Performances Magazine San Diego | San Diego Symphony, September 2024

Welcome Home!

Jacobs Music Center Inaugural Performance

75 YEARS LIGHTING THE WAY FORWARD

The University of San Diego has confronted humanity’s challenges for 75 years by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. USD is a proud partner of the San Diego Symphony and celebrates the triumphant return of the Jacobs Music Center.

Dear friends,

Today marks an important day in the history of The San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association as we return to the remodeled Jacobs Music Center to begin our 2024-25 Jacobs Masterworks Season.

I am honored to serve as Chair of the Association Board of Directors, and note this project has involved the hard work and commitment of countless individuals — our beloved Orchestra, Music Director, financial sponsors, Board members, Martha Gilmer and her Management Team along with our valued employees and volunteers, as well as the dedicated design and construction crews who performed the work.

I want particularly to thank my predecessor as Board Chair, Hal Fuson, on whose watch the project began and who steadfastly remained involved in our weekly construction status meetings and progress reviews following conclusion of his term.

We can all be proud of our new and improved Jacobs Music Center. The construction team maintained the historic look and feel of our century-old home while including state-of-the-art acoustical treatments to enhance the experience of the audience and ensemble alike. Having heard the orchestra rehearse in their newly remodeled historic venue, I know you will be pleased with the results, as I am.

Please join me in celebrating our newly remodeled Jacobs Music Center and our collective commitment to the advancement of our Orchestra and enrichment of our entire region. It is my hope that with the historic reopening of Jacobs Music Center, all of us can continue to embrace the Association’s mission of Changing Lives Through Music.

David R. Snyder

San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association Board Chair

Dear friends,

FROM THE DESK OF WARREN KESSLER

There are very few orchestras in the United States who own their symphony hall. An orchestra’s identity, its ability to control the scheduling of rehearsals and concerts, and the ability to maintain high standards of operations are all necessary for the health and growth of an orchestra. These attributes were not attainable when I joined the San Diego Symphony Board in 1981. However, they were always a dream we wanted to fulfill.

In 1984 a rather audacious plan by the Board of the Symphony to buy the Fox Theatre and the entire block on which it stands was developed. We quickly put the block in escrow, and Blaine Quick, a member of the Board, arranged the sale of the land to the Charlton Raynd Corporation. They soon developed the entire block returning the theater to the Symphony resulting in our own hall which opened on November 2, 1985.

In 2019, I was present at the home of Joan and Irwin Jacobs along with San Diego Symphony President and C.E.O. Martha Gilmer, our newly appointed Music Director Rafael Payare, our Board Chair David Snyder, and the renowned acoustician Paul Scarbrough who knew our hall well as he had been involved in some of the previous acoustic treatment of it.

The rest is history! Immediately after the opening of The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, Jacobs Music Center was shuttered for a massive renovation which you are about to experience. This magnificent renovation of our home could not have been accomplished without the vision and generosity of Joan and Irwin Jacobs. They were the founders of the San Diego Symphony Foundation which they established to support the long-term stability and strength of this city’s musical gem.

The reopening of Jacobs Music Center is an epic, seminal moment for the San Diego Symphony. Please join me in relishing and enjoying this great moment in our history.

Warren Kessler San Diego Symphony Foundation Board Chair

Dear friends,

Joan and I have had the privilege of travelling all over the world in our life together. Whenever we were in a city we would try to hear music, see ballet or theater, and visit art museums. Culture is so important throughout our world, and we loved to make that a part of our lives.

We have been to some of the greatest concert halls in the world – Carnegie Hall in New York, The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and the Suntory Hall in Minato City, Tokyo, Japan.

Wherever we went, we always looked forward to coming back home to San Diego. And we always loved hearing our own orchestra, the San Diego Symphony.

It was our dream to make sure that our orchestra had a truly excellent hall to perform in, and for the musicians to reach their full artistic potential supported by superb acoustics. We wanted the residents of our region to be proud and inspired to attend concerts, and our visitors to San Diego to want to come and listen to our orchestra in a truly exceptional hall.

Since planning began in 2019, we have watched each step of the way as that dream has become a reality. I could not be more excited at the opening of our newly renovated Jacobs Music Center. I believe that the acoustics and beauty of our hall will contribute another major attraction to our city and encourage our musicians to ever greater performances.

Irwin Jacobs Honorary Lifetime Director

Dear friends,

I will always remember January 12, 2019, which is the day when I sat with Irwin and Joan Jacobs, Paul Scarbrough, members of our board, and Martha to talk about renovating Jacobs Music Center. At one point Irwin turned to me and asked, “What do you want in a concert hall?” My mind went crazy with ideas. I was still Music Director Designate, and here I was being given an opportunity to offer my thoughts on a major project—renovating the orchestra’s indoor home.

Of course, my mind immediately went to the acoustics of the hall, which we all were in agreement needed attention and I listened to Paul’s thoughtful ideas about how to make improvements. I identified the need to play the larger works in the symphonic repertoire, including choral works, opera in concert, and many more possibilities, which made me think about a choral terrace that can also allow the audience to sit behind the orchestra. Of course, one piece came to mind immediately: Mahler’s 3rd Symphony. For this, we needed a design which allows the full orchestra complete access to every square foot of stage space.

The conversation continued to discussions of adequate space backstage to support our musicians. Eventually we met with the architects, acoustician and all of the orchestra members to hear their input. As I have said many times, I encouraged everyone to believe that “the sky’s the limit”.

Now is the moment we have been waiting for since the earliest discussions in 2019—the reopening of the unimaginably beautiful, acoustically thrilling and creatively designed Jacobs Music Center. This extraordinary investment will ensure that the orchestra has the best possible space to make the musical impact of which we have dreamed. As Music Director, words alone are not adequate to express my gratitude and excitement at the opening. So, in addition to words, we will express it through the music, each and every note filled with excitement and gratitude.

Rafael Payare Music Director

Dear friends,

FROM THE DESK OF MARTHA GILMER

September 28, 2024 will be a date remembered by all who are connected to the San Diego Symphony, and those who will walk through the Jacobs Music Center doors in the years to come. Tonight we will hear the first official performance by the orchestra in our renovated hall, intended to be a destination for audiences well into the future.

Each time I have entered the hall in its progression toward this date I am struck by its history and its potential. It is timeless. The engineering that provides the infrastructure has stood the test of time and will support this building for decades to come. The original 1929 craftsmanship has been respected and lovingly restored by artisans of today. Our architects’ reimagining of the use of space will support an orchestra of today and tomorrow.

When I walk into this quiet space, I am overwhelmed by the anticipation of what is to come. Everyone who has had the opportunity to experience the hall in the months leading up to the reopening has been moved by the preservation of its history, and the refreshing of its spirit in and for the 21st century. They talk about the sense of calm and serenity with the beautiful sage green seats, the ornamental décor of the ceiling and walls, and the stunning medallion overhead. All give us moments of reprieve, stepping away from our outside world into a place where magic happens.

As we sit in anticipation of tonight’s concert, we are also called to imagine the future. It is a mixture of solemnity and pure joy that surrounds this occasion, and concerts to come.

As always, our musicians will be at the center of the festivities, led by Music Director Rafael Payare and featuring Jeff Thayer, Alisa Weilerstein, Inon Barnatan, Hera Hyesang Park, and composer Texu Kim. It is our privilege to sit in the stillness and anticipation of the first note all the way to the moment of silence after the last – and what a privilege that is. None of this would be possible without Irwin and Joan Jacobs, and we all pay tribute to their vision and generosity.

My deepest gratitude to all who have played your critical part in making this rebirth possible for today’s audiences and for all who will come after us. May they too find the magic within these walls.

Sincerely,

Martha A. Gilmer President and Chief Executive Officer

Dear friends,

As Mayor of San Diego, it is my special honor to welcome you to the reopening of Jacobs Music Center, the spectacularly renovated indoor home of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, and to congratulate the Orchestra musicians as you return to your home to downtown!

I want to acknowledge the tremendous achievements of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association over the last 10 years. In this time, Rafael Payare, Martha Gilmer and the Board of Directors have designed, funded and built two monumental performance venues, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park and Jacobs Music Center, bringing joy to so many San Diegans and attention from around the country to our city. Of course, San Diego would not be what it is today without Dr. Irwin and Joan Jacobs. They have believed in this city for decades and have contributed greatly to advancements in education, medicine, social justice and arts and culture.

With these venues, the orchestra has reinforced its commitment to a thriving arts community in downtown San Diego, full of live music and the inspiring experience available when we listen together in stunningly beautiful surroundings.

I know you all join me in sending our deepest appreciation to the entire Symphony team and, of course, to our beloved musicians. You have made San Diego a better place to live and have significantly invested in our future as a cultural center for future generations of our residents and visitors.

I encourage all San Diegans to visit Jacobs Music Center to experience a taste of civic history combined with state-of-the-art acoustics spectacularly on display in the beautiful concert hall, and to revel in the experience of listening to live music.

Sincerely,

Todd Gloria Mayor of San Diego

ARCHITECTURE AND THE EXPERIENCE OF LIVE MUSIC

The poet Goethe once told a friend:

“I’ve found a page among my papers where I describe architecture as ‘frozen music’. There’s something in that, you know. The state of mind produced by architecture is similar to the effect of music.”

Goethe was putting his finger on something even more important than he himself knew.

Two centuries later, Paul Scarbrough, the inspired creator of the amazing acoustic of our wonderful San Diego Symphony Orchestra’s new Jacobs Music Center, puts it this way: Music – and especially symphonic music - is made from a dialogue between the musicians and the room.

What does Paul mean? Too often in our lives today we experience music as something fixed, recorded, digitally preserved, and possible to replay in exactly the same way at the push of a button and an endless number of times. But that’s not what live music is. And especially not symphonic music

Live music is not a dead object, but a living experience, fluid, always different, endlessly changing. A recording of a great musical performance is like a photograph of a great painting or a fabulous waterfall in the mountains. It’s beautiful, but it is not the same as the live experience. So, what happens when we hear live music in a great hall – or ‘room’, as Paul Scarbrough calls it?

