Image: Camille Saint-Saëns | Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
On Saturday, May 9, 2026, at 3 PM, the Santa Barbara Music Club presents Franco-Russian Echoes, the last regular concert of the 2025-2026 season. Oboist Pam Johnston, clarinetists Nancy Mathison and Christian Morgan, and pianist Pascal Salomon will perform solo, duo, and trio works by Marina Dranishnikova, Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Edouard Destenay. The concert will take place at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, 4575 Auhay Dr. Santa Barbara, CA 93110. Admission is free and plenty of parking is available (enter the parking lot from Arroyo Dr.).
Program Details
Pascal Salomon, piano
- Allegretto
- Allegro animato
- Lento
- Molto allegro
Pascal Salomon, piano
- Allegro vivace
- Andante non troppo
- Presto
Nancy Mathison, clarinet
Pascal Salomon, piano
Notes on the Program
Marina Dranishnikova (1929-1994) was born into a musical family. Her father was conductor and composer Vladimir Alexandrovich Dranishnikov, who was music director at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg (1925-1932), and a friend and contemporary of Prokofiev. While very little else is known of her life, she is believed to have studied piano with N. I. Golubovskaya of the Leningrad Conservatory. Written in 1953, the Poème for oboe and piano is by turns somber and joyous and is generally thought to have been written in response to a tragic love affair with V.M Kurlin, solo oboist of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, to whom the work is dedicated.
French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was one of the most original and sophisticated musicians of the early 20th century. More neo-classical than his contemporary Claude Debussy, his music nonetheless is vividly evocative. Une Barque sur l’Océan (A Boat on the Ocean) is the third movement of Miroirs (Reflections), a set of piano pieces completed in 1905. Melodic fragments emerge from a murmuring figuration made up of arpeggios, tremolos, and glissandi, suggesting to some that the melody is the boat and the figuration is the water. Sudden shifts in dynamics and register capture the unpredictability of the ocean.
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) was a composer, pianist, organist and writer. One of the leaders of the French musical renaissance of the 1870s, he contributed to every genre of French music. Completed in 1921, the Sonata for clarinet and piano in E-flat major, Op. 167 is a solidly neo-classical work, with echoes of Mozart in its textures and structure. It is the second of three wind sonatas composed in that year (the others for oboe and bassoon), part of an attempt to add to the repertory of instruments that seemed somewhat neglected at the time.
Edouard Destenay (1850-1924) was born in the Algerian capital of Algiers. He later moved to Paris, where he studied music with Claudius Blanc. Little else is known of his life. His Trio for piano, clarinet and oboe, Op. 27 (1906) is in three movements. It combines elements of German romanticism with the musical language of Saint-Saëns and Gounod.
The Performers
Pam Johnston, oboe, is a recently retired senior executive with thirty-five years of global revenue and operating experience in executive leadership positions across a broad range of high tech industries. Pam has a MBA from Harvard Business School, a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor of Music in Oboe Performance from Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, which she attended on a full performance scholarship, while studying with oboists from the Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland Symphony Orchestras. Recently retired, she is now a freelance oboist, having resumed her playing during the 2020 Pandemic after a 40-year hiatus.
Pam is a member of the SBCC Symphony Orchestra and performs regularly with the Santa Barbara Chamber Players, UCSB Wind Ensemble and Chamber Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Academy. She also participates regularly in Chamber Music Workshops in Santa Barbara and Humboldt, California, and at Kinhaven in Vermont.
Nancy Mathison grew up in Southern California and is a member of the New West Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Players, Santa Maria Philharmonic, Symphony of the Vines, and the San Luis Obispo Master Chorale Orchestra. She has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Symphony, Orchestra Novo, and the San Luis Obispo Symphony. She has also had the privilege of performing with Leonard Bernstein, the Houston Opera, American Ballet Theatre, Rudolf Nureyev Ballet, Andrea Bocelli, the Temptations, was a member of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, and played principal clarinet and reeds with the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera for its 20-year tenure. Nancy attended the Music Academy of the West and received her degrees in clarinet performance from the University of Southern California (bachelor’s) and UCSB (master’s). She studied with Gary Foster, James Kanter, and Mitchell Lurie.
Christian Morgan is a clarinetist and SoCal native from Santa Clarita, California and graduate of the University of California-Santa Barbara. As a community member, Christian is currently principal clarinetist of the SBCC Concert Band, 2nd clarinetist of the UCSB Chamber Orchestra, an avid chamber musician in Santa Barbara chamber workshops, and the clarinetist of the local Cabeceo Quintet. Since 2023, Christian has been working in Santa Barbara’s non-profit sector providing housing and homeless services for at-risk populations at New Beginnings Counseling Center. There he helps US military veterans and their family’s experiencing homelessness within Santa Barbara county to obtain and sustain permanent housing. Christian also works remotely as a Foster Youth Ambassador for the Child & Family Policy Institute of California. There he helps to address educational disparities for current foster youth with his lived experience for the Marin County Office of Education and Child Welfare Services.
Pascal Salomon, piano, was born in Israel, grew up in France, and has concertized as recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber music pianist in Europe, Israel, China, and the U.S. He has been featured soloist with prominent European orchestras, and has recorded three solo and chamber music CDs. A dedicated teacher, Dr. Salomon taught piano for 9 years at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, Switzerland, and has served as collaborative piano faculty member at Westmont College.
He is currently building the upcoming Santa Barbara Conservatory of Music, opening this September, which will offer a complete music education for grades 1-12 in the Santa Barbara area with a mentorship approach and possible scholarships. For more information, please visit their website here.
This concert has been generously underwritten by the Henry W. Bull Foundation
