Performances Magazine San Diego | Jacobs Music Center, January 2025

Jacobs Music Center

P1 Program

Cast, performances, who’s who, director’s notes, donors and more.

4 In the Wings

January concerts presented by the San Diego Symphony; The Heart Sellers at North Coast Rep; Once The Musical at Lamb’s Players Theatre; and the 100th anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company (pictured).

6 Feature:

Broadway San Diego’s 47th

Season

Broadway San Diego’s new season offers something for everyone, including Wicked (pictured), Back to the Future, and Some Like It Hot

13 Dining

Our top 10 new restaurants to watch in 2025, including Le Coq (pictured), Ponyboy, Cellar Hand, 31ThirtyOne by Deckman’s, and Leila.

24 Parting Thought

Performances’ new program platform for shows and concerts can be accessed from any digital device

PUBLISHER

Jeff Levy

EDITOR

Sarah Daoust

ART DIRECTOR Carol Wakano

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Glenda Mendez

PRODUCTION ARTIST

Diana Gonzalez

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Benjamin Epstein, Stephanie Saad

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

Kerry Baggett

ACCOUNT DIRECTORS

Walter Lewis, Jean Greene, Liz Moore

CIRCULATION MANAGER Christine Noriega-Roessler

BUSINESS MANAGER

Leanne Killian Riggar

MARKETING/ PRODUCTION MANAGER

Dawn Kiko Cheng

DIGITAL PROGRAM MANAGER

Audrey Duncan Welch

DIGITAL MANAGER Lorenzo Dela Rama

Contact Us

ADVERTISING

Kerry.Baggett@ CaliforniaMediaGroup.com

WEBSITE Lorenzo.DelaRama@ CaliforniaMediaGroup.com

CIRCULATION Christine.Roessler@ CaliforniaMediaGroup.com

HONORARY PRESIDENT Ted Levy

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

DANCE, DRUMS & TANGATA

THE JANUARY LINEUP of shows presented by La Jolla Music Society is exceptional. We’re particularly excited about “Graham 100: The 100th Anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company,” Jan. 25 at the Civic Theatre; the Jahari Stampley Trio, Jan. 26 at The Conrad (The JAI); and clarinetist Anthony

McGill and pianist Emanuel Ax, Jan. 29 at The Conrad (Baker-Baum). And save the date for some fabulous February shows, among them: taiko drumming troupe Kodo, Feb. 6 at Balboa Theatre; Twyla Tharp Dance, Feb. 13 at Balboa Theatre (renowned dancer/choreographer Twyla Tharp celebrates her 60th

anniversary); and Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla’s Tangata, followed by Carnival of the Animals, set to a world-premiere Latin jazz score by trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos and his Gilbert Castellanos Quartet— both pieces are presented by San Diego Ballet at The Conrad’s BakerBaum—on Feb. 15. theconrad.org

Martha Graham Dance Company performs at the Civic Theatre for its 100th anniversary.

January at Jacobs

SYMPHONY

CONCERTS AT THE Jacobs Music Center, indoor home of the San Diego Symphony, are in full swing this winter. Upcoming concerts of note (pun intended) include: works by French composer Charles-Camille SaintSaëns, featuring violinist Jeff Thayer, Jan. 10-11; “Colors and Rhythms: Clyne, Mozart, Beethoven,” with guest pianist Javier Perianes, Jan. 17-18; “Busoni’s Violin Concerto,” with conductor Daniele Rustioni making his Symphony debut, and guest violinist Francesca Dego, Jan. 24 and 26; and “Symphonic Journeys: Strauss, Walton, Brahms,” with Rafael Payare conducting and guest Chi-Yuan Chen on viola, Feb. 8-9. The aforementioned concerts are part of the Symphony’s esteemed Jacobs Masterworks programming. See website for the company’s full schedule of winter concerts. sandiegosymphony.org

A Return & Two Premieres

MAKING ITS ANTICIPATED San Diego premiere, The Heart Sellers runs at North Coast Rep, Jan. 8-Feb. 2. Filled with heart and humor, the play by Lloyd Suh illuminates the Asian immigrant experience, exploring the paths we take to make a new home. Kat Yen directs. northcoastrep.org Recipient of the S.D. Theatre Critics Circle Award for “Outstanding Musical” in 2018, Lamb’s Players Theatre brings us Once The Musical, once again, Jan. 21-March 30. Kerry Meads directs the beloved Irish musical—based on the book by Enda Walsh, and music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová— returning with Lamb’s original cast from the production seven years ago. lambsplayers.org At The Old Globe, the S.D. premiere of Branden JacobsJenkins’ comic drama, Appropriate, runs Jan. 25-Feb. 23. theoldglobe.org

THEATER

From top: a scene from Once The Musical at Lamb’s Players Theatre; Francesca Dego.

BROADWAY SAN DIEGO’S 47TH SEASON IS FILLED WITH FAN FAVORITES & S.D. PREMIERES

by STEPHANIE SAAD

Caden Brauch in Back to the Future; the tour’s cast.

GOING INTO THE NEW YEAR, THE 47th season of Broadway San Diego continues with a lineup that brings some of Broadway’s biggest and most recent hits to the San Diego Civic Theatre.

As part of the Nederlander Organization, Broadway San Diego is always in the mix when hit Broadway shows plan national tours. But Vice President and General Manager Vanessa Davis says San Diego is an attractive market in the national touring ecosystem “because of our history as presenters and the trust and loyalty we’ve built up with our audience.”

This season’s theme is “Broadway—Now Closer Than Ever,” which Davis says has to do with the fact that almost all the shows in this season’s lineup were still running on Broadway when they were announced to be coming to San Diego. “Not everyone can afford to go to New York to see a show on Broadway. We’re happy to make Broadway shows a part of San Diego’s

rich arts and culture scene by making them accessible to San Diegans.”

Davis has been with Broadway San Diego for 26 years (the last six as VP and GM), but this year also sees her stepping into a prestigious position as a Tony Awards voter, via her membership in the Broadway League. It’s a responsibility she takes seriously, keeping track of shows she’s seen in a spreadsheet so she doesn’t forget about their details as voting day approaches in the spring.

Unlike the Academy Awards, for which voters are sent “screeners” or links to watch competing

movies online, Tony voters must see all candidate shows in person. “Based on the shows I’ve seen so far,” Davis says, “there’s some pretty great competition already this year.”

It’s especially exciting for Davis—given San Diego’s rich history of sending shows to Broadway, only for them to win Tonys and come back on tour as hits. Some recent examples include Jersey Boys, which premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2004 and then ran on Broadway from 2005 to 2017; and on two North American national tours and two national tours of the UK

and Ireland. The Heart of Rock and Roll premiered at The Old Globe in 2018 and opened on Broadway in 2024. And after a record-breaking run at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2015, Come From Away opened on Broadway in 2017 and became a critical and box office success with more than 1,600 performances before it closed in 2022.

Seeing Broadway shows locally can also inspire theater kids to pursue their dreams on the Great White Way. Davis mentions, among many others, two-time Tony Award-winning choreographer Justin Peck—whom she heard in

a panel for Illinoise give a shout-out to seeing shows at the Civic Theatre as his early inspiration. This season, Broadway San Diego’s Some Like It Hot, Jan. 28-Feb. 2, is both choreographed and directed by San Diegoborn Casey Nicholaw; with costume design by fellow San Diego native Gregg Barnes. Both grew up participating in San Diego Junior Theatre and are Tony Award winners.

“Whenever there are members of a touring company that were inspired by seeing shows here and then they come back to perform, it’s so exciting because

The company of Hamilton on tour

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they know there will be friends and family in the audience,” says Davis. “And who knows; that show may in turn inspire someone else in the audience to pursue their own Broadway dreams.”

The new year begins with the San Diego premiere of Back to the Future: The Musical, running Jan. 14-19, winner of the 2022 Olivier Award for “Best New Musical,” four WhatsOnStage Awards including “Best New Musical,” and the Broadway World Award for “Best New Musical.” The show is adapted for the stage by the iconic film’s creators Bob Gale (Back to the Future trilogy) and Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump); and directed by the Tony Award-winner John Rando; with original music by multi-Grammy winners Alan Silvestri (Avengers: Endgame) and Glen Ballard (Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”). Theatergoers

FROM THE PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Dear friends,

As we turn the page to begin 2025, I am so grateful for so many things in 2024. Obviously, at the top of that list is the re-opening of Jacobs Music Center to such a resounding affirmation from all corners. I am fortunate to have heard many of the autumn concerts multiple times, and it is so rewarding to hear how the orchestra grows every week as they become acclimatized to the hall.

Throughout the month of December, San Diego Symphony musicians brought the gift of music to those who couldn’t join us in the concert hall, spreading joy and comfort throughout our community. In addition to our holiday concerts, we performed for families, patients, and staff at Rady Children’s Hospital, UCSD Moores Cancer Center, Sharp Bonita View Hospice, and the Ronald McDonald House; for active service members, veterans, and their families at the Bob Hope Theater at MCAS Miramar; and for inmates and officers at the Youth Transition Center and Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility.

One especially heartfelt performance took place at UCSD Moores Cancer Center. Flutist Rose Lombardo and harpist Julie Phillips played beautiful duets for about 300 patients, doctors, nurses, and staff. The atmosphere was filled with warmth and connection. Patients shared how important this was in supporting them on their cancer journey and in caring for the whole individual, body and soul.

This reminds us of the magic of live music—the way it can restore, inspire, and bring people together. Whether at Moores Cancer Center or Jacobs Music Center, we hope our music lifts your heart and that 2025 brings you more opportunities for music in your lives that enhances and brings joy.

Sincerely,

Martha A. Gilmer President and Chief Executive Officer

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 November 12, 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

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

Arlene Inch

John Degnan, Horn

Joan* and Irwin Jacobs

Martha Gilmer, Chief Executive Officer

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

$25,000 – $49,999

Annette and Daniel Bradbury

Yao Zhao, Principal Cello

Nicole A. and Benjamin G. Clay

Mary Szanto, Cello

Karen and Donald Cohn

Hanah Stuart, Violin

Stephanie and Richard Coutts

Chia-Ling Chien, Associate Principal 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

Julia R. Brown

Leyla Zamora, Bassoon and Contrabassoon

Ann Davies

Xian Zhuo, Cello

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

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.

San Diego Symphony Musicians

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

Jill Gormley and Laurie Lipman

Frank Renk, Bass Clarinet

Janet and Wil Gorrie

Zou Yu, Violin

Judith C. Harris* and Robert Singer, M. D.

Jonah Levy, Trumpet

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

Sue and Lynn Miller

Max Opferkuch, Clarinet

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, Viola

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

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.

DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROUDLY PRESENTS

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

JOAN* AND IRWIN JACOBS

COLETTE

MONICA

BRIAN AND SILVIJA* DEVINE

UNA DAVIS AND JACK M c GRORY

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

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 all-Schoenberg 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

Hernan Constantino

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 Skster 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

Michael 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.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 10 7:30PM

SATURDAY, JANUARY 11 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

2025 JACOBS MASTERWORKS

SAINT-SAËNS’ VIOLIN

CONCERTO AND ORGAN SYMPHONY

Ludovic Morlot, conductor

Jeff Thayer, violin

Weicheng Zhao, organ

San Diego Symphony Orchestra

this QR code with your smartphone or text SDS to 55741 to access the interactive version of the program.

PROGRAM

GABRIELLA SMITH

Bioluminescence Chaconne

SAINT-SAËNS

Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61

Allegro non troppo

Andantino quasi allegretto

Molto moderato e maestoso; Allegro non troppo

-INTERMISSION-

HOLMÈS

“La nuit et l’amour” from Ludus pro patria

SAINT-SAËNS

Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, Organ Symphony

Adagio; Allegro moderato; Poco adagio

Allegro moderato; Presto; Maestoso; Allegro

Total Program Duration:

Approximatley 1 hour and 50 minutes (Includes one, 20 minute intermission)

ABOUT THE ARTIST

JEFF THAYER

Violinist Jeff Thayer holds the Deborah Pate and John Forrest Concertmaster Chair of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Thayer was also a founding member of the Camera Lucida chamber music ensemble, in residence at UCSD’s Conrad Prebys Music Center. Previous positions include assistant concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, associate concertmaster of the North Carolina Symphony and concertmaster of the Canton (OH) Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Thayer was also formerly on the violin faculty of the Music Academy of the West where he also served as concertmaster for 13 years. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division. His teachers include Zvi Zeitlin, Donald Weilerstein, Dorothy DeLay and William Preucil.

A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Thayer began violin lessons with his mother at the age of three. As a young boy, he lived and studied for two years in Cordoba, Spain. He has appeared as soloist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Jupiter Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, the Pierre Monteux School Festival Orchestra, the Spartanburg Philharmonic, the Cleveland Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra, The Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, among others. Festivals include Ernen Musikdorf (Switzerland), Music Academy of the West, Aspen, New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Quartet Program, Interlochen Arts Camp, the Pierre Monteux Festival, Astoria Music Festival, the National Orchestral Institute, the National Youth Symphony, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Astoria Music Festival, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Mainly Mozart Festival, Festival der Zukunft and the Tibor Varga Festival (Switzerland).

Through a generous gift to the SDSO from Joan and Irwin Jacobs and the Jacobs’ Family Trust, Jeff Thayer performs on the 1708 “Bagshawe” Stradivarius.n

ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR

LUDOVIC MORLOT

Ludovic Morlot is Music Director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. He was Music Director of Seattle Symphony from 2011-2019, where he earned the orchestra five Grammy Awards, and now conducts several weeks every season as Conductor Emeritus. He was Associate Artist of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra from 2019-2024. He was Artistic Director and a founding member of the National Youth Orchestra of China from 2017-2021 and Chief Conductor of La Monnaie from 2012-2014.

In 24/25 Morlot takes the Barcelona Symphony to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Aix Easter Festival and to l’Auditorium in his home city of Lyon, on the back of their successes together last season at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and Stockholm Royal Concert Hall. They continue their acclaimed Ravel CD cycle and champion the best of the Catalan composers on the orchestra’s own label, and repeat their hugely popular concert on the Beach (20,000 live attendance, 30,000 online).

Morlot has guested with the Berliner Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Philharmonic, and Budapest Festival orchestras, and with many leading North American orchestras. He also appears extensively in Asia and Australasia. n

CONDUCTOR BIO | LUDOVIC MORLOT

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Bioluminescence Chaconne

GABRIELLA SMITH

Born December 26, 1991, Berkeley

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 14 MINUTES

Raised in the Bay Area, Gabriella Smith fell in love with nature as a child. She spent her time hiking, camping, swimming and birding – at age 12 she became the youngest member ever of the songbird monitoring program at Point Reyes. But she had other passions: she learned to play the violin, she began composing at age 8, and soon she became a member of John Adams’ Young Composers Project. She went on to study at Curtis but faced a problem: if music was going to consume her time, could she maintain her passion for nature and environmentalism? She has solved that problem by writing music that is often inspired by places or natural phenomena: Lost Coast, Breathing Forests, Desert Ecology, Anthozoa and the tide is in our veins. Though still very young, Smith has had works performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony, she has been championed by such conductors as Gustavo Dudamel and Esa-Pekka Salonen, she was commissioned to write a piece for the fiftieth anniversary of the Kronos Quartet, and in December 2023 her Tumblebird Contrails was performed at the Nobel Prize Concert by Salonen and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.

