have led to spontaneous and fruitful collaborations in film, fashion and visual art.

Thibaudet has a lifelong passion for education and fostering young musical talent. He is the first-ever Artist-in-Residence at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where he makes his home. In 2017, the school announced the Jean-Yves Thibaudet Scholarships, funded by members of Colburn’s donor community, to provide aid for Music Academy students, whom Thibaudet selects for the merit-based awards, regardless of their instrument choice.

Thibaudet’s recording catalogue has received two Grammy nominations, the Preis der Deutschen

Schallplattenkritik, the Diapason d’Or, the Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Edison Prize and Gramophone awards. His most recent solo album, 2021’s Carte Blanche, features a collection of deeply personal solo piano pieces never before recorded by the pianist. He is the soloist on Wes Anderson’s 2021 film The French Dispatch; his playing can also be heard in Pride and Prejudice, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Wakefield and the Oscar-winning and critically acclaimed film Atonement. His concert wardrobe is designed by Dame Vivienne Westwood.

In 2010, the Hollywood Bowl honored Thibaudet for his musical achievements by inducting him into its Hall of Fame. Previously a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Thibaudet was awarded the title Officier by the French Ministry of Culture in 2012. In 2020, he was named Special Representative for the promotion of French Creative and Cultural Industries in Romania. He is co-Artistic Advisor, with Gautier Capuçon, of the Festival Musique & Vin au Clos Vougeot.

Juilliard String Quartet

With unparalleled artistry and enduring vigor, the Juilliard String Quartet (JSQ) continues to inspire audiences around the world. Founded in 1946 and hailed by The Boston Globe as “the most important American quartet in history,” the ensemble draws on a deep and vital engagement to the classics while embracing the mission of championing new works, a vibrant combination of the familiar and the daring. Each performance of the Juilliard String Quartet is a unique experience, bringing together the four members’ profound understanding, total commitment and unceasing curiosity in sharing the wonders of the string quartet literature.

The Juilliard String Quartet begins the 2024-2025 season on tour with Itzhak Perlman, Emmanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet for performances presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures. Engagements in North America include a world premiere Together, Apart by Michelle Ross commissioned and premiere by Chamber Music in Napa Valley in memory of Roger Tapping, as well as performances at Amherst College, Chamber Music Monterey Bay, Musco Center, Ensemble Music Society in Indianapolis, Concord Chamber Music Society, ATX Chamber Music and Jazz in Austin, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and People’s Symphony Concerts at New York’s Town Hall. European highlights include Wigmore Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Munich, Salzburg, Furth and Padua.

Adding to its celebrated discography, an album of works by Beethoven, Bartók and Dvořák was released by Sony Classical in 2021 to critical acclaim. Additionally, Sony Masterworks released a JSQ catalog release (The Early Juilliard Recordings) in June 2021. In the fall of 2018, the JSQ released an album on Sony featuring the world premiere recording of Mario Davidovsky’s Fragments (2016), together with Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 95 and Bartók’s Quartet No. 1. Additionally, Sony Classical’s 2014 reissue of the Quartet’s landmark recordings of the first four Elliott Carter String Quartets along with the 2013 recording of Carter’s fifth quartet traces a remarkable period in the evolution of both the composer and the ensemble. The Quartet’s recordings of the Bartók and Schoenberg quartets, as well as those of Debussy, Ravel and Beethoven, have won Grammy Awards, and in 2011 the JSQ became the first classical music ensemble to receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Devoted master teachers, the members of the Juilliard String Quartet offer classes and open rehearsals when on tour. The JSQ is String Quartet in Residence at the Juilliard School and its members are all sought-after teachers on the string and chamber music faculties. Each May, they host the five-day internationally recognized Juilliard String Quartet Seminar.

Itzhak Perlman’s recordings can be found on the Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Warner/EMI Classics, Sony Classical and Telarc labels.

Emanuel Ax’s recordings can be found on the Sony Classical and RCA labels. Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s recordings can be found on the Decca, Warner/EMI Classics, Columbia, Universal Music, REM and Naxos labels.

The Juilliard String Quartet’s recordings can be found on the Sony Classical label.

