UCSB releases arts schedule
Performance
artists varying from Papua-New Guinea aboriginals to cellist Lynn Harrell
playing Bach are featured in UCSB’s newly announced concert schedule.
UCSB Arts
and Lectures will offer more than 40 concerts and other events as part of its
2008-2009 season. Patrons can buy performance packages, some with discount
prices, or single tickets, beginning on Aug. 16.
The UCSB
Alumni Assn. is joining Arts and Lectures in presenting surf rock star Jack
Johnson on Aug. 27 at Harder Stadium, with special guests Rogue Wave and Culver
City Dub Collective. Called “the world’s mellowest superstar,” Johnson is a
UCSB alumnus. Tickets for the concert are on sale at Ticketmaster outlets,
including www.ticketmaster.com and at the Arlington Theatre box office,
963-4408.
The
recital series offered by Arts and Lectures will include pianist Lang Lang
playing Schubert, Bartok, Debussy and Chopin, on Oct. 28 at The Granada. Next
up for the series is the Tokyo String Quartet on Feb. 4, featuring guest and
UCSB Music Dept. Chairman Paul Berkowitz in Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A minor.
On April 5, the series offers violinist Gil Shaham with the Sejong Chamber
Orchestra, celebrating the 200-year anniversaries of Haydn and Mendelssohn.
Last in the series is the April 16 concert of the much-praised Emerson String
Quartet. The group did not announce the program.
The Music
Academy of the West’s newly renovated Hahn Hall will be the site of some
intimate recitals, including that of cellist Lynn Harrell on Nov. 15, with a
selection of Johan Sebastian Bach’s Unaccompanied Suites. Venezuelan pianist
Gabriela Montero will appear there on March 5, asking the audience for
suggestions for her to play. The final concert of this series will take place
April 8 with well-received piano soloist Yuja Wang.
The Roots
Series will feature guitarist Leo Kottke with singer-songwriter Loudon
Wainwright III, on Oct. 2. Following them will be the “band of brothers,” the
Neville Brothers, on Jan. 29, with their trademark blues and funk. This series
ends with “The Keys to New Orleans” with John Cleary, Henry Butler and Allen
Toussaint on March 4.
The Jazz
Series will begin with a tribute to Blue Notes Records’ 70th Anniversary –
On Tour, on Jan. 21. The all-star band will play classics with conductor Bill
Carlap. Chick Corea and John McLaughlin will bring together their Five Peace
Band, with Christian McBride, Kenny Garrett and Vinnie Colaiuta, on March 20.
Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins will conclude the series on April 27.
Opening
the Word of Mouth series will be satirist David Sedaris on Oct. 25 at the
Arlington Theatre with a reading from his new book, “When You Are Engulfed in
Flames.” Comedienne Paula Poundstone will bring her wry comic observations to
the stage of Campbell Hall on Nov. 16. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward
Albee will be at Campbell Hall on Feb. 12, discussing his works and his role in
the historic changes in American drama. Finally, journalist and author Bill
Bryson will appear April 14 at The Granada in a reading and discussion about
his books observing life in the United Kingdom, North America, Europe and
Australia.
Theater
performances planned by Arts and Lectures include the Marjanishvili State Drama
Theatre from the Republic of Georgia in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Oct. 21
and 22 at the Lobero Theatre. Rubicon Theatre’s production of Albee’s “Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf” will be staged on Feb. 25 and 26. The touring
classical troupe Aquila Theatre Company will close the season with Shakespeare’s
“The Comedy of Errors” on March 11.
Arts and
Lectures has a full schedule of dance performances, beginning with New York’s
Lar Lubovitch Dance Company on Oct. 23, featuring “Concerto 622.” Trey McIntyre
will make his Santa Barbara debut with the Trey McIntyre Project on Feb. 18,
with music ranging from the Beatles to Beethoven. Israel’s Batsheva Dance
Company appears Feb. 24 at the Arlington Theatre, in another Santa Barbara
debut. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater comes to the Arlington Theatre on
March 10 and 11, featuring a different program on each night. Spain’s Compania
Nacional de Danza 2 will perform the works of Nacho Duato on April 24. The
series will wrap up with France’s Ballet Preljocaj dancing to the music of
Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” on April 28 at The Granada.
One of
Arts and Lectures’ strengths is World Music, and the list for the season is
long. It includes Cape Verde songstress Cesaria Evora, Oct. 7; Milton
Nascimento with the Jobim Trio, Oct. 30; Linda Rondstadt with Mariachi Los
Camperos De Nati Cano, Nov. 10 at the Arlington Theatre; Afro-Cuban All Stars,
Feb. 28; Maestros in Concert featuring Zakir Hussein and Pandit Shivkumar
Sharma, April 9; Seun Kuti with Egypt 80, April 17; Sing Sing: Music and Dance
from Aboriginal Australia, Papua New Guinea and West Papua, May 6. All events
but Rondstadt’s are at Campbell Hall.
Holiday
and family events include Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s Holiday Show Dec. 16 at the
Arlington Theatre and family-oriented Dan Zanes and Friends on March 12 at the
Lobero Theatre.
“Songs of
David Byrne and Brian Eno” will come to the Arlington Theatre on Oct. 4. Max
Raabe and Palast Orchester will take over the Marjorie Luke Theatre on Oct. 17,
recreating it as a Berlin cabaret of the ’20s and early ’30s.
“Footnote
to Howl/The Poet Speaks,” Homage to Allen Ginsberg: Patti Smith, voice; Philip
Glass, piano; Jackson Smith, guitar will appear for Valentine’s in an evening
performance.
Oliver
Sacks, called by the New York Times “the poet laureate of medicine,” will
discuss “Creativity and the Brain,” on April 22.
Unless
another venue is specified, all events will take place at Campbell Hall on the
UCSB campus.