The room is an almost magical construction: it’s made, on the one hand, of the air contained within it , which vibrates

as we send sounds through it; and on the other, of the array of walls and surfaces which surround and contain that air, some flat, some curved, some porous, some hard, some soft.

When a musician plays a note, the vibrations of that note fly out in waves towards the surrounding surfaces and are then thrown back in an almost infinite variety of different ways. And on their way back these waves meet other waves and other vibrations coming in the opposite direction, and all these waves mix and combine in a thousand different ways. Like the gorgeous colors of a sunset or the shimmering of the ocean.

It’s like a pond. You throw a pebble into it and the ripples expand in every direction and meet other ripples coming in the opposite direction. And the combination of all these ripples is always changing and in motion, never fixed and never the same. It is a living thing.

A musician who throws a sound – an acoustic ‘pebble’ – into the beautiful vibrating space of a great room like the Jacobs Music Center can change that sound in an almost infinite number of ways. Not just by making it louder or softer, but by altering the colors and the textures, using their breath, their fingers and their ears. By using, in other words, their bodies and their imaginations (and maybe those two things are actually the same!).

And that’s just one musician.

Now take a symphony orchestra. Let’s say, 80 musicians or thereabouts. Each is throwing pebbles of sound into the air Acoustic waves in the most dazzling combinations are flying about in every direction.

But orchestral musicians are doing a lot more than that, every second listening to one another, and changing – from moment to moment – what they do in order to combine in a thousand different ways with the endlessly kaleidoscopic waves being created in real time by their colleagues all around them.

So, listening to a symphony orchestra is like watching a vast flock of birds swirling through the sky. Or – as the Ancient Greeks thought we could actually do – hearing the stars and planets revolving in the cosmos.

That ’s why every live performance of a piece of music is and should always be completely different and unique. In a hall like ours, you could hear Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony a hundred times and every time it would sound in a new way. And we, the listeners, would hear the ‘same music’ in a different way.

And that brings us to the most important element in a great hall: the audience.

Paul Scarbrough’s ‘dialogue’ is actually a ‘trialogue’, made up of the room and its vibrating air and surfaces; the musicians and the thousands of notes that they are playing; and the rest of us sitting in the audience and listening with our whole bodies. For, live music is nothing without an audience. And listening is never just a passive experience (‘letting the music wash over us’) but an active experience from every point of view. It starts with the imaginative creation by Paul Scarbrough and his team of this world-class new acoustic space in the Jacobs Music Center. It continues with the imaginative response of the musicians of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra as they play to the room and the room

speaks back to them (you might call this a dance between the musicians and the hall). And then comes our imaginative physical and emotional response in the audience to this endlessly changing acoustic life flowing around us. From that come the joys we feel, the tears we shed, as we listen.

And this living and reciprocal play and movement of sound doesn’t even stop there. For as the musicians hear how we are listening, they will change the way they play in order to respond to us. And then the air and surfaces of the new hall will change to respond to them, in yet more ways that no one could have predicted.

Two and half thousand years ago, an Ancient Greek philosopher is supposed to have said:

“All things are in motion and nothing is at rest. You cannot step into the same river twice.” n

— Gerard McBurney

THANK YOU TO OUR JACOBS MUSIC CENTER INAUGURAL GALA SPONSORS

The San Diego Symphony gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Jacobs Music Center Inaugural Gala attendees. Proceeds from this event directly support the Symphony’s artistic, educational, and community engagement initiatives.

TABLE SPONSORS

FORTISSIMO $200,000

Joan* and Irwin Jacobs

CRESCENDO $100,000

Dr. Paul and Geneviève Jacobs

FORTE $50,000

Dianne Bashor

Una Davis, Jack McGrory, Kit and Karen Sickels

In honor of Philip Gildred Sr.

Jerri-Ann and Gary Jacobs

Karen Foster Silberman and Jeff Silberman

MEZZO FORTE $25,000

The Conrad Prebys Foundation

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston Trusteeship & Friends of Martha Gilmer

Van Cleef & Arpels

HOST COMMITTEE

$20,000

Una Davis Family Foundation

Dr. Paul and Geneviève Jacobs

$10,000

Mr. and Mrs. Brian K Devine

Burt and Sheli Rosenberg

Penny and Louis Rosso

$5,000

David Bialis

Kathleen Seely Davis

Daniel J. and Phyllis Epstein

Pam and Hal Fuson

Arlene Inch

Kerr Family Foundation

Judith and Neil* Morgan

Peggy and Peter Preuss

Rady Foundation

Colin Seid and Dr. Nancy Gold

Jean and Gary Shekhter

Jeanette Stevens

Kaylan Thornhill

Van Cleef & Arpels

Sheryl and Harvey White

CORPORATE SPONSORS

*Deceased

TICKET SPONSORS

CRESCENDO $10,000

Arlene Inch

Dr. Bob and June Shillman

FORTE $5,000

Karen and Don Cohn

Richard and Sharon Gabriel

Richard and Lynda Kerr

Karen and Warren Kessler

Sandy Levinson

Evelyn and Ernest Rady

Robert Caplan and Carol Randolph

Mary Walshok

MEZZO FORTE $2,500

Anonymous (2)

Lisa and Jim Behun

The Bjorg Family

Dr. Anthony Boganey

Julia Brown

Nikki A. and Ben G. Clay

John D. Cone, Ph.D.; Janice W. Cone, Ph.D.

Richard and Stephanie Coutts

Susana Cruz Harrison

Ann Davies

Kathleen Seely

Davis Barbara Dewitt

Hon. James Emerson and Patricia Humecke

Deborah Pate and John Forrest

Norman Forrester and Bill Griffin

Calvin Frantz and Elizabeth Baird

Scott and Tracey Frudden

Pam and Hal Fuson

Dr. Joyce Gattas & Jay Jeffcoat

Kathy Glick and John Sanders

Ann and Ben Haddad

Pamela Hamilton Lester

Erika Horn

Nancy and Stephen Howard

Sheri Lynne Jamieson

Haeyoung Kong Tang

Dr. William and Evelyn Lamden

Michael Magerman and Kelly Greenleaf

David Marchesani

Northern Trust

Andrea Oster

Linda and Shearn* Platt

Jane and Jon Pollock

Sally and Steve Rogers

Elena Romanowsky

Penny and Louis Rosso

Jean and Gary Shekhter

Dave and Phyllis Snyder

Dr. Robert E. and Meredith Sobol

Jeanette Stevens

Rod and Gloria Stone

Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft

Jayne and Bill Turpin

Richard and Veronica Walker

Sue and Bill* Weber

Jo and Howard* Weiner

Kathryn and James Whistler

Cole and Judy Willoughby

MJ Wittman

Mitchell Woodbury and Juliana Schaefer

Carol L. Young

Sarah and Marc Zeitlin

BUILDING A SOUND TOMORROW

JACOBS MUSIC CENTER RENOVATION & ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN

The San Diego Symphony acknowledges the following donors who have made a gift of $10,000 or more toward the BUILDING A SOUND TOMORROW campaign, which supports the renovation of Jacobs Music Center and the San Diego Symphony Foundation’s endowment fund. With profound gratitude, we celebrate these generous supporters who have made a commitment to the future of music in our community. To make a gift please call (619)237-1969 or email campaign@sandiegosymphony.org.

The following listing reflects pledges or gifts entered as of August 8, 2024

◊ denotes 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

Lou and Penny Rosso and the Rosso Family

Robert Rubenstein and Marie Raftery

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

$500,000 - $999,999

Anonymous

The James Silberrad Brown Foundation

Dr. Paul and Geneviève Jacobs

Dr. Seuss Foundation

Mitchell R. Woodbury

$250,000 - $499,999

Anonymous

Michele and Jules Arthur

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

Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

Donald and Gayle ◊ Slate

James E. and Kathryn A. Whistler

$100,000 - $249,999

Anonymous

Eloise and Warren Batts

David Bialis

Drs. Edward A. and Martha G. Dennis

The Fuson Family

In honor of Ted and Audrey Geisel

Tom and Carolina Gildred

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

Chris and Kris Seeger

Dave and Phyllis Snyder

Sue and Bill ◊ Weber

Jo and Howard ◊ Weiner

$25,000 - $49,999

Una Davis Family

Janet and Wil Gorrie

The Hong-Patapoutian Family

In honor of Willard Howard Kline

In memory of Alex and Judy McDonald

Linda and Shearn* Platt

Ingrid M. Van Moppes

Waldron Family Trust

$10,000 - 24,999

Susan and Peter Crotty

Peter Czipott and Marisa SorBello

Monica Fimbres

In memory of Lillian Hauser

The Rev. Michael Kaehr

Joan Lewan Trust

David Marchesani

Jack McGrory

Deborah Pate and John Forrest

Joan Salb Trust

Linda Thomas

In Honor of John Zygowicz

$50,000 - $99,999

Carol Rolf and Steven Adler

Lisa and Ben Arnold

Richard A. Samuelson

MAKING AN IMPACT

BUILDING A SOUND TOMORROW

It is an honor to celebrate the generosity and vision of our most dedicated supporters. These extraordinary donors have played an essential role in the renovation of Jacobs Music Center and the future of the San Diego Symphony by contributing to the Building A Sound Tomorrow campaign. Their commitment ensures that the San Diego Symphony continues to inspire and enrich our community for generations to come. Read on to learn what this legacy means to them and why they chose to invest in the future of music in our city.

JOAN AND IRWIN JACOBS

Joan and Irwin Jacobs have been pillars of support for the San Diego Symphony, beginning long before their groundbreaking gift of $120 million in 2002. This transformative contribution, the largest of its kind to a symphony orchestra at the time, provided the financial stability and resources needed for the Symphony to elevate its artistic standards and expand its reach. Their generosity laid the foundation for the Symphony’s evolution into a premier cultural institution, allowing it to attract world-class musicians, present innovative programming, and foster a deep connection with the community.