The Oregon Symphony commissioned a work from Smith, and she composed it in 2019, completing it on January 2 of the new year, barely in time for its premiere under Carlos Kalmar on February 8. She began composing the piece as a chaconne, an ancient variation form in which melodic variations unfold above a repeating chord progression far below. But as she worked, the sounds she was creating reminded her of the night dives she had taken as a teenager in the Channel Islands, where the plankton in the water around her would give off a greenish iridescent glow. That idea took hold, and she combined the chaconne form and her memories of that flickering iridescence to create Bioluminescence Chaconne.

Smith notes that she has made some changes in the traditional chaconne form. Normally, that underlying chord progression repeats verbatim, but she takes liberties with it here, shortening it with each repetition until it is only one eighth-note long, then resuming the full progression. She does not offer an Italian tempo marking at the beginning of the piece but instead instructs that the performance should be smooth, shimmering. She calls for a large orchestra with an extensive percussion section but then uses that orchestra with care: the dynamic through much of the piece is triple piano. The quietly swirling textures of the very beginning continue over the progression of the chords below, and along the way Smith offers her players a certain amount of freedom. At certain points, trumpets, clarinets, strings and other instruments are free to play patterns of notes at their own speed or articulate tremolos at speeds of their choice. As the music continues, the chord progression compresses and finally resumes its original shape. Though the prevailing dynamic here may be quiet, Bioluminescence Chaconne builds to a powerful climax,

then fades into silence as the iridescence flickers quietly around us. n

Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

Born October 9, 1835, Paris

Died December 16, 1921, Algiers

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME

30 MINUTES

Saint-Saëns was a piano virtuoso of the first order, a musician so naturally gifted that after a recital at the age of ten he is reported to have offered to play any Beethoven piano sonata as an encore – from memory. Yet it is true that some of Saint-Saëns’ finest music is for the violin, an instrument he did not play – apparently his feel for that instrument was instinctive. His Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and Third Violin Concerto – music that combines a Gallic elegance with some superbly idiomatic writing for the violin – are important parts of the repertory of every concert violinist.

Composed in 1880 when Saint-Saëns was 45, the Third Violin Concerto is dedicated to the Spanish violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. Melodic and exciting, it is remarkable for its taut construction: Saint-Saëns provides no cadenza for the soloist and makes unusual thematic connections between the movements. The first movement, marked Allegro non troppo, opens with a quiet rustle of sound from the orchestra, and over this the solo violin lays out the movement’s main theme. Saint-Saëns marks this theme appassionato, and its first five notes – vigorously stamped out by the violin – will figure importantly, both as thematic material and as accompaniment: that figure can be heard in many guises throughout this movement. The gentle second subject, in E Major, brings relief after the intensity of the opening. Perhaps to make up for the absence of a cadenza, Saint-Saëns provides the soloist with a great number of brilliant and difficult passages, and the close of this movement is especially exciting.

The Andantino quasi allegretto is a barcarolle, a boat-song perhaps inspired by the songs of the Venetian gondoliers. The orchestra’s 6/8 accompaniment mirrors a boat’s rocking motion, and above this the solo violin sings its graceful melody. The center section of the movement grows animated as this theme develops, and Saint-Saëns rounds off the movement by giving the theme to the orchestra and having the violin accompany with arpeggios of artificial harmonics.

The last movement is the longest and the most striking. It opens with an elaborate recitative for violin, almost reminiscent of Bach’s music for solo violin; alert listeners will discover that the violin’s figurations here look both forward and backward: they grow out of the development of the main theme of the second movement and also anticipate the main theme of the last. The Allegro non troppo bursts to life as the solo violin leaps upward on a main theme full of rhythmic spring and showers of triplets. A soaring second subject, marked appassionato, is announced by the solo violin, which also has a singing third theme. Matters seem set for a virtuoso finale when Saint-Saëns springs a surprise: muted orchestral strings sing a subdued and solemn chorale marked Cantabile, and gradually this chorale grows in strength until it blazes out triumphantly.

The solo violin, plunging and soaring throughout its range, leads the orchestra through the exciting coda. n

“La nuit et l’amour” from Ludus pro patria

AUGUSTA HOLMÈS

Born December 16, 1847, Paris

Died January 28, 1903, Paris

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 6 MINUTES

Augusta Holmès was born in Paris to Irish parents and grew up in Versailles. Forbidden by her mother to study music, the girl did not begin her studies until age eleven when her mother died, and then her progress was swift. She became a member of César Franck’s composition classes in 1876, and she moved easily in the musical and literary circles of Paris. A striking figure, she attracted the attention and admiration of most of the leading musical figures of the late eighteenth-century, including Rossini, Wagner, Liszt, Rimsky-Korsakov and many others. Saint-Saëns, whose proposal of marriage she rejected, confessed that “We were all in love with her.” Holmès (she added the accent to the family name) composed on a grand scale: among her works are four operas (she wrote the librettos for all her operas), symphonies, symphonic poems, choral music and songs. For the centennial of the French Revolution in 1889, she composed an Ode triomphale that called for 900 singers and 300 instrumentalists.

Her Ludus pro patria (“Patriotic Games”) had a much more specific inspiration – a painting by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898). That painting, done in 1882, shows a group of young athletes training for games in a woodland setting, and in 1888 a reproduction of the painting was installed as a mural in the Musée de Picardie in Amiens. For that occasion, Holmès composed what she called a “symphonic ode,” a five-movement work for narrator, chorus and orchestra on a patriotic text. Ludus pro patria is almost never performed today, but its second movement, a purely orchestral interlude titled “La nuit et l’amour” (“Night and Love”), is often performed as an independent work, as it is on this concert.

The piece opens with a quiet introduction (Holmès’ marking is Andante amoroso molto lento), and soon cellos sing the long main theme, a lovely melody that soars as it unfolds. That theme is taken up and extended by other sections of the orchestra, eventually rising to a climax that Holmès marks un poco appassionato before these passions subside and the music ends quietly. n

Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, Organ Symphony

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME: 36 MINUTES

Saint-Saëns was a superb pianist (he was the soloist in the premiere of all five of his concertos), but he was equally adept as an organist and served for years as organist

at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris. When, at age 50, he was commissioned to write a symphony by the London Philharmonic Society, he included an organ in the orchestra, and the novelty inevitably earned this music the nickname “Organ Symphony”. But that nickname needs to be understood clearly: this is a symphony that includes an organ as part of the orchestration rather than a concerto for organist and orchestra. In fact, this symphony employs a number of unusual instruments, including two pianos, contrabassoon, and numerous percussion instruments.

Saint-Saëns conducted the premiere in London on May 19, 1886 (and appeared as soloist in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto on the same program). When the symphony was published, the composer dedicated it to the memory of Franz Liszt, who had died two months after its premiere. For thirty years Liszt had been Saint-Saëns’ friend and advocate, and this symphony is shaped by Liszt’s theory of the transformation of themes, in which basic themeshapes evolve across the entire span of a work. In the Third Symphony Saint-Saëns creates an unusual structure: the symphony is in two large parts, each divided into several different sections. Saint-Saëns felt that this gave the symphony something of the traditional four-movement shape, though the actual structure is freer than that, and this sectional freedom is well-suited to its continuous transformation of themes.

Much of the symphony’s basic material appears in the opening moments. A brief Adagio introduction, built around a plaintive solo oboe, quickly gives way to the Allegro moderato. The strings’ quietly-rustling figure is the fundamental theme of the entire symphony: here it feels nervous and restless, but it will reappear in many guises and shapes. A singing melody for violins forms the second subject, and the movement then develops with some force – listeners may take pleasure in following Saint-Saëns’ imaginative evolution of these themes. The organ makes its first appearance at the Poco Adagio, the “second” movement: this entrance, characteristically quiet, accompanies a glowing string theme. This develops at some length, including an attractive episode for the two violin sections alone; earlier material gradually returns, and the movement flows to a quiet close, which Saint-Saëns described as “of a mystical character.”

The second part opens with another Allegro moderato, full of brisk string attacks and timpani cannonades, and races ahead on brilliant music to which the two pianos add their distinctive color. Out of this rush comes a new theme, dark and ominous, in the lower strings and brass. In SaintSaëns’ phrase, this soon “rises to the orchestral heights, and rests there as in the blue of a clear sky,” leading into the “fourth” movement, a thunderous Maestoso in C Major. Here at last the full power of the organ is unleashed, and the symphony’s themes are brought back and subjected to their final transformations. These include not just some wonderful sounds from the organ and pianos but a fugal extension of the main theme, massed brass attacks, timpani solos and a long coda. n

-Program notes by Eric Bromberger

FRIDAY, JANUARY 17 11AM

SATURDAY, JANUARY 18 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

2025 JACOBS MASTERWORKS

COLORS AND RHYTHMS: CLYNE, MOZART,

BEETHOVEN

Eduardo Strausser, conductor

Javier Perianes, piano

San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Scan this QR code with your smartphone or text SDS to 55741 to access the interactive version of the program.

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CLYNE

Color Field Yellow Red Orange

MOZART

Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 Allegro maestoso Andante Allegro vivace assai -INTERMISSION-

BEETHOVEN

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36 Adagio molto; Allegro con brio Larghetto Scherzo: Allegro Allegro molto

Total Program Duration: Approximatley 1 hour and 40 minutes (Includes one, 20 minute intermission)

ABOUT THE ARTIST

JAVIER PERIANES

The international career of Javier Perianes has led him to perform in the most prestigious concert halls, with the world’s foremost orchestras, working with celebrated conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel, Klaus Mäkelä, Gianandrea Noseda, Gustavo Gimeno, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Simone Young, Vladimir Jurowski, and François-Xavier Roth.

The 2024/25 season features an array of high-profile concerts, including the Spanish premiere of Francisco Coll’s Ciudad sin sueño with Les Arts, Valencia, and performances with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Residentie Orkest and Antwerp, BBC Scottish, Stavanger, Singapore, San Diego and Vancouver symphony orchestras.

Career highlights have included concerts with Wiener Philhamoniker, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Washington’s National, Yomiuri Nippon and Danish National symphony orchestras, Oslo, London, New York, Los Angeles and Czech philharmonic orchestras, Orchestre de Paris, Cleveland, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Philharmonia orchestras, Swedish and Norwegian Radio orchestras, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Perianes exclusively records for harmonia mundi and his most recent releases feature Granados’s Goyescas, and Chopin’s Sonatas No.2 and No.3 interspersed with the three Mazurkas from Op.63. n

ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR

EDUARDO STRAUSSER

Principal Conductor and Music Director - Norrlandsoperan

From a young age, Eduardo developed an interest in works by contemporary composers and during his studies he took part in courses with the visionary composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and attended the International Forum for Conductors at the Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, where he had the chance to work closely with composers György Kurtág and Brian Ferneyhough. At the Zurich University of Arts he studied with Johannes Schlaefli.

Eduardo has worked with a number of top soloists, including Paul Lewis, Isabelle Faust, Augustin Hadelich, Richard Galliano, Cédric Tiberghien, Steven Osborne, Barnabas Kelemen and Sergei Krylov among others. A multi-linguist, Eduardo speaks eight languages fluently including German, Italian, French, Spanish and Hebrew.

Previously Resident Conductor of Teatro Sao Paolo from 2014-2016, Eduardo has become an experienced opera conductor and productions in Sao Paolo have included Elektra and Carlos Gomes’ Fosca, as well as performances of The Nutcracker with Balé da Cidade de São Paulo and a Stefano Poda production of Mahler’s Symphony No.1. He is now based in Berlin but still returns home to Latin America for guest conducting. n

CONDUCTOR BIO | EDUARDO STRAUSSER

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Color Field

ANNA CLYNE

Born March 9, 1980, London

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 15 MINUTES

British composer Anna Clyne, who is now based in New York City, has served as composer-in-residence with the Helsinki Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Philharmonia, and many other musical organizations. Her music has proven attractive to audiences, and over the last several seasons she has been the most-performed living British female composer. Clyne has been particularly drawn to collaborative efforts, and she has composed works with dance, painting, readings, poetry and film.

Clyne’s Color Field was premiered on October 23, 2021, by the Baltimore Symphony under Marin Alsop. The composer has provided a program note:

The central inspiration for Color Field is a person: Melanie Sabelhaus, the honoree of this work. I began the creative process upon first meeting Sabelhaus in New York City, when I learned about her family, her Serbian roots, her work and the music she loves. She is bold, audacious, generous and a pioneer for women in business and philanthropic work.

She also loves the color orange – in particular Hermès Orange – and thus began my exploration of color. This led me to Mark Rothko’s Orange, Red, Yellow (1961) – a powerful example of the artist’s Color Field paintings, featuring red and yellow framing a massive swash of vibrant orange that seems to vibrate off the canvas.

While I explored creating music that evokes colors, I thought about synesthesia, a perceptual phenomenon in which a person hears sound, pitch and tonal centers and then sees specific colors, and vice versa. In the case of composer Scriabin, he associated specific pitches with specific colors, which I have adopted as tonal centers for the three movements of this piece: Yellow = D, Red = C, Orange = G.

Each movement of Color Field weaves in elements of the life of Melanie Sabelhaus, for whom music has always been in the house. Yellow evokes a hazy warmth and incorporates a traditional Serbian melody, first heard as a very slow bass line, and then revealed in the middle of the movement in the strings and winds. In Red, the fires blaze with bold percussive patterns and lilting lines. In Orange, the music becomes still and breathes, and then escalates once more, incorporating elements of Yellow and Red to create Orange – the signature color of Melanie Sabelhaus. (Anna Clyne, 2020) n

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg

Died December 5, 1791, Vienna

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME

30 MINUTES

The Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major comes from the summit of Mozart’s fame in Vienna. He completed it on March 9, 1785, barely in time for its premiere the following day, when it was the centerpiece of one of his popular subscription concerts. This was an extremely busy time for the 29-year-old composer. Not only was he working as composer, performer and teacher, but his father was visiting from Salzburg, and the elder Mozart – who had expressed strong misgivings about his son’s launching a career in Vienna – now was forced to admit that Wolfgang had found dazzling success in his adopted city. It was during this visit that Haydn pulled the elder Mozart aside and offered the most sincere compliment any composer ever paid to another: “Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition.”

Though he both led the orchestra and played the piano at the premiere, Mozart did not understand the piano concerto as a vehicle to display his virtuosity. Instead, he conceived the piano concerto as nearly symphonic in nature – in thematic material capable of growth and change, in the close integration of soloist and orchestra, and particularly in their mutual development of the musical argument. Mozart’s biographer Alfred Einstein notes that Mozart may have written few symphonies during his years in Vienna, but he did not really need to write symphonies –his piano concertos are full of symphonic thinking.

The symphonic character of this concerto is most evident in its extraordinary first movement, which is as long as the

Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467

final two movements combined. Mozart marks it Allegro maestoso, a marking that needs to be understood carefully. The key of C Major was a particularly good one for trumpets and timpani in Mozart’s era, and their presence would sometimes produce a stern, martial quality in his music. Majestic this opening movement certainly is, but it lacks that martial trumpet-and-drums quality. Instead, there is nobility in this movement, and there is also a kind of regal restraint. The concerto opens quietly but firmly with a little march tune. This march will become the backbone of the movement, and it serves in many ways: as theme, as accompaniment figure, and at one point Mozart even treats it fugally. The entrance of the piano is understated – the soloist here is neither a heroic protagonist nor a rival of the orchestra – and soon the piano introduces the movement’s other principal ideas: an extraordinary chromatic episode in the “wrong” key of G minor and a serenely simple melody of Mozartean grace. The lengthy development of these ideas, shared by soloist and orchestra, runs through a range of mood and expression before the movement winds down gently and concludes on a wisp of the march tune.