Management for Itzhak Perlman: Primo Artists, 244 Fifth Avenue, Suite B222, New York, NY 10001

Management for Emanuel Ax: Opus 3 Artists 470 Park Ave South, 9th Floor North, New York, NY 10016

Management for Jean-Yves Thibaudet: HarrisonParrott South Wing, Somerset House, The Strand, London, WC2R 1LA

Management for Juilliard String Quartet: Colbert Artists Management 180 Elm Street, Suite I #221, Pittsfield, MA 01201

Special Thanks

Anne Lamott

Somehow: Thoughts on Love

Wed, Nov 13 / 7:30 PM / Arlington Theatre

Lead Sponsor: Lynda Weinman & Bruce Heavin

Anne Lamott writes and speaks about subjects that begin with capital letters: Alcoholism, Motherhood, Jesus. But armed with self-effacing humor – she is laughout-loud funny – and ruthless honesty, Lamott converts her subjects into enchantment. Actually, she writes about what most of us don’t like to think about. She wrote her first novel for her father, the writer Kenneth Lamott, when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. She has said that the book was “a present to someone I loved who was going to die.” In all her novels, she writes about loss – loss of loved ones and loss of personal control. She doesn’t try to sugarcoat the sadness, frustration and disappointment, but tells her stories with honesty, compassion and a pureness of voice. As she says, “I have a lot of hope and a lot of faith and I struggle to communicate that.” Lamott does communicate her faith; in her books and in person, she lifts, comforts and inspires, all the while keeping us laughing.

Anne Lamott is the author of seven novels, Hard Laughter, Rosie, Joe Jones, Blue Shoe, All New People, Crooked Little Heart and Imperfect Birds. She has also written several bestselling books of nonfiction, including Operating Instructions, an account of life as a single mother during her son’s first year, Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son, and the classic book on writing, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. She has also authored several collections of autobiographical essays on faith: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, and Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith. In addition,

she has written Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers, Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair, Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope and Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage. Her newest book, Somehow: Thoughts on Love is a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Publishers Weekly praised “her ability to distill complex truths with a deceptive lightness” in its star review.

Lamott has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship and has taught at UC Davis as well as at writing conferences across the country. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Mock has made a documentary on Lamott entitled Bird by Bird with Annie (1999). Anne Lamott has also been inducted into the California Hall of Fame.

Books are available for purchase in the lobby and a signing follows the event

photo: Sam Lamott

ENCANTO

The Sing-Along Film Concert

Thu, Nov 14 / 6:30 PM / Arlington Theatre

Running time: approx. 120 minutes including intermission

Veronica Mosquera, host/cuatro

Moris Cañate, percussion

Erica “Kika” Parra, percussion

Channo Tierra, accordion

Ronald Polo, percussion

Juan Arango, guitar

Ramiro Marziani, guitar

Jader Torres, bass

Roberto de Jesús Cuao Rivera, drums

Disney Concerts and AMP Worldwide present Encanto: The Sing-Along Film Concert, a cross-national tour where Encanto lovers of all ages have the opportunity to sing along with their favorite Grammy Award-winning songs performed by a live band while watching the full film. The concert will include all the music of the Academy Award-winning film, including iconic hits like “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and “Surface Pressure” performed live. Live characters do not appear in this event. Fans are encouraged to dress up as Mirabel, Luisa, Isabela, or any of their favorite characters from the film and to use their voices to transform each venue into one big celebration of the Madrigal family.

The Encanto Original Motion Picture Soundtrack features eight original songs by Academy Award-nominated, Tony and Grammy-winning songwriter/composer LinManuel Miranda (Hamilton, Moana) with an original score

by Academy Award-nominated and Grammy-winning composer Germaine Franco. The Recording Industry Association of America Platinum-certified soundtrack held the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200 album chart for nine non-consecutive weeks and the Recording Industry Association of America 3x Platinum-certified song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” topped the Hot 100 chart for 5 weeks. The soundtrack and song held the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 simultaneously for five consecutive weeks. Music from Encanto swept the Visual Media categories at the 65th Grammy Awards, winning Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, and Song Written for Visual Media (“We Don’t Talk About Bruno”).