Their commitment to the Symphony did not stop there. Joan and Irwin played a pivotal role in the creation of The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, a visionary project that reimagined the Symphony’s summer concerts. The stunning waterfront venue, completed in 2021, is a testament to Joan and Irwin’s belief in the power of music to unite and inspire. The Rady Shell has quickly become a beloved cultural landmark in San Diego, offering an unparalleled outdoor concert experience that attracts diverse audiences and showcases the Symphony in a vibrant, accessible setting.

The reopening of the beautifully renovated Jacobs Music Center marks the latest chapter in the Jacobs family’s extraordinary legacy of support. This newly transformed venue, named in their honor, represents a significant investment in the Symphony’s future, providing a state-of-the-art home for the orchestra that enhances both the artistic experience for musicians and the concert experience for audiences. The renovations include cutting-edge acoustics, modernized facilities, and expanded spaces for community engagement, ensuring that the Jacobs Music Center will continue to be a cultural hub for generations to come.

Through their unwavering philanthropy, Joan and Irwin Jacobs have profoundly shaped the San Diego Symphony’s trajectory, ensuring its vitality and success for the future. Their visionary support has not only elevated the Symphony to new heights but also enriched the cultural fabric of San Diego, making world-class music accessible to all. As the Symphony celebrates the reopening of the Jacobs Music Center, it stands as a testament to the enduring impact of Joan and Irwin’s generosity and their belief in the transformative power of the arts.

San Diego Symphony’s 2024-25 Season is dedicated to the memory of Joan K. Jacobs.

ELAINE GALINSON AND HERB SOLOMON

“We have been motivated for many decades to support the San Diego Symphony primarily because we consider it to be the prime performing cultural treasure of our San Diego community. And the current state-of-the-art renovation of Jacobs Music Center will ensure it continues to contribute at a high level to the musical pleasure of young and old, residents and visitors far into the future. We also honor the dedicated lay and professional leadership that consistently strives for excellence and has brought us to this day of celebration on the path to future successes.“

PENNY AND LOU ROSSO

“

Twelve years ago, we began attending classical concerts at Jacobs Music Center and fell in love with the sounds of the Symphony. When the opportunity arose to improve Jacobs Music Center, we naturally wanted to help enhance the structure and sound quality for everyone who attends. The Jacobs family’s generosity in advancing the arts in San Diego inspired us to contribute. The San Diego Symphony has given us many happy evenings with our children and grandchildren. With the reopening of Jacobs Music Center, we hope our entire family will attend more classical concerts and continue to support this wonderful group of musicians.”

MAKING AN IMPACT

BUILDING A SOUND TOMORROW

ROBERT A. RUBENSTEIN M.D. AND MARIE G. RAFTERY

“Music must be an integral part of America’s Finest City, both for today and for future generations. The San Diego Symphony brings great joy to our lives and to the lives of our community, across all age groups and interests. Even if just for a moment, it makes things better. The renovation of this classic building continues the legacy and heritage of the San Diego Symphony. The elegance of its surroundings align with the splendor of the orchestra. We are inspired to be part of this journey, and we want the influence of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra to endure over the years.”

KATHERINE “KAYLIN” THORNHILL

“The Rady Shell provided a safe way to bring back live music for many of us—musicians and audience alike—and has been a real gift to the entire San Diego community. When the plans for the renovation of Jacobs Music Center were revealed, with major changes to the HVAC system, detailed acoustical enhancements, and improved accessibility for patrons, all while preserving the historic features of the building, I knew I wanted to be part of it.”

KAREN AND JEFF SILBERMAN

“The San Diego Symphony has been an important part of our family’s philanthropic legacy, and we believe that every major city must have a vibrant art and culture environment for the benefit of the entire community. We are grateful to have grown up with the Symphony in our lives and aspire to share this experience with the broader community. By supporting this campaign, we hope to ensure that the Symphony will have an enduring impact for generations to come, providing extraordinary musical experiences for all San Diegans.”

PAMELA HAMILTON LESTER IN MEMORY OF JAMES A LESTER

“The San Diego Symphony proved with The Rady Shell that its plans for the future were not only spectacular but achievable. Now, the renovation of Jacobs Music Center is a stunning achievement. I am grateful for the opportunity to support the Symphony and help sustain its success by donating to the Campaign in memory of my husband, James A. (Jim) Lester. The Symphony held a special place in Jim’s heart.“

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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 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 CREATION OF THE NEW JACOBS MUSIC CENTER

Tonight you are the first public audience to experience the ambitious transformation of Jacobs Music Center, the San Diego Symphony’s historic home. The revitalized venue will greatly enhance the musical and performance experience for artists and audiences alike while honoring the legacy of the nearly 100-year-old Fox Theatre. The renovation realizes the vision of many people throughout the institution over the past three decades, resulting in a myriad of programming and community building opportunities.

The primary goals of the transformation included:

• IMPROVING THE ACOUSTICS for the musicians and the audience to be on-par with the world’s best concert halls through a custom-designed permanent orchestra enclosure, new orchestra risers tailored to the new stage, and a tunable acoustic canopy that’s a collaboration of theatrical, acoustic, and architectural design

• EXPANDING THE FLEXIBILITY OF THE STAGE, including the addition of a raised permanent choral terrace around the stage. The addition allows the Symphony to perform a greater variety of large works with chorus throughout the season and will also provide audiences with unique seating opportunities when not being used by the chorus

• ENHANCING THE AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE with new seats, improved ADA access, better sightlines, reconfigured seating sections with additional aisles, and a completely reshaped main seating level. This seating design will allow the hall to be configured in new and flexible ways, supporting a greater range and scale of varying musical works and ensemble sizes

• UPGRADING ELEMENTS OF THE CONCERT-GOING EXPERIENCE with enhanced stage and theatrical lighting, an improved sound system, and an integrated video display system

• REPLACING AND RELOCATING THE CURRENT HVAC SYSTEM with state-of-the-art technology, created three key benefits: increasing the amount of air and filtration and fresh air within the hall; decreasing the amount of ambient noise from mechanical systems within the performance space; and opening up vital performance support spaces through the reconfiguration of the equipment

• ESTABLISHING NEW DEDICATED ANCILLARY SPACES, enabling the Symphony to provide intimate music for more students and families in Learning and Community Engagement programs

• PROVIDING THE MUSICIANS WITH NEW ENSEMBLE AND REHEARSAL ROOMS, an expanded music library, dressing rooms, visiting artist spaces, an artist reception room, and climate-controlled instrument storage

THE CREATION OF THE NEW JACOBS MUSIC CENTER

The project was designed by architectural firm HGA in collaboration with acoustician Paul Scarbrough of Akustiks and theater planner Schuler Shook. Major upgrades to the main mechanical systems of Jacobs Music Center were also completed, which not only significantly enhance the comfort within the hall but also contribute to the hall’s acoustic quality. The revitalized hall opens just three years after the San Diego Symphony opened The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park on San Diego Bay.

JACOBS MUSIC CENTER DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

ARCHITECT

John Frane Design Principal, HGA

Jim Moore Principal-in-Charge, HGA

ACOUSTICIAN

Paul Scarbrough Principal, Akustiks, Inc.

THEATER PLANNERS

Josh Cushner Principal, Schuler Shook

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT Rudolph & Sletten

CIVIL & STRUCTURAL BWE Engineers

MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, & PLUMBING HGA

CONSULTANTS

Bob Knight Organ

Jensen Hughes Code

Cost Plus Cost

Photo courtesy of the San Diego History Center

Photo courtesy of the San Diego History Center

DESIGN &

CONSTRUCTION TEAM: AKUSTIKS

Akustiks was excited to renew its long-standing relationship with the San Diego Symphony, and to team again with HGA and Schuler Shook to undertake the renovations to the Jacobs Music Center. Akustiks specializes in the design of performance spaces, with a particular focus on spaces for music. The multidisciplinary team at Akustiks, which blends backgrounds in music, acoustics, architecture, and engineering, seeks to create spaces that promote a deep connection between performers and their audiences. The firm’s practice is based upon its extensive study of the historic concert halls that gave rise to the Western symphonic music tradition, as well as ongoing research into performance practice and concert hall design. Recognized today as one of the leading acoustical consultancies in the world, Akustiks has a reputation for collaborating closely with their clients to ensure that a completed project doesn’t simply meet, but exceeds a client’s needs and expectations. Learn more about Akustiks at: www.akustiks.com.

Paul Scarbrough, Principal at Akustiks, Inc.

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM: HGA

HGA has been thrilled to work with the Symphony and the world class team of consultants to help realize this project. The design team, led by HGA Architects’ Jim Moore as managing principal and John Frane as lead designer, was instantly taken by the original Fox Theater; beautifully proportioned and enveloped with lyrical plasterwork. This composition, a unique balance of formality and whimsy, embodies its nearly 100-year history as part of the cultural fabric of San Diego. The opportunity to transform this cherished space into a 21st century concert hall for the Symphony and the community to thrive has been a tremendous honor.

The renovation work at the Jacobs Music Center has been all encompassing, permeating almost every aspect of the building. The most transformative changes benefit from structural modifications to deepen the stage, raise the stage opening, and enable the construction of a permanent acoustic enclosure. This enclosure, paired with a series of tunable overhead reflectors, optimizes sound distribution. This new configuration adds a choral terrace affording an expanded repertoire, comfortably accommodating larger works like Mahler’s symphony No. 2. Additionally, the design flexibility supports more intimate audience experiences for smaller works right on stage. New seating throughout the hall, and a reconfigured orchestra level, enhance the

aural and visual connections between the audience and performers.