Extraordinary as the first movement is, it finds its match in the Andante, which has haunted audiences for two centuries. Mere verbal description cannot begin to suggest the expressiveness and sudden shifts of mood that mark this endlessly beautiful music. But while this music may be beautiful, it is not relaxed, and beneath its elegant surface are jagged edges, wide skips and stinging dissonances. Particularly striking here is the orchestral sonority Mozart creates: he mutes the upper strings, giving them a silky, dark sound, while middle strings introduce the triplet accompaniment that throbs throughout and lower strings lay out the pizzicato bass line. Over this accompaniment, first violins have the soaring, arching main melody, full of

expressive turns and dark shading.

After two such movements, the finale – a rondo marked Allegro vivace assai (“very fast and lively”) – can seem a little conventional. Strings introduce the tightly chromatic main idea, the piano quickly picks it up, and the music whirls off on its bright way. Of particular interest here is the writing for orchestra. We do not immediately think of Mozart for his orchestration, but this finale is striking for its deft exchanges between winds and strings, for the quiet but effective writing for trumpets and horns, and particularly for the wonderful writing for solo woodwinds, each of whom assumes an individual character here. n

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Born December 16, 1770, Bonn

Died March 26, 1827, Vienna

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 32 MINUTES

Beethoven liked to get away from Vienna during the summer, and in April 1802 he rented rooms in the village of Heiligenstadt, which had fields and forests where he could take long walks. Beethoven remained there a long time, not returning to the city until October, but his lengthy stay had nothing to do with the beauty of the setting. That summer the composer finally had to face the dark truth that his hearing was failing, that there was no hope, and that he would eventually go deaf. Evidence suggests that he considered suicide that summer. Yet from these depths, Beethoven wrote some of his most genial music, a fact that should warn us not to make easy connections between a creator’s life and his art. Chief among the works he completed that despairing summer was the Symphony No. 2 in D Major, as sunny a piece of music as he ever wrote.

Historians have been unanimous in finding Beethoven’s first two symphonies conservative, but to contemporary listeners the Second Symphony sounded audacious enough. After the premiere in Vienna on April 5, 1803, a reviewer complained that “the first symphony is better than the [second] because it is developed with a lightness and is less forced, while in the second the striving for the new and surprising is already more apparent.” That critic makes an acute point: while the Second Symphony remains very much in the mold of the symphonies of Mozart and Haydn, it represents clear progress beyond the limits of Beethoven’s well-behaved First Symphony. These advances are evident in its span (some performances of the Second stretch to nearly forty minutes), its bright sonority (Beethoven chooses D Major, a particularly resonant key for the strings), and its atmosphere of non-stop energy. The Second Symphony may take the form of an eighteenth-century symphony, but there are “new and surprising” elements throughout this buoyant score.

The slow introduction begins with a great explosion: the orchestra has a unison D, marked fortissimo, and then

ABOUT THE MUSIC

moves through an unexpected range of keys, its rhythms growing increasingly animated as it proceeds. At the Allegro con brio, Beethoven introduces as his main theme a figure that seems almost consciously athematic: there is nothing melodic about this figure for lower strings that rushes ahead, curving around a sixteenth-note turn as it goes. Yet built into this simple figure is a vast amount of energy, and much of the development will grow out of that turn. The second subject, innocent and good-natured, arrives in the wind band. Beethoven develops both these ideas, but the turn-figure dominates the movement, including a muttering, ominous modulation for strings at the end of the development. (Was this one of the places that bothered that early critic?) The movement drives to a wonderful climax, the sound of trumpets stinging through a splendid mass of orchestral sound, and the turn-figure propels the music to a close on the same unison D that opened the movement.

The second movement, Larghetto, is not really a slow movement in the traditional sense, but a moderately-paced sonataform movement built on a profusion of themes. Beethoven develops these lyric ideas at luxurious length – this is the longest movement in the symphony. The Scherzo erupts with another unison D, and out of this explosion leap three-note salvos. Beethoven seems unusually alert here to where these sounds are coming from: the three-note cannonades jump up from all over the orchestra. By contrast, the trio brings a gentle tune, but the remarkable thing about both scherzo and trio is that each opening statement is quite brief, while the second strains are long and take the music through unexpected harmonic excursions.

The finale opens with an abrupt flourish. Yet from this brief figure Beethoven generates most of the last movement, deriving much of the music from the flourish’s opening F#-G slide and its concluding drop of a fifth. Full of boundless energy and good spirits, this rondo offers a flowing second theme for lower strings (Beethoven marks it dolce) and a genial tune for woodwinds over chirping string accompaniment. But the opening flourish always returns to whip this movement forward and to give the music its almost manic character. The symphony drives to a conclusion that is – one last time – a ringing D for full orchestra.

-Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Conductor Eduardo Strausser

UPCOMING CONCERTS FOR FAMILIES

SYMPHONY KIDS SERIES

Ages 0-5 | Jacobs Music Center

Corporate Sponsor:

San Diego Symphony musicians share their favorite sing-a-longs, rhymes, dances, and musical games in a series that introduces your youngest listeners to the instruments of the orchestra. These interactive, fun, and sensory-friendly concerts are 30 minutes. Arrive early for preconcert activities in the Jacobs Music Center lobby for fun crafts and musical exploration, free with ticket purchase.

MEET THE WINDS | March 1 | 10 & 11AM

They huff, they puff, and they blow all their air to make a sound! From birdsongs to sneaky cats—you and your kiddos will experience the unique sounds that the flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon and French horn make together.

FAMILY CONCERT SERIES

Ages 6-12 | Jacobs Music Center

Generously sponsored in part by The Bjorg Family

Corporate Sponsor:

MEET THE PERCUSSION | May 3 | 10 & 11AM

We’ll shake, we’ll rattle, and we’ll clap along to the beat as we dance to exciting rhythms with our friends in the percussion family!

In these one-hour performances, your kiddos will love singing, listening and dancing along with the orchestra across this playful series of concerts that brings storybooks to the stage alongside your favorite symphonic tunes. Extend your experience! Join us one hour early for pre-concert activities featuring crafts and musical exploration, free with ticket purchase.

PHILHARMONIA FANTASTIQUE

March 15 | 11AM

Conner Gray Covington, conductor

San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Mason Bates’ animated film Philharmonia Fantastique

Guided by a magical Sprite, you’ll explore the fundamental connections between music, sound, performance, creativity and technology.

THE MOUNTAIN THAT LOVED A BIRD

April 26 | 11AM

Tristan Rais-Sherman, conductor San Diego Symphony Orchestra

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.

UPCOMING JACOBS MASTERWORKS

SYMPHONIC JOURNEYS: STRAUSS, WALTON, BRAHMS

Saturday, February 8 7:30PM Sunday, February 9 2PM Jacobs Music Center

Rafael Payare, conductor Chi-Yuan Chen, viola San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Richard Strauss’ Tod und Verklarung (Death and Transfiguration) is a monumental meditation on the journey of life, beginning in childhood, through the trials and joys of adulthood, and ending in the transfiguration of the spirit. William Walton’s beautifully lyrical and nostalgic Viola Concerto, written when the composer was only 27 years old, was intended for the great soloist Lionel Tertis. The concert ends with Brahms’ melancholy and hauntingly beautiful Second Symphony.

MTT’S STREET SONGS AND WINTER DAYDREAMS

Saturday, February 15 7:30PM

Sunday, February 16 2PM Jacobs Music Center

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor Parker van Ostrand, piano San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Beloved American conductor and composer Michael Tilson Thomas makes his SDSO debut in this special program that opens with his own Street Song for Symphonic Brass, a work reflecting Tilson Thomas’s love for all kinds of popular and street music of the past and especially music connected with his grandparents, the Yiddish theatre stars Boris and Bessie Tomashefsky. Rising star pianist Parker van Ostrand will join Tilson Thomas and the Symphony for Rachmaninoff’s demanding Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The program ends with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1, the Russian composer’s first largescale orchestral work.

VÄNSKÄ CONDUCTS SIBELIUS AND BEETHOVEN

Friday, February 28 11AM Saturday, March 1 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

Osmo Vänskä, conductor Paavali Jumppanen, piano San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä leads the Symphony first in Sibelius’ dark and brooding tone poem Tapiola. One of this composer’s final works before he ceased writing in the late 1920s. Sibelius’s much loved Fifth Symphony was also inspired by the natural landscape of his home country, and especially by his intense response to the beautiful flight of whooper swans, returning in the spring to breed on the lakes and waters of Finland. Rounding out the program is Beethoven’s Emperor piano concerto performed by Finnish pianist and Beethoven expert Paavali Jumppanen.

UPCOMING CONCERT: VALENTINE’S DAY LOVE SONGS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 | 7:30PM | JACOBS MUSIC CENTER

Rob Fisher, music director and piano, is joined by vocalists Ross Lekites and Bianca Marroquin to proclaim what “there’s just too little of...love, sweet love.” Spend your Valentine’s Day evening enjoying some of the world’s most beloved love songs.

Rob Fisher, music director and piano

Bianca Marroquin, vocalist Ross Lekites, vocalist

FRIDAY, JANUARY 24 7:30PM

SUNDAY, JANUARY 26 2PM

Jacobs Music Center

2025 JACOBS MASTERWORKS

BUSONI’S VIOLIN CONCERTO

Daniele Rustioni, conductor

Francesca Dego, 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

BERLIOZ

Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9

BUSONI

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35a -INTERMISSION-

TCHAIKOVSKY

Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32

RESPIGHI

Feste romane (Roman Festivals) Circenses (Circuses) Il giubileo (The Jubilee) L’ottobrata (The October Festival) La befana (The Epiphany)

Total Program Duration: Approximatley 1 hour and 40 minutes (includes one, 20 minute intermission).

ABOUT THE ARTIST

FRANCESCA DEGO

Italian American violinist Francesca Dego is celebrated for her versatility, compelling interpretations, and flawless technique.

Her 2024/25 season includes debuts with London and Dallas Symphony Orchestras with theviolin concertos of Mendelssohn and Beethoven respectively. She also performs with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Sinfonica di Milano, Vancouver, Detroit, and San Diego Symphony Orchestras, and Orchestre de Cannes. In recital she appears at the Wigmore Hall with Alessandro Taverna, and Belfast International Chamber Festival and Dubai Opera with Francesca Leonardi.

Recent and forthcoming highlights include appearances with NHK Symphony Orchestra, Washington National and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras, Orquesta de Castilla y León, and Orchestre de Champs Elysées, as well as debuts with Swedish Radio Symphony, Bergen and London Philharmonic, West Australian, and Queensland Symphony Orchestras. Re-invitations include the Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, and Brucknerhaus Linz. She has also appeared with the Tokyo Metropolitan and Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the orchestra of the National Arts Centre Ottawa, and at St Petersburg’s renowned Stars of the White Nights Festival. Recent European highlights include at La Fenice; with Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice; Oviedo Philharmonic; Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo; Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne; Orquestra de Sevilla; L’Orchestra dell’Opera Carlo Felice Genova; and at the Teatro Regio di Torino. UK highlights include the BBC Symphony, Ulster, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, and Royal Scottish National Orchestras.

Signed exclusively to Chandos Records her most recent recording of the violin concertos of Busoni and Brahms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Dalia Stasevska was released in March 2024. Her complete Mozart violin concertos with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Sir Roger Norrington were received to unanimous critical acclaim.

Francesca is based in London and plays on a rare Francesco Ruggeri violin (Cremona 1697). n

ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR

DANIELE RUSTIONI

Daniele Rustioni is one of the most compelling conductors of his generation and a major presence at leading opera houses and symphony orchestras. In 2022, the International Opera Awards named him “Best Conductor.” His opera repertoire numbers over 70 works spanning over centuries and ranging from Italian to French, German to Russian, and more.

Now in his eighth season as Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon, Rustioni concludes his tenure in summer 2025. In 2024 he received the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres of the French Republic for his cultural services as Music Director of the Opéra National de Lyon.

He will become Principal Guest Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in September 2025, only the third in the Met’s history. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Bavarian State Opera till October 2023, a position created especially for him for the first time in the history of this iconic German House.

As a guest conductor, Rustioni has led performances at nearly all of the major opera houses and festivals, including Aix-en-Provence Festival, BBC Proms, Berlin State Opera, Dutch National Opera, Paris Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Salzburg Festival, Teatro Real, Zurich Opera House and the Teatro alla Scala. His 2024 – 2025 season highlights include debuts with the Detroit Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, and San Diego Symphony. He returns to the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony, among others.

Rustioni began his career as a member of Teatro alla Scala’s children’s chorus and continued studies at Milan’s Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, Siena’s Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and London’s Royal Academy of Music. n

CONDUCTOR BIO | DANIELE RUSTIONI

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9

HECTOR BERLIOZ

Born December 11, 1803, La Côte-St. André Died March 8, 1869, Paris

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 8 MINUTES

Berlioz made a characteristic choice when he decided to write his first opera about Benvenuto Cellini, the sixteenthcentury goldsmith, sculptor, adventurer – and author of a self-conscious autobiography. Berlioz, who would later write his own splendidly self-conscious autobiography, was strongly drawn to the figure of Cellini, but the opera was a complete failure at its premiere in Paris in September 1838. It had only four performances, French audiences sneered at it as “Malvenuto Cellini,” and Berlioz noted that after the overture “the rest was hissed with admirable energy and unanimity.” Liszt led a successful revival at Weimar in 1852, but Benvenuto Cellini has not held the stage.

Berlioz was stung by the failure of the opera, but he continued to love its music. In 1843, five years after the failed premiere, he pulled out two of its themes and from them fashioned an overture that he planned to use as an introduction to the second tableau of the opera, set in Rome’s Piazza Colonna during carnival season. Those two themes are the aria “O Teresa, vous que j’aime plus que la vie,” which Benvenuto sings to his seventeen-yearold lover in the first tableau, and the saltarello from the second tableau, which the players from Cassandro’s theater dance to attract crowds during the pre-Lenten festivities. When Berlioz led the overture as a concert piece in Paris on February 3, 1844, it was such a success that it had to be encored, and it has become one of his most popular works on its own, entirely divorced from the opera that gave it life.

The Roman Carnival Overture, as this music was eventually named, opens with a great flourish that hints at the saltarello theme to be heard later – Berlioz marks this flourish Allegro assai and further specifies that it should be con fuoco – “with fire.” The music quickly settles as the English horn sings Benvenuto’s plaintive love-song, and this is extended briefly before the music leaps ahead at the saltarello, originally a dance from the Mediterranean area in a lively 6/8 meter. This is a wonderful moment – the crispness of Berlioz’s rhythmic energy is nicely underlined by his decision to keep the strings muted during the first part of the saltarello. Along its spirited way, Berlioz brings back the love-song theme and turns it into a fugato, and there is some deft combination of the main ideas. Finally, though, it is the dance that triumphs, and Berlioz’s ending explodes with all the sonic fireworks appropriate to a carnival in Rome. n

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35a

FERRUCCIO BUSONI

Born April 1, 1866, Empoli

Died July 27, 1924, Berlin

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 22 MINUTES

We think of Ferruccio Busoni as an apostle of modernism. He was the author of Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music, which proposed an entirely new theory of harmony, and he was the composer of a ninety-minute Piano Concerto that includes an offstage male chorus, the fiendishly difficult Fantasia contrappuntistica, and the unfinished opera Doktor Faust. But all these works were in the future when the 30-year-old Busoni composed his Violin Concerto in D Major in 1896-97. That moment found the world of music at the end of one era and on the verge of another. Clara Schumann, Bruckner and Brahms – all great symbols of nineteenth-century music – died while Busoni was working on this concerto, and in just a few years Schoenberg and Stravinsky would stand music on its head.

