Performances Magazine San Diego | Jacobs Music Center, March 2025
P1 Program
Cast, performances, who’s who, director’s notes, donors and more.
4 In the Wings
Salome presented by San Diego Opera; 3 Summers of Lincoln at La Jolla Playhouse; Da Vinci’s First Flight at the San Diego Air & Space Museum; Balboa Park’s renovated and reopened Botanical Building; and more.
8 Feature:
Bach Collegium San Diego
Bach Collegium S.D. presents “Total Sound Explosion 2” and “Knockout Sounds with Reginald Mobley: The Return of Bach to Bop.”
13 Dining
Our favorite food and drink finds for March, including Wildland, The Lobby Tiki Bar & Grill, and Wildflour Delicatessen.
24 Parting Thought
Performances’ program platform for theater shows and concerts can be accessed from any digital device
San Diego Opera delivers with Salome, March 21-23 at the Civic Theatre. Adapted from Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name, Salome—with music by Richard Strauss—tells the biblical story of John the Baptist, a prisoner under King Herod, whose stepdaughter, Princess Salome, attempts to seduce John. Jose Maria Condemi directs; Yves Abel conducts. sdopera.org With a book by Joe DiPietro and directed by Christopher Ashley, La Jolla Playhouse presents the world premiere of 3 Summers of Lincoln, through March 30. The musical centers on the last three summers of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency—during which he met with abolitionist Frederick Douglass in conversations that shaped his position on ending slavery and uniting the country after the Civil War. lajollaplayhouse.org Broadway San Diego brings us Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations, March 28-30, at the Civic Theatre. broadwaysd.com
THEATER
The national tour of Broadway’s Ain’t Too Proud. Opposite: a scene from Salome.
L-R: COURTESY OF SAN DIEGO OPERA; JOHAN PERSSON
MUSEUMS
TAKING FLIGHT
REMEMBERED AS A brilliant artist and visionary obsessed with the principles of flight and aerodynamics, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) left behind notebooks filled with theories and designs that were centuries ahead of their time. Now open at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, Da Vinci’s First Flight is the world-premiere, interactive exhibition that brings Da Vinci’s dreams to life. The exhibit features more than 30 large-scale replicas of his flying machines; as well as a life-size hang glider, the world’s first “drones,” interactive flight experiments, an immersive glider simulation and more. sandiegoairandspace.org Spring is in the air and in the trees at Balboa Park’s Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of its Cherry Blossom Festival, March 13-16. The garden hosts four days of family-friendly fun, including cultural performances, food and local vendors. The festival will take place rain or shine and even if the bloom doesn’t align with the dates (the trees bloom in March every year; exact dates vary). See website for bloom updates and to purchase festival tickets. niwa.org
A Lush Landmark
WELCOME BACK to Balboa Park’s landmark Botanical Building. First built in 1915 as part of the PanamaCalifornia Exposition and one of the world’s largest lath structures, the building has reopened after nearly three years of renovation work. The $28.5 million revitalization includes a new redwood lath roof; LED lighting; water irrigation systems, including interior misters; the addition of programming and educational space; and restoration of the building’s historical elements. A collaboration between Forever Balboa Park and the City of San Diego, the project transforms the building into a botanical wonderland, housing around 2,100 permanent plants and rare flowers. It remains one of the most photographed landmarks on the West Coast, fronted by the park’s famous lily pond. Stay tuned for phase two, which will address its surrounding gardens and incorporate sustainable landscaping. 1550 El Prado, Balboa Park, 619.239.0512, balboaparkbotanical.org
CULTURE
From below left: Leonardo da Vinci; a scene from Da Vinci’s First Flight; the Balboa Park Botanical Building
TOTAL SOUND EXPLOSION
A“TOTAL SOUND EXPLOSION” may not be the first description that comes to mind when thinking of a baroque music concert, but that’s what Bach Collegium San Diego (BCSD) is promising this month at its concerts on March 15 in Cardiff-by-the-Sea and March 16 in Point Loma.
An unlikely pairing of groundbreaking works from different centuries—“Les Élémens” from 1737 by the French composer Jean-Féry Rebel and the better-known Symphony No. 5 from 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven— “Total Sound Explosion 2” promises to expand the audience’s understanding of early music and its influences. (The first “Total Sound Explosion” concert, featuring Mozart’s Symphony in A Minor “Odense” and Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, was performed in May
2022. It was such a hit that Artistic Director Ruben Valenzuela has been looking forward to programming a sequel ever since. It was officially titled “Apotheosis of the Dance,” but “Total Sound Explosion” was BCSD’s nickname for it.)
Founded in 2003 by Valenzuela, BCSD has developed a stellar reputation for dynamic programming and historically informed performances of baroque music and more, on authentic period instruments. The theme for this season, their 22nd, is “Dimensions and Extensions,” and Valenzuela says the season’s concerts “extend beyond the unspoken limits of the repertoire we typically cover.” The works of Beethoven are usually considered outside the realm of baroque or early music, he explains.
“The dividing line between baroque music and what came after it is usually approximately the 1750s, coinciding with Bach’s death,” Valenzuela says. “Some like to
Bach Collegium San Diego Presents Four Powerful Spring Concerts by STEPHANIE SAAD
Bach Collegium San Diego in concert
Yun
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ferent
munication.
giving way to a modern system of liberal arts and universities.”
Both works to be performed in “Total Sound Explosion 2” were revolutionary in their own way and in their own time, Valenzuela says. “‘Les Élémens’ by Féry opens like an atonal modern work. The composer is depicting the chaos before the world was created. As the music progresses, some order is restored and then it falls into a more typical French overture suite, but the beginning is quite shocking.”
Pairing “Les Élémens” with the very familiar Beethoven Symphony No. 5 might seem incongruous, but Valenzuela calls Beethoven “a revolutionary composer through and through. He pushed the envelope of what was done before, what instruments can do, to the very limit. He was writing for instruments that were /CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
“A masterpiece that deserves to be in the theatrical canon.”
NOW-MAR 23
Directed by Shana Wride
A comedic mystery written & directed by Steven Dietz Based in part on “Poirot Investigates” by Agatha Christie APRIL 16-MAY 11
FROM THE PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Dear friends,
As we designed the renovation of Jacobs Music Center we very much intended that the San Diego Symphony Orchestra’s concerts would be at the center of a wide range of music presented here. The month of March demonstrates that commitment. The acoustics of the hall are perfectly suited for a range of musical styles.
Whether it is an orchestra of 90 musicians or a single piano recital, the hall supports the range of musical expression beautifully.
The month of March is designed to show this off in spades, with 13 performances that range from a family concert featuring a woodwind quintet; to a solo piano recital featuring Preludes by Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Szymanowski and Messiaen; a Tony Bennett Tribute by Michael Feinstein; a high-energy Brahms versus Radiohead performance by Steve Hackman; a chamber-size ensemble in an evening of music honoring the mystical beauty of Persian culture led by Gity Razaz; and a jazz ensemble with a tribute to Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum, Bud Powell and Chick Corea. Through these performances we are able to experience this wonderful variety of music with the most incredible room in which to listen.
I have always been attracted to many styles of music, and being able to hear them through the coming month of March is something I am truly looking forward. I hope you will join us to experience and explore new ways to listen to our newly reopened hall.
Sincerely,
Martha A. Gilmer President and Chief Executive Officer
RAFAEL PAYARE MUSIC DIRECTOR
With his innate musicianship, charismatic energy, gift for communication, and irresistibly joyous spirit, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare is “electrifying in front of an orchestra” (Los Angeles Times). Payare conducted the San Diego Symphony (SDS) for the first time in January 2018 and was subsequently named the orchestra’s music director designate one month later, before assuming the role of music director in January 2019.
Now in the sixth season of his transformative tenure as music director of the San Diego Symphony, Payare will conduct a full roster of performances with the orchestra at the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center over the 2024-25 season, bookended by Mahler’s Second and Third Symphonies. Last season, Payare led the SDS for its first appearance in a decade at Carnegie Hall, its first performance in Tijuana in nearly 20 years, and in three programs at the inaugural California Festival. These engagements continued his transformative tenure with the orchestra, which also included their commercial album debut with Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony, The Year 1905.
Payare’s other recent highlights include debuts at the Royal Opera House, at the Edinburgh Festival, and with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre national de France, and Staatskapelle Berlin, with which he reunited for Turandot at the Berlin State Opera this past summer.
The 2024-25 season also marks his third as Music Director of Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM). With the OSM he leads a similarly full season in
Montreal, tours to eight European cities with pianist Daniil Trifonov, and releases his third album with the orchestra on the Pentatone label—an allSchoenberg recording to mark the composer ’s 150th anniversary. The conductor rounds out his season with high profile returns to the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Other current positions are Principal Conductor of Virginia’s Castleton Festival, a post he has held since 2015, and Conductor Laureate of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Orchestra, where he was Principal Conductor and Music Director from 2014 to 2019, making multiple appearances at London’s BBC Proms.
Since winning first prize at Denmark’s Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2012, Payare has made debuts and forged longstanding relationships with many of the world’s preeminent orchestras. His U.S. collaborations include engagements with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony, while his notable European appearances include dates with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and Vienna Philharmonic, which he has led at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, on a Baltic tour, and at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. n
THE MEMBERS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
MUSIC DIRECTOR
RAFAEL PAYARE
VIOLIN
Jeff Thayer
Concertmaster
DEBORAH PATE AND JOHN FORREST CHAIR
Wesley Precourt
Associate Concertmaster
Jisun Yang
Assistant Concertmaster
Alexander Palamidis
Principal Second Violin
Cherry Choi Tung Yeung
Acting Principal Second Violin
Nick Grant
Principal Associate Concertmaster Emeritus
Kathryn Hatmaker
Acting Associate Principal Second Violin
Ai Nihira Awata
Jing Yan Bowcott
Yumi Cho
Alicia Engley
Kathryn Hatmaker
Kenneth Liao
Igor Pandurski
Evan Pasternak
Julia Pautz
Yeh Shen
Xiaoxuan Shi
Edmund Stein
Hanah Stuart
John Stubbs
Pei-Chun Tsai
Tiffany Wee
Han Xie
Zou Yu
Melody Ye Yuan
Andrew Kwon*
Sarah Schwartz*
VIOLA
Chi-Yuan Chen
Principal
KAREN AND WARREN KESSLER CHAIR
Nancy Lochner
Associate Principal
Jason Karlyn
Wanda Law
Qing Liang
Ethan Pernela
I-Hsuan Huang*
Sung-Jin Lee*
Rebecca Matayoshi*
CELLO
Yao Zhao
Principal
Chia-Ling Chien
Associate Principal
Andrew Hayhurst
John Lee
Richard Levine
Nathan Walhout
Xian Zhuo
Youna Choi*
Nicole Chung*
Benjamin Solomonow*
BASS
Jeremy Kurtz-Harris Principal
SOPHIE AND ARTHUR BRODY FOUNDATION CHAIR
Susan Wulff
Associate Principal
Aaron Blick
P.J. Cinque
Kevin Gobetz
Samuel Hager
Michael Wais
Margaret Johnston+
FLUTE
Rose Lombardo Principal
Sarah Tuck
Lily Josefsberg
PICCOLO
Lily Josefsberg
OBOE
Sarah Skuster Principal
Rodion Belousov
Andrea Overturf
ENGLISH HORN
Andrea Overturf
DR. WILLIAM AND EVELYN LAMDEN ENGLISH HORN CHAIR
CLARINET
Sheryl Renk Principal
Max Opferkuch
Frank Renk
BASS CLARINET
Frank Renk
BASSOON
Valentin Martchev Principal
Ryan Simmons
Leyla Zamora
CONTRABASSOON
Leyla Zamora
HORN
Benjamin Jaber Principal
Darby Hinshaw
Assistant Principal & Utility
John Degnan
Tricia Skye
Mike McCoy*
TRUMPET
Christopher Smith Principal
Clinton McLendon
Ray Nowak
TROMBONE
Kyle R. Covington Principal
Logan Chopyk
Greg Ochotorena*
Kyle Mendiguchia
BASS TROMBONE
Kyle Mendiguchia
TUBA
Aaron McCalla Principal
HARP
Julie Smith Phillips Principal
TIMPANI
Ryan J. DiLisi Principal
Andrew Watkins
Assistant Principal
PERCUSSION
Gregory Cohen Principal
Erin Douglas Dowrey
Andrew Watkins
Eduardo Meneses*
PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN
Courtney Secoy Cohen
LIBRARIAN
Rachel Fields
* Long Term Substitute Musician + Staff Opera Musician
The musicians of the San Diego Symphony are members of San Diego County, Local 325, American Federation of Musicians, AFL-CIO.
PARTNER PLAYER WITH A
The San Diego Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the following donors for their membership in the Partner with a Player program and their profound impact on the orchestra. Partner with a Player members enjoy the unique opportunity to personally connect with the orchestra and engage with the Symphony in meaningful ways.
The following listing reflects pledges and gifts entered as of January 15, 2024
$100,000 AND ABOVE
Raffaella and John* Belanich
Rafael Payare, Music Director
$50,000 – $99,999
Anonymous (2) San Diego Symphony Musicians
Michele and Jules Arthur Kevin Gobetz, Bass
Terry Atkinson San Diego Symphony Musicians
Julia R. Brown
Leyla Zamora, Bassoon and Contrabassoon
Ross Caleca and Haley Janacek San Diego Symphony Musicians
John and Janice Cone
Benjamin Jaber, Principal Horn
Kevin and Jan Curtis
Aaron McCalla, Principal Tuba
Una Davis and Jack McGrory
Susan Wulff, Associate Principal Bass
Mr. and Mrs.* Brian K. Devine San Diego Symphony Musicians
Phyllis and Daniel J. Epstein
Sheryl Renk, Principal Clarinet
Pam and Hal Fuson
Courtney Cohen, Principal Librarian
Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon
Yumi Cho, Violin
Carol and Richard Hertzberg
Nick Grant, Principal Associate Concertmaster Emeritus
Joan* and Irwin Jacobs
Martha Gilmer, Chief Executive Officer
Arlene Inch
John Degnan, Horn
Hayley Janecek and Ross Caleca San Diego Symphony Musicians
Karen and Warren Kessler
Chi-Yuan Chen, Principal Viola KAREN AND WARREN KESSLER CHAIR
Monica and Robert Oder
Gregory Cohen, Principal Percussion
Linda and Shearn* Platt
Ryan J. DiLisi, Principal Timpani
Marie G. Raftery and Robert A. Rubenstein, M.D. San Diego Symphony Musicians
Jaqueline and Jean-Luc Robert
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Elena Romanowsky
Edmund Stein, Violin
Penny and Louis Rosso
Andrew Watkins, Assistant Principal Timpani
PENNY AND LOUIS ROSSO CHAIR
Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston
Yeh Shen, Violin
Jean and Gary Shekhter San Diego Symphony Musicians
Karen and Kit Sickels
Jeremy Kurtz-Harris, Principal Bass
SOPHIE AND ARTHUR BRODY FOUNDATION CHAIR
Karen Foster Silberman and Jeff Silberman
Jisun Yang, Assistant Concertmaster
Gayle* and Donald Slate
Wesley Precourt, Associate Concertmaster
Dave and Phyllis Snyder
Julia Pautz, Violin
Gloria and Rodney Stone
P.J. Cinque, Bass
Jayne and Bill Turpin
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Leslie and Joe Waters
Ethan Pernela, Viola
Sue and Bill* Weber
Jing Yan Bowcott, Violin
Kathryn A. and James E. Whistler
Rachel Fields, Librarian
Cole and Judy Willoughby
Christopher Smith, Principal Trumpet
Mitchell Woodbury
Valentin Martchev, Principal Bassoon
Sarah and Marc Zeitlin
Cherry Choi Tung Yeung, Associate Principal Second Violin
Annette and Daniel Bradbury
Yao Zhao, Principal Cello
Nicole A. and Benjamin G. Clay
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Karen and Donald Cohn
Hanah Stuart, Violin
Stephanie and Richard Coutts
Chia-Ling Chien, Associate Principal Cello
Ann Davies
Xian Zhuo, Cello
Drs. Martha G. and Edward Dennis
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Karin and Gary Eastham
Jason Karlyn, Viola
Anne L. Evans
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Lisette and Mick Farrell/Farrell
Family Foundation
Rose Lombardo, Principal Flute
$15,000 – $24,999
Anonymous
Nathan Walhout, Cello
Anonymous
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Eloise and Warren* Batts
Alicia Engley, Violin
Diane and Norman Blumenthal
Aaron Blick, Bass
Dr. Anthony Boganey
Logan Chopyk, Trombone
Kathleen Seely Davis
Qing Liang, Viola
Ana de Vedia
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Hon. James Emerson
Kenneth Liao, Violin
Joyce Gattas, Ph.D. and Jay Jeffcoat
Youna Choi, Cello
Jill Gormley and Laurie Lipman
Frank Renk, Bass Clarinet
Janet and Wil Gorrie
Zou Yu, Violin
Judith C. Harris* and
Kelly Greenleaf and Michael Magerman
Xiaoxuan Shi, Violin
Linda Hervey
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Carol and George Lattimer
Rodion Belousov, Oboe
Lisa and Gary Levine, Arthur J.
