The Santa Barbara Symphony is a professional symphony

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

and register 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...

. The orchestra was founded in 1953. Music directors have included Erno Daniel (1960–1967), who also taught piano at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

, Ronald Ondrejka (1967–1979), who taught conducting at UCSB, Frank Collura (1979–1984),

Varujan Kojian Varujan Kojian (March 12, 1935; Beirut, LebanonMarch 4, 1993; Santa Barbara, California) was an Armenian-American conductor from Beirut, Lebanon. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and by 1956 joined Los Angeles Philharmonic where he became an ...

(1985–93), Gisele Ben-Dor (1994–2005), and Nir Kabaretti (2006–present). In the 1990s the orchestra began releasing recordings, including

CDs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

of works by

Silvestre Revueltas Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (December 31, 1899 – October 5, 1940) was a Mexican composer of classical music, a violinist and a conductor. Life Revueltas was born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory ...

Astor Piazzolla Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (, ; March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed '' nuevo tango'', incorporating elements fro ...

Luis Bacalov Luis Enríquez Bacalov (30 August 1933 – 15 November 2017) was an Argentine-born film composer. He learned music from Enrique Barenboim, father of Daniel Barenboim the conductor of the Berlin, and Chicago orchestras, and also Berta Sujovolsky ...

and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Typically the orchestra performs a series of about seven concerts during a season, plus additional concerts, for example, a Pops music and stage performance on New Year's Eve. In 2008, the Santa Barbara Symphony moved from its long-time venue at the

Arlington Theatre The Arlington Theatre is the largest movie theater and principal performing arts venue in Santa Barbara, California, United States. In addition to regular screenings and artists, it is home to many events associated with the annual Santa Ba ...

to the newly renovated Granada Theatre.

References

History of the Santa Barbara Symphony

External links

* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1953 Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra Orchestras based in California