Special Thanks

Dr. Uché Blackstock

Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons With Racism in Medicine

Wed, Nov 20 / 7:30 PM / Campbell Hall

Justice for All Lead Sponsors:

Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Eva & Yoel Haller, Dick Wolf, and Zegar Family Foundation

Presented in association with the following UCSB partners: Health Professions Advising; Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and Departments of Black Studies and Feminist Studies

Dr. Uché Blackstock is an emergency physician with more than 17 years of experience and a second-generation Harvard graduate. She is the founder of Advancing Health Equity, an organization dedicated to dismantling racism in healthcare. She is also an MSNBC medical contributor and author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons With Racism in Medicine.

Blackstock is a respected thought leader on bias and racism in healthcare. Described by Forbes as “a growing voice that is bringing to light and offering solutions to unconscious bias and structural racism among healthcare organizations,” she speaks to organizations across all sectors about the intersection of medicine, health equity and systemic racism.

In her memoir, Legacy, Blackstock uses a personal lens to tell a broader story about race in America. The book is her odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician – to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.

In the 1980s, Blackstock’s mother headed an organization of Black women physicians who cared for patients and the broader community. Blackstock and her twin sister followed in their mother’s footsteps and headed to Harvard Medical School, making them the first Black mother-daughter legacies from the school. With only about 6 percent of physicians being Black, and only 3 percent being Black women, the Blackstock sisters were making history.

What Blackstock did not learn at Harvard was that the lack of diversity among physicians has a direct impact on patient care. Black Americans have far worse health outcomes than any other group in the country. One striking example: citing a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, The New York Times reported that “the richest Black mothers and their babies are twice as likely to die as the richest white mothers and their babies.”

Blackstock’s writing, including numerous OpEds, has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Scientific American, The Washington Post and STAT News for The Boston Globe During the COVID-19 pandemic, she appeared regularly on radio and cable news programming to amplify the message around racial health inequities, including with CNN, NPR Morning Edition, The Brian Lehrer Show, Dr. Oz and The New York Times, and has been featured recently on PBS NewsHour and in Essence, as well as on panels at Afropunk and Essence Fest.

Blackstock is a former associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the former faculty director for recruitment, retention and inclusion in the Office of Diversity Affairs at NYU School of Medicine. She received both her undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University.

Special Thanks

photo: Diane Zhao

Father Gregory Boyle

Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times

Tue, Dec 3 / 7:30 PM / Campbell Hall

Event Sponsor: Mary Becker

Presented in association with UCSB Gaucho Underground Scholars

A native Angeleno and Jesuit priest, from 1986 to 1992 Father Boyle served as pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights, then the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles that also had the highest concentration of gang activity in the city.

Father Boyle witnessed the devastating impact of gang violence on his community during the so-called “decade of death” that began in the late 1980s and peaked at 1,000 gang-related killings in 1992. In the face of law enforcement tactics and criminal justice policies of suppression and mass incarceration as the means to end gang violence, he and parish and community members adopted what was a radical approach at the time: treat gang members as human beings.

In 1988, they started what would eventually become Homeboy Industries, which employs and trains former gang members in a range of social enterprises, as well as provides critical services to thousands of men and women who walk through its doors every year seeking a better life.

Father Boyle is the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship and The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness. His latest book, Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times, will be published in November 2024.

In 2024, Father Boyle was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor. Closer to home, the Los Angeles City Council proclaimed May 19th Father Greg Boyle Day in Los Angeles.

Father Boyle has received the California Peace Prize and been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2014, President Obama named him a Champion of Change. He received the University of Notre Dame’s 2017 Laetare Medal, the oldest honor given to American Catholics.

Books are available for purchase in the lobby and a signing follows the event

Dorrance Dance

The Nutcracker Suite

Thu, Dec 5 / 7:30 PM / Arlington Theatre

Running time: approx. 65 minutes, no intermission

Michelle Dorrance, Artistic Director

Michelle Dorrance, Hannah Heller and Josette Wiggan, Co-Creators

Lead Sponsor: Jody & John Arnhold

Dance Series Sponsors: Margo Cohen-Feinberg, Barbara Stupay, and Sheila Wald

Presented in association with UCSB Department of Theater and Dance

An Ella’quent Holiday Swing (2021)

Music:

“Brighten The Corner Where You Are” written by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel and Ina Duley Ogdon