In addition to improving the health and safety of the venue, the systems upgrades have enhanced acoustic isolation while the reconfiguration has captured new space for essential missing programs for the public as well as for musicians and staff. An instrumental and completely invisible strategy has repurposed the former shoulders of the stage house, gaining new suites of rooms for events while also significantly growing production, practice, and music library capacity. These improvements include essential musicians’ amenities to bring Jacobs Music Center in line with peer institutions to compete for the best talent.

Respecting, rejuvenating, and enhancing the hall’s historic character, an imaginative and inspiring collection of Spanish Baroque details, drove the integration of the design between existing and new elements. Meticulous care accompanied every aspect of the renovation to achieve these aspirations. The new architectural elements draw from the cadence, character, profiles, and colors of the playful details that envelope the hall providing the conceptual and formal inspiration to create a harmonious dialogue between their respective eras.

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM: HGA

John Frane, Design Principal at HGA

Jim Moore, Principal-in-Charge at HGA

“ ”

The state of mind produced by architecture is similar to the effect of music.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Photo courtesy of Rudolph & Sletten

A COLLECTION OF CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS

COURTESY OF HGA AND RUDOLPH & SLETTEN

Rafael Payare and Paul Scarbrough, observing constructionConstruction photos courtesy of Rudolph & Sletten

Photo courtesy of Rudolph & Sletten

A COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL PHOTOS

COURTESY OF THE SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER

SATURDAY, SEPT. 28 6PM

Jacobs Music Center

OFFICIAL REOPENING

WELCOME HOME!!

Rafael Payare, conductor

San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Jeff Thayer, violin

Alisa Weilerstein, cello

Hera Hyesang Park, soprano

Inon Barnatan, piano

BD Wong, host

Gary Griffin, director

Paul Miller, lighting designer

Tiffany Spicer Keys, lighting programmer

PROGRAM

TEXU KIM

Welcome Home!! Fanfare for Brass and Percussion

VILLA-LOBOS

Aria from Bachianas brasileiras No. 5

Hera Hyesang Park, soprano

ROSSINI

“Una voce poco fa” from The Barber of Seville

Hera Hyesang Park, soprano

TCHAIKOVSKY

Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 [Fitzenhagen version]

Alisa Weilerstein, cello

PAGANINI

Caprice No. 24 in A minor

Jeff Thayer, violin

RACHMANINOFF

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43

Inon Barnatan, piano

RAVEL

Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloé Daybreak Pantomime General Dance

Approximate program length: 1 hour, 30 minutes

This program will not have an intermission.

Concert sponsored by:

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

Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. Known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment, and rare interpretive depth, she was recognized with a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship in 2011. Today her career is truly global in scope, taking her to the most prestigious international venues for solo recitals, chamber concerts, and concerto collaborations.

With her multi-season solo cello project, “FRAGMENTS,” Weilerstein aims to reimagine the concert experience. Comprising six programs, each an hour long, the series sees her weave together the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 new commissions in a multisensory production by Elkhanah Pulitzer. In the 2024-25 season, she premieres FRAGMENTS 3 at San Diego’s Jacobs Music Center, gives the New York premieres of FRAGMENTS 2 and 3 at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and performs the complete cycle at Charleston’s Spoleto Festival USA.

Weilerstein regularly appears alongside preeminent conductors with the world’s major orchestras. Versatile across the cello repertoire’s full breadth, she is a leading exponent of its greatest classics and an ardent proponent of contemporary music, who has premiered important new concertos by Pascal Dusapin, Matthias Pintscher, and Joan Tower. In 2024-25, she brings to life three more concertos, premiering Thomas Larcher’s with the New York Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony, Richard Blackford’s with the Czech

Philharmonic, and Gabriela Ortiz’s with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at L.A.’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, Bogotá’s Teatro Mayor, and Carnegie Hall. Her other 2024-25 highlights include season-opening concerts with the San Diego and Kansas City Symphonies; returns to the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras; and duo recitals with Inon Barnatan at Stanford University and in Boston’s Celebrity Series.

As an authority on Bach’s music for unaccompanied cello, in spring 2020 Weilerstein released a best-selling recording of his solo suites for Pentatone, streamed them in her innovative #36DaysOfBach project, and deconstructed his beloved G-major prelude in a Vox.com video, now viewed more than 2.2 million times. Her discography also includes chart-topping albums and the winner of BBC Music’s “Recording of the Year” award.

Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at nine years old, Weilerstein is a staunch advocate for the T1D community. She lives with her husband, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, and their two young children. n

“One of the most admired pianists of his generation” (New York Times), Inon Barnatan has established a unique and varied career, equally celebrated as a soloist, curator, and collaborator. He is a regular soloist with many of the world’s foremost orchestras and conductors, and served as the inaugural artist-in-association of the New York Philharmonic for three seasons. Barnatan is the current Music Director of La Jolla Music Society Summerfest in California, one of leading music festivals in the country.

As a soloist, Barnatan is a regular performer with many of the world’s great orchestras and conductors. In the 2024-25 season, he appears in the U.S. with New Jersey Symphony and Xian Zhang, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Eun Sun Kim, Naples Philharmonic and Andreas Ottensamer, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Peter Oundjian, New Century Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Hope, and multiple returns to San Deigo Symphony with Music Director Raphael Payare. He appears internationally with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, Auckland Philharmonia and Elena Schwarz, and Luxembourg Philharmonic and Teddy Abrams. Highlights in the 2023-24 season included New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Barnatan was in recital at Spivey Hall, The Phillips Collection, Leeds International

Piano Series, Wigmore Hall, The Norwegian Opera and Ballet, and The 92nd Street Y.

In November 2024, Barnatan will appear in recital with cellist Alisa Weilerstein at Stanford Live and Celebrity Series of Boston in celebration of their forthcoming Brahms duo album on Pentatone. November 2023 saw the release of his album, Rachmaninoff Reflections, offering some of the composer’s most cherished piano works, including his Moments musicaux, Prelude in G-Sharp Minor, and Barnatan’s own arrangement of the Vocalise. The centerpiece of this project is Barnatan’s breathtaking new piano arrangement of the Symphonic Dances which will be published by Boosey & Hawkes in 2025.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1979, Barnatan started playing the piano at the age of three and made his orchestral debut at eleven. His musical education connects him to some of the 20th century’s most illustrious pianists and teachers: he studied first with Professor Victor Derevianko, a student of the Russian master Heinrich Neuhaus, before moving to London in 1997 to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Christopher Elton and Maria Curcio, a student of the legendary Artur Schnabel. The late Leon Fleisher was also an influential teacher and mentor. Barnatan is a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, and is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program. n

HERA HYESANG PARK

Praised for her “radiant, seemingly effortless singing” (The Times) with “a sense of pure joy and excitement” (OperaWire), soprano Hera Hyesang Park is celebrated not only for her exquisite voice and stagecraft, but for the profound ideas embodied in her work. Hailing from South Korea and trained at The Juilliard School, she blends her Korean roots and Western life experience in a cosmopolitan approach to life and art. Her lyric coloratura voice carries both immaculate technique and a seemingly infinite variety of tonal colors, combining in a fearless and captivating stage presence.

Park’s 2024-2025 season highlights include her debuts with the LA Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, led by Gustavo

Violinist Jeff Thayer holds the Deborah Pate and John Forrest Concertmaster Chair of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Thayer is also a founding member of the Camera Lucida chamber music ensemble, formerly 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 Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Mr. Thayer began violin lessons with his mother at the age of three. At 14 he studied for a year at the Conservatorio Superior in Cordoba, Spain.

Dudamel, and with Boston Baroque in Haydn’s The Creation, led by Martin Pearlman. She also performs with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, appears with Wiener Symphoniker in Mozart and Mahler, the Hungarian State Opera, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine, and takes on the role of Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Staatsoper Hamburg. She returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Pamina in The Magic Flute, performs in South Korea for a Gangneung album and returns to London in a recital at St. John’s Smiths Square. In early 2024, Park released her second album, Breathe, on Deutsche Grammophon and performed repertoire from Breathe at 2024 Seoul Fashion Week and in recital at Seoul’s Lotte Concert Hall.

Park has appeared in opera roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Opera de Paris, Berlin Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper and Münchner Rundfunkorchester. She has also performed as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Opera. Park’s first album, I am Hera, was released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2020.

Park studied at Seoul National University before earning her twoyear Artist Diploma in Opera Studies at the Juilliard School in 2015. Learn more at www.herahyesangpark.com. n

NOTES | JEFF THAYER, VIOLINIST

He attended Keshet Eilon (Israel), Ernen Musikdorf (Switzerland), Music Academy of the West, Aspen, New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Quartet Program, and as the 1992 Pennsylvania Governor Scholar, Interlochen Arts Camp. Other festivals include the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Interlochen, 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 (San Diego), Festival der Zukunft and the Tibor Varga Festival (Switzerland).

Mr. Thayer’s awards include the Stephen Hahn/Lillybelle Foundation Award in Violin from the Music Academy of the West, the Starling Foundation Award, the George Eastman Scholarship and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Mr. Thayer was a laureate of the Wieniawski Violin Competition (2001) as well as winner of various competitions, including the Tuesday Musical Club Scholarship Auditions in Akron, OH (2000), the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition (1999), the Fort Collins Symphony Young Artist Competition (1999), the American String Teacher’s Association Competition in Pennsylvania and Delaware (1997), the Gladys Comstock Summer Scholarship Competition (1993), the Ithaca College Solo Competition and the Phyllis Triolo Competition (1992).

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

JEFF THAYER

ARTIST

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Welcome Home!! Fanfare for Brass and Percussion (World Premiere, Commissioned by San Diego Symphony)

TEXU KIM

Born 1980, South Korea

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME

3 minutes

The composer has supplied a note:

“Welcome Home!!” is a four-minute fanfare written in celebration of the re-opening of the San Diego Symphony’s valued Jacobs Music Center after its renovation.