Gallagher & Co.
Igor Pandurski, Violin
Sandy and Arthur* Levinson
Kyle Covington, Principal Trombone
Eileen Mason
Julie Smith Phillips, Principal Harp
Anne and Andy McCammon
Richard Levine, Cello
Deborah Pate and John Forrest
Jeff Thayer, Concertmaster
DEBORAH PATE AND JOHN FORREST CHAIR
Robert Singer, M. D.
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Marilyn James and Richard Phetteplace
John Stubbs, Violin
Jo Ann Kilty
Tricia Skye, Horn
Helen and Sig Kupka
Lily Josefsberg, Piccolo/Flute
Dr. William and Evelyn Lamden
Andrea Overturf, Oboe
Dr. WILLIAM AND EVELYN LAMDEN CHAIR
Carol Lazier and James Merritt
Sarah Tuck, Flute
Marshall Littman, M.D.
Nicole Chung, Cello
Rena Minisi and Rich Paul
Ryan Simmons, Bassoon
Val and Ron Ontell
Darby Hinshaw,
Assistant Principal & Utility Horn
Jane and Jon Pollock
Evan Pasternak, Section Violin
Pamela and Stephen Quinn
Allison and Robert Price
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Carol Randolph, Ph. D and Robert Caplan
Pei-Chun Tsai, Violin
Sally and Steve Rogers
Kyle Mendiguchia, Trombone
Jeanette Stevens
Kathryn Hatmaker, Violin
Sandra Timmons and Richard Sandstrom
Sarah Skuster, Principal Oboe
University of San Diego
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Sheryl and Harvey White
Alexander Palamidis, Principal Second Violin
The Zygowicz Family (John, Judy, and Michelle)
Nancy Lochner, Associate Principal Viola
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Cathy Robinson
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Stephen M. Silverman
Ai Nihira Awata, Violin
Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft
Wanda Law, Viola
Linda and Raymond* ThomasR.V. Thomas Family Fund
Ray Nowak, Trumpet
Julie & Stephen Tierney
San Diego Symphony Musicians
Isabelle and Mel* Wasserman
Andrew Hayhurst, Cello
For more information, or to join, please contact Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Sheri Broedlow at (619) 615-3910 or sbroedlow@sandiegosymphony.org.
The Beethoven Society is designed to raise consistent, critical funding for artistic, educational and community programs. Members pledge multi-year support and commit to annual gifts of $50,000 and higher, designated for projects ranging from classical and jazz concerts to education and military programs.
The Symphony and its Board of Directors are pleased to thank the following for their leadership and to acknowledge them as Members of The Beethoven Society.
$5 MILLION and above THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROUDLY PRESENTS
$200,000 and above For information about supporting the San Diego Symphony Orchestra through membership in The Beethoven Society, please call Sheri Broedlow at
JOAN* AND IRWIN JACOBS
MITCHELL WOODBURY
COLE AND JUDY WILLOUGHBY
LINDA AND SHEARN* PLATT ELENA ROMANOWSKY JAQUELINE AND JEAN-LUC ROBERT
PENNY AND LOUIS ROSSO
SUE AND BILL* WEBER
KAREN FOSTER SILBERMAN AND JEFF SILBERMANGAYLE* AND DONALD SLATEDAVE AND PHYLLIS SNYDER
GLORIA AND RODNEY STONE
LESLIE AND JOE WATERS
KAREN AND
SICKELS
KAREN AND WARREN KESSLER
ELAINE GALINSON AND HERBERT SOLOMON ARLENE INCH
MONICA AND ROBERT ODER
KATHRYN A. AND JAMES E. WHISTLER
BRIAN AND SILVIJA* DEVINE
UNA DAVIS AND JACK M c GRORY JAN AND KEVIN CURTIS
TERRY L. ATKINSON JULIA R. BROWN
MICHELE AND JULES ARTHUR
PHYLLIS AND DANIEL EPSTEIN
ROSS CALECA AND HAYLEY JANECEK
COLETTE CARSON ROYSTON AND IVOR ROYSTON
The San Diego Symphony is proud to announce that we have met our goal of $125 million for “The Future is Hear” Campaign! This extraordinary campaign supports construction of The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, improvements to Jacobs Music Center, and wide-ranging artistic initiatives for San Diego’s communities.
If you are interested in supporting The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park please email campaign@sandiegosymphony.org for giving and recognition opportunities.
THE BJORG FAMILY
VAIL MEMORIAL FUND, MEREDITH BROWN, TRUSTEE DOROTHEA LAUB
San Diego Symphony is pleased to have Sycuan Casino Resort as the lead sponsor of the Music Connects Community Concerts!
Bird Singers from the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation performing at the opening of a San Diego Symphony Community Concert on stage at Live & Up Close | Sycuan Casino Resort.
SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY BOARDS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
David R. Snyder, Esq. Chair of the Board*
Harold W. Fuson Jr. Immediate Past Chair*
Colette Carson Royston Vice Chair*
Una Davis Vice Chair*
David Bialis Treasurer*
Linda Platt Secretary*
HONORARY LIFETIME DIRECTORS
Dr. Irwin M. Jacobs
Joan K. Jacobs (1933-2024)
Warren O. Kessler, M.D.
Michele Arthur
Tim Barelli
Lisa Behun*
Steve G. Bjorg
Anthony C. Boganey, M.D., FACS
Annette Bradbury
Benjamin G. Clay
Kathleen Davis*
Martha G. Dennis, Ph.D.
Phyllis Epstein*
Karen Foster Silberman
Janet Gorrie
Dr. Nancy Hong*
Arlene Inch
Anne Francis Ratner (1911-2011)
Lawrence B. Robinson (d. 2021)
FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Warren O. Kessler, M.D. Chair
David R. Snyder, Esq. Vice Chair
Sandy Levinson Secretary
Mitchell R. Woodbury Treasurer
PAST BOARD CHAIRS
2021-23 Harold W. Fuson Jr.
2018-21 David R. Snyder, Esq.
2015-18 Warren O. Kessler, M.D.
2014-15 Shearn H. Platt
2011-14 Evelyn Olson Lamden
2009-11 Mitchell R. Woodbury
2008-09 Theresa J. Drew
2007-08 Steven R. Penhall
2005-07 Mitchell R. Woodbury
2004-05 Craig A. Schloss, Esq.
2003-04 John R. Queen
2001-03 Harold B. Dokmo Jr.
2000-01 Ben G. Clay
1998-00 Sandra Pay
1995-96 Elsie V. Weston
Eunice Bragais
Robert Caplan, Esq.
Harold W. Fuson Jr.
Martha Gilmer
Susan Mallory
Jeremy Pearl
Mark Stuart
1994-95 Thomas Morgan
1993-94 David Dorne, Esq.
1989-93 Warren O. Kessler, M.D.
1988-89 Elsie V. Weston
1986-88 Herbert J. Solomon
1984-86 M.B. “Det” Merryman
1982-84 Louis F. Cumming
1980-82 David E. Porter
1978-80 Paul L. Stevens
1976-78 Laurie H. Waddy
1974-76 William N. Jenkins, Esq.
1971-74 L. Thomas Halverstadt
1970-71 Simon Reznikoff
1969-70 Robert J. Sullivan
1968-69 Arthur S. Johnson
Jerri-Ann Jacobs
Warren O. Kessler, M.D.*
Kris Kopensky
Deborah Pate
Sherron Schuster
Marivi Shivers
Christopher D. “Kit” Sickels
Gloria Stone
Frank Vizcarra
Mitchell R. Woodbury*
*EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER
Herbert Solomon Mitchell R. Woodbury
1966-68 Michael Ibs Gonzalez, Esq. 1964-66 Philip M. Klauber 1963-64 Oliver B. James Jr.
1961-63 J. Dallas Clark
1960-61 Fielder K. Lutes
1959-60 Dr. G. Burch Mehlin
1956-58 Admiral Wilder D. Baker
1953-56 Mrs. Fred G. Goss
1952-53 Donald A. Stewart
1940-42 Donald B. Smith
1938-39 Mrs. William H. Porterfield
1934-37 Mrs. Marshall O. Terry
1930-33 Mouney C. Pfefferkorn
1928-29 Willett S. Dorland
1927 Ed H. Clay
THE LEGACY SOCIETY
The Legacy Society honors the following individuals who have made cash pledges or future commitments from their estates to the San Diego Symphony Foundation and/or the San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association to ensure the success of the orchestra for generations to come. The following listing includes commitments as of January 15, 2024
*Deceased
$1,000,000 AND ABOVE
Sophie & Arthur Brody Foundation*
Nicole A. and Benjamin G. Clay
Daniel J. and Phyllis Epstein
John Forrest and Deborah Pate
Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon
Norman Forrester and Bill Griffin
Pauline Foster*
Pamela Hamilton Lester
In Memory of Jim Lester
Joan* and Irwin Jacobs
Karen and Warren Kessler
Willis J. Larkin*
Beatrice P. and Charles W. Lynds*
Jack McGrory
The Miller Fund
Marilyn James and Richard Phetteplace
Penny and Louis Rosso
Marie G. Raftery and Robert A. Rubenstein, M. D.
Lyn Small and Miguel Ikeda
Katherine “Kaylan” Thornhill
Sue and Bill* Weber
Mitchell R. Woodbury
UNDISCLOSED OR UNDER $100,000
Anonymous (3)
Leonard Abrahms*
Carol Rolf and Steven Adler
Pat Baker and Laurence Norquist*
William Beamish
Stephen and Michele* Beck-von-Peccoz
Alan Benaroya
Lt. Margaret L Boyce USN*
Dennis and Lisa Bradley
Gordon Brodfuehrer
Joseph H. Brooks and Douglas Walker
Donna Bullock
Melanie and Russ Chapman
Clancy-Jordan Family
Catherine Cleary
Warrine and Ted Cranston*
Elisabeth and Robert* Crouch
Peter V. Czipott and Marisa SorBello
Caroline S. DeMar
Ms. Peggy Ann Dillon*
Alice Dyer Trust*
Arthur S. Ecker*
Jeanne and Morey Feldman*
David Finkelstein*
Teresa and Merle Fischlowitz*
Margaret A. Flickinger
Judith and Dr. William Friedel
Carol J. Gable*
Edward B. Gill
Madeline and Milton Goldberg*
Helene Grant*
Dorothy and Waldo Greiner*
David and Claire Guggenheim
Judith Harris* and Robert Singer, M.D.
Lulu Hsu
$100,000 AND ABOVE
Anonymous
Alfred F. Antonicelli*
Rosanne B. and W. Gregory Berton
Julia R. Brown
Margaret and David* Brown
Roberta and Malin Burnham
The Carton Charitable Trust*
Joan R. Cooper*
Bob and Kathy Cueva
Elizabeth and Newell A. Eddy*
Esther and Bud* Fischer
Pam and Hal Fuson
Joyce A. Glazer
Nancy and Fred Gloyna
Muriel Gluck*
Judith C. Harris* and Robert Singer, M. D.
Susan and Paul Hering
Barbara M. Katz
Evelyn and William Lamden
Inge Lehman*
Sandy and Arthur* Levinson
Marjory Kaplan
Patricia A. Keller*
Anne* and Takashi Kiyoizumi
Carol Lazier and James Merritt
Joan Lewan*
Jaime z’’l* and Sylvia Liwerant
Gladys Madoff*
John and Amy Malone
Richard Manion
James Marshall, Ph.D.
Patricia and Peter Matthews
Antoinette Chaix McCabe*
Sandra Miner
Judith A. Moore
Ermen and Fred Moradi*
Mona and Sam Morebello
Helen and Joseph R. Nelson*
Joani Nelson
Mariellen Oliver*
Elizabeth and Dene Oliver
Val and Ron Ontell
Steven Penhall
Margaret F. Peninger*
Pauline Peternella*
Robert Plimpton
Elizabeth Poltere
Sheila Potiker*
Jim Price and Joan Sieber
Carol Randolph, PH.D. and Robert Caplan
Sarah Marsh-Rebelo and John Rebelo
Lois Richmond (of blessed memory)*
Debra Thomas Richter and Mark Richter
Dr. Arno Safier*
Pamela Mallory
Elizabeth R. Mayer*
Vance M. McBurney*
Imozelle and Jim McVeigh
Shona Pierce*
Linda and Shearn* Platt
Anne Ratner*
Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston
Ken Schwartz*
Kris and Chris Seeger
Karen and Kit Sickels
Gayle* and Donald Slate
Sheila Sloan*
Dave and Phyllis Snyder
Pat Stein*
James L.* and June A. Swartz
Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft
Colonel (Ret.) Joseph and Mrs. Joyce Timmons
Leslie and Joe Waters
Joan and Jack Salb*
Richard A. Samuelson*
Craig Schloss
Todd Schultz
Melynnique and Edward* Seabrook
Pat Shank
Kathleen and Lewis* Shuster
Drs. Bella and Alexander* Silverman
Stephen M. Silverman
Richard Sipan*
Linda and Bob Snider
Valerie Stallings
Richard Stern*
Marjorie A. Stettbacher
Susan B. Stillings*
Joyce and Ted Strauss*
Gene Summ
Sheryl Sutton
Victor van Lint
Harriet and Maneck* Wadia
Pauline and Ralph Wagner*
Betty and Phillip Ward PIF Fund*
K. Nikki Waters
Mike & Janet Westling
James R. Williams and Nancy S. Williams*
Martha Jean Winslow*
Marga Winston*
Edward Witt
Carolyn and Eric Witt
David A. Wood
Zarbock 1990 Trust*
LeAnna S. Zevely
Dr. and Mrs. Philip Ziring
If you are interested in more information about joining The Legacy Society, please contact Vice President of Institutional Advancement Sheri Broedlow at (619) 615-3910 or sbroedlow@sandiegosymphony.org.
SUNDAY, MARCH 2 6:30PM
Jacobs Music Center
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN IN “BECAUSE OF YOU”
Michael Feinstein, piano & vocals
John Lake, Alphonso Horne, Derek Cannon, and Doug Meeuwsen, trumpet
Carter Key, Kevin Esposito, Jeanne Geiger, and Matthew Hall, trombone
Kurt Bacher, Sam Dillon, Chaz Cabrera, Tripp Sprague, and JP Balmat, saxophone
Tedd Firth, piano
Louis Valenzuela, guitar
David Finck, bass
Mark McLean, drums
Crew:
Andy Brattain, Production Manager/ FOH Engineer
Matthew Crosland, Video Operator/ Tour Hospitality
Brad McNett, Tour Manager
PROGRAM
TO BE ANNOUNCED ON STAGE
Total Program Duration: Approximately 2 Hours (includes one 20 minute intermission)
ABOUT THE ARTIST
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN
Michael Feinstein brings to life Big Band Celebrations and the Tony Bennett legacy. Supported by the Carnegie Hall Big Band, Feinstein pays a heartfelt tribute to the legendary Tony Bennett, bringing his iconic songs to life in a symphony of sound.
The performance will feature hits such as “Because of You”, “Rags to Riches”, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”, “The Best is Yet To Come”, “I Get a Kick Out of You”, “Stranger in Paradise” and many more. Feinstein’s dynamic interpretations, coupled with the grandeur of the big band, will create an unforgettable night that honors the legacy of Tony Bennett in all its glory.
Michael Feinstein’s close friendship with Tony Bennett adds a profound layer to this tribute, as their camaraderie brings authenticity and depth to each note performed. Not only does Feinstein’s masterful interpretation of Bennett’s timeless repertoire pay homage to an era of classic songwriting, but it also preserves the rich cultural heritage that these songs represent.
