ON the Beat | The Concert Life Awakens in all Genres, all Over Town

This edition of ON the Beat was originally emailed to subscribers on September 7, 2023. To receive Josef Woodard’s music newsletter in your inbox each Thursday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

Especially in the long shadow of COVID’s insurrection on the cultural calendar just a few concert seasons back, there is a reassuring back-to-business buzz in town this time of year. After Labor Day (sometimes referred to as Non-Labor Day), the yawning stretch of August yields to the promise of live music action worth making plans for. Gears start meshing, seasonal cultural order returns, and calendars for music-lovers get inked in.

In Santa Barbara, the traditional late-summer hiatus of classical music from public houses is a sleeper awakened. Next week, veteran chamber music champion Camerata Pacifica’s 34thseason jumps the gun and/or starting gun with its season-opening concert at Hahn Hall on Friday, September 15 (see season preview story here). Opera is in the offing, as the intrepid Opera Santa Barbara prepares to launch its lean but powerhouse season with Carmen at the Granada, September 29 and October 1.