CAMA Unveils Centennial Season Program

Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara (CAMA), the city's oldest arts organization, will present 12 concerts featuring some of the world's finest instrumentalists as part of its highly anticipated centennial season in 2018-2019. Highlights of CAMA's International Series at The Granada Theatre will include appearances by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, violinist extraordinaire Itzhak Perlman, and the Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others. The organization's Masterseries at The Lobero Theatre will include performances by celebrated pianists Richard Goode and Garrick Ohlsson, Grammy-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich, cello master Mischa Maisky, and the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Subscription prices start at $150 for the Masterseries and $170 for the International Series. To order, go to http://camasb.org/subscriptions/ (link active by Tuesday, May 15).

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the baton of British conductor Daniel Harding, will open CAMA's 100th concert season with a performance of Masaot/Clocks without Hands by contemporary Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth and Anton Bruckner's monumental Symphony No. 4 at The Granada Theatre on Sunday, October 28. A former prodigy, Maestro Harding serves as music director of both Orchestre de Paris and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The LA Phil, which also will be celebrating its centennial season in 2018-2019, has performed more than 250 concerts in Santa Barbara for CAMA over the last 100 years. The concert on October 28 will begin at 4 pm.

Classical music icon Itzhak Perlman will perform with pianist Rohan De Silva at The Granada Theatre on Tuesday, January 15. It will be his sixth CAMA concert appearance, having first performed under the organization's auspices as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 21 in 1967. The January 15 concert will begin at 7 pm.

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, under the direction of the legendary Nicholas McGegan, will perform works by Mozart, Schubert, and Franz Clement in its Santa Barbara debut at The Granada Theatre on Tuesday, February 5. The leading period performance ensemble in the United States, the Philharmonia is dedicated to capturing the spirit and distinctive sound of music from the Baroque to the early Romantic periods using authentic instruments and stylistic conventions, and has long been at the forefront of the "historical" movement worldwide.

The Russian National Orchestra will present an all-Rachmanino? program to mark the 100th anniversary of the composer's immigration to the United States in 1918 on Tuesday, February 27, at The Granada Theatre. Led by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev, the RNO was recently named one of the world's top orchestras by a panel of international critics.

London's Philharmonia Orchestra, under the direction of the innovative Esa-Pekka Salonen, will perform Arnold Schönberg's expansively Romantic tone poem Verklärte Nacht as well as Anton Bruckner's Symphony No.7 at The Granada Theatre on Wednesday, March 20. It will be Maestro Salonen's 14th appearance as conductor for CAMA over the past 25-plus years - including his previous tenure as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic - more than any other in the organization's 100-year history.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra will make its CAMA debut at The Granada Theatre on Friday, April 5, performing symphonies by Sibelius and Proko?ev as well as Rachmanino?'s Rhapsody on A Theme of Paganini, the latter featuring Olga Kern, the ?rst woman in more than 30 years to receive the Gold Medal at the prestigious Van Cliburn Piano Competition in 2001.

Acclaimed pianist Richard Goode will perform works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin, as well as Leoš Janá?ek's ravishing piano cycle In the Mists, at The Lobero Theatre on Friday, November 9. Acknowledged worldwide as a leading interpreter of Classical and Romantic music, Mr. Goode will be making his fourth CAMA appearance.

The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra will present Tales of Two Cities: The Leipzig-Damascus Coffee House, a groundbreaking multimedia fusion of European and Arabic music, at The Lobero Theatre on Saturday, March 9. Also featuring Demetri Petsalakis (oud), Naghmeh Farahmand (percussion), singer Maryem Tollar, and noted stage personality Alon Nashman, the work illuminates the titular cities' shared tradition of co?ee houses serving as popular gathering places for music, discussion, and learning.

Garrick Olhsson, long regarded as one of the finest pianists of his generation, will perform an all-Brahms program at The Lobero Theatre on Saturday, March 30. Many local music lovers likely well remember his last CAMA appearance: a virtuosic performance of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. An Avery Fisher Prize recipient, Mr. Ohlsson remains the only American to have won the Gold Medal at the International Chopin Competition.

Violinist Augustin Hadelich, named Instrumentalist of the Year for 2018 by Musical America, will perform works by Beethoven, Debussy, Brahms, and others at The Lobero Theatre on Wednesday, April 17. It will be his fourth CAMA appearance in as many years, having most recently turned in a riveting performance of Britten's Violin Concerto with the St. Louis Symphony at The Granada Theatre in January. Accompanying Mr. Hadelich will be the talented pianist Orion Weiss.

Latvian-born Israeli cellist Mischa Maisky will perform works by Schumann, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich in the closing recital of CAMA's 100th concert season at The Lobero Theatre on Monday, May 6. Mr. Maisky has the distinction of being the only cellist to have studied with Russian masters Mstislav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky. He will share the Lobero stage with his daughter, the fine Paris-born pianist Lily Maisky.

CAMA's Board of Directors will sponsor a free community concert at The Granada Theatre on Tuesday, December 11, featuring the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and celebrated mandolin soloist Avi Avital performing an all-Vivaldi program, including the Baroque master's Concerto for Two Violins in G Minor, his Concerto for Two Violins in A Minor, and "The Four Seasons," his beloved collection of violin concerti.

Complete season information is available online at http://camasb.org.

All performances will begin at 8 pm unless otherwise noted above.

For more information, call (805) 966-4324 or email info@camasb.org.

CAMA is Santa Barbara's oldest arts organization, and will present its 100th concert season in 2018-2019. CAMA's mission is to enrich the city's cultural life by bringing live performances by world-renowned classical artists and orchestras of the highest artistic excellence to our community and by providing creative, focused music education programs for individuals of all ages.