But if music – and Busoni himself – were on the verge of enormous changes, his Violin Concerto looks backward rather than ahead. Written in the “violinist’s key” of D Major, it shows off the lyrical and virtuosic sides of the violin, and it probably would have won the praise of Brahms, who knew and admired the young Busoni. Violinist Henri Petri gave the premiere on October 8, 1897, with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of the composer. Since then, the concerto has been taken up by a number of violinists – Joseph Szigeti, Fritz Busch and Renaud Capucon among them – though performances today remain infrequent. And that makes the present performance all the more welcome.

Busoni’s Violin Concerto is in one continuous span that lasts about twenty-four minutes. But even within this we can make out the shape of the traditional concerto, for its various sections fall generally into the fast-slow-fast sequence that has characterized concertos since Bach and Vivaldi. The concerto begins with a graceful chorale for woodwinds that will furnish much of the thematic material that follows. The violin makes a gentle solo entrance, though its part becomes more animated as it proceeds, and soon the soloist is faced with fast passagework and passages written entirely in octaves. A sturdy march for winds breaks in on all this activity before the music proceeds without pause into what might be called the “slow” movement, marked Quasi andante. Beneath violin tremolos, cellos and basses lay out this section’s somewhat lugubrious main theme. Solo violin eventually enters on a long lyric line that Busoni marks dolce espressivo, and there follows some beautiful writing for the violin, which eventually soars up to a high E, almost at the end of the instrument’s fingerboard. The final section, marked Allegro impetuoso, bursts to life on a firm introduction from the orchestra, and quickly the violin enters with some brilliant writing – this is the most overtly virtuosic section of the concerto; Busoni himself described it as “a sort of carnival.” Along the way, the orchestra breaks out in another march, this one marked pomposo, umoristico (“pompous, humorous”), and the violin quickly joins the fun. At the end,

the music rushes ahead on a Quasi presto coda, and then goes even faster as the concerto whips to its good-natured concluding measures.

Years later, when he had become a very different composer, Busoni heard this concerto and pronounced it “unpretentious.” That may be true, but it is also very pleasing music, beautifully written for the violin and fully indicative of Busoni’s talent, even as a very young man. n

Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32

PETER ILYCH TCHAIKOVSKY

Born May 7, 1840, Votkinsk

Died November 6, 1893, St. Petersburg

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 22 MINUTES

In 1876 Tchaikovsky was searching for a topic for an opera, and he considered the story of Francesca da Rimini from Dante’s The Divine Comedy. That story was certainly dramatic. In Canto V of The Inferno, Dante and Virgil visit the second circle of hell, reserved for those guilty of crimes of lust. It is an eerie scene: beneath dark skies, fierce winds – symbolic of the forces of uncontrolled passion – buffet those guilty of lustful sin. Dante and Virgil stop to hear the sad tale told by Francesca da Rimini. Trapped in an arranged marriage to a deformed man, she was attracted to his handsome brother Paolo. One day, while reading of Sir Lancelot, they are overcome with passion and begin an affair, but they are eventually discovered and murdered by her husband. Now, cast into hell, she tells this sad story while

Paolo weeps in the background. Francesca claims that because she was a victim of her own passion, she bears no responsibility for her fate. Dante faints upon hearing her story, but nevertheless must condemn her behavior, because reason should rule over passion.

Struck by this story (and inspired by Gustav Doré’s ghastly engraving of the second circle of hell), Tchaikovsky made it the subject of an orchestral tone poem rather than an opera. He worked quickly, composing Francesca da Rimini in October and November 1876, and its premiere in Moscow the following March brought the composer a considerable success. Francesca da Rimini is a substantial piece – it lasts about twenty-five minutes – and it divides into three sections that are performed without pause. The grim opening, marked Andante lugubre, depicts Dante and Virgil’s entrance into the second circle of hell, where sinful lovers are blown wildly through the skies by winds. The music slows for the long central section, in which a solo clarinet leads the way into Francesca’s recounting of her sad fate. This mournful melody is taken over first by the violins and eventually by the entire orchestra, rising to a grand climax as the winds of hell continue to scream in the background. The final section leaves Francesca behind as Dante and Virgil continue their passage through that dismal vista. The ending, marked triple forte, is particularly violent. n

Feste romane (Roman Festivals)

OTTORINO RESPIGHI

Born July 9, 1879, Bologna

Died April 18, 1936, Rome

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 24 MINUTES

Respighi composed Feste romane, or Roman Festivals, in 1928, and it was premiered by Arturo Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic on February 21, 1929, a few months short of the composer’s fiftieth birthday. The last of the great triptych of symphonic poems inspired by Respighi’s adopted city – it follows The Fountains of Rome (1916) and The Pines of Rome (1924) – Feste Romane is also the most brilliant of the cycle. For all their color, The Fountains and The Pines had largely been portraits of places or things, but Feste romane sets out to depict action, and there is an almost cinematic quality to Respighi’s portrayal of four dramatic scenes from Rome’s violent past. Respighi was frank about his intentions in this music – he said he wanted “to summon up visions and evocations of Roman fêtes by means of the maximum of orchestral sonority and color.” He achieves this “maximum of orchestral sonority” by using a massive orchestra that includes huge brass and percussion sections, as well as two pianos, organ, mandolin and several unusual wind instruments. These help make Feste romane one of the loudest and most colorful works in the orchestral repertory. This is not subtle music, nor does it set out to be. Feste romane paints its portraits in big swatches of bold primary colors, and this music scorches its way through a concert hall with a sonic punch matched by few other works.

Respighi furnished brief synopses of the four movements of Feste romane, which are played without pause. His notes are quoted in full here, followed by more detailed musical descriptions of each movement.

1. Circuses

“A threatening sky hangs over the Circus Maximus, but it is the people’s holiday: “Hail, Nero!” The iron doors are unlocked, the strains of a religious song and the howling of wild beasts float on the air. The crowd rises in agitation: unperturbed, the song of the martyrs develops, conquers, and then is lost in the tumult.” Respighi establishes the epic tone of this music instantly in his portrait of Christians being devoured in the Coliseum. Leaping strings and massive washes of sound introduce ringing fanfares, which Respighi asks to have played by three buccine, an ancient Roman brass instrument (the part is usually taken by modern trumpets, played offstage). Gruff chords from brass and lower strings suggest the stalking of the lions, while violins depict the prayers of the martyrs, punctuated by the sound of snarling beasts. The music grows agitated, the themes of the lions and martyrs clash, and the movement comes to a loud (and bloody) climax.

2. The Jubilee

“The pilgrims trail along the highway, praying. Finally appears from the summit of Monte Mario, to ardent eyes and gasping souls, the holy city: “Rome! Rome!” A hymn of praise bursts forth, the churches ring out their reply.” The sound of murmuring muted violins suggests the pilgrims’ steady progress along the road (Respighi marks this Doloroso e slanco: “Sad and tired”); clarinet and bassoon in octaves offer their chanted prayer. Rome appears in a great hush, and the English horn resumes the prayer. The

movement builds to an ecstatic climax, then falls away on the sound of distant church bells.

3. The October Festival

“The October Festival in the Roman castles, covered with vines: hunting echoes, tinkling of bells, songs of love. Then in the tender even-fall arises a romantic serenade.”

A mighty horn call marks the transition to this celebration of the harvest, which Respighi asks to have played con molto slancio: “with great impetuosity.” A series of dances leads to a cadenza for solo horn, heard as if from very far away. The mandolin, eventually joined by solo violin, sings the evening serenade, and a faintly-jingling bell draws the movement to a quiet close.

4. The Epiphany

“The night before Epiphany in the Piazza Navona: a characteristic rhythm of trumpets dominates the frantic clamor: above the swelling noise float, from time to time, rustic motives, salterello cadenzas, the strains of a barrelorgan of a booth and the appeal of the proclaimer, the harsh song of the intoxicated and the lively stornello in which is expressed the popular feelings “Lassàtece passà, semo Romani!” [“We are Romans, let us pass!”]” Shrill clarinets and trumpets introduce the raucous crowds –festive, drunk, singing and swirling through the streets of Rome. The barrel-organist grinds his wheezing instrument, the music builds to a noisy climax, and a pair of clarinets dances a jaunty saltarello, which Respighi marks squaiato: “coarse, vulgar.” The crowd grows more excited, the music rushes ahead, and this wild and drunken festival races to a knock-out close. n

-Program notes by Eric Bromberger

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 November 12, 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

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

Marjory Kaplan

$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

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*

Joan and Jack Salb*

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

Leslie and Joe Waters

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

Joyce and Joseph Timmons

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.

UPCOMING CONCERTS

MICHAEL FEINSTEIN IN “BECAUSE OF YOU”: MY TRIBUTE TO TONY BENNETT

Sunday, March 2 6:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

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.

“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

STEVE HACKMAN’S BRAHMS X RADIOHEAD

Saturday, March 8 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

Steve Hackman, conductor Other artists to be announced San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Brahms X Radiohead is an epic symphonic synthesis of Radiohead’s album OK Computer and the First Symphony of Johannes Brahms, 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 conductor Steve 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 CURRENTS SERIES

This ground-breaking, interdisciplinary chamber music series takes audiences on a multimedia journey exploring modern stories through music, visual art, dance, electronics, and spoken word. This inaugural season features artists that are exploring the depth of our identities - the search for it, the celebration of it, the way we fight for it, and the courage sometimes needed to express it.

The Wonders We Carry Inside

SATURDAY, MARCH 20 7:30PM

JACOBS MUSIC CENTER

Gity Razaz, composer & curator

Inbal Segev, cello

Niloufar Shiri, kamancheh & composer

Sahba Aminikia, composer

Musicians of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Hailed by The New York Times as “ravishing and engulfing, ”Iranian-American composer Gity Razaz curates an evening of music honoring the mystical beauty of Persian culture and the power of women to shape history both past and present. Poetry and music weave together to guide us through this ancient celebration of reflection and renewal at the spring equinox.

This program is in support of Women, Life, Freedom; the entire San Diego Symphony Orchestra does not appear on this program.

Difficult Grace

SATURDAY, MAY 31 7:30PM

JACOBS MUSIC CENTER

Seth Parker Woods, cello

Roderick George, dancer/ choreographer

Difficult Grace is a multimedia concert tour de force conceived by and featuring Seth Parker Woods in the triple role of cellist, narrator/guide and movement artist. Heightened by film, spoken text, dance and visual artwork, Difficult Grace is a semiautobiographical exploration of identity, past/present histories and personal growth that draws inspiration from the Great Migration, the historic newspaper The Chicago Defender, immigration and the poetry of Kemi Alabi and Dudley Randall.

Please note: the San Diego Symphony Orchestra does not appear on this program.

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 November 12, 2024.

San Diego Foundation Rancho Santa Fe Foundation Jewish Community Foundation *Deceased

STRADIVARIUS CIRCLE:

$100,000 AND ABOVE

Raffaella and John* Belanich

City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture

Carol and Richard Hertzberg

Joan* and Irwin Jacobs

Dorothea Laub

The Miller Fund

The Conrad Prebys Foundation

MAESTRO CIRCLE:

$50,000-$99,999

Anonymous

Michele and Jules Arthur

Terry L. Atkinson

Dianne Bashor

John and Janice Cone

Kevin and Jan Curtis

Una Davis and Jack McGrory

Mr. and Mrs.* Brian K. Devine

Daniel J. and Phyllis Epstein

Pam and Hal Fuson

Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon

Arlene Inch

The Janecek Family Foundation

Brooke and Dan* Koehler

Karen and Warren Kessler

The Kong Tang Family

Monica and Robert Oder

Linda and Shearn* Platt

Price Philanthropies

Qualcomm Charitable

Foundation

Marie G. Raftery and Robert A. Rubenstein, M. D.

Jacqueline and Jean-Luc

Robert

Elena Romanowsky

Penny and Louis Rosso

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

San Diego Foundation

Jean and Gary Shekhter

Karen and Kit Sickels

Karen Foster Silberman and Jeff Silberman, Silberman Family Fund

Les J. Silver and Andrea Rothschild-Silver

Gayle* and Donald Slate

Dave and Phyllis Snyder

Gloria and Rodney Stone

Jayne and Bill Turpin

Vail Memorial Fund, Meredith Brown, Trustee

Leslie and Joe Waters

Sue and Bill* Weber

Jennie Werner

Kathryn A. and James E. Whistler

Cole and Judy Willoughby

Mitchell Woodbury

Sarah and Marc Zeitlin

GUEST ARTIST CIRCLE:

$25,000-$49,999

Anonymous (2)

Eloise and Warren* Batts

Alan Benaroya

David Bialis

The Bjorg Family

Annette and Daniel Bradbury

Nicole A. and Benjamin G. Clay

Karen and Donald Cohn

Stephanie and Richard Coutts

Drs. Edward A. and

Martha G. Dennis

Karin and Gary Eastham

Shirley Estes

Anne L. Evans

Lisette and Mick Farrell, Farrell

Family Foundation

Kelly Greenleaf and Michael Magerman

Carol Ann and George Lattimer

Lisa and Gary Levine

Sandy Levinson

Eileen Mason

Anne and Andy McCammon

Deborah Pate and John Forrest

Padres Foundation

Maryanne and Irwin Pfister

Allison and Robert Price

Carol Randolph, Ph. D. and Robert Caplan, Seltzer Caplan

McMahon Vitek

Sally and Steve Rogers

Jeanette Stevens

Sandra Timmons and Richard Sandstrom

Sheryl and Harvey White

Young Presidents’ Organization

San Diego Gold

The Zygowicz Family (John, Judy, and Michelle)

CONCERTMASTER CIRCLE:

$15,000-$24,999

Anonymous

Diane and Norman Blumenthal

Dr. Anthony Boganey

Gisele Bonitz

The Boros Family

Gordon Brodfuehrer

Julia Richardson Brown Foundation

Sally Cuff

Ann Davies

Kathleen Seely Davis

Ana de Vedia

The Donald C. and Elizabeth M. Dickinson Foundation

Hon. James Emerson

Monica Fimbres

Joyce Gattas, Ph. D. and Jay Jeffcoat

Janet and Wil Gorrie

Jill Gormley and Laurie Lipman

Judith Harris* and

Robert Singer, M.D.

Laurie Sefton Henson

Marilyn James and Richard Phetteplace

The Rev. Michael Kaehr

Jo Ann Kilty

Helen and Sig Kupka

Dr. William and Evelyn Lamden

Linda and Tom Lang

Carol Lazier and James Merritt

Marshall Littman, M.D.

