Although we've grown accustomed to hearing the gifted violinist Anne Akiko Meyers in Santa Barbara over the years, her recent performance at the Lobero Theatre was a distinctive one on at least two counts. This was her recital debut under the hosting aegis of the mighty presenter CAMA, and this was the first time a Santa Barbara appearance found the artist standing in the shadows beyond prestigious Grammy moments
She showed up here having very recently won a Latin Grammy for Best Classical Album, for her work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic recording of Arturo Márquez’s Meyers-commissioned Fandango. She was honored with a nomination for last year’s big top Grammy for the same album. (For the record, she was last in town performing Fandango with the Santa Barbara Symphony in 2022. Meyers maintains a strong link to Santa Barbara, where she has family).
For the Lobero recital occasion, Meyers opted for a program which, while leaning more on music of living composers — Philip Glass, Morten Lauridsen, and Márquez — whose pieces were abidingly tonal and easy on the ears, a little too easy. She even capped off the evening with a Hollywood confection for an encore. More on that later.