Former Buellton recreation director joins classical music program that is expanding to Santa Ynez Valley
The Board of Santa Barbara Strings is pleased to announce the appointment of Santa Barbara County resident Kyle Abello as the organization’s first executive director. This position will work with Santa Barbara Strings founder and Artistic Director Mary Beth Woodruff to fulfill the mission of providing quality training and education for young string musicians.
“We are so pleased to add Kyle Abello to our team at Santa Barbara Strings and the addition of the position of executive director reflects the incredibly healthy growth of our organization, now in its 16th year,” Woodruff said. “Kyle is a masterful organizer, effective utilizer of local resources/networks, and well-loved by our board of directors and parents of our young musicians.”
Abello was pleased to be able to take on the position.
“I’ve been on the Santa Barbara Strings Board for two years now, and it’s been a joy to work with a group of people dedicated to giving the highest level of music education and strings training to kids from all over the County,” he said. ” After 16 years of existence as a youth nonprofit, it was time for our organization to have an executive director, and I feel honored to have been chosen to be the first person to serve in this role.”
Abello said he would be taking care of the administrative tasks, grants, and fundraising efforts so that Woodruff can focus on teaching the program’s young string players.
“Mary Beth is an amazing professional violinist and an equally amazing educator,” he said. “We are so fortunate to have her as a long time Valley resident sharing her expertise with younger generations of aspiring violinists, violists, cellists, and double bass players.
Abello was raised in the Santa Ynez Valley, attended Santa Ynez High School, and graduated from UC San Diego summa cum laude with a major in biology and minor in humanities.
He was the founder of the Buellton Recreation Department and served as recreation director for the City of Buellton for 20 years, during which time he helped to establish the Buellton Community Recreation Center, the Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden, PAWS Off-Leash Dog Park, and many community events and recreational programs that continue to benefit the local community.
Kyle has also served on the boards of the Santa Ynez Valley Foundation, Santa Ynez Valley Chorale, Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District, and currently serves on the College Elementary School District Board.
Kyle has always loved classical music, especially the Baroque era, and he feels incredibly blessed to be able to serve in his new role with Santa Barbara Strings to support the next generation of musicians.
Kyle lives in Santa Ynez with his wife, Yana, and their twins, Skylar (violin) and Tristan (cello), are enjoying the fantastic music education and ensemble environment of Santa Barbara Strings. To contact him, please e-mail sbstringsdirector@gmail.com
Santa Barbara Strings is a nonprofit organization providing comprehensive training for musicians from ages 4 to 19 in three progressive levels of string orchestras and chamber ensembles. Recent graduates of this exceptional string orchestra program are attending the Juilliard School of Music and the Colburn School of Music. Open to all students, Santa Barbara Strings aims to inspire life-long understanding and appreciation of classical music of all eras.
The program has expanded to offer and introductory strings program, the Buellton String Project, where Santa Ynez Valley kids can sign up to learn the violin or cello through instruction at the Buellton Recreation Center instead of having to travel to Santa Barbara. In October, the Buellton City Council approved a $20,000 grant for the program during a regular meeting in October. Woodruff even performed a number with a young student during the meeting.
“We are so grateful for the generous support of the Buellton City Council in awarding Santa Barbara Strings an Arts & Culture grant to create the Buellton Strings Project,” Abello said. “This program is laying the foundation for early strings education, and we hope the city will continue to support music for Buellton kids and families in the coming years.
“It would be wonderful to expand strings education in the Valley to the point where there are enough kids to form a Santa Ynez Valley String ensemble as a satellite of the larger SB Strings orchestra program.”
For more information on the Santa Barbara String and its program in Buellton, please visit www.santabarbarastrings.org