The show also brings to bear the history of Carnegie Hall, which has been connected to the American big band for decades. Icons from across the 20th and 21st Century have graced the stage of Carnegie Hall, from Benny Goodman to Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong to Ella Fitzgerald and from Frank Sinatra to of course, Tony Bennett. A multimedia element of the show will help to bring this history to life onstage.
“Tony Bennett is one of the most enduring icons of the 20th century. He has created a body of work surpassed by none.” - Michael Feinstein n
ABOUT CARNEGIE HALL
Since 1891, New York’s Carnegie Hall has set the international standard for excellence in performance as the aspirational destination for artists of all musical genres. From Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, Mahler, and Bartók to George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Judy Garland, and The Beatles, every form of music has filled Carnegie Hall—the only prerequisite: that it be the finest. Today, the venue remains one of the world’s greatest concert halls and an active cultural destination for artists and audiences. Complementing hundreds of performances on its stages each season, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute creates extensive music education and social impact programs that serve more than 800,000 people annually worldwide—plus many more online—playing a central role in Carnegie Hall’s commitment to making great music accessible to as many people as possible.
For more information, please visit carnegiehall.org. n
FRIDAY, MARCH 7 7:30PM
SUNDAY, MARCH 9 2PM
Jacobs Music Center
2025 JACOBS MASTERWORKS
MOTHER GOOSE, SYMPHONIC DANCES AND MORE
Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Alexi Kenney, violin
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
Scan this QR code with your smartphone or text SDS to 55741 to access the interactive version of the program.
PROGRAM
RAVEL
Suite (5 pièces enfantines) from Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose)
Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant (Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty)
Petit Poucet (Tom Thumb)
Laideronnette, Impératrice des pagodes (Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas)
Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête (Conversations of Beauty and the Beast)
Le Jardin féerique (The Enchanted Garden)
BARTÓK
Violin Concerto No. 2
Allegro non troppo
Theme and Variations: Andante tranquillo
Rondo: Allegro molto
Alexi Kenney, violin
-INTERMISSION-
RACHMANINOFF
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
Non allegro - Lento - Tempo I
Andante con moto ( Tempo di valse)
Lento assai - Allegro vivace
Total Program Duration: Approximately 2 Hours (includes one 20 minute intermission).
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
MATTHIAS PINTSCHER
Matthias Pintscher is the newly appointed Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony (KCS), effective from the 2024-25 season. He launched his tenure with the KCS with a highly successful tour to Europe in August, with concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonie, and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.
Pintscher has conducted several opera productions, including with the Staatsoper Berlin (Wagner’s Lohengrin and The Flying Dutchman, and Beat Furrer’s Violetter Schnee last season) and the Wiener Staatsoper (Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando).
Pintscher recently concluded a decade-long tenure as the Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the iconic Parisian contemporary ensemble founded by Pierre Boulez. He has held several titled positions, including as BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s Artist-in-Association for nine seasons, Music Director for the 2020 Ojai Festival, and as Season Creative Chair with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Artist-in-Residence at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in 2018-19. An enthusiastic supporter of and mentor to students and young musicians, Pintscher was Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, and ran the Heidelberger Atelier, an academy for young musicians and composers, from 2005 to 2018. He has also worked with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Music Academy of the West, National Orchestral Institute, and Junge Deutsche Philharmonie.
Pintscher is also well known as a composer, and his works appear frequently on the programs of major symphony orchestras throughout the world and have been performed by such orchestras as the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Paris, among many others. He has been on the composition faculty of the Juilliard School since 2014.
Matthias Pintscher is published exclusively by Bärenreiter, and recordings of his works can be found on Kairos, EMI, Teldec, Wergo, and Winter & Winter. n
ALEXI KENNEY
Violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated artists and musicians of our time. Alexi is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a BorlettiBuitoni Trust Award.
Alexi has performed as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and San Diego symphonies, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Gulbenkian Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. This season, he plays the complete violin sonatas of Robert Schumann with Amy Yang on period instruments at the Frick Collection, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Phillips Collection. He continues to tour his project Shifting Ground in collaboration with the new media artist Xuan, which intersperses works for solo violin by J.S. Bach with pieces by Matthew Burtner, Mario Davidovsky, Salina Fisher, Nicola Matteis, Angélica Negrón, and Paul Wiancko.
Alexi is a founding member of the two-cello quartet Owls, hailed as a “dream group” by The New York Times, alongside violist Ayane Kozasa, cellist Gabe Cabezas, and cellist-composer Paul Wiancko. He regularly performs at chamber music festivals including Caramoor, ChamberFest Cleveland, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla, Ojai, Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Seattle, and Spoleto. He is an alum of the Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Born in Palo Alto, California in 1994, Alexi is a graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied with Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried. Previous teachers in the Bay Area include Wei He, Jenny Rudin, and Natasha Fong. He plays a violin made in London by Stefan-Peter Greiner in 2009 and a bow made in Port Townsend, WA by Charles Espey in 2024.
Outside of music, Alexi enjoys searching for great food and coffee, baking for friends, and walking for miles on end in whichever city he finds himself, listening to podcasts and Bach on repeat. n
Photo by Felix Broede
Photo by Grittani Creative
ABOUT THE MUSIC
Suite (5 pièces enfantines) from Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose)
MAURICE RAVEL
Born March 7, 1875, Ciboure, Basses-Pyrennes
Died December 28, 1937, Paris
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 16 MINUTES
Ravel was a very strange mixture as a person. A man of enormous sophistication and intelligence, he nevertheless felt throughout his life a stinging longing for the world of the child: he collected toys and was fascinated by the illustrations in children’s books. Not surprisingly, he made friends easily with children and sometimes abandoned the adults at parties to go off and play games with their children.
Ravel’s fascination with the world of the child found expression in his art: he wrote music for children to hear (such as his opera L’Enfant et les Sortileges) and music for them to play. His Ma Mère l’Oye (“Mother Goose Suite”) for piano-four hands dates from 1908. Each of the five movements was inspired by a scene from an old French fairy tale; the suite, however, should be understood as a collection of five separate scenes rather than as a connected whole. In an oft-quoted remark, Ravel described his aim and his technique in this music: “My intention of awaking the poetry of childhood in these pieces naturally led me to simplify my style and thin out my writing.” This may be music for children to hear – and for very talented children to play – but it is also music for adults: it evokes the freshness and magic of something long in the past. In 1911, Ravel orchestrated Ma Mère l’Oye, slightly expanding the music in the process.
The very gentle Pavane of the Sleeping Princess depicts the graceful dance of the attendants around the sleeping Princess Florine. Hop O’ My Thumb tells of one of the most famous figures in children’s tales – the little boy who leaves a trail of breadcrumbs behind in the woods, only to become lost when birds eat the crumbs. The music itself seems to wander forlornly as the lost boy searches for the path; high above him, the birds who ate his crumbs cry out tauntingly. Empress of the Pagodas tells the story of the empress who is made ugly by a spell, only to be transformed to beauty at the end. When she steps into her bath in the garden, bells burst out in happy peals. Ravel’s use of the pentatonic scale – the music is played mostly on black notes – evokes an exotic atmosphere. Beauty and the Beast brings another classic tale. Ravel depicts Beauty with a gentle waltz, Beast with a lumpish, growling theme in the contrabassoon’s low register. A delicate glissando depicts his transformation, and Ravel skillfully combines the music of both characters. The Enchanted Garden brings the suite to a happily-ever-after ending. The opening – for strings alone – is simple, almost chaste, but gradually the music assumes a broad, heroic character and – decorated with brilliant runs – drives to a noble close in shining C Major. n
Violin Concerto No. 2
BÉLA BARTÓK
Born March 25, 1881, Nagyszentmiklos, Hungary
Died September 26, 1945, New York City
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 27 MINUTES
In the summer of 1936 – just as he was finishing his Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta – Bartók had a visit from his old friend and frequent recital partner, the violinist Zoltán Székely, who asked the composer to write a violin concerto for him. Bartók countered with a different suggestion: instead of a concerto, would Székely accept a set of variations for violin and orchestra? Székely said no – he wanted a concerto, and Bartók finally agreed to write one for him. But it took a long time. Normally a fast worker, Bartók spent over two years on this concerto. He did not complete the concerto until the final day of 1938, barely in time for Székely to learn it and to have the orchestral parts copied – the premiere took place in Amsterdam only twelve weeks later, on March 23, 1939.
Székely may have got what he wanted, but when he gave the violinist the manuscript Bartók pointed out that he too had got what he originally proposed. Not only is the central movement of the concerto in theme-and-variation form, but Bartók gleefully noted that “strictly speaking, [the last movement] is a free variation of the first movement (so I managed to outwit you. I wrote variations after all.)”
Both men had reason to be pleased. For all the ingenuity of Bartók’s variation procedures, this is at heart a very traditional violin concerto. Beethoven and Brahms would have found its harmonic language assaultive, but they would have recognized its form immediately: a sonata-form first movement with a cadenza near the close, a lyric variation-movement in the center, and a brilliant sonata-form movement to conclude. Beyond this, it is a virtuoso concerto in the best sense of that term. Bartók did not play the violin, but his understanding of that instrument was profound. This is a violinist’s violin concerto: it sits comfortably under the hand, Bartók plays to the violin’s lyric and dramatic strengths, and in the process he creates soaring, heroic music for both soloist and orchestra. Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 may speak the harmonic language of the twentieth century, but in form, gesture and intention it is essentially a big nineteenthcentury virtuoso concerto – Bartók here pours a bracing new wine into a familiar old bottle.
The Allegro non troppo grows out of a wealth of thematic ideas – even before the soloist enters, the harp’s opening B-Major triads and the strings’ deep pizzicatos lay a harmonic and thematic basis for much of what follows. The entrance of the solo violin is magnificent: beginning on its lowest note, the violin arcs upward across a range of more than three octaves before this theme is completely stated. The second subject, marked Calmo, sings sinuously, and this brings a most intriguing moment, because this is a twelve-tone theme. Bartók wrote it consciously, and he was very proud of it – he told Yehudi Menuhin that he had written it because he “wanted to show Schoenberg that one can use all twelve tones and still remain tonal.” Bartók, however, treats this theme not as a tone-row to be manipulated but as a discrete theme capable of development and change.
Bartók himself wrote the cadenza. This gets off to a striking start on the sound of quarter-tones: the violin rocks back and forth across its open D-string, upward to a flattened E-flat and downward to a sharpened C-sharp. The wonderful cadenza ruminates on themes, then grows more animated and rushes into the coda. The movement concludes on a resounding B from every person on the stage.
After that fiery finish, the Andante tranquillo arrives with the greatest delicacy as the solo violin sings the wistful little eightbar tune that will serve as the basis for six variations. The six variations are easily followed, and the fun lies in hearing that little tune – so gentle on its first appearance – sing in so many ways. Particularly striking are the third variation, which begins with the violinist’s gruff double-stopping at the frog of the bow; the fourth, which trills and swirls before concluding with a particularly beautiful re-imagining of the main theme; and the sixth, full of buzzing trills and repeated notes (do we hear an echo here of the insect sounds Bartók loved throughout his life?).
Manuscript evidence shows that the idea of making the finale a variation of the first movement occurred to Bartók while he was at work on the opening movement. To a mind with the formal precision of Bartók’s, such a mirror-image variation must have seemed an appealing challenge, and he does it in breathtaking detail: not only the themes but also the structure and accompaniment figures of the first movement are transformed in the last. There are some important changes in the process: the 4/4 of the first movement becomes 3/4 in the last, and the tempo is much faster (Allegro molto). As we hear this movement, there is the fun sense of revisiting familiar things in strange new ways, as if we are looking into a carnival mirror that distorts even as its re-presents. In the process, the character of the music is transformed: what had been noble, soaring, even heroic in the first movement becomes tart, “dancy,” even a little sassy in the finale. n
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
SERGE RACHMANINOFF
Born April 1, 1873, Semyonovo
Died March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 35 minutes
Rachmaninoff spent the summer of 1940 at Orchard Point, a seventeen-acre estate on Long Island that had groves, orchards and a secluded studio where he could work in peace. There, very near the East and West Egg of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Rachmaninoff set to work on what would be his final complete work, a set of dances for orchestra. By August, he had the score complete in a version for two pianos, and – because he regarded this as a dance score – he consulted with choreographer Mikhail Fokine, a neighbor that summer. Fokine liked the music when Rachmaninoff played it for him, and they began to look ahead to a ballet production, but Fokine’s death shortly thereafter ended any thought of that. By the time he completed the orchestration on October 29, Rachmaninoff had changed its name to Symphonic Dances and dropped the descriptive movement titles. Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra gave the premiere on January 3, 1941. Rachmaninoff himself seemed surprised by
what he had created, and when friends congratulated him on the energy of this music, he said, “I don’t know how it happened – it must have been my last spark.” Two years later he was dead.
This score is remarkable for the opulence of its color, and Rachmaninoff seems intent here on finding and exploiting new orchestral sonorities. Some of these are completely new sounds for him (such as his use of an alto saxophone), but more comes from his refined use of standard instruments, such as the contrasting sound of stopped, open and muted brass in the second movement or the striking cascades of open-string figures in the last. For all their sumptuous sound, though, the Symphonic Dances are more remarkable for Rachmaninoff’s subtle compositional method. Rather than relying on the Big Tune, he evolves this music from the most economical of materials – rhythmic fragments, bits of theme, simple patterns – which are then built up into powerful movements that almost overflow with rhythmic energy. Rachmaninoff may have been 67 and in declining strength in 1940, but that summer he wrote with the hand of a master.
The music opens with some of these fragments, just bits of sound from the first violins, and over them the English horn sounds the three-note pattern that will permeate the Symphonic Dances, reappearing in endless forms across the span of this score. Rachmaninoff plays it up here into a great climax, which subsides as the opening fragments lead to the central episode, sung at first entirely by woodwinds. This slow interlude – somehow the reedy sound of the alto sax is exactly right for this wistful music – makes its way back to the big gestures of the beginning section, now energized by explosive timpani salvos. In the closing moments, Rachmaninoff rounds matter off with a grand chorale for strings (here finally is the Big Tune), beautifully accompanied by the glistening sound of bells, piano, harp, piccolo and flutes, and the movement winks into silence on the fragments with which it began.
The opening of the second movement takes us into a completely different sound-world, for Rachmaninoff begins with the icy sound of trumpets and horns, played forte but stopped. This movement is marked Tempo di valse, the only explicit dance indication in the score. Rachmaninoff may call for a waltz tempo here, but he avoids the traditional meter of 3/4, setting the music instead in 6/8 and 9/8, and having the waltz introduced by the unlikely sound of solo English horn.
The slow introduction to the final movement is enlivened by the strings’ interjections of the three-note pattern. Gradually these anneal into the Allegro vivace, and off the movement goes, full of rhythmic energy and the sound of ringing bells. A central episode in the tempo of the introduction sings darkly (Rachmaninoff marks it lamentoso). There are some wonderful sounds here, including great eerie string glissandos, and finally the Allegro vivace returns to rush the Symphonic Dances to the close. Out of this rush, some unexpected features emerge: a quotation from Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony (composed nearly fifty years earlier), the liturgical chant “Blessed Be the Lord,” and – finally – that old Rachmaninoff obsession, the Dies Irae. At first this is only hinted at, but gradually it takes shape amid the blazing rush and finally is shouted out in all its glory as this music dances furiously to a close guaranteed to rip the top off a concert hall.
At the end of the manuscript of Symphonic Dances, Rachmaninoff – perhaps aware that this would be his last work – wrote (in Russian) the simple phrase: “I thank Thee, Lord.” n
SATURDAY, MARCH 8 7:30PM
Jacobs Music Center
STEVE HACKMAN’S BRAHMS X RADIOHEAD
Steve Hackman, conductor
Brooke Simpson, vocalist
Rich Saunders, vocalist
Khalil Overton, vocalist
San Diego Symphony Orchestra 2025 JACOBS MUSIC CENTER SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
PROGRAM
TO BE ANNOUNCED ON STAGE
Program does not include an intermission.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
STEVE HACKMAN
A multi-hyphenate music powerhouse and creative visionary, Steve Hackman is a daring voice intent on redefining art music in the 21st century. Trained at the elite level classically but equally adept in popular styles, his breadth of musical fluency and technique is uncanny—he is at once a composer, conductor, producer, DJ, arranger, songwriter, singer, and pianist. He uses these polymathic abilities to create original music of incisive modernism yet rooted in elevated classicism.