“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane

“Good Morning Blues” by Count Basie, Eddie Durham and James Rushing

“Sleigh Ride” written by Leroy Anderson and Mitchell Parish, Woodbury Music Company and Sony ATV Music Publishing, copyright owners

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” written by Johnny Marks

“Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne

“Jingle Bells” written by Frank Devol and James Pierpont

Music Direction & Vocal Arrangements: Aaron Marcellus

Music Arrangements: Aaron Marcellus and Gregory Richardson after Ella Fitzgerald and Frank DeVol

Lighting Design: Kathy Kaufmann

Costume Styling: Ella’quent Holiday Swing performers

Sound Design: Christopher Marc

The Nutcracker Suite

or, a rhythmaturgical evocation of the super-leviathonic enchantments of Duke and Billy’s supreme adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece that tells a tale of a misunderstood girl who kills a king and meets a queen and don’t forget oooo-gong-chi-gong-sh’-gon’make-it- daddy, and that it ain’t so bad after all (2019)

Original Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arranged by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn by arrangement with G. Schirmer, INC. publisher and copyright owner

Choreography: Michelle Dorrance and Josette Wiggan with solo improvisation by the dancers

Additional Choreography: Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie, Hannah Heller, Matthew “Megawatt” West and Josette Wiggan

Choreographic Advisor: Risa Steinberg

Lighting Design: Kathy Kaufmann

Costume Design: Andrew Jordan

Set Design: Peiyi Wong

Sound Design: Christopher Marc

Assistance Scenic Design: Maya Topping Weed

Additional Scenic Design and Build: Ariel Lauryn

Additional Rat Puppet Fabrication: Amelia Lang

photo: Christopher Duggan

The Nutcracker Suite, created by Michelle Dorrance, Hannah Heller and Josette Wiggan set to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s extraordinary interpretation of the Tchaikovsky score, is a transformation of the classic tale, trading pointe shoes for tap shoes in a high-energy, large-ensemble reimagining of a seasonal favorite. In the music, the “March of the Toy Soldiers” becomes the “Peanut Brittle Brigade” and “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” becomes “Sugar Rum Cherry.” The Nutcracker Suite is an unforgettable trip to the land of sweets filled with surprises, humor and the rhythmic symphony of world-class tap dancers.

About Dorrance Dance

Dorrance Dance is an award-winning tap dance company based in New York City. Led by Michelle Dorrance, the company supports dancers and musicians who embody and push the dynamic range that tap dance has to offer. The company’s mission is to engage with audiences on a musical and emotional level, and to share the complex history and powerful legacy of this Black American art form through performance and education.

Founded in 2011 by artistic director and 2015 MacArthur Fellow Michelle Dorrance the company has received countless accolades and rave reviews. Dorrance Dance has performed for packed houses at venues including Danspace Project, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, New York City Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, The Kennedy Center, Vail Dance Festival, Carolina Performing Arts at UNC Chapel Hill, Cal Performances at UC Berkeley and many others, including international venues in Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, England, Hong Kong and Singapore.

About the Artistic Team

Michelle Dorrance (Artistic Director/Choreographer/ Dancer) is a New York City-based artist. Mentored by Gene Medler (North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble), she was fortunate to study under many of the last master hoofers. Career highlights include: STOMP, Derick Grant’s Imagine Tap!, Jason Samuels Smith’s Charlie’s Angels/Chasing the Bird, Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer, Mable Lee’s Dancing Ladies and playing the bass for Darwin Deez. Company work includes: Savion Glover’s Ti Dii, Manhattan Tap, Barbara Duffy and Co., JazzTap Ensemble and Rumba Tap. Solo work ranges from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to commissions for the Martha Graham Dance Company, Vail Dance

Festival, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Center. Dorrance made her Broadway choreographic debut with James Lapine’s Flying Over Sunset at Lincoln Center Theater in 2021. A 2018 Doris Duke Artist, 2017 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow and 2015 MacArthur Fellow, Dorrance is humbled to have been acknowledged and supported by United States Artists, The Joyce Theater, the Alpert Awards, Jacob’s Pillow, Princess Grace Foundation-USA, The Field, American Tap Dance Foundation and the Bessie Awards. Dorrance holds a Bachelor of Arts from New York University and an honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of North Carolina. She is a Capezio athlete and was recently named an Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells.