While maintaining the piece’s festive nature, I combined musical styles associated with the notion of home, including folk and pop music of my native Korea, Indigenous San Diegan music (which happens to be similar to Venezuelan Joropo music), and funk jazz (which is familiar to most of the audience). I hope the piece highlights the new hall’s fantastic acoustics and the brilliant musicianship of the San Diego Symphony’s players, in addition to welcoming the audience to their new home!!

- Texu Kim

Aria from Bachianas brasileiras No. 5

HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS

Born March 5, 1887, Rio de Janeiro

Died November 17, 1959, Rio de Janeiro

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME

6 minutes

Throughout his prolific career, Heitor Villa-Lobos was pulled between two powerful musical forces. The first was the native music of Brazil. Villa-Lobos claimed that he had “learned music from a bird in the jungles of Brazil,” and the sounds of folk-tunes, native instruments and Brazilian street dances echo through his series of Choros and many other works. The other force was the great tradition of European classical music, which pulled VillaLobos as irresistibly as had the song of that jungle bird: among his 2000 compositions are twelve symphonies, seventeen string quartets and numerous concertos and other formal works. At the heart of his love for “classical” music was his reverence for the works of J.S. Bach.

Villa-Lobos was able to fuse these passions in his series of Bachianas brasileiras, nine quite different pieces written for various instrumental and vocal combinations between 1930 and 1945. Each piece shows the two influences on Villa-Lobos, combining Bach-like music (the opening movement titles come

from the baroque: Prelude, Toccata, and so on) with movements based on Brazilian folk-songs and dances.

Bachianas brasileiras No. 5, the most famous of the series, was written in two distinct sections: the opening movement dates from 1938, the second from 1945; this concert will offer only the opening Aria. This music is scored for an ensemble of eight celli (the cello was Villa-Lobos’ own instrument) and a solo soprano, who is responsible for a sharply-varied vocal line. The Aria opens with pizzicato celli, and over this strumming sound the soprano enters with her high, flowing melody, one of those haunting themes that – once heard –can never be forgotten. Her text is at first wordless – it is a vocalise – and this melody is soon picked up and repeated by a solo cello. But now comes a complete surprise: the soprano next sings a song in Portuguese by Ruth Valadares Corrêa about the beauties (and, strangely, the tensions) of the twilight. The opening movement is rounded off by a return of the opening wordless melody, but now the soprano hums it rather than singing. n

“Una

voce poco fa” from The Barber of Seville

GIOACHINO ROSSINI

Born February 29, 1792, Pesaro

Died November 13, 1868, Passy

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME

7 minutes

From the moment of its premiere in Rome in 1816, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville has been a favorite of audiences, who delight in the efforts of the lovely Rosina to escape the clutches of the creepy Doctor Bartolo and marry the handsome young Count Almaviva. Along the way come such great characters as the resourceful barber Figaro and the sepulchral singing instructor Don Basilio, as well as a number of hilarious “situations” and set-pieces.

One of the most impressive figures in The Barber of Seville is its tough and imaginative heroine Rosina, the ward of Doctor Bartolo, who wants to marry her for himself. We get to know Rosina early in Act I in her famous “Una voce poco fa” (“The voice I heard just now / Has thrilled my very heart”), where she sings of her wakening love for the youth who serenaded her beneath her window. Rossini originally wrote this part for contralto, but it has become a favorite of sopranos and has been sung memorably by Maria Callas, Roberta Peters, Victoria de los Angeles, Beverly Sills, Kathleen Battle, Cecilia Bartoli and many, many others.

As Rosina sings this coloratura aria, full of leaps and runs, we begin to have some sense of her: beneath that sweet exterior lurks a shrewd and resourceful opponent who will get what she wants. She concludes by listing all her conventional virtues (she’s docile, obedient, gentle, loving), but she adds menacingly that “if crossed in love / I can be a viper.” Behind her, the orchestra underlines the true meaning of what she is saying in some very subtle ways. n

Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33

[Fitzenhagen version]

PETER

ILYCH TCHAIKOVSKY

Born May 7, 1840, Votkinsk

Died November 6, 1893, St. Petersburg

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 18 minutes

It is hard to believe that Tchaikovsky wrote this lovely, elegant, chaste music immediately after completing his overwrought Francesca da Rimini and immediately before his white-hot Fourth Symphony. That sequence alone should alert us to the fact that there were many sides to this often-tormented composer. If we automatically identify Tchaikovsky with colorful and emotional music, we need to remember that he was also drawn to the formal clarity of eighteenth-century music and loved Mozart above all other composers. One of the finest examples of this attraction is his Variations on a Rococo Theme, composed in December 1876.

The immediate impulse to write it came in a commission from the cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen. Trained in Germany, Fitzenhagen had in 1870 become professor at the Imperial Conservatory in Moscow, where Tchaikovsky also taught, and the two men had become good friends. When Fitzenhagen asked Tchaikovsky to write a piece for cello and orchestra for him, the composer responded with a set of variations based on what he called a “rococo” theme and scored for what was essentially Mozart’s orchestra (pairs of woodwinds and horns, plus strings).

A briefly orchestral introduction (how light and clear this music sounds!) gives way to the entrance of the solo cello, which sings the “rococo” theme. That theme, Tchaikovsky’s own, is marked espressivo on its first appearance, and it falls into two eight-bar phrases. Seven variations follow. These are nicely contrasted: some are lyric, some athletic. Some emphasize the cello, while others vigorously toss the theme between soloist and orchestra. Tchaikovsky varies key and meter throughout the set, and he ingeniously turns the final variation into an exciting coda. Yet the key word throughout is “restraint,” and this gentle score seems to come from a different planet altogether from the Fourth Symphony, which would shortly follow.

A CURIOUS NOTE ON TEXT: Tchaikovsky worked closely with Fitzenhagen while composing the Rococo Variations, and the writing for cello is graceful and idiomatic. But Fitzenhagen, a composer himself, apparently regarded Tchaikovsky’s manuscript as only a starting point, and he drastically revised the score. He reduced Tchaikovsky’s original eight variations to seven, altered the order of the variations, and re-wrote some of the cello part. At the time of the premiere, which took place in Moscow on December 1877, Tchaikovsky had no idea that these changes had been made, and the score was published in Fitzenhagen’s revision. The result is that the Rococo Variations are invariably performed today in Fitzenhagen’s revised version rather than in the version Tchaikovsky actually wrote. n

Caprice No. 24 in A minor

NICOLÒ PAGANINI

Born October 27, 1782, Genoa

Died May 27, 1840, Nice

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME

5 minutes

In 1820 Paganini published his Twenty-Four Caprices for Solo Violin, a set of brief etudes that he had composed over a fifteen-year span (1802 to 1817). Each of Paganini’s Caprices challenges a violinist in different ways. The Caprice No. 24 in A Minor – which has become by far the most famous of the set – is a set of variations. It begins by stating the basic theme: the first phrase is four bars long (and is repeated), followed by an eight-bar extension of that theme. Then the variations begin, and some of these are of hair-raising difficulty: the theme is heard in octaves, thirds and tenths; one of the variations is triple-stopped (played simultaneously on three strings); one features left-handed pizzicatos; others feature writing at the highest extreme of the fingerboard, and several require complex string-crossings. After eleven variations, Paganini rounds things off with a brilliant finale that concludes with a firm A-Major chord. n

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

Born April 1, 1873, Semyonovo

Died March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 22 minutes

In the spring of 1934 Rachmaninoff – then 61 – and his wife moved into a villa they had just purchased on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. They were delighted by the house and its view across the beautiful lake, and Rachmaninoff was especially touched to find a surprise waiting for him there: the Steinway Company of New York had delivered a brandnew piano to the villa. Rachmaninoff spent the summer gardening and landscaping, and he also composed: between July 3 and August 24 he wrote a set of variations for piano and orchestra on the last of Nicolò Paganini’s Twenty-Four Caprices for Solo Violin.

Rachmaninoff described his new work to a friend as being “about the length of a piano concerto . . . the thing’s rather difficult.” The first performance, with the composer as soloist, took place in Baltimore on November 7, 1934, with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. Pleased and somewhat surprised by the success of this music with the public, Rachmaninoff observed drily: “It somehow looks suspicious that the Rhapsody has had such an immediate success with everybody.”

The Rhapsody has a surprising beginning: a brief orchestral flourish – containing hints of the theme – leads to the first variation, which is presented before the theme itself is heard. This gruff and hard-edged variation, which

Rachmaninoff marks Precedente, is in fact the bassline for Paganini’s theme, which is then presented in its original form by both violin sections in unison. Some of the variations last a matter of minutes, while others whip past almost before we know it (several of the variations are as short as nineteen seconds). The twenty-four variations are sharply contrasted, in both character and tempo, and the fun of this music lies not just in the bravura writing for piano but in hearing Paganini’s theme sound so different in each variation. In three of them, Rachmaninoff incorporates the old plainsong tune Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), used by Berlioz, Saint-Saëns and many others, including Rachmaninoff, for whom this grim theme was a virtual obsession. Here it appears in the piano part in the seventh and tenth variations, and eventually it drives the work to its climax in the final variation. Perhaps the most famous of Rachmaninoff’s variations, though, is the eighteenth, in which Paganini’s theme is inverted and transformed into a moonlit lovesong. The piano states this variation in its simplest form, and then strings take it up and turn it into a soaring nocturne. This variation has haunted many Hollywood composers, and Rachmaninoff himself noted wryly that he had written this variation specifically as a gift “for my agent.”

From here on, the tempo picks up, and the final six variations accelerate to a monumental climax: the excitement builds, the Dies Irae is stamped out by the full orchestra, and suddenly – like a puff of smoke –the Rhapsody vanishes before us in two quick strokes of sound. n

Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloé

MAURICE RAVEL

Born March 7, 1875, Ciboure, Basses-Pyrennes

Died December 28, 1937, Paris

APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 18 minutes

In 1909 the impresario Serge Diaghilev brought the Ballets Russes to Paris, and that summer he asked Ravel to write a score for the company. The French composer, then 34, could not have had more distinguished collaborators: Serge Diaghilev oversaw the project, Mikhail Fokine was choreographer, Leon Bakst designed the sets, and Vaclav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina would dance the lead roles.

