Fresh Sounds of Summer

Come summertime around these parts, classical music lovers find themselves bereft.

The regular concert season, with its live musical offerings, has faded, and classical culture gets mighty scarce in Ventura County.

One might think about heading south, to the various concert series in Los Angeles.

But closer to home, one might consider the activities stemming from a certain estate in Montecito.

As of this week, the annual Music Academy of the West was open for its rich bounty of classes and public concerts by stellar faculty and students.

Based out of the property known as Miraflores, close to the Biltmore Hotel and the beach, the Music Academy of the West is one of the most highly regarded summer education programs in the world, drawing students already of a shockingly high caliber.

Noted faculty members--performers in their own right--fly in from posts far and wide and show their own considerable musical wares in the “Tuesdays at 8” concert series in Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theater.

And from the perspective of the listening public, the Music Academy’s dense schedule of concerts, master classes and recitals through early August is the hottest ticket of the summer in the area. We are lucky to be in the neighborhood.

The concert roster officially kicks off Saturday night at the Lobero with an alumni benefit concert featuring pianist Martin Katz, soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian and others, but classes began this week.

On Tuesday, an SRO crowd packed Abravanel Hall for the introduction of student singers and accompanists, introduced by the Music Academy’s celebrated head of the vocal department, Marilyn Horne (who will also sing five songs in Saturday’s program).

Introducing the pianists was Warren Jones, a noted accompanist who was heard at the recent Ojai Festival backing up soprano Denyce Graves in recital.

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The quantity and consistent quality of the vocalists, each singing an aria, were impressive, and that level is thanks in part to the luring presence of Horne here in the past two years.

Many of the vocal students came from Canada, while the pianists--also a strong lot--often hailed from Korea, but occasionally, someone from Southern California slipped in, such as 17-year-old Elisa Nussen of Long Beach.

Tuesday’s afternoon program was a perfect example of what makes the Music Academy special. We had a parade of fresh faces, but singers whose talents were hardly green.

They are well on their way, and you can hear them for a song. Many of them will be heard in full operatic regalia several weeks from now, when the academy presents the Handel opera “Rodelinda” from Aug. 6-8.

Coming up on this week’s Music Academy schedule is the first Tuesday night chamber concert, in a program of C.P.E. Bach, Hindemith, Poulenc and Chausson.

On July 2, the first of the weekly “Picnic Concerts” takes place on the idyllic campus at 7:30 p.m. Picnickers can arrive early to dine on the well-kept grounds.

Vocal aficionados take note: This afternoon, teacher Martin Katz will present a master class of “French Song,” and the witty Jones Master Class next Tuesday goes by the title “She Said, He Said . . . “

DETAILS

Concerts and master classes, through the summer, at Music Academy of the West, 1070 Fairway Road, in Santa Barbara, and the Lobero Theater, 33 Canon Perdido, in Santa Barbara. For tickets and brochures, call 963-0761. For the concert hotline, call 897-0300.

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Russian Folk Rocks the Reagan: On Sunday afternoon, the rugged tradition of Russian folk songs will land at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, as the Los Angeles-St. Petersburg Russian Folk Orchestra brings its folkloric tradition to that hilltop institution.

Folk music has its high culture corollaries, of course, and Russian folk music, in particular has played a key role in classical repertoire of the past century and more, especially through the music of Stravinsky.

This program celebrates “the sound of the firebird,” the symbol central to Stravinsky’s legendary early ballet “Firebird Suite.”

The group, featuring such indigenous instruments as the balalaika, the domra, bayan and guisli, is led by music director Iryna Orlova and conductor Anatoly Mamalyga, both longtime members of the Philharmonic Society of Kiev.

They will perform traditional Russian songs, contemporary compositions and throw in a Strauss waltz for good classical measure.

DETAILS

Los Angeles-St. Petersburg Russian Folk Orchestra at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, 40 Presidential Drive, in Simi Valley. Admission is free with paid entry to the museum: $5 general, $3 seniors 62 and older, free for children under 16; (800) 410-8354.

Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at joeinfo@aol.com