The catalog of groundbreaking orchestral fusions that Hackman has created, such as Brahms X Radiohead and The Resurrection Mixtape (Mahler X Notorious BIG X Tupac Shakur), were heralded by Seen and Heard International as “among the most daring and innovative modern experiments in avant-classical” music. These fusions are introducing the symphony orchestra to its future audience; he has conducted these pieces to sellout houses at nearly every major orchestra in America, including those of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, Detroit, Saint Louis, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Oregon and the Boston Pops.
Hackman serves as the conductor and curator of the BSO Fusion with the Baltimore Symphony, presenting multiple concerts per year of his fusion productions. He is Creative Director and Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony’s Uncharted Series, one of the most successful Gen-Z and millennial-focused concert experiences in the country. Hackman has been instrumental in the development of this concert series since 2010.
Hackman’s signature blend of classicism and modernism is being increasingly heard at the biggest events in the world; in 2024 alone he was a part of the writing team for the 2024 Academy Awards, collaborated with Charlie Puth, The War and Treaty, and Rickey Minor in arranging the “In Memoriam” segment for the 2024 Emmy Awards, was on the writing team for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, as well as that for Jimmy Carter’s 100th Birthday Celebration. 2024 also saw the American premiere of two of Hackman’s newest orchestral fusions: Beethoven X Beyoncé and Bohemian Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin X Queen). Hackman is currently collaborating with Moses Sumney on both an album and film project, while also scoring two feature films and developing several Broadway titles.
In 2023 Hackman launched his original music project THE BRINK, a four-part, 300-minute work incorporating elements as wide-ranging as lyric opera and art-song cycles to conceptual hip-hop and experimental electronica. The work, immersive and experiential in nature, is written for a hybrid ensemble implementing strings, woodwinds, brass, synthesizers, multiple vocalists, bass, drums, guitar, piano and multiple keyboards, with Hackman conducting, playing and singing. Chapters I and II premiered at underground performances in March and June of 2023.
Hackman has teamed up with some of the biggest pop superstars of today to add a signature virtuosic and classical dimension to their work. He has collaborated multiple times with Charlie Puth and Steve Lacy, most recently reimagining and conducting Lacy’s repertoire for full orchestra at his tour-culminating show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Hackman has also collaborated frequently with Doja Cat, performing with her at the 2021 VMA’s in Brooklyn, following orchestrating and arranging strings for her performances at the Billboard Music Awards and iHeart Radio Music Awards. In December 2019, Hackman collaborated with Kanye West and the Sunday Service Choir in their production of the opera Mary. Other soloists and ensembles Hackman has composed/arranged for and collaborated with include Hilary Hahn, Dave Koz, Beach Boys, Michael Bolton, Aoife O’Donovan, Storm Large, Carly Rae Jepsen, and choral ensembles Voces 8, Chanticleer, The Tallis Scholars and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
Hackman is active on social media under the handle @stevehackmanmusic. n
ABOUT THE MUSIC
Brahms X Radiohead is an epic symphonic synthesis of Radiohead’s album OK Computer and the Brahms First Symphony, composed for full symphony orchestra and three solo vocalists. The piece offers a reimagined experience of each work by seeing it through the lens of the other, exploring the explosive tension and deep pathos they have in common. Brahms’ 19th-century orchestral sound palette is used throughout, but woven in, superimposed, and inserted are the melodies and music of Radiohead. At times one hears the themes and lyrics of Radiohead suspended over Brahms’ symphony; at times the orchestra plays the music of Radiohead but filtered through the counterpoint and harmonies of Brahms. Every combination of synthesis is explored in Hackman’s recomposition, as the music moves from one to the other so seamlessly that many times the audience is left wondering which is which, and how the combination was even possible.
UPCOMING APRIL CONCERTS
ALISA WEILERSTEIN: FRAGMENTS 3
April 8 | 7:30PM
In FRAGMENTS 3, the third installment of this groundbreaking performance series for solo cello performed by Alisa Weilerstein, new works are woven together with Johann Sebastian Bach’s third cello suite, responsive lighting and scenic architecture, inviting audiences into an immersive, multisensory experience.
THE MOUNTAIN THAT LOVED A BIRD
April 26 | 11AM
FAMILY CONCERT SERIES
Celebrate springtime and transport yourself into a timeless story about friendship in composer and Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw’s musical adaptation of T he Mountain that Loved a Bird by Alice McLerran.
WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN
April 19 | 7:30PM
Celebrate the spirit of Mardi Gras with a night of hot New Orleans jazz! The good times roll with music made famous by Fats Domino, Mahalia Jackson, Bessie Smith & Louis Armstrong. From street parades in the French Quarter to late night jams in the city’s famed clubs, this party transforms into an unforgettable Mardi Gras celebration with Byron Stripling, Sydney McSweeney and Bobby Floyd leading the parade with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra!
DUKE
ELLINGTON AND BILLY STRAYHORN
April 26 | 7:30PM
JAZZ @ THE JACOBS SERIES
The artistic collaboration between Duke Ellington and composer/ arranger Billy Strayhorn is one of the most important in the history of American music. Duke Ellington trusted Billy Strayhorn’s artistic gifts from the moment he joined the band in 1939, until Strayhorn’s death in 1967. Strayhorn wrote many of the songs we associate with the Duke Ellington Band today, including their theme song “Take the A Train”, “Satin Doll”, “Something to Live For” and many more.
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
Clint McLendon
Tell us about your journey to the San Diego Symphony
My journey to the San Diego Symphony was not a linear trajectory by no means, but one with many ups and downs. In middle school, I attended the Atlanta Trumpet Festival and got to meet and hear Chris Martin, who was the Principal Trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony at the time. I was so blown away by his sound and technique, I knew from that moment I wanted to become a professional trumpet player.
After earning my degree in psychology from Georgia State University, I auditioned at The Juilliard School and was accepted to study trumpet with Ray Mase, Mark Gould, and Chris Martin. The same Chris Martin who first inspired me to become a professional trumpet player was now Principal Trumpet of the New York Philharmonic and a professor at Juilliard!
I graduated from Juilliard at the worst possible time in 2020 right after COVID hit and was forced to put orchestra trumpet auditions on hold for two years, working as an Amazon shopper at Whole Foods and delivering Uber Eats in NYC to pay the rent. Finally, in 2022, auditions returned, and I began taking every audition in the country. I ended up winning the addition in San Diego and was appointed Second Trumpet in 2024!
What is your favorite San Diego Symphony memory so far?
My favorite memory with the San Diego Symphony happened at the beginning of the 2025 year! Playing Second Trumpet on Respighi’s Roman Festivals between Chris Smith and Ray Nowack is the most fun I’ve ever had playing the trumpet. The piece is very difficult and requires so much concentration between all the tempo and meter changes.
How do you like to spend your free time when not performing?
We spend so much time inside the hall rehearsing and performing during the week that I try to make sure I get outside on my days off. I Iove going to the beach, going hiking, or hitting some balls at the driving range.
What symphonic work are you looking most forward to performing this season at Jacobs Music Center and why?
There are a lot of firsts for me this 2024-2025 season that I can’t wait to play. If I must pick one, I’d have to say I’m really looking forward to playing Mahler 3 in our season finale. I’ve never played the piece before and can’t wait to hear Chris Smith play the offstage solo in the 3rd movement. Mahler is one of my favorite composers and I’ve had the pleasure of playing his 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and the unfinished 10th symphony.
What is an interesting fact about yourself that you’d like to share?
I have an amazing big Maine Coon cat named Tyrion that I adopted. He has been with me through it all. He’s moved around the country with me from Georgia, New York, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, back to Arizona, and finally California. He has FIV which is HIV for felines, which means he can’t go outside, can’t be around other cats, and he sneezes A LOT. He is the most affectionate and goofy cat ever and I love him so much. Any time I sit down around my apartment, he will always join me for a quick snuggle.
THURSDAY, MARCH 20 7:30PM
Jacobs Music Center
2025 CURRENTS SERIES
THE WONDERS WE CARRY INSIDE
Gity Razaz, composer & curator
Inbal Segev, cello
Niloufar Shiri, kamancheh & composer
Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, composer Sahba Aminikia, composer
Musicians of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra
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PROGRAM
GITY RAZAZ
Legend of Sigh Inbal Segev, cello
SAHBA AMINIKIA
Tar o Pood (Warp and Weft) Film by Vafa Khatami
NILOUFAR SHIRI
Goldfish
GITY RAZAZ
String Quartet No. 2 -INTERMISSION-
SAHBA AMINIKIA
One Day; Tehran Film by Sahyeh Sorkh
KIMIA KOOCHAKZADEH-YAZDI
Seeds IV Niloufar Shiri, kamancheh and improviser
GITY RAZAZ
Chance Has Spoken
Total Program Duration: Approximately 1 Hour, 15 mins (includes one 20 minute intermission).
PROGRAM NOTES
Music is a vessel for memory, identity, and cultural storytelling. In The Wonders We Carry Inside, Iranian American composer Gity Razaz curates an evening of contemporary works featuring compositions by Sahba Aminikia and Niloufar Shiri.
Nowruz, the Persian New Year, offers a fitting lens through which to experience these works. A celebration of renewal and connection, Nowruz has, for over 3,000 years, embraced music—through poetic song, intricate rhythms, and resonant melodies. Razaz, Aminikia, and Shiri each weave Persian influences into contemporary language, reflecting an evolving dialogue between past and present.
Like Nowruz, The Wonders We Carry Inside honors tradition while embracing the future, inviting us to listen across cultures and recognize music’s power to unite. n
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Her music hailed as “ravishing and engulfing” (New York Times) and of an “uncompromising beauty” (BBC Music Magazine), Gity Razaz composes music that ranges from concert solo pieces to large symphonic works. Ms. Razaz’s music has been commissioned and/or performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, National Sawdust, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, former cellist of the Kronos Quartet Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist Inbal Segev, violinist Jennifer Koh, League of the American Orchestras, violinist Francesca dePasquale, Metropolis Ensemble, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, and Amsterdam Cello Biennale among many others.
Recent works include a piece for Alisa Weilerstein and her ground-breaking project Fragments, a commission from BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo for the prestigious Last Night of the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and a world premiere with San Diego Symphony under Rafael Payare as part of an ambitious multiple-orchestra spanning initiative from the League of American Orchestras. Upcoming commissions include a collaboration with Israeli Chamber Project and the Grammy-winning tenor, Karim Sulayman, as well as a concerto for flautist Sharon Bezaly and London’s Wigmore Soloists.
Ms. Razaz was named a 2022 “Rising Star” by BBC Music Magazine. Her compositions have earned numerous national and international awards, such as the Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters that is “is given to a composer of demonstrated
artistic merit in mid-career”, the Jerome Foundation award, the Libby Larsen Prize in 28th International Search for New Music Competition, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Composer Institute, Juilliard Composers’ Orchestra Competition, multiple ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards, ASCAP Plus Awards, Juilliard’s Palmer Dixon Award for the outstanding composition of the year in 2010 and 2012, as well as special recognition from the Brian Israel Composition Prize, Margaret Blackburn Memorial Competition, the League of Composers (ISCM), to name a few.
Ms. Razaz’s debut album, The Strange Highway, which was recently released on Sweden’s preeminent BIS Records, has garnered international praise. As described by BBC Music Magazine, “There’s an uncompromising beauty to these works by the Iranian-born American composer, the opening title work, for cello octet, is a wild rhythmic ride, while the closing Metamorphosis of Narcissus offers some fantastic musical storytelling. Impressive.”
Aside from her ongoing engagements in composition, Ms. Razaz is also active as a teacher and an educator. She has appeared as a guest artist presenting master classes across the nation while teaching composition privately in New York. Ms. Razaz joined the faculty of Ramapo College of New Jersey, where she taught music theory and ear training in 2012-2013, and served on the advisory committee for the American Federation of Teachers Graduate Scholarship. From 2017-2021, Ms. Razaz offered composition teaching and mentorship for the Luna Composition Lab, a program founded in partnership with the Kaufman Music Center, while holding a teaching artist position at the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program. She is a composition faculty at Mannes School of Music prep division and has served as composer and jurist for the Irving M. Klein International String Competition.
Iranian-American composer Gity Razaz started her musical studies in piano at a young age and began composing music at age nine. She received her Bachelor and Master of Music in Composition from The Juilliard School. She has studied with Samuel Adler, Robert Beaser, and John Corigliano. n
GITY RAZAZ
Photo by Ronald Andrew Schvarztman
INBAL SEGEV
Inbal Segev is “a cellist with something to say” (Gramophone). Combining rich tone and technical mastery with rare dedication and intelligence, she has appeared with orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony, Bamberg Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Dortmund Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Pittsburgh Symphony, Polish National Radio Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony, collaborating with such prominent conductors as Marin Alsop, Stéphane Denève, Edward Gardner, Kirill Karabits, Lorin Maazel, Cristian Măcelaru, and Zubin Mehta. Committed to reinvigorating the cello repertoire, she has commissioned and premiered new cello concertos from Timo Andres, Anna Clyne, Avner Dorman, Fernando Otero, Victoria Poleva, and Dan Visconti. Recorded with Alsop and the London Philharmonic for Avie Records, Segev’s premiere recording of Clyne’s new cello concerto, DANCE, was an instant success, topping the Amazon Classical Concertos chart. Its opening movement was chosen as one of NPR Music’s “Favorite Songs of 2020,” receiving more than eleven million listens on Spotify. To encourage creative recovery during the early pandemic lockdowns, Segev launched 20 for 2020, a commissioning, recording, and video project for 20 cutting-edge composers, including John Luther Adams, Viet Cuong, and Angélica Negrón, all of whom wrote new works in response to the worldwide crisis. Segev’s previous discography includes acclaimed recordings of the Elgar Cello Concerto, Romantic cello works, and Bach’s Cello Suites, while her popular YouTube masterclass series, Musings with Inbal Segev, has inspired a generation of cellists.
A native of Israel, at 16 Segev was invited by Isaac Stern to continue her cello studies in the U.S., where she earned degrees from Yale University and the Juilliard School, before co-founding the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus. Segev started composing during the pandemic: her cello quartet, Behold, can be heard on her album 20 for 2020; her cello octet, B Natural, premiered at Yale in 2023; her string trio premiered in Fort Worth in 2024; her clarinet trio premieres in Israel this summer; and I’m Nobody! Who are you?, for unaccompanied women’s choir, premieres next season. Segev’s cello was made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1673. n
NILOUFAR SHIRI
Niloufar Shiri is a freelance kamancheh player, composer, and improviser born and raised in Tehran, Iran. Her work bridges the traditional, experimental, and Bedahe music, weaving them into a singular musical language. Rooted in the Radif (the classical Persian music repertoire), Shiri’s music navigates the textural and timbral spaces of an instrument’s harmonic and sonic properties. Drawing inspiration from the intervallic relationships and pitch settings of traditional Iranian music, she analyzes and incorporates the spectral qualities of these extended intervals, uncovering their latent possibilities.
Her compositions explore the dynamic interplay of tones and challenge conventional instrumental functions, where each attack and vibration—shaped by its surrounding sonic periphery—unfolds into a rich spectrum of extended sonic possibilities. Shiri has composed solo works as well as pieces for small ensembles and orchestras. She is actively collaborating with artists such as Jessika Kenney, Antonin Fajt, Jennifer Curtis, Kyle Motl, and Chatori Shimizu. Additionally, she has worked on installations and projects with Farahnaz Hatam.
Her recent album, OSHI, is a collaboration with Isaac Otto, an L.A.-based composer and multi-woodwind performer, released on Infrequent Seams. n
KIMIA KOOCHAKZADEH-YAZDI
Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi is a composer and performer. She writes for hybrid instrumental/electronic ensembles, creates electroacoustic and audiovisual works, builds instruments, and performs electronic music. She explores
the unfamiliar within the familiar while being motivated by musical extremes; finding ways to play with various musical thresholds is something she is currently drawn to.
“Accidents” in music excite her because they have often become the basis of her pieces. Incorporating her Iranian background and her experiences living in Iran is important to her compositional process, and she currently focuses on merging Iranian music with what she has learned from living in Canada and the US. n
SAHBA AMINIKIA
Sahba Aminikia is an independent composer and educator who believes in music to be a catalyst for change.
