TODAY: Tunes From TuvaThe music of Tuva,...

TODAY: Tunes From Tuva

The music of Tuva, the tiny country bordering Siberia and Mongolia, has become all the rage in world music circles. This is due both to the entrancing sounds of their unique throat-singing tradition--splitting overtones to create multiple voices--and the similarities it has to folk music forms of the West.

At times, the group’s rustic sound suggests an exotic counterpart to American country and folk music. The wide-open plains of the Tuvan landscape and the importance of horses in the rural culture have led to a kind of Tuvan cowboy lore. A recent compilation of Tuvan music, on the Ellipsis Arts label, was titled “Deep in the Heart of Tuva: Cowboy Music from the Wild East,” and Richard Leighton’s book on Tuvan travels was titled “Tuva or Bust!”

The quartet Huun Huur Tu has been responsible for much of the musical ambassador work, and returns to the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara tonight at 8. The group has been branching out as of late. Last year, they collaborated with the Bulgarian vocal group Angelite for “Fly, Fly My Sadness,” on the Shanachie label. Their latest, soon-to-be released album, is “If I’d Been Born an Eagle,” with guest musicians adding to the typically hypnotic mix.

The theater is at 33 E. Canon Perdido. Tickets: $18.50, $15.50 for senior citizens and students. Call 963-0761.

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Having a Ball

The Brigham Young University Ballroom Dance Company will display at two Ventura County venues the mastery that garnered the 36-member troupe top honors in 1996 as the best ballroom dance formation team in the world.

Bedecked in dazzling costumes, the company--which performs extensively across the nation and abroad--stages a program that ranges from the Viennese waltz to the West Coast swing to many Latin numbers.

Dance enthusiasts can catch the company at 7:30 tonight at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way, 646-3240, or at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Auditorium, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., 498-3335. Tickets: $10, $8 students and children 12 and under; $25 Golden Circle seating.

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FRIDAY: The Big Leagues

Rod Piazza has been a major player in the West Coast blues scene since those silly ‘60s. The harmonica player and his tight band the Mighty Flyers, which includes his piano-playing wife, Miss Honey, will play at Nicholby’s in Ventura.

The Black Top recording artist has recorded over a dozen albums over the years, many on obscure labels. They’re rare--so even if you could find them, you’d have to be baseball’s Mike Piazza to afford them.

Opening will be those rockabilly ragers out of Santa Barbara, the Roadhouse Rockers. Six bucks should get you into this 10 p.m. (or so) show. The venue is at 404 E. Main St. Call them at 653-2320 to find out more.

UP THE COAST

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art will celebrate the 160th anniversary of photography and the 100th birthday of the motion picture when it commences a film series Sunday. The program--at 2:30 p.m. Sundays through March 2--will include an array of films, from the 1890s to the present. Included are personal and experimental works ranging from shorts of less than a minute to feature-length productions, avant-garde classics, theatrical trailers, narratives and documentaries. The museum is at 1130 State St. For more information, call 963-4364.

A GLANCE AHEAD

The Conejo Valley Symphony Orchestra returns to the stage Feb. 8 to “Celebrate America,” a program that will feature Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait,” plus works by Ives and Herbert. The concert will be held at 8 p.m. at Ascension Lutheran Church, 1600 Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks. Tickets: $20 in advance, $22 at the door. For more information, call 241-7270.