Josette Wiggan (Co-Creator/Dancer) has a love for performing that was fostered by Paul and Arlene Kennedy in Los Angeles. A graduate of UCLA, Wiggan’s career highlights include the 2001 Spotlight Award winner in non-classical dance, the first national Broadway tour of 42nd Street, movies Idlewild and Princess and the Frog and studying with Germaine Acogny at L’ecole les Sables in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal. Alongside her brother, she was a part of two original casts of Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel and Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour from 2009-2013. The duo has also been seen in Tireless, a curated show by Michelle Dorrance that had its debut at Jacob’s Pillow in 2017. In addition, Wiggan is a part of Dorrance’s all woman quartet, Until the Real Comes Along and All Good Things Must Come to an End. In the summer of 2021, Wiggan created her first eveninglength work, Praise: The Inevitable Fruit of Gratitude, in collaboration with Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold at Jacob’s Pillow, and most currently has developed On Solid Ground: A Celebration of Black Joy and Freedom in Our America, featuring improvisation by the dancers and musicians of Josette Wiggans Presents. She is a sought-after educator, choreographer and performer and has dedicated her life to the perpetuation of African American Vernacular Jazz Dance. She is also on the faculty at USC’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, teaching Vernacular Jazz and Tap Dance.

Hannah Heller (Co-Creator/Dancer) is a filmmaker, actor, writer and dancer. She was a founding member of Savion Glover’s Ti Dii and has appeared with Dorrance Dance, Jane Comfort and Co. and Grand Lady Dance House. Select New York theater credits include Elements of Oz (3LD), The World is Round (BAM), The Reception (HERE Arts Center) and Evelyn (Bushwick Starr). Heller’s award-winning short film Ursula continues to play at festivals across the world.

Aaron Marcellus (Musical Direction/Lead Vocals, An Ella’quent Holiday Swing) Hailing from Atlanta, Marcellus is a versatile artist with a career spanning 25 years. He has captivated global audiences as a singer, songwriter, composer, musician, dancer and actor. Marcellus gained recognition through American Idol and performed on a world tour sponsored by the U.S. Armed Forces, entertaining thousands in multiple countries. He has also appeared in Chapstick commercials, Universal Pictures’ Dear Evan Hansen and NBC’s Next Caller. As a member of Stomp Off-Broadway and a supporting lead in National Black Theater’s Dreaming Zenzile, he continues to showcase his exceptional talents.

About the Production Team

Andrew Jordan (Costume Designer) is exploring the possible relationships between sculpture, installation, puppetry and the moving form of the human body. He has designed for both stage and screen, including projects spanning opera, contemporary dance, experimental performance, film and parade. He has worked primarily in New York City and Los Angeles, currently residing in Detroit. He received his BFA in Fine Arts, with a minor in Media Studies, from the Columbus College of Art and Design and his MFA in sculpture from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Kathy Kaufmann (Lighting Designer) is a two-time Bessie recipient and New York City native. She is a resident designer at the Danspace Project at St. Marks Church and has toured extensively throughout the world. She has been lighting Dorrance Dance projects since 2012 and designs regularly for many companies including Music From The Sole, Joanna Kotze, Ephrat Asherie Dance, The Bang Group, EIko & Koma, Rebecca Stenn, Mariana Valencia and Mina Nishamura.

Christopher Marc (Sound Designer) is a New York City-based sound designer and production manager from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has designed and engineered sound for Michelle Dorrance, Music From The Sole, Variety Life Productions, Lincoln Center Restart Stages, Luke Hickey and Michael Jellick, as well as regional and off-Broadway productions with the Kennedy Center, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, IJB Productions, Aquila Theatre and Mills Entertainment. Marc also designs/builds custom floors for percussive dance and is owner/operator of @CMarcAudio.