Born in post-revolutionary wartime in Iran, Aminikia was raised during a newly configured democracy that evolved from mass-executions, war, and violence into a society that—through the use of internet and technology—challenges the current political and social infrastructure. Highly influenced by the poetry of Hafiz, Rumi, and Saadi, as well as traditional, classical and jazz music and the albums of Pink Floyd, Beatles, and Queen, Aminikia cites music to be an immersive, transcendent, yet visceral human experience. He is curious about the duality in existence, and musically explores subjects that confront the pursuit of enlightenment amid darkness. A conscientious soul, due to his upbringing, he attempts at finding a common understanding for communication and dialogue through music. And, as a result, throughout his career, he has composed pieces that express the inevitability and triumph of hope.
Today, Aminikia collaborates with other artists to create and compose meaningful work. He has been trained in musical composition under Iranian pianists Nikan Milani, Safa Shahidi, and perhaps most influenced by work with his first classical teacher, Mehran Rouhani, a postgraduate of Royal Academy of Music and a former student of Sir Michael Tippet. He later relocated to Russia where he studied at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory under Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko—a post-graduate student of Dimitri Shostakovich. He received his Bachelor of Music and his Master of Music with honors from San Francisco Conservatory of Music under David Garner and David Conte where he was the proud recipient of Phyllis Wattis Foundation scholarship. He has also received individual lessons in life and in music from David Harrington,
Aleksandra Vrebalov, Conrad Susa, Luciano Chessa, John Corigliano, and Oswaldo Golijov as well.
Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle has referred to Aminikia as “an artist singularly equipped to provide a soundtrack to these unsettling times.” His musical pieces have been widely performed in United States, Canada, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Ecuador, France, Italy, Poland, China, Greece, Turkey and Israel and at venues such Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Le Poisson Rouge, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF Exploratorium, SFJAZZ and Saint Anne’s Warehouse. Aminikia’s compositions have been commissioned by theatre troops, contemporary classical ensembles, film scores, Persian traditional music groups as well as jazz bands including Kronos Quartet, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Symphony Parnassus, San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble, Mobius Trio, Delphi Trio and Living Earth Show. His third string quartet, A Threnody for Those Who Remain, commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Kronos Performing Arts Association, was described by Financial Times as “An experience not to be easily forgotten”. And similarly, his widely known Tar o Pood (Warp and Weft)—commissioned by Nasrin Marzban for Kronos Quartet—was the second-place recipient of the American Prize 2015 in composition, professional chamber music category. Aminikia has recently been the artist-in-residence at Kronos Festival 2017, an annual festival held by legendary Kronos Quartet at San Francisco SFJAZZ throughout which ten of his works including four new pieces were performed. His most recent piece for the same festival, was a collaboration between Kronos Quartet, San Francisco Girls Chorus and Afghanistan National Institute of Music which resulted in a 20-minute choral piece named Music of Spheres Aminikia is also the Artistic Director for Flying Carpet Festival, a mobile music festival which serves children in need in war zones. He also serves as the Musical Director for Sirkhane, a non-profit organization based in Mardin, Southern Turkey which serves around 40,000 children through circus arts and music. n
PERSIAN CULTURAL CENTER (PCC )
Is a non-profit, non-religious and non-political 501(c) (3) national cultural organization, established in 1989 in San Diego, California. PCC strives to provide an enriching and welcoming environment to strengthen the bonds of community, culture and cross-cultural understanding through art and culture. PCC’s programs and events are nonpartisan, secular, and focus on artistic and cultural values including musical concerts, lectures and interviews, movie screenings, literature workshops, art exhibitions, theater, dance, traditional instruments and art and language classes.
PCC has built strong collaboration partnerships and works with many art and culture organizations and routinely cosponsoring programs in the community such as museums, public libraries, movie festivals organizers, symphonies, colleges, schools and others in and out of the community of San Diego. PCC has several affiliated entities to enable it achieve its goals more efficiently such as the Iranian School of San Diego with around 300 annual attendance, the Persian Dance Academy, the PCC Foundation, and PCC’s bimonthly magazine, Peyk, with an approximate circulation of 6,000. PCC derives its strength from its members, volunteers and overall community support. n
UPCOMING SUMMER CONCERTS
AT THE RADY SHELL AT JACOBS PARK
TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE – MIGHT NOT MAKE IT HOME TOUR
June 7 | 6PM
Grammy®-winning horn player Trombone Shorty puts a New Orleans spin on everything he plays. Prowling the stage with his band, Orleans Avenue, he delivers an explosive performance blurring the lines between funk, jazz and R&B.
“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC: BIGGER & WEIRDER 2025 TOUR with Special Guest Puddles Pity Party
August 29 | 7:30PM
Weird Al brings his legendary full-production multimedia comedy rock show back to the concert stage with the BIGGER & WEIRDER 2025 Tour, playing his iconic hits as well as some never-performed-live-before fan favorites. Al’s long-time band is joined by four additional players to create a super-sized concert experience.
CLASSIC ALBUMS LIVE PERFORMS
DAVID BOWIE’S THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS
June 20 | 7:30PM
Classic Albums Live performs David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, exactly as you remember hearing it, note-for-note, cut-for-cut, at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. This groundbreaking album—featuring hits such as “Suffragette City,” “Moonage Daydream,” and the title track “Ziggy Stardust”—can be found on virtually every list of the greatest albums of all time.Take the A Train”, “Satin Doll”, “Something to Live For” and many more.
AN EVENING WITH CHICAGO
September 10 | 7:30PM
Hailed as one of the “most important bands in music since the dawn of the rock and roll era,” Chicago continue to be true ambassadors for their beloved hometown, carrying the city’s name with pride and dignity around the world. From the signature sound of the Chicago horns, their iconic vocalists, and a few dozen of everclassic songs, this band’s concerts are celebrations. 2025 marks the band’s 58th consecutive year of touring!
THE NEW 2025-26 SEASON IS
HERE!
HERE’S A SNEAK PEEK OF SOME EXCITING CONCERTS COMING UP SOON:
OCT 3 & 5 | 2025
FRENCH FAIRYTALES: RAVEL AND DEBUSSY
Rafael Payare, conductor
Liv Redpath, soprano
San Diego Symphony Chorus
Gerard McBurney, director
DEBUSSY The Joyful Island (L’Isle Joyeuse)
DEBUSSY (orch. Caplet) The Toy Box (La Boîte à joujoux)
RAVEL The Child and the Spells: A Lyric Fantasy in Two Parts (L’enfant et les sortilèges: Fantaisie lyrique en deux parties)
OCT 17 & 18 | 2025
MUSIC OF THE HEAVENS: HOLST’S PLANETS
Gemma New, conductor
Geneva Lewis, violin
Women of the San Diego Master Chorale
LERA AUERBACH Icarus
VAUGHAN-WILLIAMS The Lark Ascending
HOLST The Planets
FEB 27 & 28, MAR 1, 6, & 7 | 2026
BRAHMS FESTIVAL
Rafael Payare, conductor
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Julie Boulianne, soprano
Michael Sumuel, bass-baritone
San Diego Symphony Chorus
BRAHMS A German Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem)
Symphony No. 1, 2, 3, & 4
Violin Concerto
MAY 22 & 24 | 2026 ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA
& BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE
Rafael Payare, conductor
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
R. STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra
BARTÓK Bluebeard’s Castle
ANNUAL GIVING HONOR ROLL
The Musicians, members of the Board of Directors and the Administrative Staff wish to gratefully acknowledge the growing list of friends who give so generously to support the San Diego Symphony. To make a gift, please call (619) 615-3901. The following listing reflects pledges entered as of January 15, 2024.
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CORPORATE HONOR ROLL
THESE PARTNERS CURRENTLY MAINTAIN AN ANNUAL SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SPONSORSHIP:
SAN DIEGO BAYFRONT
BUILDING A SOUND TOMORROW
JACOBS MUSIC CENTER RENOVATION & ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN
The San Diego Symphony acknowledges the following donors who have made a gift of $10,000 or more toward the BUILDING A SOUND TOMORROW campaign, which supports the renovation of Jacobs Music Center and the San Diego Symphony Foundation’s endowment fund. With profound gratitude, we celebrate these generous supporters who have made a commitment to the future of music in our community. To make a gift, please call (619)237-1969 or email campaign@sandiegosymphony.org.
The following listing reflects pledges or gifts entered as of December 31, 2024.
*Deceased
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FRIDAY, MARCH 21 7:30PM
Jacobs Music Center
JAN LISIECKI IN RECITAL: “PRELUDES”
Jan Lisiecki, piano
This concert is made possible, in part, through the generosity of Alan Benaroya.
PROGRAM
CHOPIN
Prélude in D-flat major, Op. 28, No. 15
Prélude in A-flat major, B. 86
J. S. BACH
Prelude No.1 in C major, BWV 846
R ACHMANINOFF
Prelude in D minor, Op. 23, No. 3
SZYMANOWSKI
Preludes Op. 1 No. 1 in B minor · Andante ma non troppo No. 2 in D minor · Andante con moto No. 3 in D minor · Andantino
MESSIAEN
Préludes pour piano No. 1 La colombe No. 2 Chant d’extase dans un paysage triste No. 3 Le nombre léger
CHOPIN
Prélude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45
RACHMANINOFF
Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2
GÓRECKI
Four Preludes Op. 1 No. 1 Molto agitato No. 4 Molto allegro quasi presto
J. S. BACH
Prelude No.2 in C minor, BWV 847
RACHMANINOFF
Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5 -INTERMISSION-
CHOPIN
Préludes, Op. 28
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No. 1 in C major · Agitato No. 2 in A minor · Lento No. 3 in G major · Vivace No. 4 in E minor · Largo No. 5 in D major · Molto allegro No. 6 in B minor · Lento assai No. 7 in A major · Andantino No. 8 in F-sharp minor · Molto agitato No. 9 in E major · Largo No. 10 in C-sharp minor · Allegro molto No. 11 in B major · Vivace No. 12 in G-sharp minor · Presto No. 13 in F-sharp major · Lento No. 14 in E-flat minor · Allegro No. 15 in D-flat major · Sostenuto No. 16 in B-flat minor · Presto con fuoco No. 17 in A-flat major · Allegretto No. 18 in F minor · Molto allegro No. 19 in E-flat major · Vivace No. 20 in C minor · Largo No. 21 in B-flat major · Cantabile No. 22 in G minor · Molto agitato No. 23 in F major · Moderato No. 24 in D minor · Allegro appassionato
Total Program Duration: Approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes (includes one 20 minute intermission).
2025 JACOBS MUSIC CENTER SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
ABOUT THE ARTIST
JAN LISIECKI
Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki looks back on a career spanning a decade and a half on the world’s greatest stages. He works closely with the foremost conductors and orchestras of our time, performing over a hundred concerts a year.
The 24-25 season will see him returning to Boston Symphony, London Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony and Seattle Symphony. He will lead the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in a tour of 19 concerts throughout Germany and Austria, including the complete Beethoven cycles in residencies at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, in Munich and Cologne. As Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Artist in Residence, he will inaugurate the orchestra’s season and return to lead them from the piano in a complete cycle of Beethoven concertos.
He will be bringing his acclaimed Preludes solo recital programme, recently celebrated at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, to La Scala in Milan, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, at BOZAR Brussels and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr. A duo programme of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann together with Julia Fischer brings him to 15 venues across Europe and the United States, including New York’s Lincoln Center, Chicago Symphony Center, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and Munich Prinzregententheater.
Recent return invitations include the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Staatskapelle Dresden. He made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in spring 2024. Lisiecki is a fixture at major summer festivals across Europe and North America, has performed at the Salzburg Festival and recently made his third appearance at the BBC Proms. His previous recital programme was celebrated in over 50 cities around the globe.
Jan Lisiecki was offered an exclusive recording contract by Deutsche Grammophon at the age of 15. Since then, he has recorded nine albums which have been awarded with the JUNO Award, ECHO Klassik, Gramophone Critics’ Choice, Diapason d’Or and Edison Klassiek.
At 18, he received both the Leonard Bernstein Award and Gramophone’s Young Artist Award, becoming the youngest ever recipient of the latter. He was named UNICEF Ambassador to Canada in 2012. n
AN INTRODUCTION TO AN INTRODUCTION
WRITTEN BY JAN
LISIECKI
In concert, the artist is usually sharply focused on the present. In playing the preludes, however, there is always a sense of anticipation, of preparing and looking towards the next piece. By definition, and certainly by tradition, a prelude anticipates the main presentation, setting the stage by creating a mood and colour. Can a recital be composed entirely of such introductions, then, one leading directly into the next, and still be profound?
A master of the short form, Chopin brought the Prelude out from the shadows and into the spotlight. Using its concise format and flexible structure, he embraced its ability to establish a mood. The collection of 24 Preludes, Op. 28 is a colour wheel of emotions, showcasing all twenty-four keys and the atmospheres they can convey. Instead of foreshadowing the masterpiece, they become the focal point, and despite their individual brevity, Chopin was always able to fully develop his melodic concepts.
Certainly there is a sense of each Prelude “falling” into the next one, and there are even some indications in the score that span between individual pieces. Yet, these works can also be taken out of context, so to speak. For this reason I am presenting Chopin’s Prelude Op. 28 No. 15 twice in this programme, to demonstrate its different function as a worthy standalone piece, as compared to when it forms part of the greater whole (in this case the set of Op. 28 Preludes). While Chopin reinvented the Prelude format with the aforementioned set, other composers also embraced this openended musical form with newfound purpose, stamping it with their individuality. In this recital, I hope to showcase the broad possibilities of the humble Prelude, from Bach to Górecki, taking the audience on a musical expedition and answering the aboveposed rhetorical question with an emphatic “yes”. n
Photo by StefanoGaluzzi
SATURDAY, MARCH 22 7:30PM
Jacobs Music Center
2025 JAZZ @ THE JACOBS
PIANO PARAGONS –THE MUSIC OF MONK, POWELL, TATUM, AND COREA
Eric Scott Reed, piano
Helen Sung, piano
Tyler Bullock, piano
Peter Washington, bass
Carl Allen, drum set
Pre-show concert: Young Lions Jazz Conservatory All Stars, jazz band
PROGRAM
TO BE ANNOUNCED ON STAGE
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Total Program Duration: Approximately 3 Hours (includes one 20 minute intermission).
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ERIC SCOTT REED
Pianist Eric Scott Reed has been a vital figure on the music scene for over 35 years. His musical journey began on Philadelphia’s church scene, continued through formal training at South Philly’s Settlement Music School, and expanded in Los Angeles and New York, where he established himself among jazz greats. Known for his versatility, Reed has led numerous ensembles, performed solo, composed, produced, and educated aspiring musicians. He has collaborated with legends such as Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Buster Williams, and Wynton Marsalis. Including his latest release Black, Brown, and Beige, Reed has an extensive discography of twenty-seven recordings as a leader that highlight his innovative interpretations and original compositions. As an educator, he has influenced many young talents at prestigious institutions. Recently returning to Los Angeles, Reed balances performing, mentoring, and exploring his spiritual and artistic evolution. His work remains a testament to his dedication to jazz and his continuous search for creative expression. Be on the lookout for his newest work, Out Late on the Smoke Sessions label. n
HELEN SUNG
Helen Sung is an acclaimed pianist and composer and a Guggenheim Fellow. A native of Houston, Texas, and alumna of its High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA), she diverged from her classical training after a chance encounter with jazz during studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Helen went on to graduate from the Thelonious Monk Institute (renamed the Herbie
Hancock Institute in 2019) of Jazz Performance at the New England Conservatory of Music and win the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition.
In addition to her own band and projects (her ninth leader album Quartet+ features her compositions and music by landmark women in jazz arranged for her quartet together with a classical string quartet, and her big band project Portraits in Jazz is slated for release in 2025), Helen has also worked with such luminaries as Clark Terry, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Regina Carter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Lea Delaria, and the Mingus Big Band.
Helen currently teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Columbia University, where she was also the first jazz artist-in-residence at its Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute: exploring intersections of jazz & neuroscience, she partners with the Institute and the National Jazz Museum in Harlem to present multimedia programs examining how the brain experiences and engages with music. A Steinway Artist, “Sung plays with crisp swing and elegant invention, her rhythms drawing from the music’s deepest blues roots – and setting listeners’ heads bobbing – while she explores her own fresh ideas, often inspired from her classical training.” (New York Times). n
TYLER BULLOCK
Tyler Bullock II is a dynamic up-and-coming pianist and composer from Nashville, Tennessee. At 21 years old, Tyler is already establishing himself as one of the most promising pianists of his generation, having worked with Sean Jones, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Bruce Williams, Herlin Riley, Willie Jones III, Sherman Irby, Ulysses Owens Jr., Curtis Lundy, and The Roy Hargrove Big Band since moving to New York City to attend the Juilliard School in 2021. He has been the regular pianist with the Roy Hargrove Big Band since 2022, and he recently recorded with Sean Jones for an upcoming album.
