Arts & Lectures
2005-2006 Performing Arts Season News Release
For Immediate Release

March 28, 2006

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist Sharon Isbin at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art

Summary Facts:

Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist Sharon Isbin will perform two concerts on Wednesday, May 10 at 5:30 & 7:30 pm at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State Street. These are Chamber Music in Historic Sites® concerts presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. The only guitar instructor in The Juilliard School’s history, Isbin has given sold-out performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and other prestigious international venues. Among her many honors she has won Guitar Player magazine’s “Best Classical Guitarist” award, the Madrid Queen Sofia and Toronto Competitions, and she was the first guitarist ever to win the Munich Competition. The Los Angeles Times extols her “superb artistry and mesmerizing finesse,” while the Atlanta Journal calls her “the Monet of the classical guitar.”

Sharon Isbin’s catalogue of over 25 recordings—from Baroque, Spanish/Latin and 20th Century to crossover and jazz-fusion—reflects remarkable versatility. She received a 2005 Latin Grammy nomination for “Best Classical Album” and a 2006 GLAAD Media Award nomination for “Outstanding Music Artist” (alongside Melissa Etheridge) for her Billboard Top 10 Classical disc with the New York Philharmonic of Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and concerti by Mexican composer Manuel Ponce and Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos. This marks the Philharmonic’s first-ever recording with guitar, and follows their Avery Fisher Hall performances in June 2004 with Isbin as their first guitar soloist in 26 years.

Isbin’s Dreams of a World: Folk-inspired Music for Guitar soared onto top classical Billboard charts, edging out The 3 Tenors, and earned her a 2001 Grammy Award for “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance,” making her the first classical guitarist to receive a Grammy in 28 years. Baroque Favorites for Guitar with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra features concerti by Bach, Vivaldi and Albinoni, including four world premieres, and remained on the Billboard Top 10 Classical Chart for over 16 weeks. Her world premiere recording of concerti written for her by Christopher Rouse and Tan Dun debuted as #6 on the Billboard charts and received a 2002 Grammy Award for the Rouse concerto, and earned Isbin her third nomination (“Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra”), as well as Germany’s prestigious Echo Klassik Award for “Best Concert Recording.” Her Journey to the Amazon with Brazilian percussionist Thiago de Mello and saxophonist Paul Winter, a Billboard best-seller in the U.S. and the U.K., received a 1999 Grammy nomination for “Best Classical Crossover Album.”

Sharon Isbin will teach a Master Class with UCSB guitar students that is free and open to public observation on Wednesday, May 10 at 12 noon at Geiringer Hall, UCSB Music Building. The class is co-presented by Arts & Lectures with the UCSB Department of Music.

The historic site for this event, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, opened to the public on June 5, 1941 in a building that was at one time the Santa Barbara Post Office (1914–1932). Chicago architect David Adler simplified the building’s façade and created the Museum’s galleries, most notably Ludington Court, which offers a dramatic sense of arrival for museum visitors. Isbin’s recitals will be performed in the McCormick Gallery hung with the exhibition Renaissance to Rococo: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Internationally renowned for its quality, rarity and beauty, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art collection from Italy, Spain, France, Holland and England has not been shown together for several years. The paintings represent glorious examples of allegories, portraiture, still life and landscapes, and glimpses of everyday life from long ago. Other paintings recount stories from Greek and Roman mythology, the Old and New Testaments, medieval legend and poetry, and the lives of the saints. Works are by such artists as Caravaggio, Goya, Tiepolo, Hals and other painters. This art is sure to be an inspiring match for Isbin’s guitar mastery.

These concerts are the second of three performances in UCSB Arts & Lectures’ 2005–2006 performing arts season held in conjunction with the distinguished Los Angeles-based Chamber Music in Historic Sites.® This five year-old partnership allows Arts & Lectures to travel to unique and intimate environments to celebrate the experience of music in sacred, social and architectural contexts. The next concerts will be performed by Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz Trio at Rockwood on May 21.

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Sharon Isbin by agreement with Chamber Music in Historic Sites®—a nationally licensed series, Dr. MaryAnn Bonino, president and founder. Thanks to the Pearl Chase Society for its support and to the Cheshire Cat Inn for sponsoring this concert. This project is funded in part by the Organizational Development Program using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission. Isbin’s residency is supported by the Arts Education Outreach Program of the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation. Tickets are $60 for the general public and $20 for UCSB students who must show valid ID at ticket purchase and at the show. Ticket includes a reception with the artist.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Colleen Debler at (805) 893-2098.

©2006 UCSB Arts & Lectures, University of California, Santa Barbara