Folk Music Goes Orchestral, the Continuing Saga

Unique Folk Orchestra of Santa Barbara, Led by Adam Phillips, Wraps Up Current Season with ‘Favorites!’

The Folk Orchestra of Santa Barbara | Photo: Courtesy

After eight years of growing and solidifying its presence in town, the Folk Orchestra of Santa Barbara (FOSB) has built up an expanding audience and catalog of custom-made arrangements and scores. This unique ensemble, founded and directed by singer-multi-instrumentalist and multitasker Adam Phillips, has a large enough library of music by now to warrant a “best of” program. Enter the concert menu being performed around the county this weekend, which Phillips calls Favorites!

A few of the instruments for the “Favorites!” Program: gaita grave, hurdy gurdy, vihuela mexicana, mandocello, clawhammer banjo, and gaita galega | Photo: Courtesy

At present, the orchestral forces making up the ensemble include 28 musicians, tapping both familiar instrumental families from the western classical orchestra model, but also venturing to other worldly outposts. We can expect to see and hear such exotic musical tools as the oud, hurdy-gurdy, and shakuhachi. Also in the ranks are noted Santa Barbara harpist Laurie Rasmussen and accordionist extraordinaire Brian Mann. The Folk Orchestra has the distinction of serving as musicians-in-residence at El Presidio de Santa Bárbara.

When last we heard the FOSB, the theme was a natural and a built-in “favorite” genre — Celtic music. Assorted bagpipes (mostly by avid piper and globe-trotting instrument collector Phillips), fiddling, and other Celtic-ready instruments fit the bill handily. But past themes have ventured outward in era and world culture, from Spanish to Nordic, Americana/Mexicana, holiday music, and the mythic land of “the ’60s.”

Favorites! has been more or less democratically curated, by musicians and audience members. As Phillips says, “It was extremely difficult, but enormous fun, to put together our greatest hits. The musicians are excited to revisit the pieces.”

There will be three chances to catch FOSB once more in its 2023-24 season, all taking place in highly musically inclined chapels in the area. On Friday, May 10, at 7 p.m., the orchestra convenes in Los Olivos at St. Mark’s-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church (2901 Nojoqui Ave.); in the ideal Trinity Episcopal Church (1500 State St.) on Saturday night, May 11, 7 p.m.; and in the more intimate, historic ambience of Presidio Chapel (123 E. Canon Perdido St.) on Sunday, May 12, at 3 p.m.

For info, see folkorchestrasb.com.