Tyler regularly leads his own band in venues around New York City and abroad. While his trio serves as the foundation for most of Tyler’s performances, he frequently collaborates with horn players and vocalists to bring into fruition the full range of color that he hears while writing his original compositions. Intending to combine the lineage of jazz with his own fresh perspective, Tyler weaves powerful musical narratives in his compositions that serve as a framework for his group to unleash their creativity. n
PETER WASHINGTON
In 1986, while performing in San Francisco with alto saxophonist John Handy, he was asked by Art Blakey to move to New York and join the seminal Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Washington remained with the Jazz Messengers from 1986 to 1989, and during this time was able to establish himself as a ubiquitous, first-call freelance bassist; a position he has occupied to this day. In the early 1990’s Washington joined the Tommy Flanagan Trio, called by many “the greatest trio in jazz”, and remained until Flanagan’s death, in 2002. For the past ten years he has been a member of the very highly acclaimed Bill Charlap Trio.
In addition to these long-term commitments Washington has worked and recorded with an extremely large number of top-tier artists, of all generations. A partial list of those he has recorded and performed “live” with would include Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Golson, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Benny Carter, Hank Jones, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, Kenny Burrell, Phil Woods, Cedar Walton, Joe Henderson, Ray Bryant, Frank Wess, Clark Terry, Lionel Hampton, Charles McPherson, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Jimmy Cobb, Louis Hayes, the Newport All Stars, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Gerald Wilson, Lou Donaldson, Barry Harris, Lew Tabakin, Sweets Edison, Johnny Griffin, Jackie McLean, Sir Simon Rattle and the Birmingham Symphony, Richard Wyands, Teddy Edwards, Johnny Coles, and Frank Morgan.
Of the younger generations, Washington has recorded and performed with Mulgrew Miller, Tom Harrell, the Brecker Brothers, Don Grolnick, David Sanchez, Eric Alexander, Benny Green, Javon Jackson, Brian Lynch, David Hazeltine, One For All, Steve Nelson, James Carter, Renee Rosnes, Steve Turre, Regina Carter, Kenny Washington, Grant Stewart, Robin Eubanks, Joe Magnarelli, Geoff Keezer, Billy Drummond, Jeremy Pelt, Ryan Kisor, and Walt Weisokopf.
Peter Washington has also enjoyed associations with vocalists as diverse as Andy Bey, Freddie Cole, Karrin Allyson, Chris Conner, Mark Murphy, Georgie Fame, Ernie Andrews, Paula West, Eric Comstock, Anne Hampton Calloway, Marlena Shaw, and Ernestine Anderson.
A complete discography would list, as of this writing, over 350 recordings, and is expanded on a weekly and monthly basis. n
CARL ALLEN
With over 200 recordings to his credit, the gifted Milwaukee-born, New York-based drummer, sideman, bandleader, entrepreneur, and educator, Carl Allen’s profound and propulsive percolations provided soulful and syncopated support for nearly three decades.
Born on April 25, 1961, Allen grew up on gospel, R&B, and funk, but later turned to jazz after hearing an LP by the legendary saxophonist Benny Carter. He studied with drum instructor Roy Sneider and band director Robert Siemele. His first hometown gigs were with sax greats Sonny Stitt and James Moody. Allen studied at The University of Wisconsin at Green Bay from 1979 to 1981, and transferred to William Patterson College in New Jersey, where he graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Studies and Performance.
Allen joined trumpeter Freddie Hubbard a year before his graduation, served as his Musical Director for eight years, and recorded several recordings with the trumpeter including Double Take and Life Flight. Allen also played with Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Benny Golson, Jennifer Holliday, J.J. Johnson, Rickie Lee Jones, Sammy Davis Jr., Branford Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, Lena Horne, Ruth Brown, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Mike Stern, Nellie McKay, Terence Blanchard, Phil Woods, Benny Green, Cyrus Chestnut, Joe Henderson, Billy Childs and many others. Allen’s phenomenal sideman discography also includes Jackie McLean (Dynasty), Donald Harrison (Indian Blues, Noveau Swing), Donald Byrd (A City Called Heaven), and Art Farmer (The Company I Keep).
Piccadilly Square (Timeless) was Allen’s first CD as leader, released in 1989, followed by The Dark Side of Dewey (Evidence), The Pursuer (Atlantic), Testimonial (Atlantic), and Get Ready, his 2007 Mack Avenue gospel/Motown accented debut release with co-leader, bassist Rodney Whitaker followed up by Work to Do (Mack Avenue Records) featuring Kirk Whalum.
Education has always been part of my mission Allen says. Art Blakey taught me the importance of nurturing the next generation of musicians. “Every generation needs someone to help them get to the next level and this what I am hoping to do”. In May of 2012 Allen received an honorary doctorate from Snow College in Ephraim, Utah in Humane Letters.
Allen is also an accomplished businessman. He cofounded Big Apple Productions in 1988 with saxophonist Vincent Herring, produced several recordings for several Japanese labels with future stars Roy Hargrove and Nicholas Payton. Several years ago he created Nella Productions which produces projects and developed an education component to the company called The New York Jazz Symposium where he runs workshops around the world on jazz. Allen has also produced recordings for pianist Eric Reed, Dewey Redman. Pharoah Sanders, Freddie Hubbard, Kris Bowers and guitarist Lage Lund, the winner of the 2005 Thelonious Monk International Monk Competition and many others totaling nearly 70 credits as a producer.
Carl Allen’s multifaceted career provides the perfect template for what a modern musician should be. As Sid Gribetz of Jazz Times wrote, “more than just another fine drummer, Carl Allen has it all together as a bandleader, businessman, and producer, becoming a force in today’s jazz world.”
Allen maintains an exhaustive schedule of recording, touring and teaching. He remains active as a sideman with Christian McBride and Inside Straight, Benny Golson and others. As a leader most recently leading The Carl Allen Quartet as well as The Art of Elvin, a tribute band dedicated to his two drum influences, Art Blakey and Elvin Jones was started after the passing of Elvin Jones in 2004. n
YOUNG LIONS JAZZ CONSERVATORY ALL STARS
Young Lions Jazz Conservatory (YLJC) was founded by its artistic director, jazz trumpet virtuoso Gilbert Castellanos. Mr. Castellanos has a passion for jazz education and in 2013 started The Young Lions Series, a program (currently presented weekly at Balboa Park’s Panama 66 restaurant) that showcases young blooming jazz artists (ages 11-18) with whom he works closely as instructor and mentor.
Building on the success and momentum of the Young Lions Series, Castellanos expanded his vision and passion to raise up the next generation of jazz with the launch of Young Lions Jazz Conservatory. The non-profit organization focuses on the educational components of music: jazz theory, history, cultural context, latin/afro/ brazilian rhythms, and master classes with internationally recognized musicians. Conservatory students are placed in small combos of seven or eight students and rehearse weekly. One or more conservatory students are featured
every Wednesday in the Young Lions Series at Panama 66 at the San Diego Museum of Art. In addition, conservatory combos perform at Jazz @ The Jacobs, Adams Avenue Street Fair, KSDS Jazz 88.3 Live Series, Bayside Summer Nights at Embarcadero Marina Park, and more. Students also have the opportunity to attend jazz education festivals throughout the state, including Next Gen Monterey Jazz Festival.
In his youth Mr. Castellanos was provided many opportunities by established jazz musicians and has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Horace Silver, Nancy Wilson, George Benson, Diana Krall, Al Jarreau, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Dr. John, Charlie Hayden, Charles McPherson, John Clayton, and Natalie Cole, just to name a few.
It’s been his ambition to provide today’s young musicians with some of the same opportunities he was fortunate enough to experience. Young Lions Jazz Conservatory is the fruition of this long-held dream. n
Building a Sound Tomorrow
Jacobs Music Center Renovation and Endowment Campaign
“To have the opportunity to improve the beautiful hall we call home, and to improve the musical communication on stage with the musicians, and to create a more intimate connec tion with our audiences, is a fantastic dream.”
– Rafael Payare, Music Director, San Diego Symphony
Under the leadership of Music Director Rafael Payare and Chief Executive Officer Martha Gilmer, the San Diego Symphony has completed a historic renovation of its indoor home. The renovation of The Joan and Ir win Jacobs Music Center complements The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park and provides San Diego with two extraordinary venues designed to celebrate music and community. Likewise, in the same way that these venues promise an ever-brighter future, the San Diego Symphony Foundation’s endowment provides long-term financial stability for the organization, ensuring that the power of live music continues to inspire and uplift our community for generations to come.
PLAY A PART IN BUILDING THE SYMPHONY’S FUTURE
The San Diego Symphony Foundation manages our Endowment, the cornerstone of our long-term stability and artistic excellence. By contributing to the Endowment, donors play a crucial role in sustaining our orchestra’s ability to present worldclass performances, expand our educational outreach, and foster innovation in the arts. We invite you to join us in this enduring legacy by supporting the Endowment, securing the future of music in San Diego, and leaving an indelible mark on our cultural landscape.
NAME A SEAT!
The beauty of the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center will be most enjoyed from the reconfigured seating in the hall. We ask you to join this historic campaign by investing in the San Diego Symphony and NAMING A SEAT. The named seats serve as a celebration of all individuals who helped make the renovation possible. With a gift of $10,000, you can name a seat on the Orchestra level, or with a gift of $25,000, you can name a seat in the Grand Tier. Your contribution can be pledged and paid over a period of one to five years.
A gift toward the renovated Jacobs Music Center supports the orchestra, elevates the audience experience, and impacts the growing vitality of downtown San Diego. To learn more, send an email to: campaign@sandiegosymphony.org
101 | Susan & Thomas Smith
SATURDAY, MARCH 29 7:30PM
SUNDAY, MARCH 30 2PM
Jacobs Music Center
PROGRAM
GARETH FARR
“The Invocation of the Sea” from From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs
BEETHOVEN
Piano Concert No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
Allegro con brio
Largo
Rondo: Allegro
Paul Lewis, piano -INTERMISSION-
TCHAIKOVSKY
Symphony No. 4 in F minor
Andante sostenuto
Andantino in modo di canzona
Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato
Finale: Allegro con fuoco
Total Program Duration: Approximately 2 Hours (includes one 20 minute intermission).
FROM THE DEPTHS: LU LEADS TCHAIKOVSKY’S FOURTH SYMPHONY
Tianyi Lu, conductor
Paul Lewis, piano
San Diego Symphony Orchestra 2025 JACOBS MASTERWORKS
Message
Scan this QR code with your smartphone or text SDS to 55741 to access the interactive version of the program.
ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR
TIANYI LU
Internationally known for her thrilling energy on the podium, her deeply creative approach to the repertoire and her open-hearted style of leadership, Chinese-born New Zealander Tianyi Lu collaborates with major orchestras and opera houses worldwide. Her work is driven by an ethos of empowerment, creating connection, and compassion across diverse communities through music.
After winning first prize in 2020 at both the Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition and the International Conducting Competition ‘Guido Cantelli’ in Italy, Tianyi Lu was appointed Conductor-in-Residence with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in Norway, a position she held until the end of the 2023/24 season. Lu was Principal Conductor of the St Woolos Sinfonia in the UK until 2024, and Assistant Conductor of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 2017-2019.
Recent highlights include concerts and recordings with the Philharmonia Orchestra London, Hallé Orchestra Manchester, Orchestre National de Lyon, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. A former Dudamel Fellow, Lu made her Hollywood Bowl debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in July 2021, and returned for her Disney Hall debut in April 2023. In autumn 2021, Lu conducted performances of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen, and in 2023, she appeared at Theater Basel to conduct the world premiere of Bobbi Jene Smith’s production of Marie & Pierre, composed for the Theater Basel by Celeste Oram.
The 2024/25 season began with Tianyi Lu making her debut at the BBC Proms in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sol Gabetta as soloist. She also makes debuts with the New York Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, and Staatsorchester Stuttgart. Return engagements include re-invitations to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Seattle Symphony, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Duisburger Philharmoniker, and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
Passionately committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and to building a more empathetic world through the arts, Tianyi Lu is on the Board of Directors for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and an Artist Ambassador for Opera for Peace. She is regularly invited to work with and speak to communities and institutions about her experiences in empowering leadership, transforming cultures, resilience, and wellbeing. She has appeared in and hosted Welsh National Opera’s Podcast The O Word, has spoken as a guest for London Marathon Events and the Do More Good podcast, and conducted and hosted Ears Wide Open concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. n
ABOUT THE ARTIST
PAUL LEWIS
Paul Lewis is one of the foremost interpreters of the Central European piano repertoire, his performances and recordings of Beethoven and Schubert receiving universal critical acclaim. He was awarded CBE for his services to music, and the sincerity and depth of his musical approach have won him fans around the world.
This global popularity is reflected in the world-class orchestras with whom he works, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras. His close relationship with Boston Symphony Orchestra led to his selection as the 2020 Koussevitzky Artist at Tanglewood.
With a natural affinity for Beethoven, Lewis took part in the BBC’s three-part documentary Being Beethoven and performed a concerto cycle at Tanglewood in summer 2022. He has performed the cycle all over the world, and was the first pianist to play the complete cycle in a single season at the BBC Proms in 2010.
Beyond many award-winning Beethoven recordings, his discography with Harmonia Mundi also demonstrates his characteristic depth of approach in Romantic repertoire such as Schumann, Mussorgsky, Brahms and Liszt.
Between 2022 and 2024, Lewis embarked on a Schubert Piano Sonata Series, presenting the completed sonatas from the last 12 years of Schubert’s life at venues around the world. The cycle continues into 2025, when he will also give the premiere of a new Piano Sonata by Thomas Larcher.
In chamber music, he works closely with tenor Mark Padmore in lied recitals around the world – they have recorded three Schubert song cycles together – and he is co-Artistic Director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.n
ABOUT THE MUSIC
“The Invocation of the Sea” from From the Depths of the
GARETH FARR
Sea the Great Gongs Sound
Born February 29, 1968,Wellington, New Zealand
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 9 MINUTES
New Zealand composer and percussionist Gareth Farr studied first at the University of Auckland, then came to the United States and spent three years at the Eastman School of Music. He returned to New Zealand and established his career as both composer and as a member of the percussion section of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. A vastly prolific composer, he has written for a variety of ensembles, including large-scale memorial works in memory of the victims of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and of the New Zealanders killed in World War I. Farr also has a nice sense of humor, which is evident in many of his works. As a percussionist, he has been particularly drawn to the rhythms of Balinese gamelan music and to the music of the Pacific Island peoples in general.
For its fiftieth anniversary season in 1996-97, the New Zealand Symphony commissioned a work from Farr, and for that occasion he wrote From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs. This is a substantial two-movement work inspired in part by the majesty of the ocean, and this concert opens with the first section of that work, titled Invocation of the Sea, which incorporates music from many different cultures that border the Pacific. The composer has provided a brief introduction:
In Invocation of the Sea the sounds gather in the air, music from the far reaches of the Pacific, the drums of Rarotonga in the East, the Gamelan of Bali in the West, the taiko of Japan in the North. The sounds dart over the waves, mingling into the great crescendo, millions of voices singing, millions of hands drumming, as one.
Invocation of the Sea may be thought of – generally – as an eight-minute crescendo for large orchestra. Beginning very quietly, the music gathers energy – and volume – as it proceeds, and soon we hear extended solos for the percussion section built on the different kinds of drumming Farr mentions. These alternate with some brilliant writing for the full orchestra, and the music drives to an exciting conclusion that helps make clear why Invocation of the Sea has become Farr’s most popular composition. n
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Opus 37
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Born December 16, 1770, Bonn
Died March 26, 1827, Vienna
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME
34 MINUTES
When Beethoven completed his Third Piano Concerto early
in 1800, he was 29 years old and on the edge of the most important transition of his life. He had spent the previous decade mastering the classical style of Haydn and Mozart, and now he was about to strike out in directions of his own–he would begin work on the Eroica only weeks after the premiere of this concerto. The Concerto in C Minor may look backward to the classical style of Haydn and Mozart, but at the same time it offers intimations of what was about to come.