Peiyi Wong (Set Designer) is a Bessie Award-winning scenographer and interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She designs sets, installations and

costumes for live performance. Recent credits – sets: The Whitney Album (Soho Rep), Weightless (WP Theater), A Delicate Balance (Transport Group | NAATCO), The Vicksburg Project (Mabou Mines), SPEECH (Lightning Rod Special), Song About Trains (Working Theater | RadEv), Memoirs of a...Unicorn (NYLA, 2018 Bessie Outstanding Design), HOUSECONCERT (Object Collection), Charleses (The Tank, Hewes nomination), set + costume: A Hunger Artist (Sinking Ship), The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Transport Group), MukhAgni (The Public UTR). Upcoming projects include: Public Obscenities (Woolly Mammoth | TFANA), A Good Day to Me Not to You (Waterwell). In 2023, she was the recipient of the Edith Lutyens & Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund and NYSCA Support for Artists Grants. She is a faculty member at Playwrights Horizons and NYU Tisch and has an MFA from CalArts.

Credits

The Nutcracker Suite was commissioned and created, in part, with the support of The Joyce Theater Foundation’s Artist Residency Center, made possible by lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The Nutcracker Suite was co-commissioned by Global Arts Live, with support from Eric Klotch and Catherine Owens (Global Arts Live is a not for profit presenting organization located in Cambridge, MA); John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, Director Seth Soloway; and University of Connecticut, Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts.

Dorrance Dance is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, MacMillan Family Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Evelyn Sharp Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation and Harkness Foundation for Dance.

Rehearsal and development for this performance was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. These performances are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council. Dorrance Dance is a recipient of a U.S. Small Business Administration Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, made possible by the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Charles D. Schumer.

Special Thanks

Molly Tuttle, guitar, vocals

Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, fiddle

Kyle Tuttle, banjo, vocals

Dominic Leslie, mandolin Shelby Means, bass, vocals

Two-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Molly Tuttle and her band, Golden Highway, released their latest full-length album, City of Gold, in July 2023 on Nonesuch Records. City of Gold earned the group their second consecutive Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album, following 2022’s acclaimed Crooked Tree.

Produced by Tuttle and Jerry Douglas and recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios, City of Gold was inspired by Tuttle’s constant touring with Golden Highway these past few years, during which they grew together as musicians and performers, and cohered as a band. Reflecting on the project, Tuttle shares, “When I was a kid, we took a field trip to Caloma, California, to learn about the gold rush. I’ll never forget the dusty hills and the grizzled old miner who showed us the nugget around his neck. Just like gold fever, music has always captivated me, captured my heart and driven me to great lengths to explore its depths. On my new album I dug deep as a songwriter (with Ketch Secor) and co-producer (with Jerry Douglas) and surfaced with a record that celebrates the music of my heart, my life, the land where I grew up, and the stories I heard along the way. I made this record with my band Golden Highway after playing more than

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Fri, Dec 6 / 8 PM / Campbell Hall

Supporting Sponsor: Marilyn & Dick Mazess Roots Series Sponsor: Laura & Geof Wyatt

100 shows across the country last year. On the road and in the studio, we are inspired by artists such as John Hartford, Gillian Welch and Peter Rowan, to name a few, whose records are like family albums to us. Just like them, on this album we chart some new territory along with some old familiar ground. The songs span from breakdowns to ballads, fairytales and fiddle tunes, from Yosemite up to the Gold Country and out beyond the mountains. That visit to Coloma, site of California’s first gold strike, is where I first heard about El Dorado, the city of gold. Playing music can take you to a place that is just as precious.”

Raised in Northern California, Tuttle moved to Nashville in 2015. In the years since, she has received many accolades; in addition to the two Grammy wins she was also nominated for Best New Artist. She has earned three wins at the 2023 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards and won Album of the Year at the 2023 International Folk Music Awards. Additionally, Tuttle earned Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Awards and Guitar Player of the Year at the IBMAs in both 2017 and 2018.

Tuttle has performed around the world, including shows with Billy Strings, Béla Fleck, Hiss Golden Messenger, Jason Isbell, Old Crow Medicine Show and Dwight Yoakam, as well as at several major festivals including Newport Folk Festival and Pilgrimage.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway released a new six-song EP, Into the Wild, in September 2024.

