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Camerata Pacifica is a vibrant and dynamic chamber music ensemble that performs a monthly series of concerts in Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Marino, and Los Angeles. Founded by Adrian Spence in 1990, the group is composed of some of the world's finest performers of chamber music. The ensemble is distinctive for its artistic excellence, innovative approach to classical music, and a repertoire that ranges from Baroque to brand-new, from familiar masterworks to works that have yet to become favorites.
The Ulster-born master of the flute, Adrian Spence, founded the Bach Camerata in Santa Barbara in 1990 (first performance - of the complete J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046-1051) on December 3, at the Lobero Theatre). For their first four years, they played only in Santa Barbara. Then, in 1994, they changed the group changed its name to the more inclusive Camerata Pacifica, and added venues in Ventura (Museum of Ventura County) and Thousand Oaks. In 1997, they began also performing in Rothenberg Hall of The Huntington Museum in San Marino. In 2007, they replaced Thousand Oaks with Zipper Hall of The Colburn School in Los Angeles. They continued to perform in Santa Barbara, in various venues. For many years now, they have made their local home at Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West.
As Adrian himself has often admitted, the Camerata was a mad venture from the start. And the more the audience grew, the more venues were added, the madder it appeared. Yet 30 years later, Camerata Pacifica is one of the great success stories in classical music, and probably the most important chamber music organization in Southern California. Much of this success, of course, is due to Spence: his unstoppable energy, his organizational genius, his taste in music and musicians. |
