The Music Academy of the West charts new territory at the 72nd annual Summer School and Festival (June 17–Aug. 10).

As part of its first transatlantic educational partnership, the academy presents the historic festival debut of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), which travels to Santa Barbara for three programs under the leadership of LSO conductors Elim Chan and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Also featured is the academy’s West Coast premiere of Cold Mountain, the award-winning first opera of composer-in-residence Jennifer Higdon, in an exclusive new production conducted by TED Fellow Daniela Candillari and directed by Music Academy Vocal Institute Creative Director James Darrah.

Known for their high energy, this summer’s Academy Festival Orchestra concerts will be led by returning favorite Larry Rachleff; Marin Alsop, making her festival debut; Matthias Pintscher, showcasing his own composition; and Michael Tilson Thomas, leading the orchestra alongside the LSO in the annual Community Concert.

Other festival highlights include an opening night gala to mark the academy’s five-decade-long association with pianist Jerome Lowenthal, and recitals by pianist Jeremy Denk, the Takács Quartet, and a quartet of 2019 Mosher Guest Artists: mezzo-soprano and 2005 alumna Isabel Leonard, flutist Claire Chase, double bassist Edgar Meyer, and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

All told, 140 fellows and 77 faculty members will take part in 170 concerts, recitals, and masterclasses on the academy’s Miraflores campus and throughout Santa Barbara.

This year marked all-time high for the number of musicians applying to audition to participate as fellows in the Summer Festival. There were 1,980 candidates who applied for 140 fellow positions. Musicians hail from 18 countries and 21 states.

This year’s fellows will range in age from 18-33, 40% male, 60% female. 16 alumni return in 2019. Fellows have permission to participate in up to three summer festivals through the annual admissions process.

Last season saw the launch of Music Academy of the West’s four-year partnership with LSO, a world leader in innovation, management, and international presence. This summer, LSO makes its first trip to Santa Barbara for a residency promising exceptional performances and training opportunities.

Elim Chan, winner of the 2014 Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, takes the podium for the LSO’s spaced-themed Voyager Family Concert at the Granada Theatre.

Combining orchestral excerpts by Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Holst, Ives, Shostakovich, Messiaen, John Adams, and John Williams with audience participation and a specially created film, this multimedia event is designed to cultivate the next generation of music-lovers (July 12).

Also at the Granada, Michael Tilson Thomas —music director of the San Francisco Symphony, founder/artistic airector of the New World Symphony, conductor laureate of LSO, and Signature Festival conductor of the Academy’s LSO partnership ­— conducts the LSO in his own jazzy Agnegram, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Grammy Award-winner James Ehnes as soloist (July 13).

For the orchestra’s final full-scale appearance, Thomas leads the annual Community Concert, at which the LSO plays side-by-side with the Academy Festival Orchestra at the Santa Barbara Bowl. They will bring the community together for a program of Berlioz, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky (July 14).

The residency also sees key LSO musicians take part in a chamber program of Takemitsu, Dohnányi, and Messiaen (July 9), and Thomas conducts both a vocal masterclass (July 17), and an Academy Chamber Orchestra performance (July 20; see Academy Chamber Orchestra below).

More than 700 applicants seek the 27 coveted spots in the academy’s Vocal Institute. As a result, “Music Academy of the West’s annual opera production has long been a reliable showcase for fine young vocalists,” reports Opera News.

Presenting a cast of vocal fellows, this season’s offering is Cold Mountain, by composer-in-residence and 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon.

An American odyssey of love, honor and redemption at the close of the Civil War, based on the National Book Award-winning novel by Charles Frazier, the opera was itself recognized with a 2016 International Opera Award.

Directed by Princess Grace Award-winner James Darrah, creative director of the Vocal Institute, and featuring the Academy Festival Orchestra under the baton of Daniela Candillari, whose “wondrous music-making” (Chicago Tribune) has been showcased at Chicago Lyric Opera and Opera Philadelphia, the academy’s fully staged and costumed production takes place Aug. 2 and 4 at the Granada Theatre.

To prepare to sing the opera’s leading roles, vocal fellows will receive coaching in a dedicated Vocal Masterclass (July 10) from mezzo-soprano and Mosher Guest Artist Isabel Leonard (’05) and tenor Jay Hunter Morris, who created the roles of Ada and Teague in Cold Mountain’s world premiere at Santa Fe Opera in 2015.

The upcoming production will also be supplemented by a film screening (June 7) and three book club discussions hosted by the Santa Barbara Public Library (June 8; July 9, 13).

There will be four further opportunities to hear the academy’s 2019 vocal fellows and vocal piano fellows, who receive private instruction from voice coaches Margo Garrett, Martin Katz, Gerald Martin Moore and Bill Schuman.

The fellows perform personal favorites by way of an introduction at the Voice Program Opening Night (June 19).