Brahms was haunted by the overpowering example of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, but Beethoven himself was just as intimidated by Mozart’s piano concertos. He knew how good those concertos were and recognized that any concerto he wrote would stand in their shadow. Once, after hearing a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Minor, K.491, Beethoven turned to his friend, the pianist Jean-Baptiste Cramer, and cried: “Cramer! Cramer! We shall never be able to do anything like that!” But Beethoven resolved to try, and many have noted the influence of that particular Mozart concerto on Beethoven’s own Piano Concerto in C Minor. Beethoven comes very close to “lifting” Mozart’s opening theme for his own–both concertos begin with the same quiet rise and fall on the notes of a C-minor triad. And the influence of Mozart can be felt in many other ways in Beethoven’s concerto, particularly in the imaginative writing for solo woodwinds. But this music is at the same time unmistakably the work of Beethoven: in the choice of C minor, a key he reserved for his most dramatic music; in the aggressive, edgy quality of the first movement; and in the virtuosity of the solo part–Beethoven wrote this music for his own use, and it is a real display concerto.
The form of the Third Piano Concerto, however, is right out of the classical concerto: a sonata-form first movement, a singing slow movement, and a rondo-finale. The opening Allegro con brio is based on two themes, both announced by the orchestra: the ominous opening (what energy is coiled within this simple figure!) and a flowing second subject. The entrance of the piano on fierce octave runs is strident, and much of what follows is dark and dramatic. Beethoven composed the powerful cadenza, probably as late as 1809, and the orchestra makes an impressive return as the timpanist very quietly taps out the rhythm of concerto’s very beginning.
Beethoven mutes the strings in the Largo and sets the movement in the remote key of E major and in a slow 3/8 meter. From the inspired simplicity of the piano’s solo beginning, the music grows increasingly ornate, and the writing for solo winds here is particularly distinguished. The finale is a propulsive rondo based on its powerful opening idea, again introduced by solo piano. Along the way, Beethoven offers some wonderful episodes, each strongly characterized; one of these is a brief fugato on the rondo theme. That same tune is magically transformed at the coda: Beethoven moves into C major, re-bars the music in 6/8, and marks it Presto. On this bright energy the concerto dances to its energetic close.
Beethoven may have “completed” this concerto early in 1800, but he continued to revise it right up to the time of its premiere on April 5, 1803, and at that premiere he played the piano part from his pencil-scrawled manuscript. He asked the young conductor at the Theater an der Wien, Ignaz von Seyfried, to turn pages for him. Seyfried later remembered
how harrowing that experience had been: “I saw almost nothing but empty leaves; at the most on one page or the other a few Egyptian hieroglyphics, wholly unintelligible to me, scribbled down to serve as clues for him; for he played nearly all of the solo part from memory . . . He gave me a secret glance whenever he was at the end of one of the invisible passages and my scarcely concealable anxiety not to miss the decisive moment amused him greatly. He laughed heartily at the jovial supper we had afterwards.” n
Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Born May 7, 1840, Votkins
Died November 6, 1893, St. Petersburg
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME
44 MINUTES
The Fourth Symphony dates from the most tumultuous period in Tchaikovsky’s difficult life, and its composition came from a moment of agony. As he worked on this score in the spring of 1877, one of his students at the Moscow Conservatory – a deranged young woman named Antonina Ivanovna Milyukova – declared her love for him. Knowing that such a prospect was hopeless, Tchaikovsky put her off as gently as he could, but she persisted, even threatening suicide at one point. As fate would have it, Tchaikovsky was also at work on his opera Eugen Onegin at this time and was composing the scene in the which the bachelor Onegin turns down the infatuated young Tatiana, to his eventual regret. Struck by the parallel with his own situation – and at some level longing for a “normal” life with a wife and children – Tchaikovsky did precisely the wrong thing for some very complex reasons: he agreed to Antonina’s proposal of marriage. His friends were horrified, but the composer pressed ahead and married Antonina on July 18, 1877. The marriage was an instant disaster. Tchaikovsky quickly abandoned his bride, tried to return, but fled again and made what we would today call a suicide gesture. His doctors prescribed complete rest, a recommendation Tchaikovsky was only too happy to follow. He abandoned his teaching post in Moscow and fled to Western Europe, finding relief in the quiet of Clarens in Switzerland and San Remo in Italy. It was in San Remo – on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean and far from the chaos of his life in Moscow – that he completed the Fourth Symphony in January 1878.
The Fourth Symphony has all of Tchaikovsky’s considerable virtues – great melodies, primary colors and soaring climaxes – and in this case they are fused with a superheated emotional content. The composer’s friends guessed, perhaps inevitably, that the symphony had a program, that it was “about” something, and Tchaikovsky offered several different explanations of the content of this dramatic music. For his patroness, Madame Nadezhda von Meck, who had supplied the money that enabled him to escape his marriage, Tchaikovsky prepared an elaborate program detailing what his symphony “meant.” One should inevitably be suspicious of such “explanations” (and Tchaikovsky himself later suppressed the program), but this account does offer some sense of what he believed had shaped the content of his music.
The symphony opens with a powerful brass fanfare, which Tchaikovsky describes as “Fate, the inexorable power that
hampers our search for happiness. This power hangs over our heads like the sword of Damocles, leaving us no option but to submit.” The principal subject of this movement, however, is a dark, stumbling waltz in 9/8 introduced by the violins: “The main theme of the Allegro describes feelings of depression and hopelessness. Would it not be better to forsake reality and lose oneself in dreams?” Like inescapable fate, the opening motto-theme returns at key points in this dramatic music, and it finally drives the movement to a furious close: “Thus we see that life is only an everlasting alternation of somber reality and fugitive dreams of happiness.”
After so turbulent a beginning opening, the two middle movements bring much-needed relief. The contrast is so sharp, in fact, that Taneyev complained that these were essentially ballet music made to serve as symphonic movements; Taneyev may have a point, but after that scalding first movement, the gentle character of the middle movements is welcome. The Andantino, in ternary-form, opens with a plaintive oboe solo and features a more animated middle section. Tchaikovsky described it: “Here is the melancholy feeling that overcomes us when we sit weary and alone at the end of the day. The book we pick up slips from our fingers, and a procession of memories passes in review . . .”
The scherzo has deservedly become one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular movements. It is a tour de force for strings (which play pizzicato throughout), with crisp interjections first from the woodwinds and then from brass. Tchaikovsky makes piquant contrast between these quite different sounds, combining all his forces only in the final moments of the movement. The composer notes: “There is no specific feeling or exact expression in the third movement. Here are only the capricious arabesques and indeterminate shapes that come into one’s mind with a little wine . . .”
Out of the quiet close of the third movement, the finale explodes to life. The composer described this movement as “the picture of a folk holiday” and said, “If you find no pleasure in yourself, look about you. Go to the people. See how they can enjoy life and give themselves up entirely to festivity.” Marked Allegro con fuoco, this movement simply alternates its volcanic opening sequence with a gentle little woodwind tune that is actually the Russian folktune “In the field there stood a birch tree.” At the climax, however, the fate-motto from the first movement suddenly bursts forth: “But hardly have we had a moment to enjoy this when Fate, relentless and untiring, makes his presence known.”
Given the catastrophic events of his life during this music’s composition, Tchaikovsky may well have come to feel that Fate was inescapable, and the reappearance of the opening motto amid the high spirits of the finale represents the climax – both musically and emotionally – of the entire symphony. This spectre duly acknowledged, Tchaikovsky rips the symphony to a close guaranteed to set every heart in the hall racing at the same incandescent pace as his music. n
-Program notes by Eric Bromberger
THE FUTURE IS HEAR CAMPAIGN
The San Diego Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the following donors who have made a gift of $10,000 or more toward The Future is HEAR campaign, our current $125 million campaign supporting the San Diego Symphony’s construction of The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park and its wide-ranging artistic and community programs. We are extremely grateful! To make a gift, please call (619) 237-1969. The following listing reflects pledges or gifts entered as of January 15, 2024.
San Diego Foundation Rancho Santa Fe Foundation Jewish Community Foundation * Deceased
$1,000,000 AND ABOVE
Terry L. Atkinson
Bank of America
Dianne Bashor
Malin and Roberta Burnham
Harry and Judy Collins Foundation
Daniel J. and Phyllis Epstein
Ted and Audrey Geisel*
The George Gildred Family and The Philip Gildred Family
Joan* and Irwin Jacobs
Sheri Lynne Jamieson
The Kong Tang Family
Dick* and Dorothea Laub
Jack McGrory
The Alexander and Eva Nemeth Foundation
The Conrad Prebys Foundation
Allison and Robert Price
Evelyn and Ernest Rady
Lou and Penny Rosso and the Rosso Family
Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston
Sahm Family Foundation
T. Denny Sanford
Karen and Christopher “Kit” Sickels
Karen and Jeff Silberman
Donald and Gayle* Slate
The State of California
Gloria and Rodney Stone
Sycuan Casino Resort
Roger* Thieme and Sylvia Steding
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$250,000 AND ABOVE
Anonymous
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Alan Benaroya
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Julia Brown Family
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Esther Fischer
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Karen and Warren Kessler
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The Payne Family Foundation
M&I Pfister Foundation
Linda and Shearn* Platt
Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation
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Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon
Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft
Jayne and Bill Turpin
Kathryn A. and James E. Whistler
$100,000 AND ABOVE
Jules and Michele Arthur
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David Bialis
Catherine & Phil Blair,
Linda & Mel Katz, Manpower San Diego
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Diane and Charles Culp
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Walt Fidler
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Linda & Melvyn Katz
In memory of Jim Lester
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Carol and Richard Hertzberg
Arlene Inch
Brooke and Dan* Koehler
Bill and Evelyn Lamden
Curt Leland and Mary DiMatteo
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The Alex C. McDonald Family
Lori Moore, Cushman Foundation
The Parker Foundation
(Gerald T. & Inez Grant Parker)
Bill and Clarice Perkins
Marilyn James and Richard Phetteplace
Jeanne and Arthur* Rivkin
Sage Foundation
In memory of Bob Nelson who loved the music, the bay and San Diego
Tucker Sadler Architects
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U.S. Bank
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Richard* and Joanie Zecher
$50,000 AND ABOVE
Carol Rolf and Steven Adler
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Family Trust
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In Loving Memory of LV
Gary and Karin Eastham
In loving memory of Kenrick “Ken” Wirtz*
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Karen Wahler and Michael Gay*
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The Jaime Family Trust
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The Peggy and Robert Matthews
Foundation
Admiral Riley* D. Mixson
Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas
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Richard Sandstrom and Sandra Timmons
Congresswoman Lynn Schenk
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$25,000 AND ABOVE
Anonymous
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Sig Mickelson*
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The Segur Family
In honor of Robert (Bud) Emile, SDS Concertmaster 1960-1975
Bill and Diane Stumph
Gayle and Philip Tauber
In memory of my husband
Raymond V. Thomas, Lover of the Symphony
The Bartzis-Villalobos Family
RANAS
Leslie and Joe Waters
John J. Zygowicz and Judy Gaze Zygowicz
$10,000 AND ABOVE
Erina Angelucci
Aptis Global, A subsidiary of The Kimball Group
DeAnne Steele, Carlo Barbara and Cole Barbara
Eloise and Warren* Batts
Lauren Lee Beaudry
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Lori and Richard Brenckman
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Beth Callender & Pete Garcia
Carol Randolph, Ph. D. and Robert Caplan, Seltzer Caplan
McMahon Vitek
The Casdorph Family
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P. Kay Coleman & Janice E. Montle
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Peter V. Czipott and
Marisa SorBello
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In loving memory of Karen
Cooper Ferm*
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4040 Agency - Mary, Bill & John
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and Ira J. Gaines
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Jeffries, Gardiner & Theobald Inc.
Joyce M. Gattas, PhD
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In memory of Royce G. Darby*
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In memory of Samuel Lipman*Clarinetist
The Granada Fund
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Georgia Griffiths and Colleen Kendall
Lulu Hadaya
Jeff and Tina Hauser
In memory of Lucille Bandel*
In Memory of Dick Hess*
Richard A. Heyman and Anne E. Daigle Family Foundation
Let the music play on, Drew!
Mary Ann and John Hurley
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The Li Family
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David Marchesani Family
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Katy McDonald
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Mark, Amy, Auguste & Paris Melden
In Memory of James C. Moore*
Judith and Neil* Morgan
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The Lorna* & Adrian Nemcek Family
The Ning Family
Frank O’Dea O’Dea Hospitality
Val and Ron Ontell
Carol and Vann Parker
The Hong-Patapoutian Family
The Pollock Family
The Quintilone and Cooper Families
Phillip Rand, M.D., dedicated
Ob-Gyn, kind and gentle soul, humanitarian
In loving memory of Long “Chris” Truong*
Dr. Vivian Reznik and Dr. Andrew Ries
Burton X and Sheli Rosenberg
Marie G. Raftery and Robert A. Rubenstein, M. D.