30th Anniversary Tour Pink Martini featuring China Forbes Holiday Show

Tue, Dec 17 / 7:30 PM / Arlington Theatre

Major Sponsor: Audrey & Timothy O. Fisher

Event Sponsor: Ellen & Peter O. Johnson

Thomas Lauderdale, Bandleader, piano

China Forbes, lead vocals

Edna Vazquez, guest vocals

Thomas Barber, trumpet

Antonis Andreou, trombone

Dan Faehnle, guitar

Phil Baker, upright bass

Nicholas Crosa, violin

Timothy Nishimoto, vocals, percussion

Miguel Bernal, percussion

Brian Davis, percussion

Reinhardt Melz, drums, percussion

Pink Martini

In 1994, in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Thomas Lauderdale was working in politics, thinking he would run for mayor one day. Like other eager politicians-intraining, he went to every political fundraiser under the sun... but was dismayed to find the music at these events underwhelming, lackluster, loud and un-neighborly. Drawing inspiration from music from all over the world –crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop –and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike, he founded the “little orchestra” Pink Martini in 1994. His aim? To provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for political fundraisers supporting causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education and parks.

One year later, Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini. They began to write songs together. Their first, “Sympathique,” was an overnight sensation in France and nominated for Song of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique Awards. To this day, it remains a mantra for striking workers: “Je ne veux pas travailler (I don’t want to work).”

Pink Martini has sold well over 3 million albums worldwide on their own independent label Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog). In 2016, Pink Martini released its ninth studio album, Je dis oui!, which features vocals from China Forbes, Storm Large, Ari Shapiro, fashion guru Ikram Goldman, civil rights activist Kathleen Saadat and Rufus Wainwright. The album’s 15 tracks span eight languages (French, Farsi, Armenian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Xhosa and English) and affirm the band’s history of global inclusivity and collaborative spirit. In 2019, Pink Martini collaborated on a new release with international singing sensation Meow Meow entitled Hotel Amour, and also released two 5-song EPs: Bésame Mucho featuring regular guest singer Edna Vazquez and Tomorrow featuring regular guest singer Jimmie Herrod, a finalist on 2021’s season of NBC’s America’s Got Talent. During their pandemic hiatus, the band released two new digital singles written by Thomas Lauderdale, China Forbes and producer Jim Bianco, “Let’s Be Friends” and “The Lemonade Song,” which has over 10 million streams on Spotify alone.

Featuring more than a dozen musicians, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire throughout the world. Says Lauderdale, “We’re very much an American band, but

we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America... the America which remains the most heterogeneously populated country in the world... composed of people of every country, every language, every religion.”

The band made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony the following year. Since then, Pink Martini has played with more than 50 orchestras internationally, including Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Pops, National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Other appearances include a performance at the official post-Oscars celebration Governors Ball, four sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, the opening party of the remodeled Museum of Modern Art in New York, multiple sellouts and a festival opening at Montreal Jazz Festival, and multiple appearances, including sellouts, at the Hollywood Ball and Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. In its 20th year, Pink Martini was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. In 2024, the band is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

China Forbes

China Forbes was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated cum laude from Harvard, majoring in painting and English literature, with a minor in theater. After winning the Jonathan Levy Prize at Harvard for most promising actor, Forbes earned her Equity card appearing in New York regional theater and off-Broadway productions while also performing regularly as a singer/ songwriter in New York City clubs. Her first album Love Handle (November Records) was released in 1995 and she was chosen to sing “Ordinary Girl,” the theme song to the television spin-off of the movie Clueless (ABC/UPN).

It was then that Harvard friend and classmate Thomas Lauderdale invited her to sing with fledgling Portland, Oregon band Pink Martini. Forbes has fronted the little orchestra ever since. Co-writing many of Pink Martini’s most beloved songs with Lauderdale beginning with “Sympathique (Je ne veux pas travailler),” the duo also composed “Lilly,” “Hang on Little Tomato,” “Una Notte a Napoli,” “The Lemonade Song” and “Let’s Never Stop Falling in Love,” among many others. In 2000, “Sympathique” was nominated for song of the year at (the French Grammy awards) Les Victoires de la Musique.

