MISCELLANY (Continued from page 31)
Orpheum Theatre, near my Gramercy Park home nearly 20 years ago, but the energized production, created by Brits Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, has lost none of its entertainment value as amply proven when the eight-member touring cast entertained a sold-out audience at the Granada, part of the popular Theater League program. The 100-minute intermission-less joyful, witty, humorous, and wordless show lets the pulsating percussion beat tell the story using push brooms, garbage cans, inner tubes, hammer handles, Zippo lighters, and even a kitchen sink to create the unique pulse-pounding sound. The show has been performed in 50 countries for an estimated 24 million people and since 2007 has had a permanent new $28-million venue as Stomp Out Loud at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Definitely a production that gets my stomp of approval!..
in ethnomusicology at UCSB in 2004 – and Ethiopian-American singer Meklit Hadero, both based in San Francisco, founded The Nile Project in 2011, gathering musicians from 11 countries across the region in a passionate cross-cultural collaboration, which was amply on display at UCSB’s Campbell Hall during its first tour. Featuring performers from Sudan, Egypt, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi, the talented troupe, representing 11 different Nile-connected nations, played a stunning variety of instruments, including the maenko from Ethiopia, the ney and oud from Egypt and the adunga from Uganda – in addition to violin, saxophone, bass guitar, and six vocalists singing in 11 languages. An invigorating show that, dare I say, went flowingly...
Give and Receive Community movers and shakers On the Nile Peter and Gerd Jordano were lauded Winding 4,200 miles across vast for their volunteerism and charity African landscape, the Nile is the work when they received the third world’s longest river, nourishing the annual Father Virgil Remarkable Life lands and fertile cultural imagina- Awards at LifeChronicles’ gala at tions of countless basin dwellers. Fess Parker’s Doubletree. Inspired by cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk The organization, founded in 1998 Road Project, Egyptian musicologist by Kate Carter, videotapes the life Mina Girgis – who earned her MA stories of elderly family members or a seriously ill loved one, so that future generations will always have memo“Are you hearing well Enough?” ries of past family members. Gerd is a volunteer with Cottage Hospital and the Hospice of Santa Barbara, while Peter employs 550 staff at his eponymous 100-year-old food services company. Both have been involved with Westmont College for more than two decades. “We prefer to give rather than Hearing Services of receive,” she said of the couple’s Santa Barbara award. “But LifeChronicles is such a wonderful organization.” Easily the highlight of the 186-guest bash, which hoped to raise around $100,000, was our Eden by Beach’s First Lady, mayor Helene Schneider, belting out a version of Aretha Franklin’s 1967 hit “(You Make Me Complimentary Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” Hearing Aid Evaluation “It was fun stuff!” said Helene of Expert Hearing Aid Fitting her impromptu performance. Management of Repairs Others joining in the fun includand Warranties ed Larry Crandell, George Leis, Better Business Bureau Customer Service Award
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32 MONTECITO JOURNAL
Featured artist Mary Heebner holding her artwork “Apsara” and Terry Valeski with Cabana’s owners Steve and Caroline Thompson framing artist’s showcase (photo by Priscilla)
Tom Parker, Robert and Christine Emmons, Jeff and Luca Jordano, Julian Nott and Anne Luther, Rich Block, Catherine Remak, David and Pam Grossman, Victoria Hines, Silvio Di Loreto, Mike and Anne Towbes, Joyce Dudley, Janet Garufis, Ed and Sue Birch, Stan and Betty Hatch, David and Louise Borgatello, and Rob and Judy Egenoff... Love Notes Veteran Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra conductor Heiichiro Ohyama swapped his baton for a viola when the chamber musicians, with Wendy Chen on piano, performed a Valentine’s concert at the Fleischmann Auditorium at the Museum of Natural History. The show, featuring Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, Poulenc’s Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano, and Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor, was punctuated by a lengthy break at intermission to quaff wines from the vineyards of Jamie Slone and Blair Fox, along with chocolates from JeanMichel Carre, owner of Chocolats du CaliBresson in Carpinteria and La Arcada. A delicious treat in many ways... Horne of Plenty It was an evening of high note when Opera Santa Barbara hosted a sold-out masquerade ball for 180
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glitteringly garbed masked guests at the Biltmore honoring legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, who teaches master classes just a tiara’s toss away at the Music Academy of the West. The bounteous bash, co-chaired by Pat Andersons and Rodney Baker, featured the ubiquitous Andrew Firestone, accompanied by his wife, Ivana, auctioning off five operatic jaunts to Santa Fe, New Mexico, Calgary, Canada, Wilmington, Delaware, New York, and Los Angeles, which raised almost $30,000 alone. Opera director Steven Sharpe added to the coffers inviting sponsorships for arias featuring Donizetti’s Una Furtiva Lagrima from L’Elisir D’Amore, Bizet’s Seguidilla from Carmen, and Rogers & Hammerstein’s Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific, sung by mezzo-soprano Eve Giglitti, tenor Javier Abreu, and bass baritone Stefano de Peppo, with Katherine Kozak on piano. Among those in the right aria were president Sandy Urquhart, Paksy Plakis-Cheng, Joan and Geoffrey Rutkowski, Beno Budgor, Roger and Sarah Chrisman, Duncan Mellichamp, Deborah Bertling, Mike and Anne Towbes, Dolly Granatelli, TV actress Finola Hughes, Daniel and Belle HahnCohen, Lee Luria, Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp, Ralph and Diana MacFarlane, Christopher Lancashire, Catherine Gee, Stefan and Christine Riesenfeld, Hiroko Benko, Mary Dora, Robert Weinman, Robert and Gretchen Lieff, and Scott Reed... For Art’s Sake Interior design twosome Steve and Caroline Thompson hosted a bijou bash at their Cabana Home store for the North Carolina furniture company Lee Industries and local artist, Mary Heebner, who was exhibiting 19 – 26 February 2015