Of course, every Santa Barbara Music Club concert that I have ever attended has been a sensory joy as well as a consciousness expansion. Yet, I confess to a special reverence for the two concerts in June, when the club introduces this year’s winners of its scholarships, demonstrating with passion and skill the musical accomplishments that got them into the winner’s circle. There are few entertainments so rewarding, not to say inspiring, as these events dedicated to the honoring of young talent.

The first of these “2012 Scholarship Winner Showcase Recitals” will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Faulkner Gallery of the Santa Barbara Central Library, 40 E. Anapamu St. Admission is free, as usual.

In a program of delightful miniatures, we will hear Maurice Ravel’s Menuet sur le nom d’ Haydn, arranged by E. Valinsky, and Leonard Bernstein’s Rondo for Lifey played by trumpeter Nikolas Valinsky (age 19); “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise” from The New Moon by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II, performed by alto saxophonist Aaron Dutton (age 18); “Quando m’en vo” from La Bohéme by Giacomo Puccini, arranged by P. Toscano, with trumpeter Harrison Sulit-Swalley (age 18); Vincenzo Bellini’s “Dolente immagine di Fille mia” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “The Vagabond” from Songs of Travel, sung by baritone David Childs (age 17); Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, Opus 47, with cellist Nicolas Sterner (age 18); the “Bourrée I,” “Bourrée II” and “Gigue” from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009, played by violist Sarah Shasberger (age 21); and Cécile Chaminade’s Concertino, Opus 107, performed by flautist Jessica Kozachuk (age 18).

Pianists Erik Valinsky, Fernanda Douglas, Heather Levin, Jessica Mireles and Anne Weger will supply the keyboard support.

No composer of our time did more to demonstrate the permeability of the wall between classical and popular than Bernstein, so it is quite satisfying to see a work of his sharing a mainly classical program with music by Romberg and Richard Rodgers.

Great progress has been made, in recent years, in the opening up of opportunities for female composers to pursue a career in composition, and to establish themselves in the profession to the point where some of them actually make a living at it. Yet, as the careers of Amy Beach and her near-contemporary, Chaminade, demonstrate, it has never been downright illegal for a woman to attempt a career in composition. The problem has been that they were excluded from holding posts such as music director of symphony orchestras and opera companies, as well as professorships at influential institutions.

Chaminade and Beach were both brilliant pianists, which helped. Chaminade was successful as a composer almost from the start, and her songs and other works were virtually all published. Her music was wildly popular in France, England and the United States. In 1913, she became the first female composer awarded the Legion of Honor. When she died, however — in 1944, the same year as Beach — she and her music were almost immediately forgotten, as, indeed, was the case with Beach. Immortality is apparently a male preserve.

They have since been rediscovered, but the fact that they were popular and successful while they lived rather counts against them. They weren’t gender martyrs — though Chaminade’s father disapproved of her composing, he made only perfunctory attempts to redirect her creativity. (After 1920, by the way, Beach could vote in our elections, but women didn’t get the vote in France until 1945, a year after Chaminade’s death.)

Concertino on this program is just about the only thing of hers you are likely to hear unless you seek her out specifically. (I have a recording of her marvelous Concertstuek for Piano and Orchestra that is an eloquent argument for her abilities.) Ambroise Thomas, the composer of Mignon, once said of her, “This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman.” I guess he thought he was paying a compliment.

For more information about the Music Club, call 805.687.5537 or email info@sbmusicclub.org.

— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews.