UCSB Amplified

Music takes center stage with UCSB Amplified, a new performance series featuring UC Santa Barbara students, faculty, staff and even alumni. Live-recorded mini-concerts showcase UCSB’s exceptional and diverse music scene.

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Singer, songwriter and exchange student Wan Pei taps into that universal mixture of love and longing with her original composition "So in Love."

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Nick Diamantides, a senior undergrad in UCSB's Department of Music, gets us all going with his emotional, reverie-inspiring solo vibraphone composition "Music of the Day."

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UCSB Music Grad Student Angela Miller plays her haunting original piece "Ghost Lullaby." Music Department faculty member Natasha Kislenko accompanies on the piano.

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This time on Amplified, UCSB senior David Nakazono takes us back to the intensely emotional Romantic Era with the quintessentially Spanish "Playera," by violinist Pablo de Sarasate. David, a physics major, works in UCSB Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Jon Schuller's lab. He is accompanied on acoustic guitar by SBCC student Jake Richardson.

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Animal Liberation Orchestra front man, longtime Jack Johnson collaborator and UCSB Alum Zach Gill kicks off the fifth season of UCSB Amplified with his original song "Watch Em Grow." Written for his daughters, (when they are older) Zach combines "easy going pop with a large dose of buoyant soul."

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What do you do when you have to leave your homeland, you don't know when you're returning and all you can do is hope one day you will feel the breezes of home and be with the people you love? You sing about it! UCSB Amplified presents "Nassam Alayna El Hawa (The Air Breezed Upon Us)," originally sung by legendary Lebanese songstress Fairouz and presented here by guest soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian and the UCSB Middle East Ensemble, directed by Dr. Scott Marcus.

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It's Egypt in the mid 20th century. Imagine a famous and prolific composer, a legendary bellydancer, a steamy love affair that ensues on- and off-camera, and you have "Ya Zahratan fi Khayali (O Flower of My Imagination)" a tango composed by the virtuosic Farid Al-Atrash (1910-1974) for the 1947 film "Habib al-'Amr (Love of my Life)," starring Al-Atrash and the renowned dancer Samia Gamal. Music Department guest soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian and the UCSB Middle East Ensemble, directed by Dr. Scott Marcus, bring back the sweetness and the yearning in this week's edition of UCSB Amplified.

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Check out Laura Lora's next original spoken word piece "National Anthem."

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UCSB Amplified waxes poetic with its first spoken word performance thanks to Laura Lora, a student originally from Ghana, who proves that sometimes all you need is some deep poetry in your ears.

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Australian study abroad student Alex Siegers turns a 1960s classic anti-war anthem into a song of sweet defiance with her jazzy, beatboxy version of  Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son."

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With loops, live mixing and impeccable timing, Australian study abroad student and chanteuse Alex Siegers shows us her electronic and jazz chops with a rendition of Cyrille Aimee's Nuit Blanche. Oh la-la!

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Visiting Latin American history professor Leon Garcia performs his original Spanish Guitar song "Balam." Leon wrote this song on the day of his sons birth and performs it in the new UCSB Library.

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Freshman Genesis Codina, and visiting history Professor Leon Garcia team up to produce a one of a kind sound. Drawing inspiration from Mariachi as well as classical Spanish guitar, Leon and Genesis are UCSB Amplified's first act to perform in the recently reopened UCSB library.

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Season Three of UCSB Amplified kicks off with freshman singer songwriter Ella Kilroy covering No Doubt's "Underneath It All." This Denver native began singing and playing when she was 11 years old and has not looked back since.

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UCSB Amplified presents Walter Lewin's Dotted Lines performing their original "Hummer Song."

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The second song from Eric and Lauren is their cover of The Eagles "Peaceful Easy Feeling"

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UCSB Amplified welcomes Eric & Lauren to the stage with a cover of Lyle Lovett’s, “Bottomland."

Eric Zobel, a UCSB graphic designer and Lauren Cumberbatch met a few years ago at a music gig in Summerland, where they were not playing together. When Lauren’s band broke up a few months later, the two started playing together on campus for open mic nights at Nicoletti’s! Now they play all around town.