Anne and Andy McCammon

Sue and Lynn Miller

Rena Minisi and Rich Paul

Lori Moore-Cushman

Foundation

The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation

Val and Ron Ontell

Jane and Jon Pollock

Pamela and Stephen Quinn

Dr. Andrew Ries and Dr. Vivian Reznik

Cathy and Lawrence* Robinson

Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation

Chris and Kris Seeger

Stephen M. Silverman

Hon. Stephanie Sontag and Hon. David Oberholtzer

Sylvia Steding and Roger* Thieme

Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft

Gayle and Philip Tauber

R.V. Thomas Family Fund

Julie and Stephen Tierney

Isabelle and Mel* Wasserman

Margarita and Philip Wilkinson

Lisa and Michael Witz

VIRTUOSO CIRCLE:

$10,000-$14,999

Anonymous

Carol Rolf and Steven Adler

Guity Balow

Barbara and Salvatore Capizzi

Anna Curren

Nina and Robert* Doede

Karin and Alfred Esser

Norman Forrester and Bill Griffin

Scott and Tracy Frudden

Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance

Lynn and Charles Gaylord

Martha and William Gilmer

Hanna and Mark Gleiberman

Vicki Garcia-Golden and Tim Jeffries

Georgia Griffiths and Colleen Kendall

Kay and Bill Gurtin

Jason and Somi Han

Beverley Haynes

Hervey Family Fund

Richard A. Heyman and Anne E. Daigle Family Foundation

Angela and Cory Homnick

The Hong-Patapoutian Family

Nancy and Stephen Howard

Richard and Elisa Jaime

Jeffrey and Claudia Lee

Robert Leone

Bill and Michelle Lerach

Susan and Peter Mallory

Larry McDonald and Clare White-McDonald

Oliver McGonigle

Elizabeth and Edward McIntyre

MDM Foundation

Rebecca Moores

Morrison & Foerster

Trupti and Pratik Multani

Donald and Clara Murphy

Dave and Jean Perry

Claudia Prescott

Sandy and Greg Rechtsteiner

ResMed Foundation

Jennifer and Eugene Rumsey Jr., M.D.

Harold and Evelyn Schauer

Jayne and Brigg Sherman

Sandra Smelik and Larry Manzer

Katherine “Kaylan” Thornhill

University of San Diego

Tim and Jean Valentine

K. Nikki Waters

Shirli Weiss

Edward and Anna Yeung

ORCHESTRA CIRCLE: $5,000-$9,999

Anonymous (2)

Sherry and Kevin Ahern

Cheryl and Rand Alexander

Bonnie and Krishna Arora

Kevin and Michelle Aufmann

Edgar and Julie Berner

Shara Williams and Benjamin Brand

Sophie Bryan and Matthew Lueders

Donna Bullock and Kenneth Bullock

Wendy Burk and Harold Frysh

Joseph Caso

Marilyn Colby

Elaine Darwin

The den Uijl Family

Leonard and Marcia* Fram

Jon Dien

Karen Dow

Susan Dubé

Berit and Tom Durler

Susanna and Michael Flaster

Gertrude B. Fletcher

Karen Forbes

Calvin Frantz

Ira Gaines and Cheryl Hintzen-Gaines

Marie and Bob Garson

Carrie and James Greenstein

David and Claire Guggenheim

Beau Haugh

Suzanne and Lawrence Hess

Janet and Clive Holborow

Maryka and George* Hoover

James B. Idell and Deborah C. Streett-Idell

Virginia and Peter Jensen

Sabby Jonathan

Marge Katleman and Richard Perlman

Carol and Mike Kearney

Angela and Matthew Kilman

Krumholz Family Trust

Steve Lyman and Diane McKernan

Mark C. Mead

Menard Family Foundation

Lorna* and Adrian Nemcek

Patricia and Kent Newmark

David and Judith Nielsen

Alex and Jenny Ning

Mary Ann and David Petree

Elizabeth Pille

Peggy and Peter Preuss

Sheli and Burton X. Rosenberg

Sage Foundation

Robert and Barbara Scott

Ruey & Marivi Shivers

Jennifer Stainrook

Larry and Pamela Stambaugh

Richard and Susan Ulevitch

Aysegul Underhill

Ronald and Diane Walker

Elizabeth Wohlford MacCleod and Clay MacLeod

Joan Zecher

Leo and Emma Zuckerman

SYMPHONY CIRCLE:

$2,500-$4,999

B.J. Adelson

Dede and Michael Alpert

Ellie and David Alpert

Lauren Lee Beaudry

Dr. Thomas Beers

Mr. Mark Bramson and Ms. Ellen Bramson

Loyce Bruce

John Cochran* and Sue Lasbury Household

Mayra Curiel and Carlos Larios

Andrea da Rosa

Steven Davis

Caroline S. DeMar

Doris and Peter Ellsworth

Richard Forsyth and Katherine Leonard

Ms. Linda Fortier

Linda and Michael Gallagher

Brenda and Dr. Michael Goldbaum

Sharon and Garry Hays

Mert and Joanne Hill

Mr. Clifford Hollander and Mrs. Sharon Flynn Hollander

Sonya and Sergio* Jinich

Leon and Sofia Kassel

Thian Kheoh

Mayra Curiel and Carlos Larios

Ruth Wikberg-Leonardi and Ron Leonardi

Brian and Nancy Littlefield

Sylvia and Jaime* Liwerant

Robin & Charles* Luby

Glen P. Middleton

Takenori Muraoka

Aradhna and Grant Oliphant

Sandra and David Polster

Pratt Memorial Fund

Jeff and Clare Quinn

Christa and Gerald Reynolds

Gagandeep Sheena Sahni

Betty Scalice Foundation

Bonnie and Josef Sedivec

Linda J. & Jeffrey M. Shohet

Timothy Snodgrass and Elaine King

Steve and Carmen Steinke

DeAnne Steele and Carlo Barbara

Michiele Stivers

Jacqueline Thousand and Richard Villa

Col. and Mrs. Joseph C.

Timmons

William Townsend

Norton S. and Barbara Walbridge Fund

Ronald and Diane Walker

Thomas P. Ward and Rosemary T. Ward

Stephanie and Stephen

Williams

Luann and Brian E. Wright

Carmen Young

Debi and Robert Young

Claudia and Paul Zimmer

Dr. and Mrs. Philip Ziring

CONCERTO CIRCLE: $1,000-$2,499

Anonymous (3)

Dede and Michael Alpert

Hector and Jennifer Anguiano

Lyndsey and Allan W. Arendsee

Patricia and Brian Armstrong

Roberta Baade

Rusti Bartell

David and Jasna Belanich

Sondra Berk

Mary Ann Beyster

Virginia and Robert Black

Ralph Britton

Joseph H. Brooks and Douglas Walker

Vickie Camper

Stan Clayton

Mary Ellen Clark

Rew P. Carne

Caroline Chen and George Boomer

Colwell Family Fund

Bob and Kathy Cueva

Georgia and Emery Cummins

Dr. Peter Czipott and Marisa SorBello

Dr. Michael D’Angelo

Trevor and Patricia Daniel

Anne and Charles Dick

Susan Diekman

Marguerite Jackson Dill and Carol Archibald

Sandra Dodge

John E. Don Carlos

Gail Donahue

Julie and Mitchell Dubick

Margaret Eastridge

Max Fenstermacher

Walt Charles Fidler

Douglas Flaker

Stan Fleming, Forward Ventures

Kenneth Fitzgerald

Stan Fleming, Forward Ventures

Jean Fort

The Samuel I. and John

Henry Fox Foundation

Marilyn Friesen and John Greenbush

Judith Fullerton

Dr. Nancy Gold and Colin Seid

Linda R. Gooden

Jon and Carol Gebhart

Kenneth F. Gibsen

Memorial Fund

Laurie M. Gore

Sally and Dave Hackel

Stephanie and John Hanson

Michelle Hebert

Joan and Richard Heller

The Herr Family

Barbara and

Paul Hirshman

Peggy and John* Holl

Lulu Hsu

Gina Kakos

Maurice Kawashima

Dwight A. Kellogg

Cynthia King

Tandy and Gary Kippur –

JCF of Southern AZ

Betty and Leonard Kornreich

Anona Kuehne

Rhea and Armin Kuhlman

Robert and Laura Kyle

George & Mei Lai

Gautam and Anjali Lalani

Colleen and Jeffrey Lambert

Sharon Lapid

Philip Larsen

Eliza Lee

Greg Lemke

Stephen Lending

Gayle M. Lennard

Kiyoe MacDonald

Daniel and Chris Mahai

Amy and John Malone

Eugene Malone

Arnulfo Manriquez

Madonna Christine Maxwell

Susan and Douglas McLeod

Richard Michaels

David McCall and Bill Cross

Dr. Sandra E. Miner

Martha and Chuck Moffett

Bibhu P. Mohanty

Patricia Moises

David Morris

Drs. Elaine and Douglas

Muchmoore

Tom and Anne Nagel

Patricia R. Nelson

Dr. Jon Nowak

Frank O’Dea

Larry and Linda Okmin

Household

Thomas O’Neill and Mary Ann Kennedy

Ann Kennedy

Barry Parker

Ricki Pedersen

The Porter Family

Jim Price and Joan Sieber

Drs. Radmilla and Igor Prislin

Arlene Quaccia and Robin Hughes

Matthew and Sue Quinn

Barbara Rabiner

Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation

Janet and Bill Raschke

Dr. Marilyn Friesen and Dr. Michael Rensink

Darci Roger-Tracy

The Ryde Family

Memorial Foundation

Gloria and Dean Saiki

Susan and Edward Sanderson

Household

Thomas Schwartz Dr. Nancy

Gold and Colin Seid

Judith and Robert Sharp

Lari Sheehan

Darryl and Rita Solberg

Professor Susan Shirk

Anne and Ronald Simon

Drs. Eleanor J. Smith and John D. Malone

Darryl and Rita Solberg

Valerie Stallings

John E. Sturla II

Kathleen Sullivan

Harry V. Summer

Suzanne and William Sutton

Elliot Tarson

William Tong

Fred and Erika Torri

Jennifer Toth

Janet Anderson and

Victor Van Lint

Janis Vanderford

Kathleen Victorino

Carol and Thomas Warschauer

Dr. Jeffrey and

Barbara Wasserstrom

Margaret Weigand

Eileen Wingard

Joseph and Mary Witztum

Karen and Rod Wood

Britt Zeller

Charles Ralph Zellerback

Herb* and Margaret Zoehrer

SONATA CIRCLE: $500-$999

Anonymous (2)

June and Daniel Allen

Dr. Robin Allgren

Alex Alonzo

Elizabeth Andersen

Philip Anderson

Andrade Family Trust

Arleene Antin and Leonard Ozerkis

Shane Arlt

Maureen Arrigo

Pamela and James Balderrama

Elaine Baldwin and Carl Nelson

Dr. Joshua Bardin

Joe Baressi Jr.

Patricia and Bruce Becker

Barry and Emily Berkov

Elena Bernardi

Dr. Leonard and

Beverly Bernstein

Terri Bignell

Jerry and Karen Blakely

Stephen and Priscilla Bothwell

Judith Call

Mary Catherine Bowell

Gloria and Sed Brown

Jolie and Glenn Buberl

Ed Budzyna and Zack Zaccaria

Robert and Carolyn Caietti

William Carrick

Margaret Carrol

Gloria and Maurice Caskey

Juliana Caso

Tanya and Sutton Chen

Geoff and Shem Clow

Dale Connelly

Patrick and Lisa Cooney

Joe Costa

John Cuthbertson and Elizabeth

Hamilton Cuthbertson

Dr. Dalia Daujotyte

Julie and Don De Ment

Marilou Dense

Dr. Greg Dixon

Elizabeth and Richard Dreisbach

Pamela Dunlap

Jeffrey Edwards

Drs. Eric and Barbara Emont

Robyn Erlenbush

Jeane Erley

Arlene Esgate

Joel Ewan and

Carol Spielman-Ewan

Dr. Thomas Fay and Fabiola

Lopez

Linda Lyons Firestein

Louise Firme

Darlene and Robert Fleischman

Nynke Fortuin

Michele Fournier

Michelle Fox

Judith and William Friedel

Laura Georgakakos

Roy Gilmour

Diane Glow

Eric Gnand

Dr. William Goggin

Kathleen and John Golden

Ser Andre Gonzalez

James Gordon

Robert Griffin

Stephanie and H. Griswold

Dean Haas

James Hannan

Helen Hansen

Gerald Hansen and Marilyn Southcott

Christine Harmon

Lydia Harris

Sue Haverkamp

Harold Hoch

Anne S. Holder-Erdman

Sandra Hoover

Gurdon Hornor

Warren Hu

Thomas Houlihan

Ralph Hull

Charlotte Langmaid and David Hunter

Nancy Hylbert

Faith and Steve Jennings

Dimitri and Elaine Jeon

Robert Jentner

Dimitri and Elaine Jeon

Deborah Jezior

Bruce A. Johnson

R. Douglas and Jeanette Johnson

Ronald Johnson

Thesa Lorna Jolly

Dr. James Justeson

Julia Katz

Wilfred Kearse and Lynne Champagne

John and Sue Kim

Stephen Korniczky

Andrea and Stephen Kowalewsky

Toby Kramer

Martha and Jerry Krasne

Robert and Elena Kucinski

Mary Kyriopoulos

Laura Laslo

Elizabeth Leech

Lewis Leicher

Kathleen Lennard

Denee and Xiaoping Logan

David Louie

Claudia Lowenstein

Scott MacDonald

Anne Macek

Kyong Macek

Vonnie Madigan

Micolyn Magee

Annie Cruz Magill

Deborah and Fred Mandabach

Sue Marberry

Ana Esther Martinez

Beverly and Harold Martyn

James R. Mathes

Kyle McEachern

Mac McKay

Dr. Grant Miller

Anne and John Minteer

Judith Morgan

Ann Morrison

Phillip Musser

Jan and Mark Newmark

Sherryl A. Nicholas

Barbara and

Donald Dean Niemann

James and Jean O’Grady

Abraham Ordover

Brent Orlesky

Yolanda Ortiz Palacio

Dr. Robert Padovani

Ronald T. Oliver

Marilyn Palermo

Julie Park

Julian Parra

Kellogg Parsons

Sally and Phillip Patton

James and Gale Petrie

Robert Plimpton II

Dean Popp

Sheila and Ken Poggenburg

Terri Pontzious

Joseph and Sara Reisman

Cindy and Daniel Reynolds

Patrick Ritto

Nancy Robertson

Steve and Cheryl Rockwood

Louis Rosen

Alice Rosenblatt

Ronnie and Stuart Rosenwasser

Rose Marie and Allan Royster

Norman and Barbara Rozansky

Mary Salas

Mary Margaret Saxton

Joel Schaller

Mr. Daniel H. Schumann

David and Martha Schwartz

Hano and Charlotte Seigel

Dr. Bruce Shirer

Martha Shively

Linda Small

Marilyn and Brian Smith

Amelia Soudan

James and Phyllis Speer

Gregory Stanton

Regenia Stein and Roland James

Mark Stenson

Judy S. Stern

Valerie Stewart

John L. Stover

Helga and Sam Strong

Derek Stults

Nancy and Michael Sturdivan

Nelson Surovik

Melissa Swanson

Kay and Cliff Sweet

Thomas Templeton and

Mary Erlenborn

Jean and Mark Trotter

Orlando S. Uribe

Paul Van Deusen

VOSA Student Symphony

Ticket Fund

Allen Voigt

Loren Waldapfel

John Walsh

Rex and Kathy Warburton

Don and Sharon Watkins

Janet and Joel Weber

Irene, David* & Diana Weinrieb

Mike and Janet Westling

Charles and Annis White

Vernon White

Mindy Wilcox

Joyce Williams

Stephen Wilson

Mary Michele Wilmer

Sherri Wittwer

David A. Wood

Peter and Terry Yang

Naima and Mike Yelda

Maria and Randy Zack

Bart Ziegler

MEMORIAL GIFTS

In memory of Warren Batts

Ms. Sharon Sweet

Edward and Helen Hintz

Amy and Anthony Volpe

Barbara and Lawrence Wilson

Thomas O’Neill and Mary

Kennedy Household

Barry Parker

Earl Frederick

Linda Newman

Marti and Leo Parrish

Gary and Mary Coughlan

Diane Root

In memory of John Cochran

Sue Lasbury

In memory of Bob Doede: In support of The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

