Music Academy of the West Partners with London Symphony Orchestra
Multi-Year Project Produces Concerts to Celebrate Music Academy’s 75th Anniversary
By Charles Donelan | March 24, 2022
The Music Academy of the West turns 75 in 2022, and this week, a series of three concerts at The Granada Theatre featuring the London Symphony Orchestra will jump-start their anniversary celebration. Four years in the making, these concerts are the result of a massive operation involving three distinct groups: the London Symphony Orchestra; the Music Academy’s Keston MAX All-Stars; and the choristers of Sing!, the Academy’s new program for elementary students in Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, and Goleta schools.
The Thursday, March 24, program focuses on the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) as a touring unit and is co-sponsored by CAMA. Following other recent appearances at Stanford, Berkeley, and in Costa Mesa, Sir Simon Rattle will lead the group in an ambitious program that includes the Symphony No. 7 of Jean Sibelius, Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin, Ravel’s La Valse, and The Spark Catchers, a composition by Black British composer Hannah Kendall that Rattle calls a “real firecracker.” This one is sure to attract all the classical fans, as there is no better orchestra anywhere right now, especially for this music.
On Saturday afternoon, the Academy invites families to join the LSO for How to Build an Orchestra, a concert with audience singalong featuring Rattle and LSO Discovery presenter/animator Rachel Leach. Dozens of elementary school children will be there representing Sing! The choristers will perform songs they have learned in advance in order to experience what it is like to sing with an orchestra.
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