Music

When Darin Jabler, owner of the used bookstore The Bookworm, started hosting an open mic event on the second Saturday of each month, he didn’t know what to expect. But, as a popular baseball movie says, “If you build it, they will come,” and quickly poets and prose writers alike showed up to read from […]

The holiday season is one of cherished rituals and traditions. A long-held tradition in classical music is that of the oratorio, which features an orchestra, choir, and vocal soloists. Usually relating a biblical story or text, these religious concert pieces were wonderful platforms for composers to explore their creativity in a sacred realm. The Lompoc […]

The view most people get of a musician’s life is his or her performance, which is truthfully just the tip of a very large iceberg of disciplined practice. Music is a practice that requires daily dedication—or at least most days. Luckily, Santa Maria High School director of bands Ulises Valdivia has his students for five […]

Thanks to the concerted efforts of a newly organized and determined Santa Maria Philharmonic Society, the faltering organization was able to continue its concert season after budget limitations that saw the nonprofit organization almost fold earlier this year. “The Beauty of the Baroque” is the society’s first concert of the season, which employs a conservatively […]

Listen to CelloJoe’s song “For the Birds.” The cello has long served traditional Western music as a solid foundation in the bass register. It’s often neglected as just the low end, but composers like Johann Sebastian Bach proved that the instrument could stand alone with his cello suites, and Beethoven would famously give the celli—that’s […]

In the age of hip hop, the producer is king. A producer is tasked with creating the music a rapper will rhyme over, whether the artist is recording all live instruments or sampling from other songs. Four Pioneer Valley High School (PVHS) students have been following their passion for sound recording and music with the […]

You know Carl Orff’s composition “Carmina Burana.” You’ve heard it, or at least have heard its epic introductory and finale chorus, “O Fortuna.” Penned by Orff in 1936, the cantata for orchestra and choir hearkens back to traditions of classical music that many had left behind in his time, all the while remaining prescient and […]

Ambling down Guadalupe’s main drag, you might forget exactly what time and place you are in. The brick buildings flanking the historic Highway 1 are indicative of an earlier time of neighborhood barbershops, greasy spoons, and watering holes. Occupying one of these iconic cubbyholes is a new business, Creative Juices Lounge. Though new to Guadalupe, […]

With the help of several large donations and a wealth of community support, the Santa Maria Philharmonic Society is back in the game of providing quality live music to Santa Marians. The society originally canceled its season subscription concert this year due to a lack of funds, but now a smaller two-show series has been […]