The first concert of our 2024/2025 season will take place at 7.30pm on October 12, 2024 at The First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu Street in Santa Barbara.
Tickets are now available on the door for $20. K-12 students are admitted free – please use code K12FREE.
Our program, under the direction of returning conductor Mary Beth Woodruff, features:
Bartok – Romanian Folk Dances
Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances is a suite of six short piano pieces composed by Béla Bartók in 1915 that he later orchestrated for small ensemble in 1917. The first is “Dance with Sticks”, a solo dance for a young man, which includes kicking the ceiling. Next is “Waistband Dance”, derived from a spinning song with dancers holding each other’s waists, flowing directly into dance number 3, “On the Spot”, a dance in which the participants basically stamp on one spot. The “Hornpipe Dance” features the ancient Mixolydian mode (a type of scale) and Arabian colors. “Romanian Polka” is a children’s dance with changing meters, flowing directly into the final dance, “Fast Dance”, fast, tiny steps are performed by couples, used as a courting dance.
Grace Fisher – Waltz of the Waves and A Critter Fable
Grace Fisher was raised in Santa Barbara, California where she embraced music at a young age. Classically trained as a Pianist and Cellist. Throughout her youth she played cello with the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony and Santa Barbara Strings. As an instrumentalist she participated in Certificate of Merit training and Royal Achievement Program for Piano, Cello, and Voice. Her dream of becoming a performance artist was cut short, when at age 17, she developed a rare neurological disease leaving her permanently paralyzed from the neck down, unable to use her arms or hands. Through hard work and determination, she would not allow her music note to be silenced. Today, she is an award- winning composer, filmmaker, and producer. In 2022 she graduated from UCSB with a B.A. in Music Composition.
Following Grace’s illness, she discovered a penchant for composition, a byproduct of her years of musical theory training and immersion in many styles of music genres. Without the ability to play, she turned to composing, production, and creative avenues for musical expression including animation and multi-trac recording. “A Winter Music Showcase” is an annual live concert that Grace produces in Santa Barbara, CA featuring Orchestral, Contemporary, Choral and small group Ensembles. In 2018, the Showcase featured an original piece “Waltz of the Waves” for symphonic orchestra. Academy Award Winning composer Justin Hurwitz remarked: “Amazing!… has a Nino Rota quality…” The 2020 Showcase featured an Animated Short written and produced by Grace entitled “A Critter Fable”, which has been widely acclaimed in film festivals across the country including wins for “best score” and “most inspirational” at Los Angeles Film Shorts 2021.
Beethoven – Symphony No. 3 Eroica
Beethoven initially intended to dedicate the symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, but famously became disenchanted when Napoleon abandoned the ideals of the French Revolution and became Emperor in 1804, just one year before the symphony’s premiere. The composer tore up the title page in a fit of rage and branded the piece Sinfonia Eroica (Heroic symphony) instead.
In the Eroica, Beethoven expanded the symphonic form to an unprecedented scope, altering the expectations of what a four-movement symphony would be in the next two centuries. Many have argued that his “heroic” style from the Third Symphony forward was a musical manifestation of his triumph over his increasing deafness and contemplation of suicide.
Tickets are now available here for $20. K-12 students are admitted free – please use code K12FREE.