Ms. Catherine Mackey

Kenneth Jensen

Drs. Edward A. and Martha G. Dennis

Ms. McKay Iris Strauss

In memory of Peter Eros, Georgia Eros, Dale Klabunde

Eileen Wingard

In memory of Matthew Garbutt

Eileen Wingard

Shirley Estes

In memory of Michael Gay

Bob and Marie Garson

In memory of James Jessop Hervey

Linda Hervey

In memory of Joan Jacobs

Alan Benaroya

Stuart and Barbara Brody

Dr. Peter Czipott and Marisa SorBello

Susan and Steven Davis

Roy Devries

Robert and Nina Doede

Stan Flemming, Forward Ventures Globalstar

Pamela Hartwell

Jewish Community Foundation

Douglas and Susan McLeod

Karen and Jeffrey Silberman

Family Fund

Frank O’Dea

Andrea Oster

Linda and Shearn* Platt

Anne Porter

Claudia Prescott

Allison and Robert Price

Alicia Rockmore

Lea Schmidt-Rogers and Larry Rogers

Jack Strecker

Allen and Helene Ziman

In memory of my dear mother,

Liz Jackson

Jennie Werner

In memory of Sergio Jinich

Sonya Jinich

In memory of Bob Kyle

Laura Kyle

In memory of Ruby and Vernon Langlinais Anonymous

In memory of Miriam Lapid

Sharon Lapid

In memory of Gladys McCrann

Margaret Carroll

In memory of Jane Micheri

Dario Micheri

In memory of Lorna Nemcek, wife of Adrian Nemcek from their friends at Mason Investment Advisors

David Engler

In memory of Lloyd Pernela, Ethan Pernela’s father

Ann Morrison

Lois Richmond (of blessed memory)

Jewish Community Foundation

In memory of Bruce Sutherland

Jo-Anne Brownwood

In memory of Bill Weber and Judy McDonald

Kathleen Seely Davis

In memory of David and Ilene Weinreb

Diana Weinreb

In memory of Bill Zoeller

Brigitte Zoeller

HONORARIA GIFTS

In honor of the retirement of Marcia Bookstein

Eileen Wingard

In honor of Jan and Kevin Curtis

Claudia Levin

In honor of the retirement of Doug Hall

Eileen Wingard

In honor of Martha Gilmer

Bart Ziegler

In honor of Warren O. Kessler, M.D.

Gayle M. Lennard

In honor of James and Theresa Grant and Maria Atkins

Thao Hughes

In honor of Dr. Irwin Jacobs’s 90th Birthday

Paul Jacobs

Rebecca Moores

In honor of JCF Fund

Holders who are passionate about the work of the San Diego Symphony

Jewish Community Foundation

Fund Holders

In honor of Warren O. Kessler, MD

Gayle M. Lennard

In honor of Lang Lang, Martha Gilmer and the wonderful San Diego Symphony Orchestra for a fantastic musical experience at The Rady Shell

Dr. and Mrs. Philip Ziring

In honor of Harriett Mallory

Kris and Pam Mallory and Linda Dawson

In honor of Rabbi Matthew Marko in care of Tifereth Israel Synagogue

Laurie M. Gore

In honor Maureen Campbell Melville

Wendy Reuben

In honor of Dr. Dianne Moores

Ralph Hull

Honoring the dedication to the Symphony of my dear friends Linda Platt, Sherron Schuster and Gloria Stone

Andrea Oster

In honor of Dave and Phyllis

Snyder

Barbara and Robert Scott

In honor of Mr. Gene Summ’s 93rd birthday

Dr. and Mrs. Philip Ziring

In honor of Leslie and Joseph D. Waters

Judith Call

CORPORATE HONOR ROLL

THESE PARTNERS CURRENTLY MAINTAIN AN ANNUAL SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SPONSORSHIP:

$200,000+ $100,000+

SAN DIEGO BAYFRONT

BUILDING A SOUND TOMORRO W

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 November 12, 2024

*Deceased

$3,000,000 AND ABOVE

Joan* and Irwin Jacobs

Pamela Hamilton Lester

In memory of James A Lester

The Miller Fund

Price Philanthropies Foundation

$1,000,000 to $2,999,999

Willis J. Larkin

Marie G. Raftery and Robert A. Rubenstein, M. D.

Lou and Penny Rosso and the Rosso Family

Pauline* & Stan* Foster and Karen Foster Silberman & Jeff Silberman

Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon

Through the Glickman Fund of the S.D. Jewish Community Foundation

Haeyoung Kong Tang

Katherine “Kaylan” Thornhill Artistic Initiatives Fund

Timmstrom Family

$250,000 - $499,999

Anonymous

Michele and Jules Arthur

The Bjorg Family

Julia R. Brown

Arlene Inch

Debby and Hal Jacobs

Karen and Warren Kessler

Jerry and Terri Kohl

Sandy and Arthur* Levinson

Imozelle and Jim McVeigh

Price Philanthropies Foundation

Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

Donald and Gayle* Slate

Kathryn A, and James E. Whistler

$100,000 - $249,999

Anonymous

Eloise and Warren* Batts

David Bialis

Drs. Edward A. and Martha G. Dennis

The Fuson Family

Tom and Carolina Gildred

Carol and Richard Hertzberg

Annie and Jeffrey Jacobs

The Littman Jonkman Community Engagement and Education Fund

Susan and Peter Mallory

In honor of Martha Gilmer

Robert, Monica, and Celeste Oder

Debby Parrish and Lori Moore

Chris and Kris Seeger

Dave and Phyllis Snyder

Sue and Bill* Weber

Jo and Howard* Weiner

Jennie Werner

$25,000 - $49,999

Kathleen S. and Stephen J.* Davis

Una Davis Family

Janet and Wil Gorrie

The Hong-Patapoutian Family

Carol and George Lattimer

Amy and John Malone

David Marchesani

In loving memory of Alex and Judy McDonald

In memory of Lorna Nemcek

Linda and Shearn* Platt

Ingrid M. Van Moppes

In honor of Willard Howard Kline

Karen Wahler

In memory of Michael Gay*

Waldron Family Trust

$10,000 - $24,999

James and Lynn Caughey

Susan and Peter Crotty

Peter Czipott and Marisa SorBello

Monica Fimbres

Jason and Somi Han

In memory of Lillian Hauser

Wolfgang* and Erika Horn

The Rev. Michael Kaehr

Joan Lewan Trust

Jack McGrory

Joani Nelson

Deborah Pate and John Forrest

Diane and Bill Stumph

Joan Salb Trust

Linda Thomas

In honor of John Zygowicz

$500,000 - $999,999

Anonymous

The James Silberrad Brown Foundation

Dr. Paul and Geneviève Jacobs

Mitchell R. Woodbury

$50,000 - $99,999

Lisa and Ben Arnold

Carol Rolf and Steven Adler

Richard A. Samuelson

Dr. Seuss Foundation In honor of Ted and Audrey Geisel

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31 11AM

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

2025 JACOBS MASTERWORKS

ORCHESTRAL

EVOLUTION:

CHILDS’ PREMIERE AND BEETHOVEN’S EROICA

Rafael Payare, conductor

Alexander Malofeev, piano San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Yamaha CFX concert grand piano provided by Yamaha Corporation of America in partnership with Greene Music, San Diego, CA

Scan this QR code with your smartphone or text SDS to 55741 to access the interactive version of the program. Message

PROGRAM

BILLY CHILDS

Concerto for Orchestra

PROKOFIEV

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 Andante; Allegro Andantino Allegro ma non troppo -INTERMISSION-

BEETHOVEN

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, Eroica Allegro con brio Marcia funebre: Adagio assai Scherzo: Allegro vivace Finale: Allegro molto; Poco andante

Total Program Duration: Approximatley 2 Hours (includes one, 20 minute intermission).

ABOUT THE ARTIST

ALEXANDER MALOFEEV

Alexander Malofeev came to international prominence when, in 2014, he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians at age thirteen. Reviewing the performance, Amadeus noted, “Contrary to what could be expected of a youngster…he demonstrated not only high technical accuracy but also an incredible maturity. Crystal clear sounds and perfect balance revealed his exceptional ability.” Since this triumph, Malofeev has quickly established himself as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation.

Highlights of the 2024-25 season include Malofeev’s premiere with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, returns to Verbier Festival and San Diego Symphony, as well as performances at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, Philharmonie Berlin, recital tours throughout the US and Asia, and recitals with violinist Maria Dueñas. He will appear with the New World Symphony, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, among others.

Alexander Malofeev performs with some of the most well-known orchestras around the world including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, State Chamber Orchestra “Moscow Virtuosi”, Baltic Sea Philharmonic Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Orchestre National de Lille, and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. He regularly appears with the most distinguished conductors on stage today, including Mikhail Pletnev, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas, Alain Altinoglu, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, JoAnn Falletta, Susanna Mälkki, Lionel Bringuier, Alondra de la Parra, Marcelo Lehninger, Kazuki Yamada, Juraj Valcuha, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Kristjan Jarvi, Kirill Karabits, Vladimir Spivakov, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Vasily Petrenko, Andris Poga, and Fabio Luisi.

He has been a guest of renowned music festivals and series including Verbier Festival, International de Piano de La Roque d’Anthéron Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Tsinandali Festival, Master Pianists Series, and Celebrity Series of Boston.

Malofeev was born in Moscow in October 2001. Now residing in Berlin, he continues to give concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where he opened the 30th anniversary concert of the renowned Meester Pianists series. Other recent highlights include concerts at Teatro alla Scala, Musikverein Wien, Carnegie Hall, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Munich Herkulessaal, Philharmonie de Paris, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Theater of the Champs-Elysees, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Roma, Teatro Putruzzelli in Bari, Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Australia, Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and the Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman.

In addition to his First Prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, he has won numerous awards and prizes at international competitions and festivals, including the Grand Prix of the first International Competition for Young Pianists Grand Piano Competition, the Premio Giovane Talento Musicale dell’anno and Best Young Musician of 2017. Also in 2017, Alexander Malofeev became the first Young Yamaha Artist. n

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Concerto for Orchestra

(World Premiere, Commissioned by San Diego Symphony)

BILLY CHILDS

Born March 8, 1957, Los Angeles

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 20 MINUTES

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26

SERGE PROKOFIEV

Born April 23, 1891, Sontsovka Died March 5, 1953, Moscow

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 27 MINUTES

There were several quite different sides to the young Prokofiev. One was the enfant terrible who took a puerile delight in outraging audiences with abrasive, ear-splitting music. When the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1913 produced a salvo of jeers and hisses, Prokofiev walked on stage, bowed deeply, and sat down to play an equally assaultive encore. Yet there was another Prokofiev, one so different that he seemed to have come from a separate planet altogether. This was a quite traditional composer, drawn to the form and balance of another era. This Prokofiev could compose a work like the beautifullyproportioned Classical Symphony of 1917, a gracious nod to the style of Haydn.

When he was able to balance these two creative urges, Prokofiev wrote some of his best music. Prokofiev had been planning for some time to write what he called “a large virtuoso concerto” when he finally found time during the summer of 1921, only a few months after his thirtieth birthday. That summer Prokofiev took a cottage on the coast of France and pulled together themes he had been collecting over the previous decade, some of them dating back to his days as a student in Czarist Russia. The concerto took shape across that summer, and he was able to weld this variety of thematic material into a completely satisfying whole, a score that fuses the strength and saucy impudence of the young Prokofiev with his penchant for classical order. Completed in October, the concerto was first performed on December 16, 1921, with Prokofiev as soloist and Frederick Stock conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

For all its steely strength, this concerto begins with deceptive restraint. First one and then two clarinets lay out the innocent opening idea, which is briefly taken up by the strings before the music leaps ahead at the Allegro. The

piano makes a slashing entrance here, suddenly breaking into the flurry of orchestral motion, and this opening episode pounds its way directly into the second subject, for woodwinds and pizzicato strings over clicking castanet accompaniment. A vigorous extension of these materials brings a surprise: the music rises to an early climax on the reticent tune that had opened the concerto. Solo piano leads the way back to the “correct” themes of the Allegro, and the movement drives to a muscular close.

The second movement is in theme-and-variation form. Solo flute lays out the lilting and nicely-spiced theme, which extends over several phrases. In the five variations, the piano usually occupies the foreground while the orchestra accompanies with lines woven from bits of theme. Particularly striking is the fourth variation, in which – Prokofiev notes – “the piano and orchestra discourse on the theme in a quiet and meditative fashion.” This variation is in fact marked Andante meditativo, and Prokofiev specifies that individual phrases should be delicatissimo, dolce, espressivo and freddo (cold). The movement concludes with the unusual combination of a quiet piano chord accompanied only by the stroke of a bass drum.

The finale begins with the dry sound of bassoon and pizzicato strings stamping out what will be the main theme of the movement, but the piano has already intruded before this theme can be fully stated. A second subject, sung by the woodwinds in the wistful manner of the very opening of the concerto, is also quickly violated by the piano, which has what Prokofiev describes as “a theme more in keeping with the caustic humor of the work.”

But this flowing second theme “wins”: it swells to an expansive statement that becomes the soaring climax of the entire concerto.

The ending is brilliant. Piano and full orchestra come hammering home on repeated chords that seem to create a halo of light, shimmering and finally burning through the hall. It is a perfect conclusion to a concerto that appeals to our minds and our senses – and finally satisfies both. n

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, Eroica

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Born December 16, 1770, Bonn Died March 26, 1827, Vienna

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 47 MINUTES

In May 1803 Beethoven moved to the village of Oberdöbling, a few miles north of Vienna. At age 32, he had just come through a devastating experience – the realization that he was going deaf had driven him to the verge of suicide – but now he resumed work, and life. To his friend Wenzel Krumpholz, Beethoven confided: “I am only a little satisfied with my previous works. From today on I will take a new path.” At Oberdöbling over the next six months, Beethoven sketched a massive new symphony, his third.

Everyone knows the story of how Beethoven had intended to dedicate the symphony to Napoleon, whose reforms in France had seemed to signal a new age of egalitarian justice. But when the news reached Beethoven in May 1804 that Napoleon had proclaimed himself emperor, the composer ripped the title page off the score of the symphony and blotted out Napoleon’s name, angrily crying: “Is he then, too, nothing more than an ordinary human being? Now he, too, will trample on all the rights of man and indulge only his ambition. He will exalt himself above all others, become a tyrant!” (This sounds like one of those stories too good to be true, but it is quite true: that title page – with Napoleon’s name obliterated – has survived.) Countless historians have used this episode to demonstrate Beethoven’s democratic sympathies, though there is evidence that just a few months later Beethoven intended to restore the symphony’s dedication to Napoleon, and late in life he spoke of Napoleon with grudging admiration. When the symphony was published in 1806, though, the title page bore only the cryptic inscription: “Sinfonia eroica – dedicated to the memory of a great man.”