Next, James Darrah directs them in a new Shakespeare Salon (June 29, July 1), featuring music inspired by the poet and his plays by composers ranging from Verdi to Bernstein, with musical direction from sisters Nino Sanikidze, head coach of LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program; and Tamara Sanikidze, director of the Butler Opera Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

Vocal fellows also take part in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, with the Academy Chamber Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas (July 20; see Academy Festival Orchestra below), and in the annual Marilyn Horne Song Competition (Aug 9; see Competitions below).

The Academy Festival Orchestra’s concerts represent a highlight of the festival each year.

Rachleff, professor of orchestral conducting at Rice University and “a take-charge maestro who invests everything he conducts with deep musical understanding” (Chicago Tribune), returns to launch the season, leading first Beethoven’s “Eroica” and Franck’s “Symphonic Variations,” with 2018 Concerto Competition-winning pianist Sylvia Jiang as soloist (June 22); then a pairing of Ives’s “Decoration Day” with Shostakovich’s “Eleventh Symphony, The Year 1905” (June 29).

Composer-conductor Matthias Pintscher, music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, draws “Viennese Connections” between his own composition toward Osiris: Study for Orchestra and works by Zemlinsky and Brahms, as orchestrated by Schoenberg (July 6).

Besides conducting the full orchestra side-by-side with LSO at the annual Community Concert, 11-time Grammy Award-winner Thomas helms the reduced forces of the Academy Chamber Orchestra in a program of John Cage’s “The Seasons;” Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella;” and Ravel’s “G-major Piano Concerto,” with Mosher Guest Artist Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist (July 20).

To conclude the Academy Festival Orchestra series and the entire festival, Marin Alsop, music sirector of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, takes the podium for Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler,” blue cathedral by Higdon, and Dvořák’s “Seventh Symphony” (Aug. 10).

The Music Academy of the West values its lifelong relationships with great artists like pianist Lowenthal, whose career has included appearances with all America’s foremost orchestras and landmark recordings of Tchaikovsky’s concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Since joining the faculty in 1970, Lowenthal has returned to the academy each summer, helping to create one of the world’s most significant festival programs for young solo pianists.

The academy’s annual benefit, the Opening Night Gala: Honoring A Legend (June 14), celebrates this shared history through musical tributes from alumni pianists Micah McLaurin, Elizabeth Roe, Evan Shinners and Orion Weiss and guest pianist Ursula Oppens, joined by Lowenthal. The pianist will also be celebrated at this summer’s PianoFest (June 20).

Support from the Samuel B. and Margaret C. Mosher Foundation again enables the academy to host four world-class guest artists this year, in brief residences that combine performances, public masterclasses, and private lessons for fellows.

To launch the 2019 season, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard sings selections by Valverde, Montsalvatge, Falla, Offenbach, and Bernstein, with the academy’s vocal institute director of music John Churchwell at the piano (July 11).

Leonard sings three leading roles at New York’s Metropolitan Opera this season, including her recent headlining triumph in the American premiere of Nico Muhly’s Marnie.

French pianist Pierre Laurent Aimard gives a duo recital of works by Bartók, Ravel, Messiaen, and Harrison Birtwistle with his regular piano partner, Tamara Stefanovich (July 18).

He also joins Thomas and the Academy Chamber Orchestra for Ravel’s “Piano Concerto in G” (July 20), a work he has recorded to acclaim with Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Composer, flutist, Harvard rofessor, Avery Fisher Prize-winner, and MacArthur “genius” Claire Chase is “one of the prime movers in the music of our time” (New Yorker).

Supported by an ensemble of Academy fellows, she performs PAN, an evening-length conceptual piece for solo flute, live electronics, and ensemble that was written for her by Brazilian-American composer Marcos Balter (July 25).

The work is one Chase commissioned for Density 2036, her 23-year commissioning project to revitalize the flute literature, from which she performs additional selections in the Festival Artists Series (July 23).

Composer, double bassist, and MacArthur “genius” Edgar Meyer has been called “the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively un-chronicled history of his instrument” (New Yorker). He completes the series with a solo program pairing Americana with classical works by Bach and himself (Aug 1).

Chamber Music: Takács Quartet, Festival Artists, Faculty Artists, and Picnic Concerts

As in previous years, the summer season offers a wealth of chamber concerts. The first string quartet to be inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame, the Takács Quartet once again performs the opening-night recital, playing works by Haydn, Bartók, and Grieg (June 17), besides joining cellist David Geber for Schubert’s transcendent String Quintet in C in the Festival Artists Series (July 23).

Presenting faculty, fellows, and guest artists in chamber concerts at the Lobero Theatre, the series is also highlighted by the world premiere of Sean Shepherd’s Saxophone Quintet (July 2) and accounts of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances (June 25), Beethoven’s Piano Trio in C minor (July 16), Brahms’s Piano Trio in B (July 30), and Jennifer Higdon’s Dark Wood (Aug 6).