But it proved a stormy collaboration. For the subject, Diaghilev proposed the story of Daphnis and Chloé, a pastoral by the Greek Longus (fourth or fifth century B.C.). Translated into French in 1599 by Pierre Amyot, the tale had already attracted composers: Jacques Offenbach wrote an operetta called Daphnis et Chloé in 1860, and the young Debussy had thought of writing a ballet based on the same tale. It tells a gentle love story: a young man and woman, abandoned as infants by their respective parents and raised by a shepherd and a goatherd, meet and fall in love. She is kidnaped by pirates but rescued by the intercession of the god Pan, and the ballet concludes with general rejoicing. That story seems simple enough, but quickly the collaborators were at odds, as Ravel made clear in a letter to

a friend: “I must tell you that I’ve just had an insane week: preparation of a ballet libretto for the next Russian season. Almost every night, work until 3 a.m. What complicates things is that Fokine doesn’t know a word of French, and I only know how to swear in Russian. In spite of the interpreters, you can imagine the savor of these meetings.”

Part of the problem was that while Bakst had conceived an opulent Asian setting for the ballet, Ravel imagined “a vast musical fresco, less thoughtful of archaism than of fidelity to the Greece of my dreams, which identifies quite willingly with that imagined and depicted by late eighteenth-century French artists.” Paintings of the verdant sets suggest that Ravel’s conception – described by Madeline Goss as “a typically eighteenth-century atmosphere of Watteau shepherdesses” – finally prevailed.

Once the libretto was settled, Ravel set to work. He composed the score in a quiet villa in Fontainebleau, working with such concentration that he was unaware of a flood that pushed the Seine over its banks and to the sill of the room where he was working. The premiere, conducted by Pierre Monteux at the Châtelet Théâtre on June 8, 1912, had an indifferent success: the production was under-rehearsed, the participants were still bickering, and the dancers had problems with the 5/4 meter of the concluding Danse générale, but for those who could see beyond the problems of the premiere, the ballet had an overwhelming impact. The poet and dramatist Jean Cocteau, then only 23, was among them: “Daphnis et Chloé is one of the creations which fell into our hearts like a comet coming from a planet, the laws of which will remain to us forever mysterious and forbidden.”

Ravel planned the ballet with great care, saying that “The work is constructed symphonically according to a strict tonal plan, by means of a small number of motifs, whose development assure the symphonic homogeneity of the work.” Many of these motifs are introduced in the first few measures of the ballet: the muted horns’ gently swaying figure, the solo flute’s high melody, a soaring theme for solo horn that will be associated with Daphnis and Chloé themselves – all these will evolve and return in many forms across the hour-long span of the ballet. More immediately impressive is the sumptuous sound of this music – Ravel makes inspired use of his extravagant forces, which include not just a huge orchestra, but a wordless chorus, wind machine, fourteen different percussion instruments, and offstage wind-players.

Ravel drew two suites from the ballet for concert performance, and the Second Suite has become by far the more famous. As the Second Suite begins, Chloé has been rescued from the pirates by the god Pan. Now it is night and rivulets drip from rocks in the darkness. Rippling flutes and clarinets echo the sound of these rivulets as Daphnis awakes and the sun comes up – this glorious music grows to an overwhelming climax as sunlight floods the stage. Chloé appears, and the joyful lovers are united. Told that Pan had saved her in memory of the nymph Syrinx, Daphnis and Chloé now act out that tale in pantomime, and Daphnis mimes playing on reeds, a part taken in the orchestra by an opulent flute solo. The two collapse into each other’s arms and pledge their love. The stage is filled with happy youths, whose Danse générale brings the ballet to its thrilling conclusion. n

MUSICIANS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Violin

Jeff Thayer Concertmaster

Deborah Pate & John Forrest Chair

Nick Grant Principal Associate Concertmaster Emeritus

Yumi Cho

Wesley Precourt Associate Concertmaster

Cherry Choi Tung Yeung Associate Principal Second Violin

Hernan Constantino

Jisun Yang Assistant Concertmaster

Ai Nihira Awata

Alicia Engley

Alexander Palamidis Principal Second Violin

Jing Yan Bowcott

Kathryn Hatmaker

MUSICIANS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Kenneth Liao

Edmund Stein

Igor Pandurski

Hanah Stuart

Evan Pasternak

Yeh Shen

John Stubbs

Julia Pautz

Xiaoxuan Shi

Pei-Chun Tsai

Tiffany Wee Han Xie

MUSICIANS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Violin

Viola

Sarah Schwartz* *Long Term Substitute Musician

Wanda Law

Qing Liang

Ethan Pernela

Megan Wei I-Hsuan Huang* *Long Term Substitute Musician

Chi-Yuan Chen Principal Karen & Warren Kessler Chair

Nancy Lochner Associate Principal

Jason Karlyn

Andrew Kwon* *Long Term Substitute Musician

Zou Yu

Melody Ye Yuan

MUSICIANS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Viola

Cello

Sung-Jin Lee* *Long Term Substitute Musician

Andrew Hayhurst

Xian Zhuo Youna Choi* *Long Term Substitute Musician

Nicole Chung* *Long Term Substitute Musician

Benjamin Solomonow* *Long Term Substitute Musician

John Lee

Rebecca Matayoshi* *Long Term Substitute Musician

Richard Levine

Yao Zhao Principal

Nathan Walhout

Chia-Ling Chien Associate Principal

MUSICIANS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Bass

Flute Piccolo Oboe

Kevin Gobetz

Rose Lombardo Principal

Sarah Tuck *Long Term Substitute Musician

Lily Josefsberg

Sarah Skster Principal

Samuel Hager

Susan Wulff Associate Principal

Michael Wais

Aaron Blick

Margaret Johnston+ + Staff Opera Musician

P.J. Cinque

Jeremy Kurtz-Harri Principal Sophie & Arthur Brody Foundation Chair

MUSICIANS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Oboe

Bass Clarinet

English Horn Clarinet Bassoon

Contrabassoon

Rodion Belousov

Horn

Max Opferkuch

Ryan Simmons Leyla Zamora

Benjamin Jaber Principal

Frank Renk

Andrea Overturf Dr. William & Evelyn Lamden Chair

Valentin Martchev Principal

Sheryl Renk Principal

Darby Hinshaw Assistant Principal & Utility

John Degnan Tricia Skye

MUSICIANS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Horn

Trombone

Trumpet

Bass Trombone

Tuba

Christopher Smith Principal

Logan Chopyk

Greg Ochotorena* *Long Term Substitute Musician

Kyle Mendiguchia

Aaron McCalla Principal

Jonah Levy* *Long Term Substitute Musician

Ray Nowak

Kyle R. Covington Principal

Harp

Timpani

Julie Smith Phillips Principal

Ryan J. DiLisi Principal

Douglas Hall

MUSICIANS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Percussion

Principal Librarian

Librarian

Andrew Watkins

Gregory Cohen Principal

Erin Douglas Dowrey

Courtney Secoy Cohen Rachel Fields

Eduardo Meneses* *Long Term Substitute Musician

RETIRED MUSICIANS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The San Diego Symphony would also like to recognize the musicians of the orchestra who have retired since Jacobs Music Center has been under construction. Their dedication to the Symphony and San Diego has had a deep impact on our organization and the city to which they brought music.

Angela Homnick Section Violin

John Wilds Second Trumpet

Mary Szanto Section Cello

Theresa Tunnicliff Second Clarinet

Marcia Bookstein Section Cello

Matthew Garbutt Principal Tuba; In Memoriam

Image courtesy of the San Diego History Center

San Diego Symphony is pleased to have Sycuan Casino Resort as the lead sponsor of the Music Connects Community Concerts!

UC San Diego is proud to be the official Education and Community Engagement Sponsor of the San Diego Symphony.

usbank.com/communitypossible

PNC Bank is a proud Corporate Sponsor of the San Diego Symphony’s Music Connects program providing tickets for the military community.

At U.S. Bank, we believe art enriches and inspires our community. That’s why we support the visual and performing arts organizations that push our creativity and passion to new levels. When we test the limits of possible, we find more ways to shine.

U.S. Bank is proud to support the San Diego Symphony.

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.

Cocktail

SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY

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 August 8, 2024

$100,000 AND ABOVE

Raffaella and John◊ Belanich

Rafael Payare, Music Director

$50,000 – $99,999

Anonymous San Diego Symphony Musicians

Anonymous San Diego Symphony Musicians

Michele and Jules Arthur Kevin Gobetz, Bass

Terry Atkinson

Igor Pandurski, Violin

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 Epstein

Sheryl Renk, Principal Clarinet

Pam and Hal Fuson

Courtney Cohen, Principal Librarian

Elaine Galinson and Herber t 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

Carol and George Lattimer

Gilbert Castellanos, Jazz @ The Jacobs and Jazz @ The Rady Shell Artistic Curator

Monica and Robert Oder

Gregory Cohen, Principal Percussion

Linda and Shearn◊ Platt

Ryan J. DiLisi, Principal Timpani

Marie Raftery and Dr. Robert Rubenstein 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

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 and James Whistler

Rachel Fields, Librarian

Cole and Judy Willoughby

Christopher Smith, Principal Trumpet

Mitchell Woodbury

Douglas Hall, Horn

Sarah and Marc Zeitlin

Cherry Choi Tung Yeung, Associate Principal Second Violin

$25,000 – $49,999

Anonymous

Nathan Walhout, Cello

Annette and Daniel Bradbury

Yao Zhao, Principal Cello

Nikki A. and Ben G. Clay Symphony Cellist

Karen and Donald Cohn

Hanah Stuart, Violin

Stephanie and Richard Coutts

Chia-Ling Chien, Associate Principal Cello

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 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

Dr. Carol Randolph and Robert Caplan, Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek

Pei-Chun Tsai, Violin

Ann Davies

Xian Zhuo, Cello

Kathleen Seely Davis

Qing Liang, Viola

Ana de Vedia

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Hon. James Emerson

Kenneth Liao, Violin

Dr. Joyce Gattas and Mr. Jay Jeffcoat

Youna Choi, Cellist

Kelly Magerman and Michael Greenleaf

Xiaoxuan Shi, Violin

Sandy and Arthur◊ Levinson

Kyle Covington, Principal Trombone

Lisa and Gary Levine, Ar thur J. Gallagher & Co.

