It’s one of those gorgeous musical events, seeming to come out of the blue, that makes it such a treat to be a music lover in Santa Barbara County.
Pianists Renée Hamaty and Fredrik Rosvall and soprano Jamie Chamberlin have gathered several of their talented friends to create an Extraordinary Gala Concert at 2 p.m. Sunday in Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West, 1070 Fairway Road in Santa Barbara.
It’s all for a good cause, with the proceeds benefiting the youth education/outreach programs of Opera Santa Barbara.
Hamaty and Rosvall — who are at home in every musical venue, from high classical to low-down blues — along with Chamberlin, have enlisted sopranos Deborah Bertling and Carol Ann Manzi, tenors Gabriel Silva and Gary Smith, baritone Eric Carampatan and pianist Michaela Simpson to perform a program that ranges from Lisztian-Brahmsian pyrotechnics, traditional hymns and Ferrante-Teicher schmaltz on the piano, through arias and duets by Georges Bizet, Jules Massenet, Antonin Dvorak, Leonard Bernstein, Giacomo Puccini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Charles Gounod and Giuseppe Verdi.
The whole company will be onstage at the end, performing a medley from Swedish pop group ABBA. (Among other things, this concert is a lesson in the meaning of “eclectic.”)
Admission to the concert is $30 for adults and $20 for seniors; children are admitted for free. Call 805.564.6850 for tickets and information.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com.