Santa Barbara Music Club’s Premier Concert of the 2025-2026 Season 🎶

The Santa Barbara Music Club opens its fifty-sixth concert season, serving the greater Santa Barbara community with free monthly concerts, with a program on Saturday, September 27, at 3:00, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 4575 Auhay Drive, Santa Barbara, titled Six Hands at One Piano: Romantic and Modern Perspectives, featuring works by Charles Gounod, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Georges Bizet and others, and performed by Sergio Gallo, Björn Månsson and Zeynep Ucbasaran.  These three pianists, bound by friendship, years of collaboration and shared musical vision, come together in Santa Barbara for a unique Six Hands at One Piano recital with original compositions and masterful arrangements. Gallo, Månsson and Ucbasaran will perform a program that bridges Romantic lyricism and modern complexity.  Don’t miss this unique event, open to all with free admission, ample parking and easy access.  For complete information and directions, visit www.SBMusicClub.org.

The performers:

Sergio Gallo, a Steinway artist, specializes in the Romantic repertoire, notably works by Liszt, Schumann, Henselt, Brahms, and Chopin, while advocating for Brazilian composers. He has released acclaimed CDs through Eroica and has projects with Naxos Grand Piano and Quartz. His recording of Liszt’s opera transcriptions received a four-star BBC Magazine rating, and his Villa-Lobos recording garnered praise from Gramophone Magazine and American Record Guide. In 2011, he won the Global Music Awards “Award of Excellence” for “Mostly Villa-Lobos.”

Gallo has performed globally, including Turkey, Germany, and China, along with recitals across the U.S. He made his Brazilian and European radio debuts in 1986 and 1988, respectively, with frequent airplay on classical music stations. His performances of Liszt’s Hungarian Fantasy and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 were showcased by the Atlanta symphony in 2011.

Gallo’s accolades include wins in concerto competitions and a grant from the Henry Cowell Incentive Funds to record works by the composer. He holds multiple degrees, including a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is a Professor of Piano Performance at Georgia State University while being affiliated with the Rocky Ridge Music Academy.

Björn Månsson studied at the University of Music in Gothenburg from 1975 to 1984 under Professor Stella Tjajkovski, earning degrees (MA) in piano, music theory, music teaching, and piano teaching. He concluded his studies with a postgraduate soloist diploma and made his debut as a soloist with an orchestra in Gothenburg and Norrköping in 1982. His first solo piano recital took place in Gothenburg in 1984. Following his diploma, he continued his studies in Paris from 1987 to 1988 as a scholarship recipient under Vlado Perlemuter. During his academic journey, he also participated in master classes with prominent musicians such as Tatiana Nikolayeva, Hans Leygraf, Vlado Perlemuter, Robert Riefling, and Tibor de Machula. He currently teaches at Hvitfeldtska Musikgymnasiet in Gothenburg, though he has previously served as a university lecturer in piano, piano methodology, and music theory at the Music University of Ingesund. As a performer, Björn Månsson has appeared as both a soloist and chamber musician throughout Sweden and internationally, including on Sweden’s National Radio and in countries such as Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Malta, Poland, and Germany.

Zeynep Ucbasaran began her music education at the age of four at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory. She went on to study for her Concert Artist Diploma at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest before undertaking advanced studies at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and obtaining her Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Southern California. Among other professional awards, including the American Liszt Society Award, she was a prize-winner of the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition in 1996 and 2000. Ucbasaran has given solo recitals and chamber music concerts in many countries. Her critically acclaimed discography spans the music of Liszt, Schubert, Mozart, Scarlatti, and Beethoven alongside 20th-century composers such as Bernstein and Muczynski, and her album, The 3-Piano Project, includes the premiere recording of Saygun’s Poem, Op. 73. In 2011, her performance of the works that Franz Liszt played in Istanbul in 1847 was broadcast by the European Broadcasting Union as part of his 200th birthday celebrations, and a compilation of these selections, Liszt in Istanbul, was released in 2013. Ucbasaran has given masterclasses and lecture recitals across the United States, Brazil, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, and Turkey. In 2019, she performed in a four-piano project as part of the 2019 International Istanbul Music Festival. Her latest recording of the music of Franz Liszt’s pupil from Istanbul, Faik Bey Franz Della Sudda, was issued by the Naxos label in 2024.

. . . . .

This and all concerts offered by the Santa Barbara Music Club are open to the public with free admission.  For more information about this concert as well as future and past concerts, see our website www.SBMusicClub.org

The mission of the Santa Barbara Music Club is to contribute to the musical life of our community through the following:

• Presentation of an annual series of concerts, free to the public, featuring outstanding performances by Performing Members and invited guests;

• Presentation of community outreach activities, including bringing great music to residents of area retirement homes;

• Aiding and encouraging musical education by the disbursement of scholarships to talented music students whose permanent address is in Santa Barbara County.

For more information about programs, to join, or to donate, please visit our website, http://sbmusicclub.org.