CALENDAR OF Note to readers: This entertainment calendar is a subjective sampling of arts and other events taking place in the Santa Barbara area for the next week. It is by no means comprehensive. Be sure to read feature stories in each issue that complement the calendar. In order to be considered for inclusion in this calendar, information must be submitted no later than noon on the Wednesday eight days prior to publication date. Please send all news releases and digital artwork to slibowitz@yahoo.com)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16 24-Hour Play Festival — Developing theater doesn’t usually happen overnight, as playwriting, editing, publishing, hiring a director, casting, and finding a venue to produce a new work is generally rivaled in time span only by big Hollywood movies, which can be in development for more than a decade. Then there’s the 24-hour Play Festival in which folks get together to come up with short plays of about 10 minutes each in duration that are written, directed, and acted by community members all within the span of a single day. Current concerns about COVID have caused a re-configuration of this annual event that celebrates community and creation, namely limiting participation to UCSB students, faculty, and staff rather than the community at large, but we’re all invited to witness the results in the intimate Studio Theater on campus tonight. Note: there’s a second installment of the all-in-oneday thing coming in January during Winter Quarter on campus. WHEN: 7 pm WHERE: UCSB Studio Theater, 552 University Rd. (Building TD East 1101) COST: Free INFO: (805) 893-2064 or www.the aterdance.ucsb.edu/news/event/895 On Track with Nature — The NatureTrack Film Festival — which explodes what is only a sidebar at SBIFF into an
entire multi-day festival of films about the natural world and adventure — is only in its fourth year and already half of the festivals have been forced to go online in deference to defending against COVID. More than 70 films from 14 countries in such categories as Adventure, Animation, Biography, Conservation, Kids Connecting with Nature, Scenic, Student and Outdoors & Out of Bounds will screen virtually through the end of the month. But it all kicks off today with an in-person pop-up event at Stacy Hall at St. Mark’s in the Valley in Los Olivos to coincide with the annual Day in the Country event the tiny town of Los Olivos puts on to celebrate small town life; 30 of the nature docs will screen there. Among the highlights of the full fest is one with a Montecito connection: Sebastian & Max’s Grand Canyon Adventure featuring Sebastian Salsbury, a local runner/hiker (and son of American Riviera Bank founder Mike Salsbury) who also sets up runs to raise money for Cold Spring School. WHEN: 9 am-11 pm today; online through October 31 WHERE: 2901 Nojoqui Ave, Los Olivos today COST: Varies INFO: www.naturetrackfilmfestival.org SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17 Bongos, Marimbas & Drums … Oh, my! — The Music Academy of the West has
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14 Double Take: DSQ’s ‘Doppelgänger’ Debuts — The wildly talented and inventive Danish String Quartet is at it again tonight as the fearsome foursome launches “The Doppelgänger Project, Part I.” The ambitious four-year project, which is commissioned by UCSB Arts & Lectures and a variety of other international partners, pairs world premieres by four renowned modern composers with chamber music masterpieces by Schubert, including the famed “Death and the Maiden” and the “Rosamunde” quartets. Tonight’s first installment features Schubert’s “String Quartet in G major, D. 887,” setting the stage for Bent Sørensen’s piece called, appropriately, “Doppelgänger,” and concluding with more Schubert with another appropriately titled piece, “Der Doppelgänger,” one of the six songs from the composer’s “Schwanengesang” suite that sets words by Heinrich Heine for piano and tenor voice, rearranged for string quartet by the DSQ. If that’s a little too much to decipher in one sitting, perhaps a chat with the players at the reception with the artists that follows the concert might help. The daring Danish lads will be back in April for Part 2 with a new work by Lotta Wennäkoski along with Schubert’s “Maiden” that inspired the composition. WHEN: 7 pm WHERE: Rockwood, Santa Barbara Woman’s Club, 670 Mission Canyon Rd. COST: $50 INFO: (805) 893-3535 or www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu
36 MONTECITO JOURNAL
EVENTS by Steven Libowitz
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17 His Name is Luca — There are a whole lot more innovative acoustic guitar players than ukulele masters, but Luca Stricagnoli’s rise to fame somewhat parallels Jake Shimabukuro’s and both have staked out unique styles and techniques that have confounded audiences with their creative covers. In Stricagnoli’s case, the finger-style native of Italy has earned more than 100 million views on YouTube for videos of his arrangements for such songs as U2’s “With or Without You,” Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” and the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” all of which feature his guitars that have at least two fretboards. In concert, Stricagnoli has been known to employ up to five guitars in the same piece, including ones with three necks and a guitar he plays with his feet. Add in his own original tunes and an engaging personality that fills his performances with anecdotes and even jokes as well as explanations of the magic, and this might be the most exciting concert yet from the Santa Barbara Acoustic Music series. WHEN: 7:30 pm WHERE: 1221 State St., upstairs in Victoria Court COST: $22 INFO: (805) 962-7776 or www.sohosb.com invited faculty percussionist Michael Werner, who spent the summer of 1990 as an MAW fellow on his way to his current position as the principal for the Seattle Symphony, to head back to town this weekend to coordinate Xtravaganza!, an outdoor percussion event with a few of his more exceptional fellow MAW alumni of recent years. The main event is a cabaret-inspired benefit event on the stunning Miraflores campus that features a strolling garden cocktail hour with signature drinks crafted by an on-site mixologist followed by mini-percussion performances on multiples stages, with the artists roaming while the audience stays seated. But if the $250 minimum price tag seems a little steep, no worries, because the same beatand-rhythm meisters will also be back on campus this afternoon for a free Family Percussion Concert on Fé Bland Plaza in front of Hahn Hall. No special cocktails are being served, but there is free popcorn as well as an hour’s worth of music that should prove much more stimulating than a Hypervolt percussion massager. Registration required. WHEN: 3-4 pm WHERE: 1070 Fairway Rd. COST: Free INFO: (805) 695-7929 or www.musicacademy.org/whats-on/ family-percussion TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19 CAMA Concert Fit for a King — Santa Barbara’s Community Arts Music Association, which has been bringing the
“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” – Howard Schultz
world’s finest orchestras and recitalists to town for more than a century, isn’t quite ready to resume its full schedule in the wake of the pandemic, although the slate that starts in January has been announced. But there was no passing up the opportunity to present Canada’s highly acclaimed Les Violons du Roy (The Violins of the King), which has held Québec City in thrall for nearly 40 years. The ensemble takes its name from the legendary 17th-century French royal court orchestra Les Vingtquatre Violons du Roi, the five-part string ensemble at the French royal court that existed from 1626 to 1761 that served as the precursor to orchestras. Under its new music director, British conductor Jonathan Cohen, Les Violons continues to explore all manner of repertoire of music for chamber orchestra in performances that aim to match as closely as possible the period of each work’s composition with interpretations that are deeply informed by the latest research on 17th- and 18th-century performance practice. Such is the case with tonight’s onetime, nonsubscription concert that consists exclusively of Bach and Vivaldi concertos and features the return of Avi Avital as special guest. The virtuoso Israeli mandolinist floored the soldout Granada audience at CAMA’s 100th Season Community Concert with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in 2018. WHEN: 7:30 pm WHERE: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St. COST: $38 & $48 INFO: (805) 963-0761 or www.lobero.com •MJ 14 – 21 October 2021