¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara!, now in its 20th anniversary season and impressively endowed with $7 million thanks to the efforts of retired UCSB Arts & Lectures leader Celesta Billeci, welcomes the return of Guatemala-born and Los Angeles–based singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno this weekend. She wowed the crowds and classrooms in 2018 and as per the project’s mission, her four-day residency includes performances at local schools, and four free concerts, at Carpinteria Veterans Memorial Building on Thursday (Nov. 6), Isla Vista School on Friday (Nov. 7), Guadalupe City Hall on Saturday (Nov. 8), and the traditional climactic show at Marjorie Luke Theatre on Sunday night (Nov. 9).
Moreno is a subtle and compelling artist, deftly blending musical traditions from her native land and elsewhere in Latin America with artful pop and rock turns, and a bold voice versatile enough to handle genre shifts and rangy emotional dynamics, from soothing to Linda Ronstadt–like beltings. She is a Grammy winner — “Best Latin Pop” album for X Mí (Vol. 1) — who, after moving from Guatemala City to L.A., opened for Tracy Chapman and Ani DiFranco before launching out on her own.
Moreno, who has also performed locally at SOhO and the Lobero, has a dozen-strong discography that includes a collaboration with pop legend Van Dyke Parks on 2019’s ¡Spangled! (listen here ). She described that album as “a Pan-American journey. We chose songs from Latin America; we chose songs from the United States. It’s always his arrangements — he’s a national treasure, for sure. It features Jackson Browne; it features Ry Cooder; it features musicians from Mexico and Brazil. The album embodies all of that.”