The new symphony was given several private performances before the public premiere on April 7, 1805. Early audiences were dumbfounded. Wrote one reviewer: “This long composition, extremely difficult of performance, is in reality a tremendously expanded, daring and wild fantasia. It lacks nothing in the way of startling and beautiful passages, in which the energetic and talented composer must be recognized; but often it loses itself in lawlessness . . . The reviewer belongs to Herr Beethoven’s sincerest admirers, but in this composition he must confess that he finds too much that is glaring and bizarre, which hinders greatly one’s grasp of the whole, and a sense of unity is almost completely lost.” Legend has it that at the end of the first movement, one outraged member of the audience screamed out: “I’ll give another kreutzer [a small coin] if the thing will but stop!” It is easy now to smile at such reactions, but those honest sentiments reflect the confusion of listeners in the presence of a genuinely revolutionary work of art.

There had never been a symphony like this, and Beethoven’s “new directions” are evident from the first instant. The music explodes to life with two whipcracks in E-flat Major, followed immediately by the main ideas in the cellos. This slightly-swung theme is simply built on the notes of an E-flat Major chord, but the theme settles on a “wrong” note – C# – and the resulting harmonic complications will be resolved only after much violence. Another striking feature of this movement is Beethoven’s choice of 3/4 instead of the duple meter customary in symphonic first movements; 3/4, the minuet meter, had been thought essentially lightweight, unworthy of serious music. Beethoven destroys that notion instantly – this is not simply serious music, it is music of the greatest violence and uncertainty. In it, what Beethoven’s biographer Maynard Solomon has called “hostile energy” is admitted for the first time into what had been the polite world of the classical symphony. This huge movement (longer by itself than some complete Haydn and Mozart symphonies) introduces a variety of themes and develops them with a furious energy. It is no accident that the development is the longest section of this movement. The energy pent up in those themes is unleashed here, and the development – much of it fugal in structure – is full of grand gestures, stinging dissonances and tremendous forward thrust. The lengthy recapitulation (in which the music

continues to develop) drives to a powerful coda: the main theme repeats four times, growing more powerful on each appearance, and finally it is shouted out in triumph. This truly is a “heroic” movement – it raises serious issues, and in music of unparalleled drama and scope it resolves them.

The second movement brings another surprise – it is a funeral march, something else entirely new in symphonic music. Beethoven moves to dark C minor as violins announce the grieving main idea over growling basses, and the movement makes its somber way on the tread of this dark theme. The C-Major central interlude sounds almost bright by comparison – the hero’s memory is ennobled here – but when the opening material and tonality return Beethoven ratchets up tensions by treating his material fugally. At the end, the march theme disintegrates in front of us, and the movement ends on muttering fragments of that theme.

Out of this silence, the propulsive scherzo springs to life, then explodes. For all its revolutionary features, the Eroica employs what was essentially the Mozart-Haydn orchestra: pairs of winds, plus timpani and strings. Beethoven makes only one change – he adds a third horn, which is now featured prominently in the trio section’s hunting-horn calls. But that one change, seemingly small by itself, is yet another signal of the originality of this symphony: the virtuosity of the writing for horns, the sweep of their brassy sonority – all these are new in music.

The finale is a theme-and-variation movement, a form originally intended to show off the imagination of the composer and the skill of the performer. Here Beethoven transforms this old form into a grand conclusion worthy of a heroic symphony. After an opening flourish, he presents not the theme but the bass line of that theme, played by pizzicato strings, and offers several variations on this line before the melodic theme itself is heard in the woodwinds, now accompanied by the same pizzicato line. This tune had special appeal for Beethoven, and he had already used it in three other works, including his ballet Prometheus. Was Beethoven thinking of Prometheus – stealer of fire and champion of mankind – when he used this theme for the climactic movement of this utterly original symphony? He puts the theme through a series of dazzling variations, including complex fugal treatment, before reaching a moment of poise on a stately slow variation for woodwinds. The music pauses expectantly, and then a powerful Presto coda hurls the Eroica to its close.

The Eroica may have stunned its first audiences, but audiences today run the greater risk of forgetting how revolutionary this music is. What seemed like “lawlessness” to early audiences must now be seen as an extraordinary leap to an entirely new conception of what music might be. Freed from the restraint of courtly good manners, Beethoven found in the symphony the means to express the most serious and important of human emotions. It is no surprise the composers over the next century would make full use of this freedom. Nor is it a surprise to learn that late in life – at a time when he had written eight symphonies –Beethoven named the Eroica as his own favorite among his symphonies. 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 connection 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 Irwin 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

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.

UPCOMING CONCERTS

Mother Goose, Symphonic Dances and More

FRIDAY, MARCH 7 7:30PM

SUNDAY, MARCH 9 2PM

JACOBS MUSIC CENTER

Matthias Pintscher, conductor

Alexi Kenney, violin

San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Conductor Matthias Pintscher begins the concert with the beautiful glittering colors of Ravel’s Mother Goose, originally conceived as a charming piano duet for adults and children to play together, and then later transformed into an orchestral ballet. Alexi Kenney makes his Symphony debut with his “soulful and stirring” (The Pittsburgh Post Gazette) interpretation of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2, a work written in the composer’s very last years in Europe before, despairing of the triumph of fascism and violence on all sides., Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, written when World War II was already underway. Already sick with the lung cancer that was to kill him, Rachmaninoff spent time on Long Island, where the quiet and peacefulness inspired music combining intense nostalgia for an old world gone with the tremendous rhythmic energy and optimism that he so loved about America.

From the Depths: Lu Leads Tchaikovsky’s Fourth

Symphony

SATURDAY, MARCH 29 7:30PM

SUNDAY, MARCH 30 2PM

JACOBS MUSIC CENTER

Tianyi Lu, conductor

Paul Lewis, piano

San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Winner of the Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition, conductor Tianyi Lu opens her concert with the selfstanding first movement of Gareth Farr’s From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs. Farr is one of New Zealand’s leading composers and a distinguished percussionist whose music pulsates with exultant rhythms and colors reflecting his love of the landscapes and surrounding oceans of his native islands, as well as his fascination with his country’s Māori musical and mythic traditions which go back hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans.

At the opposite end of the world, Norway’s greatest composer Edvard Grieg made his name when still a very young man with his brilliant and loveable Piano Concerto. The distinguished soloist will be the English pianist Paul Lewis. And the concert ends with one of the best loved of all Tchaikovsky’s works, his intensely dramatic Fourth Symphony, written at one of the most productive periods in the composer’s life, the time of his ballet Swan Lake and his opera Eugene Onegin. Operatic and balletic this symphony certainly is, with its fateful horn calls and its yearning melodies, and its infectious dance rhythms and sheer physical élan.

UPCOMING JAZZ CONCERTS

WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN

Saturday, April 19 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

Byron Stripling, conductor, trumpet and vocalist

Sydney McSweeney, vocalist

Bobby Floyd, keyboards San Diego Symphony Orchestra

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: CELEBRATING THE MUSIC OF TWO GIANTS

Saturday, April 26 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

Gilbert Castellanos, trumpet

Johnaye Kendrick, vocalist

Billy Pierce, tenor saxophone

Joshua White, piano Corcoran Holt, bass

Pre-show: Young Lions Jazz Conservatory All-Stars, jazz band

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

Greg Ochotorena

Greg Ochotorena, trombonist and music educator, is honored to join the San Diego Symphony as Acting Second Trombone.

In 2017 Greg won a position with the Disneyland Band, where he regularly performs. Shortly after, in 2021, he began working with the Santa Monica Symphony playing second trombone. Greg frequently appears as a guest performer with several orchestras up and down the California coast, including Los Angeles Sinfonietta, Los Angeles Dream Orchestra, Westside Chamber Orchestra, Stockton Symphony and many others. We sat down with Greg recently to talk about his experience with the San Diego Symphony and the reopening of Jacobs Music Center.

Tell us about your journey to the San Diego Symphony, Greg! I was born and raised in Los Angeles County and began my musical education at the age of 8 on the alto saxophone. During my final year of my undergraduate studies I earned a position with the Disneyland Band. I later received my Master’s degree from the University of California Los Angeles. My pivotal music mentors are James Miller, Kyle Covington, Michael Hoffman, Steve Trapanie, Noah Gladstone, and Dr. Philip Ruiz.

I began subbing with the San Diego Symphony in 2017. I was immediately impressed with the talent in the orchestra and the warm and welcoming work culture here. I vividly remember the first concert I was a part of–we performed Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade

What is your favorite San Diego Symphony memory so far?

All of the concerts I have been a part of have been filled with amazing memories, but if I had to select a specific one it would have to be the performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the San Diego Symphony Festival Chorus the first week of the 2024 Fall season at the Jacobs Music Center.

How do you like to spend your free time when not performing? Any special hobbies or interesting facts about yourself that you’d like to share?

My wife Carrie and I are avid campers who try to take several trips a year! We love camping anywhere with our friends, family, and our dog, Ollie. I also enjoy strength training regularly, because I find that it’s a great and cathartic way for me to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle.

What work are you looking most forward to performing in the newly transformed Jacobs Music Center and why?

I am really excited for the Symphonic Journeys concert, featuring Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration and Brahms Symphony No. 2. Brahms has always been one of my favorite composers to listen to and perform.

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions for 2025? I do! This year I would like to make more time to visit family as well as read more!

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 November 12, 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

Sue and Bill* Weber

$250,000 AND ABOVE

Anonymous

Raffaella and John Belanich

Alan Benaroya

Susan and Jim Blair

The James Silberrad Brown Foundation

Julia Brown Family

David C. Copley Foundation

Sam B. Ersan*

Esther Fischer

Pam and Hal Fuson

Karen and Warren Kessler

Carol Ann and George Lattimer

The Payne Family Foundation

M&I Pfister Foundation

Linda and Shearn* Platt

Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation

Dave and Phyllis Snyder

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

Denise and Lon Bevers

David Bialis

Catherine & Phil Blair,

Linda & Mel Katz, Manpower San Diego

Nicole A. and Benjamin G. Clay

Stephanie and Richard Coutts

Diane and Charles Culp

Diane and Elliot Feuerstein

Walt Fidler

Anne and Steve Furgal

Lisa Braun Glazer and Jeff Glazer

Linda & Melvyn Katz

In memory of Jim Lester

The Hering Family

Carol and Richard Hertzberg

Arlene Inch

Brooke and Dan* Koehler

Bill and Evelyn Lamden

Curt Leland and Mary DiMatteo

Sandy and Arthur* Levinson

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

Katherine “Kaylan” Thornhill

U.S. Bank

Jo and Howard* Weiner

Cole and Judy Willoughby

Richard* and Joanie Zecher

$50,000 AND ABOVE

Carol Rolf and Steven Adler

Bonnie & Krishna Arora and Family

David A. and Jill Wien Badger

Carolyn and Paul Barber

Cindy and Larry Bloch

Lisa and David Casey

The John D. & Janice W. Cone

Family Trust

Scotty Dale

Kathleen Seely Davis

The den Uijl Family

In Loving Memory of LV

Gary and Karin Eastham

In loving memory of Kenrick “Ken” Wirtz*

Jose Fimbres Moreno*

Karen Wahler and Michael Gay*

William and Martha Gilmer

The Jaime Family Trust

Roy, Peggy, Dean, and Denise Lago

The Peggy and Robert Matthews

Foundation

Admiral Riley* D. Mixson

Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas

Marilyn & Michael Rosen, Juniper and Ivy Restaurant

Richard Sandstrom and Sandra Timmons

Congresswoman Lynn Schenk

Kris and Chris Seeger

Deborah Heitz and Shaw Wagener

Emma and Leo Zuckerman

$25,000 AND ABOVE

Anonymous

Lisa and Dennis Bradley

Gordon Brodfuehrer

Pamela and Jerry Cesak

County of San Diego

The Druck/Silvia Family

Susan E. Dubé

Lisette & Mick Farrell

Dr. John and Susan Fratamico

Janet and Wil Gorrie

Virginia and Peter Jensen

Jeff Light and Teri Sforza

Sig Mickelson*

Sandy and Greg Rechtsteiner

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

Karl and Christina Becker

Edgar and Julie Berner

Diane and Norm Blumenthal

The Boros Family

Sarah* and John Boyer

Annette and Daniel Bradbury

Lori and Richard Brenckman

Sheri Broedlow and Kyle Van Dyke

Beth Callender & Pete Garcia

Carol Randolph, Ph. D. and Robert Caplan, Seltzer Caplan

McMahon Vitek

The Casdorph Family

Angela Chilcott

Kurt and Elizabeth Chilcott

Dr. Samuel M. Ciccati and Kristine J. Ciccati

Thomas Jordan and Meredith M. Clancy

P. Kay Coleman & Janice E. Montle

Dr. William Coleman

Peter V. Czipott and Marisa SorBello

Ann Davies

Caroline S. DeMar

Drs. Edward A. and Martha G. Dennis

George & Jan DeVries

Robert and Nina Doede

In loving memory of Karen

Cooper Ferm*

Michael and Susan Finnane

Gertrude B. Fletcher

K. Forbes

Deborah Pate and John Forrest

4040 Agency - Mary, Bill & John

Judith and William Friedel

Barbara and Doug Fuller

Cheryl J. Hintzen-Gaines and Ira J. Gaines

Vicki Garcia-Golden and Tim Jeffries, Gardiner & Theobald Inc.

Joyce M. Gattas, PhD

Lynn and Charlie Gaylord

In memory of Royce G. Darby*

Kimberly and Jeffrey Goldman

In memory of Samuel Lipman*Clarinetist

The Granada Fund

Robert and Carole Greenes

Carrie and Jim Greenstein

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

Cynthia Thornton and Michael Keenan

Keith and Cheryl Kim

Katherine Kimball

Helen and Sig Kupka

Linda and Tom Lang

Alexis and Steven Larky

Tom and Terry Lewis Foundation

The Li Family

Larry Low and Mikayla Lay

Josephine & Alex Lupinetti*

Scott MacDonald and Patti Kurtz

Daniel and Chris Mahai

Sally and Luis Maizel

Susan and Peter Mallory, in honor of Martha Gilmer

David Marchesani Family

Anne and Andy McCammon

The McComb Family

Katy McDonald

Larry McDonald and Clare WhiteMcDonald

Mark, Amy, Auguste & Paris Melden

In Memory of James C. Moore*

Judith and Neil* Morgan

Clara and Donald Murphy

Patricia R. Nelson

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

EXECUTIVE

SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ADMINISTRATION

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 AND PRODUCTION

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

Ed Estrada Director of Production

Pete Seaney

Director of Stage Operations, Presentations and Rentals

Santiago Venegas II Technical Director

Jason Rothberg Production & Technical Designer

Joel Watts

Audio Director

Beth Hall Production Stage Manager

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

Oscar Gonzalez Assistant Controller

Whitney Hall Staff Accountant

Dakota Young 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 Fienberg

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

Cheri LaZarus

Ticket Service Associate - Lead Subscriptions

Ticket Services Associates:

Kailey Agpaoa, Clelia Cabezas, Levan Korganashvili, Eden Llodrá, Nayeli Valencia

INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT

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

Dan Weaver Facilities Manager

Robert Saucedo

Senior Technician

Peter Perez Lead Facilities Technician

Arturo Ardilla Facilities Technician

Sean Kennedy Director of Information Technology

Jovan Robles IT Operations Manager

German Luna IT Specialist

Shane Cutchall IT Specialist

Roberto Castro Director of Guest Experience

Danielle Litrenta Manager, Guest Experience

Front of House Managers:

Beverly Feinberg, 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

Drew Gomes

Director, Event Operations and Security

Devin Burns Event Operations Manager

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

SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ADMINISTRATION

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

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.