San Diego Symphony Musicians

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

Allison and Robert Price

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Janet and Wil Gorrie

Zou Yu, Violin

Jill Gormley and Laurie Lipman

Frank Renk, Bass Clarinet

Judith Harris◊ and Dr. Robert Singer

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

Carol Lazier and Dr. James Merritt

Sarah Tuck, Flute

Dr. Marshall J. Littman

John Lee, Cello

Sue and Lynn Miller

Max Opferkuch, Clarinet

Rena Minisi and Rich Paul

Ryan Simmons, Bassoon

Sally and Steve Rogers

Kyle Mendiguchia, Trombone

Jeanette Stevens

Kathryn Hatmaker, Violin

Sandra Timmons and Richard Sandstrom

Sarah Skuster, Principal Oboe

Sheryl and Harvey White

Alexander Palamidis, Principal Second Violin

The Zygowicz Family (John, Judy, and Michelle)

Nancy Lochner, Viola

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

Sally and Steve Rogers

Kyle Mendiguchia, Bass Trombone

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.

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 August 8, 2024.

STRADIVARIUS CIRCLE:

$100,000 AND ABOVE

Raffaella and John◊ Belanich

City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture

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

Alan Benaroya

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

Carol and Richard Hertzberg

Arlene Inch

Brooke and Dan◊ Koehler

Karen and Warren Kessler

The Kong Tang Family

Carol Ann and George Lattimer

Monica and Robert Oder

Linda and Shearn◊ Platt

Price Philanthropies

Qualcomm Charitable Foundation

Jacqueline and Jean-Luc

Marie Raftery and Dr. Robert Rubenstein

Elena Romanowsky

Penny and Louis Rosso

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

Robert Rubenstein and Marie Raftery

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

Kathryn and James Whistler

Cole and Judy Willoughby

Mitchell Woodbury

Sarah and Marc Zeitlin

GUEST ARTIST CIRCLE: $25,000-$49,999

Anonymous (2)

Eloise and Warren Batts

David Bialis

The Bjorg Family

Annette and Daniel Bradbury

Nikki A. and Ben 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

Lisa and Gary Levine

Sandra and Arthur◊ Levinson

Eileen Mason

Anne and Andy McCammon

Deborah Pate and John Forrest

Padres Foundation

Maryanne and Irwin Pfister

Allison and Robert Price

Dr. Carol Randolph 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

California Arts Council

Sally Cuff

Ann Davies

Kathleen Seely Davis

Ana de Vedia

The Donald C. and Elizabeth M. Dickinson Foundation

Hon. James Emerson

Monica Fimbres

Dr. Joyce Gattas and Jay Jeffcoat

Janet and Wil Gorrie

Judith Harris◊ and Dr. Robert Singer

Laurie Sefton Henson

Marilyn James and Richard Phetteplace

The Rev. Michael Kaehr

Jo Ann Kilty

Helen and Sig Kupka

Linda and Tom Lang

Carol Lazier and Dr. James Merritt

Jill Gormley and Laurie Lipman

Dr. Marshall J. Littman

Anne and Andy McCammon

Sue and Lynn Miller

One Paseo

Rena Minisi and Rich Paul

Lori Moore-Cushman Foundation

James and Josie Myers

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

Lisa and Michael Witz

VIRTUOSO CIRCLE:

$10,000-$14,999

Anonymous

Carol Rolf and Steven Adler

Guity Balow

P. Kay Coleman and Janice E. Montle

Anna Curren

Nina and Robert Doede

Karin and Alfred Esser

Norman Forrester and Bill Griffin

Scott and Tracy Frudden

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

The Hong-Patapoutian Family

Nancy and Stephen Howard

Richard and Elisa Jaime

Jeffrey and Claudia Lee

Robert Leone

Bill and Michelle Lerach

Terry and Tom Lewis

Susan and Peter Mallory

Larry McDonald and Clare White-McDonald

Oliver McGonigle

Elizabeth and Edward McIntyre

MDM Foundation

Helga S. Moore

Rebecca Moores

Morrison & Foerster

Trupti and Pratik Multani

Donald and Clara Murphy

Dave and Jean Perry

Claudia Prescott

Sandy and Greg Rechtsteiner

ResMed Foundation

Harold and Evelyn Schauer

Jayne and Brigg Sherman

Katherine “Kaylan” Thornhill

University of San Diego

Tim and Jean Valentine

K. Nikki Waters

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

Ken Bullock and Donna Bullock

Wendy Burk and Harold Frysh

Joseph Caso

Marilyn Colby

The den Uijl Family

Karen Dow

Susan Dubé

Berit and Tom Durler

Maria Beatriz Fimbres

Susanna and Michael Flaster

Gertrude B. Fletcher

Karen Forbes

Calvin Frantz

Ira Gaines and Cheryl Hintzen-Gaines

Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance

Carrie and James Greenstein

David and Claire Guggenheim

Beau Haugh

Janet and Clive Holborow

Maryka and George◊ Hoover

Erika Horn

James B. Idell and Deborah C . Streett-Idell

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

Judith Morgan

Adrian and Lorna* 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

Jennifer and Eugene Rumsey Jr., M.D.

