Camerata Pacifica is an American ensemble. Based out of Santa Barbara, California, it holds resident subscription series at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Temple Beth Torah in Ventura, San Marino’s Huntington Library and Zipper Hall at the Colburn School for the Performing Arts in downtown Los Angeles. The Camerata’s artists are drawn from around the world representing a broad variety of cultures. Messenger draws upon that rich cultural heritage, and the diversity of Southern California’s population to celebrate the distinctions of these populations, and their points in common.

Camerata Pacifica’s Principal Percussionist is Robert van Sice who is considered one of the world’s foremost performers of contemporary music for marimba. In an effort to establish the instrument as a serious artistic vehicle, he has premiered over 100 works throughout the world. Four of the seminal works in the marimba repertoire were written for him; Peter Klatzow’s Dances of Earth and Fire, Alejandro Vinao’s Estudios de Frontera, Martin Bresnick’s double marimba concerto, Grace, and James Wood’s Spirit Festival with Lamentations. Spirit Festival is unique in introducing the newly developed quarter-tone marimba, an innovative instrument recalling the marimba’s ancient sonic routes while establishing new parameters for modern expressionism. In his varied performing career, van Sice has appeared as a soloist with symphony orchestras and given recitals in more than 30 countries throughout Europe, North America, Africa, and the Far East. The Journal de Geneve describes his interpretation of Toru Takemitsu’s concerto Gitimalya as “marvelous. In his hands, the marimba becomes a voice with richness of sound and expression that one would never expect from a percussion instrument.” He is frequently invited to appear as a soloist with Europe’s leading contemporary music ensembles, including the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva and L’Itineraire in Paris. In 1989, van Sice gave the first solo marimba recital at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and has since appeared in many of world’s major concert halls in London, Paris, Vienna, Madrid, Milan, Stockholm, Oslo, Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Toronto, Mexico City, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. His concerts have frequently been broadcast by the BBC, Swedish Radio, Norwegian Radio, Radio France, WDR, and NPR, among many others.