Forbes’ original song “Hey Eugene” appears on her second solo album ‘78 (Heinz Records), a collection of autobiographical folk-rock songs, and is also the title track of Pink Martini’s third album. Her voice and songs have been featured prominently on acclaimed film and television soundtracks such as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Hitch, Emily in Paris, Parks and Recreation, Money Heist, Sherlock and season two of The White Lotus. She sings “Que Sera, Sera” over the credits of Jane Campion’s film In the Cut, and her original song “The Northern Line” plays over the end credits of sister Maya Forbes’ autobiographical directorial debut Infinitely Polar Bear (Sony Pictures Classics).

With Pink Martini, Forbes has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, Later with Jools Holland, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and twice on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She has duetted with Rufus Wainwright, Michael Feinstein, Carol Channing and Little Jimmy Scott. Singing in over 20 languages on nine Pink Martini studio albums, Forbes has graced the legendary stages of Carnegie Hall, Red Rocks, the Hollywood Bowl, Paris’ l’Olympia, the Sydney Opera House and Royal Albert Hall.

In 2021, Forbes released her post-pandemic anthem “Full Circle,” followed by her suicide prevention anthem “Rise,” both featured tracks on her new solo album The Road, released in May 2024. China Forbes is the recipient of the 2022 Ella Fitzgerald Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. Previous winners include Diana Ross, Etta James, Liza Minelli, Diana Krall and Aretha Franklin.

Thomas M. Lauderdale

Raised on a plant nursery in rural Indiana, Pink Martini bandleader Thomas M. Lauderdale began piano lessons at age 6 with Patricia Garrison. When his family moved to Portland in 1982, he began studying with Sylvia Killman, who to this day continues to serve as his coach and mentor. He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the Oregon Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Chamber Music Northwest and several collaborations with Oregon Ballet Theatre. In 2008, he played Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with the Oregon Symphony under the direction of Christoph Campestrini.

Active in Oregon politics since a student at U.S. Grant High School (where he was student body president), Thomas served under Portland Mayor Bud Clark and Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt. In 1991, he worked under Portland City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury on the drafting and passage of the city’s civil rights

ordinance. He graduated with honors from Harvard with a degree in History and Literature in 1992. He spent most of his collegiate years, however, in cocktail dresses, taking on the role of “cruise director”... throwing waltzes with live orchestras and ice sculptures, disco masquerades with gigantic pineapples on wheels, midnight swimming parties and operating a Tuesday night coffeehouse called Café Mardi.

Instead of running for political office, Lauderdale founded Pink Martini in 1994 to play political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, the environment, affordable housing and public broadcasting. In addition to his work with Pink Martini, Lauderdale has most recently completed two longawaited collaborations with dear friends. In 2018, he completed Love for Sale, an album of jazz standards with singer/civil rights leader Kathleen Saadat, that began as a gift to a few friends and ended up being a Billboard Jazz charts-ranking album the month it was released.

In 2019, Thomas Lauderdale and members of Pink Martini collaborated on a new release with the international singing sensation Meow Meow. The album Hotel Amour – the culmination of almost a decade of work – features guest appearances by Rufus Wainwright, the von Trapps, Barry Humphries (of Dame Edna fame) and the inimitable late French pianist and composer, Michel Legrand. Currently, Lauderdale is collaborating with iconic Iranian singer Googoosh on her forthcoming album. Spring of 2023 saw the long-awaited release of Thomas Lauderdale Meets the Pilgrims, his collaboration with Portland’s own surf-rock indie icons, Satan’s Pilgrims.

Lauderdale currently serves on the boards of the Oregon Symphony, Pioneer Courthouse Square, the Oregon Historical Society and the Confluence Project with Maya Lin. He lives in Portland with his partner Hunter Noack.

The SBCC Promise

The SBCC Promise provides all recent, local high school graduates with the opportunity to pursue their dreams at Santa Barbara City College, covering all fees, books, and supplies for two years.

The SBCC Promise relies entirely on private support, and this fall a record 2,000 local students are enrolled!

Your investment in our community’s college supports the SBCC Promise, student success programs, scholarships, emergency grants, and more.

Your gift makes it possible.

sbccfoundation.org

6 PM TO 9 PM

Listen to live jazz music and revel with fellow guests while you sip on your new favorite concoction. Reveal the secret passcode to your server and receive a complimentary Negroni.

SECRET PASSWORD CLUE: The famous Route 66 was created in 1926. Which two major cities sit at each of its ends?