Returning faculty artist Jeremy Denk, whose honors include a MacArthur Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, gives a solo piano recital of Bach, Ligeti and more (July 3).

Faculty artists also perform together in a series of sonata recitals, enabling fellows to hear the repertoire they are studying, as performed by their mentors.

Featuring such star faculty members as Glenn Dicterow, former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, and Alan Stepansky, former principal cellist of the Boston Pops, there will be group faculty recitals on June 27 and Aug. 7.

The Picnic Concert Series, named for the tradition of pre-concert picnicking on the Academy’s Miraflores grounds, presents academy fellows in eclectic chamber recitals, programmed by the musicians themselves. These events are frequently attended by Compeers, community members who champion the fellows, with whom they often form lifelong friendships (June 21 and 28; July 5, 19 and 26; Aug. 8).

One of the most popular events of the summer season, the Marilyn Horne Song Competition (Aug. 9) is a showcase for academy singers and vocal pianists, who compete for the Regina Roney Award, a cash prize and international recital tour.

Chosen by a jury led by Honorary Voice Program Director Marilyn Horne (’53), past winners include John Osborn (’97), Susanna Phillips (’02, ’03), Isabel Leonard (’05), and Nadine Sierra (’07).

This year’s jury also features Metropolitan Opera Musical Advisor Ken Noda and composer-in-residence Jennifer Higdon, who has been commissioned to write a work for the winners, to be premiered on an international tour next year.

Likewise, the academy’s Solo Piano Finale (Aug. 5) sees piano fellows compete for the Luria Foundation Award, a cash prize and international recital tour, which is presented in partnership with Steinway & Sons.

As in previous years, the fellows will be showcased throughout the summer in a series of special events.

he eight solo piano fellows will be introduced in PianoFest,which celebrates the legacy of Jerome Lowenthal (June 20), percussion fellows and faculty will demonstrate their virtuosity on an array of instruments in PercussionFest (July 22), and participants in the String Quartet Seminar, a program conducted by the Takács Quartet, will unveil their new ensembles and share their work in the String Quartet Recital (July 26).

The masterclass is one of the hallmarks of the Music Academy experience. All fellows participate in the Music Academy’s extensive masterclass program, which is designed to complement individual private instruction.

Over the course of the eight-week festival, 115 public masterclasses will be presented by faculty and guest artists in voice, solo piano, and instrumental series. Among those leading vocal masterclasses are Marilyn Horne, James Darrah, Jay Hunter Morris, and Mosher guest artist Isabel Leonard.

Solo piano masterclasses will be led by Jerome Lowenthal, Conor Hanick, Jeremy Denk, and Mosher guest artist Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

Other weekly instrumental masterclasses are presented by faculty and visiting artists, including:

Flutists Timothy Day and Mosher Guest Artist Claire Chase; trumpeter Paul Merkelo; horn player Julie Landsman; collaborative pianist Jonathan Feldman; violinists Pamela Frank, Jorja Fleezanis, Kathleen Winkler and Glenn Dicterow; violists Cynthia Phelps (’79,’83) and Richard O’Neill (’98, ’99); cellists David Geber and Alan Stepansky; and double bassist and Mosher Guest Artist Edgar Meyer; percussionist Michael Werner (’90).

All masterclasses are open to the public, offering a unique behind-the-scenes look at the musical teaching process at its most dynamic and intimate.

The Music Academy of the West’s fellows, faculty and guest artists perform at its scenic ocean-side campus and in venues throughout Santa Barbara, including the historic 1,500-seat Granada Theatre and the recently renovated 600-seat Lobero Theatre.

Known as Miraflores, the academy’s nine-acre campus was originally the estate of John Percival Jefferson. Its grounds and gardens create a serene place for visitors to stroll and relax before performances in Hahn Hall.

Additional campus venues include Lehmann Hall, named for founder Lotte Lehmann, and Weinman Hall, a performance space decorated in Andalusian style, for masterclasses.

For tickets and more information for all Music Academy of the West events, call 805-969-8787, email ticketoffice@musicacademy.org, or visit www.musicacademy.org. To request a brochure, email festival@musicacademy.org or write to the Music Academy of the West, 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108.

Lead sponsors of the London Symphony Orchestra partnership are Linda and Michael Keston and Mary Lynn and Warren Staley. Additional support has been provided in remembrance of Léni Fé Bland.

The Mosher Guest Artists Recital Series is supported by the Samuel B. and Margaret C. Mosher Foundation. The Academy Festival Orchestra Series is generously supported by Mary Lynn and Warren Staley and exclusive corporate sponsor Montecito Bank & Trust.

The Vocal Masterclass Series is supported by Shirley and Seymour Lehrer

The academy thanks the Santa Barbara Public Library for its partnership in screening and hosting book clubs for Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain and collaboration for the London Symphony Orchestra Voyager Family Concert.

For more information, visit musicacademy.org.

— Kate Oberjat for Music Academy of the West.