The Ryde Family Memorial Foundation at The San Diego Foundation
Shari and Frederick Schenk
Colin Seid and Dr. Nancy Gold
Susan and Michael Shaffer
Brigg and Jayne Sherman
Shinnick Family
Ruey & Marivi Shivers
Stephen M. Silverman
Janet Simkins
Hon. Stephanie Sontag and Hon. David B. Oberholtzer
Jeanette Stevens
Sudberry Properties
Beatriz & Matthew Thome
Jacqueline Thousand and Richard Villa
Glenda Sue Tuttle
Michael and Eunicar Twyman
Susan and Richard Ulevitch
Aysegul Underhill
Patricia and Joe Waldron
Lori and Bill* Walton
The Warner Family
The K. Nikki Waters Trust
Shirli, Damien and Justin Weiss
Mike and Susan Williams
Jeffrey P. Winter and Barbara Cox-Winter
The Witz Family
In loving memory of Ching H. Yang
Howard and Christy Zatkin
SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ADMINISTRATION
EXECUTIVE
Martha A. Gilmer
President and Chief Executive Officer
Elizabeth Larsen Director, Executive Office and Board Relations
Maritza Aragón
Executive Assistant to the President and CEO
ARTISTIC
Lea Slusher
Vice President of Artistic Administration and Audience Development
Theodora Bellinger Director of Artistic Operations
Liam McBane
Artistic Coordinator and Assistant to the Music Director
Maggie de Lorimier Artistic Department Consultant
Jeffrey Jordan Director of External Events
Seasonal Artistic Assistants:
Kristen Garabedian, Michael Hull, Melyssa Mason, Sade Rains, Evelyn Zuniga
Angela Chilcott
Managing Director, Orchestra Operations
Shea Perry Orchestra Personnel Manager
Diego Plata Orchestra Operations Manager
Courtney Cohen Principal Librarian
Rachel Fields Librarian
Gerard McBurney Creative Consultant
FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
Maureen Campbell Melville Chief Financial Officer
Ashley Madigan Controller
Jeanette Bunch
Assistant Controller
Whitney Hall Revenue Accountant
Dan Stack Staff Accountant
Mariah Riley Senior Accounts Payable Specialist
Kimberly Vargas Director of Human Resources
Susan Cochran Payroll and Benefits Manager
Amanda Gminski
Human Resources Generalist
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Craig Hall Vice President of Marketing and Communications
Elizabeth Holub Director of Marketing
J.D. Smith
Director of Marketing and Sales Technology
John Velasco Communications Manager
Ashley Smith, Brie Witko
Graphic & Production Designers
Maria Kusior
Digital Media Specialist
Savanna Hunter-Reeves
Marketing Specialist
Noëlle Borrelli-Boudreau
Marketing Coordinator
Sabina Spilkin
Digital Systems Analyst
Beverly Feinberg
Downtown Sales Ambassador
TICKETING AND PATRON SERVICES
Casey Patterson
Director of Ticketing Services, Partnerships and Premium Seating
Kym Pappas
Manager of Ticketing and Subscriptions
Anastasia Franco Manager of Ticket Operations and Training
Sheri Broedlow Vice President of Institutional Advancement
Rick Baker Director of Advancement, Institutional Giving
Jennifer Nicolai Director of Advancement, Campaign and Major Gifts
Ida Sandico-Whitaker Director, Donor Programs and Special Events
Bob Morris
Major Gifts Officer
Theresa Jones
Major Gifts Officer, Corporate Relations
Maya Steinberg
Institutional Advancement Gift Officer
Sydne Sullivan Associate Director of Advancement Operations
Sydney Wilkins
Annual Fund Manager
Kirby Lynn Tankersley Special Events Manager
Brenda Jones
Advancement Manager, Planned Giving
Luke Wingfield Stewardship Manager
Citli Mejia
Advancement Operations Manager and Assistant
LEARNING & COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT
Laura Reynolds
Vice President of Impact and Innovation
Stephen Salts Director of Learning and Youth Programs
Lauren Rausch
Social Impact & Leadership Programs Manager
VENUE OPERATIONS
Travis Wininger
Vice President of Venue Operations
Rob Arnold
Managing Director, Venue Operations
Paige Satter
Director of Operations Administration
Diane Littlejohn Venue Operations Manager
Devin Burns Event Operations Manager
Roberto Castro Director of Guest Experience
Drew Gomes Director, Event Operations and Security
Danielle Litrenta Manager, Guest Experience
Front of House Managers: Christine Harmon, Kay Roesler, Karen Tomlinson
Front of House Staff: Corinne Bagnol, Judy Bentovim, Sue Carberry, Julio Cedillo, Kerry Freshman, Kimberly Garza, Sharon Karniss, Laurel Nielsen, Paula Rivera, Linda Thornhill, Marilyn Weiss
Event Operations Leads: Mateo Alvarez, Luke Ban, Gabriel Carlo De Guzman, Garrett Lockwood, Slaine Miller, Tom Rufino
Event Operations Staff: Joshua Albertson, Kayla Aponte, Tyler Bao Buu, Sydney Berman, Jason Boucher, Lily Castillo, Jafet Chavez, Kinsey Claudino, Brandon Croft, Stephen De La Cruz, Jessica Dau, Jesus Delgado, Kerragan Dellinger, Ryan Fargo, Jacey Greene, Brook Hill, Sophia Hirasuna, Jocelyn Jenkins, Ben Kelly, Edward Manzo, Harry McCue, Logan McKerring, Shannon McElhaney, Casey Meyer, Abraham Montoya, Cyrille Morales, Valerie Navarrete, Taryn O’Halloran, Brennan Owen, Gabriela Perez, Chance Pettit, Zoe Pollack, Riane Rosanes, James Renk, Dylan Renk, Mario Ruiz, Gabriel Sheaffer, Adam Schaffner, Brandon Scott, Mia Sevilla, Katarina Spinella, Aden Starr, Owen Stiefvater, Nicholas Stroh, Elias Valdvia, Paige Vigiletti, Angelina Walsh, Chris Wilson, Connor Wilson, Kaloni Yong, Yadira Zuniga
Facilities Staff: Dan Weaver
Facilities Manager
Robert Saucedo
Senior Technician
Peter Perez
Lead Facilities Technician
Arturo Ardilla
Facilities Technician
IT Staff: Sean Kennedy
Director of Information Technology
Jovan Robles
IT Operations Manager
IT Specialists
Shane Cutchall, German Luna
Production Staff: Ed Estrada
Director of Production
Pete Seaney
Director of Stage Operations, Presentations and Rentals
Connor Schloop
Director of Stage Operations, Orchestra
Santiago Venegas II
Technical Director
SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ADMINISTRATION
Joel Watts
Audio Director
Beth Hall
Production Stage Manager
Stage Personnel:
Shafeeq Sabir
Property Department Head, Jacobs Music Center
Jason Chaney
Audio Department Head, Jacobs Music Center
Michael Moglia
Carpentry Department Head, Jacobs Music Center
John Stewart
Electrics Department Head, Jacobs Music Center
Adam Day
Carpentry Department Head, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park
RJ Givens
Audio Department Head, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park
Hunter Stockwell
Video Department Head, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park
Zach Schwartz
Electrics Department Head, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park
Jonnel Domilos
Piano Technician
OUR MISSION: CHANGING LIVES THROUGH MUSIC
The San Diego Symphony, through unquestionable commitment to the highest levels of artistic achievement, seeks to elevate human potential by providing a shared sense of pride and belonging to something bigger than any of us can achieve alone. We offer audiences the wonder of live music and transformative learning experiences that develop an understanding and passion for the arts. To ensure we are an enduring force in the region we commit to fiscal responsibility. We serve and shape the culture of the region, by being for all and with all, the musical heart of San Diego.
Strive: Always the Best
Learn: Creative, Expressive, Curious
Reach: Music for Everyone
Ignite: Spark Passion
Photo by Sam Zausch
UC San Diego is proud to be the official Education and Community Engagement Sponsor of the San Diego Symphony.
UC San Diego is proud to be the official Education and Community Engagement Sponsor of the San Diego Symphony.
Dining & Imbibing in March
From All-Day Eats in Carlsbad to Craft Cocktails in North Park
/
by
SARAH DAOUST /
New in Carlsbad Village,
Wildland is an all-day restaurant, bar and bakery by restaurateur John Resnick and chef Eric Bost (both of Carlsbad’s Campfire and Michelin-starred Jeune et Jolie fame). With the help of design firm Bells & Whistles, the new neighborhood hub is a stunner, taking up 8,000 square feet of the former Morey Boogie Boards factory with 30-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, concrete floors, warm woods, industrial-rustic accents, an open kitchen, an oak-treeshaded front patio, and a casual energy that’s both stimulating and low-key. It’s a place that beckons you to stroll on in and hang out—whether at the standing bar
Dinnertime at Wildland
or along wood-backed banquette seating, at a communal table or a hightop. (Reservations can be made for Wildland’s private dining room, accommodating parties of 12 to 18.) Chef Bost’s menu is decidedly California comfort cuisine interwoven with subtle Mediterranean influences. Think: house-
made pastries, wood-fired eggs and olive-oil-honey lattes for breakfast; and wood-fired pizzas, pastas and rotisserie chicken for lunch and dinner. Standout dishes include the rigatoni with oxtail ragu, Iberico Pork Secreto with polenta, and Cacio e Pepe pizza. For a sweet finish, try the chocolate-buck-
wheat tart with earl-grey whipped cream. And keep an eye out for Wildland’s finer-dining sibling, Lilo, opening next door later this spring. 2598 State St., Carlsbad, 442.339.4812, wildlandallday.com
Also in Carlsbad, all-day pie shop Pop Pie. Co. has opened a new location at Roosevelt Cottages. Pies come by the slice, as a whole, or as hand pies, with sweet flavors such as salted-caramelapple-crumble; and savory flavors like classic chicken and slow-braised beef with dark ale gravy; plus quiches, coffees and teas. 2956 Roosevelt St., Unit 3, Carlsbad, 442.325.3158, poppieco.com
At Liberty Station, chef Phillip Esteban debuts his newest culinary concept: Wildflour Delicatessen Inspired by Scandinavian minimalist bakeries and bustling NYC delis, the
New cocktails at Polite Provisions; slices at Pop Pie Co.
new restaurant offers something for everyone. Come for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner, and feast on locally sourced California fare with a focus on seafood. Wildflour also offers an extensive coffee menu, a full bar and natural wines. Think of it as one part heritage bakery,
one part deli service, one part fast-casual eatery, and one part cocktail bar. 2690 Historic Decatur Road, Suite 103, Liberty Station, returntothewild.com
Featured on the Food Network’s list of “40 Best Bars in America for Food Lovers,” downtown hotspot The Lion’s Share
marks its 13th year in business, and to celebrate, executive chef Dante Romero has debuted a new dinner menu. Indulge in dishes such as beerbattered tempura chicken tenders with Kaluga caviar; duck and rabbit terrine with Kabocha-squash mole, black-winter truffle,
Oysters at Valentina; pair with a libation from its Barra menu.
carrots, arugula and l’orange sauce; bone-in elk chops with an eggplantchile puree and crispy potatoes; patatas bravas with seared scallops, chorizo and tomatillo; and more. 629 Kettner Blvd., downtown, 619.564.6924, lionssharesd.com
In the heart of downtown Oceanside, the Brick Hotel welcomes a new tropical escape, The Lobby Tiki Bar & Grill. Step inside a midcenturyinspired tiki lounge, complete with low-lit booths, beaded fringe partitions, greenery and warm wood accents. On the menu: rum-forward cocktails from Mai Tais to Zombies, served in festive mugs; and Island-inspired American fare, such as the Nacho Volcano, kalua tacos, poke inari bombs, and Hawaiian donuts. Come for Mai Tai Mondays for $7 Mai Tais and $10 Huli Huli chicken wings; and hula performances every Friday evening. 408 Pier View Way, Suite 101, Oceanside, 760.688.7249, lobbytikibar.com
Beloved Leucadia bistro Valentina has released an updated happy hour “Barra” menu. Grab a
YOU’RE HERE.
Congrats, You’ve Picked a Great Performance! Check out the interactive version of this theater program magazine and enjoy even more insight into the performers, creative talent and theater activities that are behind it all.
LINKS TO PERFORMERS’ SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
MULTI - MEDIA PRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE.
UNDERSTUDY UPDATES
THEATER SUPPORT OPPORTUNITIES
UPCOMING SHOWS AND CONCERTS AROUND TOWN
INSIDER SCOOPS FROM THEATER AND MUSIC PROFESSIONALS
It’s the new way to read the program, it’s
DINING
seat at the bar or on the sidewalk patio and enjoy $5 beer, house wine and vermouth; $10 signature cocktails, such as a martini, mojito, Old Fashioned and negroni; and a shareable pitcher of sangria for $28. Stay for dinner and enjoy dishes like the popular chicken paillard, pork schnitzel, fried Iberian ham croquettes, Mussels Marinieres, and classic patatas bravas. Valentina's happy hour menu is available daily, from 5 to 6 p.m. 810 N. Coast Hwy. 101, Leucadia, 760.943.6686, restaurantvalentina.com
After a brief hiatus, CH Projects’ apothecary- and soda-fountain-inspired bar, Polite Provisions (a staple of North Park for 12 years), has reopened— welcoming patrons back with an extensive, brand-new cocktail menu. “Rebirth” is sectioned
Tiki-inspired decor and the Cobra Kai cocktail at The Lobby Tiki Bar & Grill
into five hefty chapters spanning 30 new drinks— most of which are cleverly described with an illustration and quote penned by a notable author, thinker or bartender: Current Yet Timeless; Clarified Offerings; Next Generation; Crafted Tonics, Sodas & Libations; and The Classics. Grab a seat at the bar, beneath the soaring atrium-style ceiling, or on the sidewalk patio; and sip on creations with fun names like the Uncle Jalapeño, Cactus Jack, Speak of the Devil, Expect the Unexpected, Easy Does It, Fit Check, and Strictly Business. You’ll also find plenty of traditional cocktails on the menu, such as the Old Fashioned, gin martini, Manhattan, negroni and gimlet. Bottoms up! 4696 30th St., North Park, 619.269.4701, politeprovisions.com
CONT’D. FROM PAGE 11
starting to evolve, but when you play Beethoven on period instruments it feels like they’re going to blow up.”
The opening four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony—dada-da-dum—may be the most recognizable in all of classical music. But Valenzuela says no composed work had ever started that way before. “It’s so familiar to us now, but was shocking at the time,” he says.
“Beethoven was making a political statement,” Valenzuela continues.
“On modern instruments, you lose the revolutionary sense of the piece, but the way we’re performing it, it’s an opportunity to peel back the layers and get a glimpse of what it sounded like when Beethoven played it for the first time. Something you know very well is going to sound like something you’ve never heard before.”
Valenzuela relishes leading his musicians in exploring the Fifth Symphony in a different way. “We really don’t know how it went down when Beethoven did it,” he says. “We have some clues, but we’re interpreting it to the best of our understanding. Now we look at it through the lens of the 21st century—we have in the backs of all our minds the history of the 20th and 19th centuries, these musical experiences that are part of our process. But we have to remember that this music was, of course, brand new when it was premiered.”
But where does the name “Total Sound Explosion” come from?
Valenzuela says it’s an ongoing theme at BCSD. He credits a band he used to see in Hollywood in his college days, called Jump With Joey. “They played everything from Afro-Cuban to jazz to swing; and when the piece
Ruben Valenzuela (left) with librettist Mario Montenegro
By Sam Shepard Directed by Phil Johnson
involved the whole band the bandleader would yell out ‘Total sound explosion!’ as a way to really bring it on. At BCSD when we’re in rehearsals and it’s a big piece that calls for everyone, I would use that phrase. It’s very apropos when performing Beethoven—a perfect explosion of sound!”
Juxtaposing music genres will continue with Bach Collegium’s final concert of the 22nd season, “Knockout Sounds with Reginald Mobley: The Return of Bach to Bop” in May. In it, acclaimed countertenor Reginald Mobley showcases the thin lines between the worlds of baroque and jazz. Valenzuela says the repertoire—from J.S. Bach and Purcell to Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald—explores the world of improvisation, ornamentation, pulsating bass lines, and most importantly, groove.
“Mobley is such a standout in his field. He can straddle those two worlds of baroque and jazz, which actually have a lot of similarities,” Valenzuela says. “Both rely heavily on basslines— the music is built from the ground up. Also, improvisation is a key component to both genres. That’s where the two worlds meet. A lot of the music
DAVID MCBEAN
JASON MADDY
is not written down, but created in the moment. It’s left to the performer, unlike in other types of music.”
Valenzuela says in a baroque concert the keyboard player has the bassline and their role is to improvise all of the harmony based on numbers in real time. “We’re able to live in those two worlds, similar to a jazz musician—creating harmonies based on chord symbols. That’s what makes it really fun, because it’s never the same way twice and it’s bespoke.” In the concert, Mobley will be improvising the ornamentation, “giving him the opportunity to change things, veer off the written page a bit, as you do in jazz,” Valenzuela adds. “Scatting—vocal improvisation—he will do that as well.”
“Total Sound Explosion 2” will be performed on March 15 at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Cardiff-by-the-Sea; and on March 16 at All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Point Loma. “Knockout Sounds with Reginald Mobley: The Return of Bach to Bop” will be performed on May 3 at The Conrad Performing Arts Center in La Jolla; and on May 4 at All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Point Loma. For tickets and more info, visit bachcollegiumsd.org
THE CONRAD
Home of La Jolla Music Society
One Night Only
Ballet Folklórico de México
Sunday, March 23 • 7 PM Balboa Theatre
“
Visually arresting, sleekly choreographed and theatrically savvy” — The Guardian
The artistic legacy of Ballet Folklórico de México founder Amalia Hernández continues to flourish in an evening of exquisite works featuring great technical difficulty, elaborate costumes, and world-class dancers. Don’t miss this thrilling dance spectacle for one night only in San Diego.
Visit TheConrad.org or call our Box Office at 858.459.3728 for tickets.
reprogrammed !
Performances Magazine unveils a digital program platform for shows and concerts
DROP DOWN MENU
Table of app contents.
REGISTER
Stay arts-engaged, access past programs.
THE ESSENTIALS
Acts, scenes, synopses, repertory and notes.
CONTRIBUTORS
Donors and sponsors who make it all possible—you!
NO RUSTLING PAGES, no killing trees . . . the digital Performances program platform has proved to be one of the more enduring recent theater innovations.
The touchless platform provides the programs for 20 Southern California performing-arts organizations, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Ahmanson Theatre to San Diego Opera, where the app made its debut.
Among a variety of features, it provides cast and player bios, donor and season updates, and numerous
other arts-centric features.
Audiences receive a link and a code word that instantly activate the app; QR codes are posted, too.
Screens go dark when curtains go up and return when house lights come back on.
Updates—such as repertory changes, understudy substitutions and significant new donations —can be made right up to showtime, no inserts necessary.
Other plusses include video and audio streams, translations and expanded biographies.
SEARCH
Find whatever it is you want to know—easily.
SIGN IN
Link to your performing-arts companies and venues.
THE PLAYERS
Bios and background for cast, crew and creators.
WHAT’S ON
What’s coming at a glance and ticket information.
For those who consider printed programs to be keepsakes, a limited number, as well as commemorative issues for special events, continue to be produced. Collectibles!
Meanwhile, there is less deforestation, consumption of petroleum inks and programs headed for landfills.
For the ecologically minded, the platform gets a standing ovation.
The digital Performances is but one more reason for audience excitement. Activate your link and enjoy the shows. —CALEB