Clockwise: truffle tagliatelle at The Amalfi Llama; offerings at 31ThirtyOne by Deckman's; the Pink Squirrel cocktail at Ponyboy; burgers (on the After Hours menu) at Le Coq.

TASTE TEST 2025

Top 10 New San Diego Restaurants to Watch in the Year Ahead / by

Dining your way through San Diego is an always delicious, but sometimes daunting, endeavor, with so many diverse destinations countywide. To help narrow down the list a little, we’ve rounded up 10 new restaurants—featured in no particular order—all opened in 2024, that have our attention big time heading into 2025, varying in type of cuisine, decor and ambiance. Each offers its own “special something” and a standout dish that passes our taste test. We hope you find a new favorite or two among them in the year ahead. Bon appétit!

{1} For Nostalgic Comfort Cuisine

Point Loma’s mid-century Pearl Hotel houses a new retro-style restaurant and bar: Ponyboy. The brainchild of Service Animals—the hospitality outfit headed by seasoned cocktail whiz Ian Ward (Addison) and Danny

Romero (Wormwood, Two Ducks)—is inspired by the character of the same name in the novel and film, The Outsiders. Feast on nostalgic 1960s fare like fondue for two; potato-crusted tuna casserole; navy beans and bone marrow; grilled Oysters Rockefeller; pineapple-tempura

SARAH DAOUST /

fritters; and “TV Dinners” (aka daily specials), such as fried chicken and FiveAlarm Chili. Also consider the “Juicy Lucy,” a wagyu beef patty stuffed with New School American cheese, topped with Alabama white sauce, and served on sesamepotato brioche, with a side of Ponyboy fries; the Fishermen’s Catch with Parmesan grits; and the Barbacoa Beef Stroganoff. Standout Dish: the beet and hibiscus-cured Deviled Eggs with pistachio-praline mousse and caviar. 1410 Rosecrans St., Point Loma, 619.226.6100, theponyboy.com

{2}

For a Middle East Feast

In North Park, venture inside Leila and be transported to a lush dining oasis inspired by

the bustling night markets of Morocco, complete with a starry ceiling, water features, two bars, and an open kitchen anchored by a showpiece clay oven and Robata grill. On the menu: Middle Eastern dishes and libations that pay homage to CH Projects founder Arsalun Tafazoli’s roots and travels. Expect housemade spreads and sauces; kabobs and skewers with proteins such as chicken and salmon cooked over open fire; and specialties like whole fish and braised, grilled lamb shank. On the cocktail menu, the Camel Clutch is described as “Tehran goes full tiki; life after death”; while Joon is “the ultimate Persian martini, slightly dirty, very Habibi.” There’s also a fun “For Sharing” section of cocktails that serve two to four people; try

Date Night, Caravan 75, Tangier Twilight or Lion’s Milk. Standout Dish: the Chicken Tahchin, with saffron crispy rice, shredded chicken, almonds and apricots. 3956 30th St., North Park, 619.550.5412, leilanorthpark.com

{3}

For Sustainable Seafood

Another North Park hotspot living up to the hype, 31ThirtyOne by Deckman’s is billed as a “cause-based concept

preserving the watershed of San Diego and northern Baja.” The casual fine-dining restaurant and rooftop bar by Michelinstarred chef and farmer, Drew Deckman, and his wife, Paulina Deckman, focuses on ultra sustainability at every level—from ethical farming techniques and ingredients sourced exclusively from local farms and fishermen; to pledging 1% of monthly revenue to helping farmers implement carbon farming projects. Dining options include a four-course menu in the main dining room, along with a la carte family-style dishes, oysters and caviar; a sevencourse tasting experience at the chef’s counter; and cocktails and small plates at rooftop cocktail bar Deck’s @ 3131 (walk-ins only). The menu changes daily but expect plenty of coastal Baja-inspired fare—such as kampachi crudo; swordfish with sunchokes and oxtail; fish collar with cucumber and

Dinner plates at Leila; The Whaling Bar’s posh interior.

scallions; California squab with chanterelles and red kuri squash; and almond cake with figs, olive-oil ice cream and vanilla cream to finish. Standout

Dish: Chef Deckman’s Pacific bluefin tuna, a delicacy that recently has rebounded from the brink of extinction. (An active member of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch’s “Blue Ribbon Task Force” since 2019, Deckman didn’t serve bluefin for more than decade out of concern for preserving the species.) 3131 University Ave., North Park, 619.735.3761, the3131.com

{4} For French Fare & Steaks

Easily 2024’s most anticipated restaurant opening, Le Coq is the Puffer Malarkey Collective’s glam ‘70s Paris supper clubmeets-modern French steakhouse, housed in a 1930s building spanning 7,500 square feet in the heart of La Jolla Village. Ideal for date night and people-watching, Le Coq has earned acclaim for its classic French dishes infused with seasonal SoCal ingredients; premium steaks including dry-aged ribeye and Australian wagyu; inventive cocktails; and authentic desserts like the mille-feuille with vanilla cream and strawberry preserve. Standout

DINING Wine being poured at Cellar Hand; service with a smile at Blanco Cocina + Cantina.

Dish: the short-rib onion tart with Gruyere cheese and caramelized onion.

7837 Herschel Ave., La Jolla, 858.427.1500, lecoq.com

{5} For Craft

Cocktails & Caviar

Stepping inside The Whaling Bar is like being transported to a luxurious piece of La Jolla history. Reopened in February 2024 after a 10-year closure, the iconic cocktail den was frequented by the likes of Gregory Peck and Theodor Geisel (aka “Dr. Seuss”) after it first opened in 1949. Inside the renovated space—which is outfitted in emeraldtufted booths and brass pendant lights—you’ll find stylish patrons sipping fancy cocktails like the gin-based Rolls Royce and the Truffle Old Fashioned. And thanks to executive

chef Brian Redzikowski, The Whaling Bar offers delectable dining, too. Indulge in Osetra caviar, liver ‘n’ onions, Riojabraised short-rib bao, Maine scallops and duck meatballs. Standout Dish: “The Hamburger” dessert with caramel cake and vanilla-bean ice cream. 1132 Prospect St., La Jolla, 858.551.3758, lavalencia.com/dining

{6} For Tacos & Tequila

In Coronado, Blanco Cocina + Cantina is a new favorite among visitors and locals alike, putting a fresh spin on Sonoran-style Mexican food. Known for its laid-back party vibe, selection of tequilas and mezcals, and creative margaritas, the restaurant is also popular for its slow-cooked barbecue

pork tacos, enchiladas and burritos. Start with the chicken-tortilla soup and grilled Mexican street corn; finish with the brown-sugar-caramel flan and Chocolate Impossible Cake with dulce de leche pudding and vanilla ice cream; and wash it all down with the Smashed Watermelon margarita. The eatery’s decor is contemporary and warm, punctuated by muted

green seating and banquettes, live greenery, and a large central wraparound bar. Standout Dish: the hearty Tuscan Chimichanga with fillings like chicken tinga and short-rib machaca. 1301 Orange Ave., Coronado, 858.399.4040, blancococinacantina.com

{7 } For Omakase Yakitori

A culinary star on Convoy Street, Yakitori Tsuta is touted as the city's first omakase yakitori restaurant. Savor a multicourse meal by chef Tatsuro Tsuchiya, devoted primarily to yakitori (which translates to “grilled chicken”), comprising bitesized pieces served on skewers. Expect to sample various chicken parts (e.g., gizzards, hearts, wings, thighs and chicken skin); as well as chicken meatballs, smoked duck, house-made sesame tofu, grilled rice balls, Japanese egg custard, quail

eggs and soups—all at the chef’s discretion and seating just 10 guests at a time. Standout Dish: The fun part is that it changes by the night! 3860 Convoy St., Suite 100, Kearny Mesa, exploretock. com/yakitori-tsuta

{8} For Hyper-Local California Cuisine

An instant hit in Hillcrest since opening in June 2024, Cellar Hand takes its “hyperlocal” commitment very seriously, serving coastal California fare infused with Mediterranean flavors—all sourced directly from local farmers and fisheries. The dinner menu offers Baja scallop crudo, Thompson Heritage chicken-liver pate and Berkshire pork, artichoke ravioli, and grilled whole rockfish. And as Cellar Hand is the first full-service restaurant by the same family behind Pali Wine Co., expect an expertly curated selection of vino that is perfect for pairing. Standout Dish: the House Labneh with rainbow-trout caviar, sorrel, ruby grapefruit, sumac salt and wood-fired pita. 1440 University Ave., Hillcrest, 619.876.4099, cellarhandhillcrest.com

{9 } For Unexpected Daytime Delights

A pleasant surprise in La Jolla, Comedor Nishi

is a casual daytime eatery with heart, serving Mexican-inspired breakfast and lunch plates laced with subtle nods to Japan and Europe. Choose from breakfast dishes such as lamb-barbacoa sopes, cured-salmon tostadas with yuzu-kosho guacamole, and huevos rancheros with roasted turkey breast and green beans; for lunch: half-duck carnitas and short-rib braseada with veggies; and sweets like the doublechocolate miso cookie, peaches with cream, and seasonal pies. The cozycute restaurant is outfitted in warm woods, vibrant pops of turquoise and orange, and white brick walls. Standout Dish: the Torta de Cochinita Pibil

Navy beans and bone marrow with a side of toast at Ponyboy.

as baked carbonara with taglioni and ham; truffle taglliatelle; prosciuttoarugula-goat-cheese pizza with artichokes; and literally mouthwatering, wood-fired steaks. The restaurant is spacious and beautiful, too; perfect for nearly every occasion with low lighting, mod farmhouse decor, and ample patio dining with firepits. Standout Dish: the Milamessi: crispy panko-crusted beef filet with pomodoro sauce, melted brie and French fries—worth every single carnivorous calorie. 4575 La Jolla Village Drive, UTC, 858.224.9606, amalfillama.com

FROM PAGE 10 League, and the Outer Critics Circle.

can also expect hit songs from the movie, including “The Power of Love,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Earth Angel,” and “Back in Time.”

Also for the first time in San Diego, Jan. 28-Feb. 2, Some Like It Hot is the winner of four Tony Awards, including “Best Choreography” and “Best Costumes”; and the Grammy Award for “Best Musical Theater Album.” The story of two musicians forced to flee Chicago after witnessing a mob hit, Some Like It Hot won more theater awards than any show this season; it was named “Best Musical” by the Drama Desk, The Drama

The film musical Wicked made a big splash this winter, and San Diego fans have a chance to see the musical that inspired it when Wicked returns to the Civic Theatre, Feb. 5-March 2. The “untold true story of the Witches of Oz” has won three Tony Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards, and 10 Outer Critics Circle Awards; and the original cast album won a Grammy Award for “Best Musical Theater Album.” In total, the original Broadway production of Wicked has been nominated for at least one award every year since its opening in 2003, winning 33 of the 64 nominations.

CONT’D.

In spring: the San Diego premiere of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical, May 27-June 1. Created in collaboration with Neil Diamond himself, it’s the uplifting true story of how a kid from Brooklyn “became a chartbusting, show-stopping American rock icon.” It’s followed June 24-July 6 by the San Diego premiere of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, winner of 10 Tony Awards including “Best Musical,” which brings Baz Luhrmann’s film to life on stage. Directed by Tony Award-winner Alex Timbers, Moulin Rouge! The Musical has a book by Tony Award-winner John Logan; music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Tony

February 21-23, 2025 at the San Diego Hilton Del Mar

The San Diego Jazz Party has more than 20 of today’s top Mainstream Jazz Performance Artists from around the world. Enjoy live music in an informal jazz club environment at the San Diego Hilton in Del Mar. Attendees can choose the full weekend or special focused programs within the Jazz Party. The Hilton Hotel is offering special rates for those who choose to stay at the hotel.

You may come for the full weekend as a Patron with reserved table seating and full access to all performances including a brunch on Saturday. Or you may purchase tickets for Friday, Saturday, or Sunday performances. This is a unique opportunity to hear some of today’s greatest Jazz Artists performing together right here in San Diego.

Friday Night $55

This intimate evening features Denny Ilett crooning the songs and music from Ol’ Blue Eyes, along with other great classics performed by our talented musicians.

Saturday Night $55

A Taste of Jazz features

Lizzy & the Triggermen performing ‘30s & ‘40s big band favorites. Dance and enjoy the music from The Great American Songbook

Denny Ilett

Lizzy

Austen Danielle Bohmer (left) and Lauren Samuels on tour in Wicked

THE CONRAD

Home of La Jolla Music Society

Two iconic dance companies are coming to San Diego

Saturday, January 25, 2025 • 7:30 PM

Civic Theatre

Martha Graham Dance Company

Celebrate the company’s 100th Anniversary with this once-in-a-lifetime performance. Witness the original choreography to Copland’s classic Appalachian Spring in addition to mesmerizing contemporary works that are a must-see for any dance lover.

Thursday, February 13, 2025 • 7:30 PM

Balboa Theatre

Twyla Tharp Dance

Twyla Tharp rings in her 60th anniversary by sharing her Olivier-nominated Diabelli, set to Beethoven’s masterpiece of the same name, and SLACKTIDE, a new dance to Philip Glass’ iconic Aguas da Amazonia, arranged by Third Coast Percussion.

Award-winner Justin Levine; and choreography by Tony Award-winner Sonya Tayeh.

San Diego’s own Broadway legend Jack O’Brien directs a new musical, Shucked, at the Civic Theatre, Aug. 12-17. O’Brien ran The Old Globe for 25 years and himself has three Tonys to his name. During its recent Broadway run, Shucked the comedy about a small-town woman who leaves home to find a solution to the mysterious death of the corn in her county—received nine Tony nominations, including “Best Musical,” and cast member Alex Newell won for “Best Featured Actor in a Musical.” Shucked features a book by Tony Award-winner Robert Horn (Tootsie); as well as a score by the Grammy–winning songwriting team of FEATURE

Davis explains. “It’s just pure fun. I laughed during the entire show.”

Finally, additional season productions include Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, March 28-30; the return of Hamilton, May 6-18; and The Book of Mormon, June 10-15. All shows are at the Civic Theatre.

“The season is rich with great titles,” says Davis.“If you’re a theater fan, you’re going be thrilled; if you’re not a fan, you’ll become one.”

For more info on Broadway San Diego’s 47th season, show tickets and season packages, please visit broadwaysd.com

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 new Performances program platform, accessed on any digital device, is among the more enduring innovations to have come out of the pandemic. The 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.

The touchless platform 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 features include video and audio streams, translations and expanded biographies.

For those who consider printed

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.

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.

When theaters and concert halls reopened after their long intermission, the digital Performances was but one more reason for audience excitement. Activate your link and enjoy the shows. —CALEB WACHS

PHOTO IS COURTESY OF THE OLD GLOBE