Miscellany (Continued from 8)
The Montecito resident also serves on the board of the Montecito Trails Foundation and is president-elect of the rarefied enclave’s Rotary Club. “I hope the new campus will serve as model community that can be replicated in communities around the country,” says Barrett. Supporters, noshing on the St. Patrick’s Day fare of corned beef and cabbage, included Bonnie Dickinson, Prudy Handelman, Barbara Kennedy, Joann Redding, Dana Hansen, and Nancy Elliott.
Amplifying Support for Girls Rock Fire Chief Todd Tuggle, Vicki and Ron Simms, and Fire Chief Marc Schneider (photo by Priscilla)
Avi and Jenna Reichental (photo by Priscilla)
popular nonprofit’s activities, including a $50,000 grant to help fund a firefighting Firehawk helicopter which is being retrofitted, a $20,000 grant to the Sheriff ’s Department – $10,000 for special dive mask operations and $10,000 for defibrillators. Other grants enable the Santa Barbara Police Department to train in nonlethal force with Jiu-Jitsu classes, which originated in Japan, fire struts for building collapse, and trench rescue for another
Margaret Lloyd, Eileen Piatek, and Suzy Cawthon at the Rockwood Woman’s Club (photo by Priscilla)
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local department, and $14,000 for drones for police departments in Santa Maria and Lompoc. The first responders organization also started the 777 program, now renamed the Family Time Campaign, allowing firefighters’ families and others to use two beach homes on ritzy Padaro Lane, just a tiara’s toss from Oscar winner Kevin Costner and mega director George Lucas, to relax, recover, and recuperate after major disasters. Among the tony torrent of supporters turning out were Sheriff Bill Brown, Montecito Fire Chief Mark Hartwig, Eric and Nina Phillips, Alan and Lisa Parsons, Martin Gore, Ginni Dreier, Alixe Mattingly, Kirsten Cavendish Weston-Smith, Connie Pearcy, Diana Starr Langley, Alastair and Ann Winn, Amanda Twining, and Michael and Tracy Bollag. Putting the fun into fundraising...
Girls Rock SB + Amplify has partnered with Parisian ready-to-wear and accessories brand Zadig & Voltaire, for Women’s History Month. For the entire month of March, the French company is donating 10 percent of proceeds for every fullprice purchase made from its boutiques and online stores. Syryn Records, a youth-run record label and internship program offering teen girls and young women a safe and empowering entree into the music industry, is the organization’s primary program benefitting from the funds. “There is great synergy between the brand and our programs, which have empowered over 11,000 girls, women, and gender-expansive people around the world through music, education, creative arts, community, and positive mentorship since 2012,” says Founder and Executive Director Jen Baron. Music to our ears...
A Lunch with Barrett
Santa Barbara Woman’s Club had a record turnout of nearly 100 guests when it hosted its first post-pandemic lunch at the Rockwood Woman’s Club with celebrity gossipeuse Rona Barrett as principal guest. Rona, 85, formerly a regular on ABC’s Good Morning America covering the Hollywood scene, is now an advocate for seniors, having opened the Golden Inn & Village in the Santa Ynez Valley in 2016 as a haven for low-income seniors. And in February, Harry’s House, a second building nearby with 60 units named after her father, started construction and will start serving the elderly in summer next year. Barrett, who I have known for many years, was interviewed on stage by Alabama-born Tony Morris, the new executive director of the Rona Barrett Foundation, who served on the board for nearly seven years. His earlier business career includes more than 27 years of senior management experience, where he led marketing communications departments for Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola, MCI Telecommunications, and Brown-Forman.
Girls Rock SB gets French connection (photo by Arna Behar)
Grosvenor’s Sublime Return Two years ago, British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor was set to launch his first U.S. tour, including a concert at the Lobero Theatre for CAMA, the Community Arts Music Association. But the pandemic put paid to that with all venues being closed and Grosvenor flying back to the U.K., having not played one note. Now, with COVID restrictions being
“No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.” – English Proverb
Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor impresses (photo by Benjamin Ealovega)
lifted, Grosvenor, 29, the youngest-ever soloist on BBC’s Proms at age 18, was able to show his extraordinary keyboard prowess in the second concert of the organization’s Masterseries, and the second of his 11-city concert tour, which started in Denver, Colorado. Grosvenor, who at the age of 11 won a BBC Young Musician of the Year award, played Cesar Franck’s “Prelude, Choral et Fugue,” and Robert Schumann’s “Kreisleriana” to launch his highly entertaining program, concluding with Isaac Albeniz’s “Iberia,” and Maurice Ravel’s “Jeux d’eau, La Vaise.” It was certainly worth the wait. In a word: sublime.
Sonic Carpenter It was literally an absolute blast when accomplished international organist Cameron Carpenter brought his talents to the stage at the Granada for a third time when he performed with the Santa Barbara Symphony for its Sonic Boom concert under maestro Nir Kabaretti. Berlin-based, Juilliard-trained Carpenter, 40, who was the first organist in 2009 to be nominated for a Grammy for his solo album Revolutionary, was in flamboyant fine form with Bach’s “Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major (St. Anne),” Poulenc’s “Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings in G minor,” and Saint-Saëns’ “Symphony No.3 in C minor.” He first hit our Eden by the Beach six years ago and returned in 2018 for a performance under UCSB’s popular Arts & Lectures program with his touring organ, that took ten years to build at a cost of $2 million, both of which I attended. For his latest concert, Carpenter debuted his Rodgers Infinity 3 manual organ, with him sitting at a console and manipulating controls that signaled to a computer to turn notes on and off, using sampling data from actual pipe recordings. The sounds were translated into an audio stream that traveled through amplifiers and broadcast through a tower of 28 speakers, located at the back of the cavernous stage. The thoroughly innovative show was presented in collaboration with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s exhibition Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources, with the SaintSaëns work dating back to Paris when the Dutch artist lived in the French capital.
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24 – 31 March 2022