Sage Foundation

Robert and Barbara Scott

Ruey & Marivi Shivers

Sandra Smelik and Larry Manzer

Jennifer Stainrook

Larry and Pamela Stambaugh

Richard and Susan Ulevitch

Aysegul Underhill

Ronald and Diane Walker

Shirli Weiss

Jeffrey P. Winter and Barbara Cox-Winter

Elizabeth Wohlford McCloud and Clay Mac Cleod

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

Marie Cunning

Mayra Curiel and Carlos Larios

Andrea da Rosa

Steven Davis

Caroline S. DeMar

Doris and Peter Ellsworth

Maria Carrera and Corey Fayman

Luis Fimbres Astiazaran and Hilda Villasenor De Fimbres

Maria T. Fimbres Sanchez

Carmelita Fimbres

Ma Del Socorro Mendoza Fimbres

Richard Forsyth and Katherine Leonard

Ms. Linda Fortier

Linda and Michael Gallagher

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

Pratt Memorial Fund

Jeff and Clare Quinn

Christa and Gerald Reynolds

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

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

Rusti Bartell

Rena and Behram Baxter

David and Jasna Belanich

Sondra Berk

Mary Ann Beyster

Virginia and Robert Black

Ralph Britton

Joseph H. Brooks and Douglas Walker

Joyce Burns

Vickie Camper

Barbara and Salvatore Capizzi

Stan Clayton

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

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

Yolanda Fimbres Hernandez

Louise Firme

The Herr Family

Eduardo Fimbres

Jose Fimbres

Lulu Fimbres

Marcis Fimbres Porras

Rosella Fimbres

Silvia Fimbres

Douglas Flaker

Stan Fleming, Forward Ventures

Kenneth Fitzgerald

Stan Fleming, Forward Ventures

Jean Fort

The Samuel I. and John Henry Fox Foundation

Leonard and Marcia◊ Fram Marilyn Friesen and John Greenbush

Judith Fullerton

Richard and Sharon Gabriel

Dr. Nancy Gold and Colin Seid

Linda R. Gooden

Jon and Carol Gebhart

Kenneth F. Gibsen Memorial Fund

Brenda and Michael Goldbaum

Laurie M. Gore

Sally and Dave Hackel

Fred Hafer and Noel Haskins-Hafer Household

Stephanie and John Hanson

Michelle Hebert

The Herr Family

Barbara and Paul Hirshman

Peggy and John◊ Holl

Lulu Hsu

Kenneth and Patricia Janda

Jay William Jeffcoat

Gina Kakos

Marge Katleman and Richard Perlman

Maurice Kawashima

Tandy and Gary Kippur –JCF of Southern AZ

Betty and Leonard Kornreich

Anona Kuehne

Rhea and Armin Kuhlman

Wilfred Kearse and Lynne Champagne

Robert and Laura Kyle

George & Mei Lai

Gautam and Anjali Lalani

Sharon Lapid

Eliza Lee

Jeffrey 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

Mr. Paul J. McMahon

Dr. Sandra E. Miner

Martha and Chuck Moffett

Bibhu P. Mohanty

Patricia Moises

Dr. Thomas Moore

David Morris

Drs. Elaine and Douglas Muchmoore

Tom and Anne Nagel

Patricia R. Nelson

Patricia and Kent Newmark

Dr. Jon Nowak

Frank O’Dea

Ricki Pedersen

Sandra and David Polster

Anne Porter

Jim Price and Joan Sieber

Arlene Quaccia and Robin Hughes

Matthew and Sue Quinn

Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation

Janet and Bill Raschke

Keith Record

Dr. Marilyn Friesen and Dr. Michael Rensink

Darci Roger-Tracy

The Ryde Family

Memorial Foundation

Gloria and Dean Saiki

Susan and Edward Sanderson

Household

Judith and Robert Sharp

Lari Sheehan

Professor Susan Shirk

Kyle Short

Anne and Ronald Simon

Drs. Eleanor J. Smith and John D. Malone

Suzy Soo

Valerie Stallings

John E. Sturla II

Kathleen Sullivan

Harry V. Summer

Suzanne and William Sutton

Melissa Swanson

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

Janet and Joel Weber

Margaret Weigand

Eileen Wingard

Martha Wingfield

Joseph and Mary Witztum

Karen and Rod Wood

Britt Zeller

Herb◊ and Margaret Zoehrer

SONATA CIRCLE: $500-$999

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

Jerry and Karen Blakely

Stephen and Priscilla Bothwell

Mary Catherine Bowell

Gloria and Sed Brown

Alyssa Brzenski

Jolie and Glenn Buberl

Ed Budzyna and Zack Zaccaria

Robert and Carolyn Caietti

William Carrick

Gloria and Maurice Caskey

Juliana Caso

Caroline Chen and George Boomer

Tanya and Sutton Chen

Geoff and Shem Clow

Dale Connelly

Patrick and Lisa Cooney

Joe Costa

John Cuthbertson and Elizabeth Hamilton Cuthbertson

Dr. Michael D’Angelo

Dr. Dalia Daujotyte

Julie and Don De Ment

Marilou Dense

Dr. Greg Dixon

Donna F. Dotson

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

Anne Porter Finch

Linda Lyons Firestein

Darlene and Robert Fleischman

John Foltz

Nynke Fortuin

Michele Fournier

Michelle Fox

Laura Georgakakos

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

Angela Hansen

Gerald Hansen and Marilyn Southcott

Christine Harmon

Lydia Harris

Sue Haverkamp

Brian Hays

Jill Herbold

Harold Hoch

Anne S. Holder-Erdman

Sandra Hoover

Gurdon Hornor

Warren Hu

Ralph Hull

Charlotte Langmaid and David Hunter

Intuit Foundation

Faith and Steve Jennings

Bjorn and Brigette Jensen

Dimitri and Elaine Jeon

Robert Jentner

Dimitri and Elaine Jeon

Deborah Jezior

Benjamin Johnson

Bruce A. Johnson

R. Douglas and Jeanette Johnson

Ronald Johnson

Thesa Lorna Jolly

Sabby Jonathan

Julia Katz

Wilfred Kearse and Lynne Champagne

Dwight A. Kellogg

John and Sue Kim

Cynthia King

Jeremy Kolins

Stephen Korniczky

Andrea and Stephen Kowalewsky

Martha and Jerry Krasne

Robert and Elena Kucinski

Mary Kyriopoulos

Philip Larsen

Laura Laslo

Elizabeth Leech

Lewis Leicher

Kathleen Lennard

Stacey LeVasseur Vasquez

Denee and Xiaoping Logan

David Louie

Claudia Lowenstein

Daniel Lysne

Scott MacDonald

Anne Macek

Kyong Macek

Micolyn Magee

Annie Cruz Magill

Patricia Mahtani

Deborah and Fred Mandabach

Sue Marberry

Ana Esther Martinez

Beverly and Harold Martyn

James R. Mathes

Kyle McEachern

Mac McKay

Susan and Douglas McLeod

Narriman McNair

Daniel McNaughton

James and Estelle Milch

Dr. Grant Miller

Ann Morrison

Jan and Mark Newmark

Barbara and Donald Dean Niemann

James and Jean O’Grady

Larry and Linda Okmin Household

Abraham Ordover

Brent Orlesky and Ronald T. Oliver

Abraham Ordover

Brent Orlesky and Ronald T. Oliver

Yolanda Ortiz Palacio

Dr. Robert Padovani

Marilyn Palermo

Julie Park

Julian Parra

Sally and Phillip Patton

Robert Plimpton II

Dean Popp

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

Gretchen Louise Schafer

Joel Schaller

Mr. Daniel H. Schumann

David and Martha Schwartz

Thomas Schwartz

Dr. Bruce Shirer

Martha Shively

Stanley Siegel

Linda Small

Marilyn and Brian Smith

Darryl and Rita Solberg

Amelia Soudan

James and Phyllis Speer

Gregory Stanton

Regenia Stein and Roland James

Mark Stenson

Judy S. Stern

John L. Stover

Derek Stults

Nancy and Michael Sturdivan

Kimberly Sullivan

Nelson Surovik

Kay and Cliff Sweet

Thomas Templeton and Mary Erlenborn

Paul and Mary Anne Trause

Steven Traut

Jean and Mark Trotter

Orlando S. Uribe

Allen Voigt

VOSA Student Symphony Ticket Fund

Loren Waldapfel

John Walsh

Rex and Kathy Warburton

Don and Sharon Watkins

Janet and Joel Weber

Irene, David◊ & Diana Weinrieb

Mike and Janet Westling

Noel Wheeler

Joyce Williams

Stephen Wilson

Symphorosa Williams

Mary Michele Wilmer

Sherri Wittwer

David A. Wood

Karen and Rod Wood

Victor T. Yamauchi

Peter and Terry Yang

Naima and Mike Yelda

Maria and Randy Zack

MEMORIAL GIFTS

In memory of John Cochran

Sue Lasbury

In memory of Sandra Cohen Anonymous

In memory of Peter Eros, Georgia Eros, Dale Klabunde

Eileen Wingard

In memory of Marcia Fram

Leonard Fram

In memory of Matthew Garbutt

Shirley Estes

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

Jewish Community Foundation

Douglas and Susan McLeod

Karen and Jeffrey Silberman Family Fund

Frank O’Dea

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 Sergio Jinich

Sonya Jinich

In memory of Bob Kyle

Laura Kyle

In memory of Mariam Lapid

Sharon Lapid

In memory of Judy McDonald

Pam and Hal Fuson

Judith Morgan

Stephanie and Richard Coutts

In memory of Judy and Alex McDonald

Ross Cohen and Valerie Leman

In memory of Bob Nelson Who Loved the Music, the Bay and San Diego

Kevin Tilden

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

David Engler

In memory of Lloyd Pernela, E than 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

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

Joyce Burns

Elaine and Dave Darwin

John Bloedorn

Franci Free

Patricia and Kent Newmark

Bob Morris

Penny and Lou Rosso

Linda and Michael Galagher

In memory of Bill Weber and Judy McDonald

Kathleen Seely Davis

In memory of David and Ilene Weinreb

Diana Weinreb

HONORARIA GIFTS

In honor of Victoria Andujar

Vance and Gloria Baker

In honor of Jan and Kevin Curtis

Claudia Levin

In honor of Matt Garbutt

Eileen Wingard

In honor of Melanie Gillette

Vance and Gloria Baker

In Honor of Dr. Melvin Goldzband’s 94th Birthday

Claudia Levin

In Honor of James and Theresa Grant, and Maria Atkins

Thao Hughes

In honor of Dr. Nancy Hong

Susan Diekman

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

Paul Jacobs

Rebecca Moores

In honor of Lang Lang, Mar tha 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 Cheri LaZarus

Joani Nelson

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 of Dr. Dianne Moores

Ralph Hull

In honor of Ray Nowak

Linda Thomas

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 the retirement of Marsha Zeven

Eileen Wingard

The San Diego Symphony’s Learning & Community Engagement programs are generously supported by our major corporate partners, including Mission Federal Credit Union, Rady Children’s Hospital, UC San Diego, Sycuan Casino Resort, and PNC Bank. These partnerships are vital in ensuring that our programs reach as many people as possible, particularly youth, providing them with access to high-quality, live music experiences. The newly renovated Jacobs Music Center will be a central hub for these initiatives, offering a state-of-the-art environment that fosters both artistic growth and educational excellence.

Furthermore, our corporate partners play a crucial role in our mission to change lives through music. With their generous support, we work towards access for all by sharing thousands of free concert tickets to under-resourced communities throughout the region via our Music Connects program, performing across the county in neighborhood venues, and activating our venues that bring the community together through music and movement – ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to experience the joy and inspiration that music brings.

As the lead sponsor of the Symphony’s High School Ambassadors program, Mission Federal Credit Union plays a pivotal role by offering financial literacy classes and guiding students in setting and achieving their financial goals. Their support includes comprehensive financial literacy training and providing valuable insights into financial service solutions. Additionally, Mission Fed is a key supporter of our Music Connects program, which brings the orchestra to perform in venues across San Diego County, enriching the cultural landscape and fostering community connections.

UC San Diego, as the Symphony’s Official Education & Community Engagement Sponsor, plays a vital role in supporting our comprehensive learning programs, which span from elementary school to college. This includes initiatives like Sound & Silence, Open Rehearsals, and Masterclasses. Additionally, UC San Diego has hosted community concerts at its Park & Market facility in downtown San Diego’s East Village, furthering its commitment to enriching the cultural and educational experiences of our community.

Rady Children’s Hospital has engaged deeply with the San Diego Symphony, bringing the joy of music to its community. Symphony musicians have performed at Rady’s “Light the Way” event, creating memorable experiences for patients and families. Each year, 100 tickets are also provided to patients and families from the Rady’s community, further enriching their lives through these special musical experiences.

Sycuan supports the Symphony’s Music Connects program, bringing a series of community-based concerts to various locations throughout San Diego County. Additionally, Sycuan hosts community concerts at their venue, offering an accessible opportunity for East County residents to experience live classical music.

PNC Bank generously supports the Symphony’s military ticketing program, which provides complimentary access to our world-class concerts for military service members, veterans, and their families. This initiative not only offers these individuals a memorable musical experience, but also serves as a token of our deep appreciation for their service and sacrifice.

CORPORATE HONOR ROLL

$200,000+

$100,000+

$50,000+

$25,000+

$15,000+

$10,000+

SAN DIEGO

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.

FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Warren O. Kessler, M.D. Chair

David R. Snyder, Esq. Vice Chair

Sandra 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

Michele Arthur

Tim Barelli

Lisa Behun*

Anthony C. Boganey, M.D., FACS

Julia R. Brown*

Ben G. Clay

Kathleen Davis*

Martha G. Dennis, Ph.D.

Phyllis Epstein*

Lisette Farrell

Karen Foster Silberman

Janet Gorrie Dr. Nancy Hong

Anne Francis Ratner (1911-2011)

Lawrence B. Robinson (d. 2021)

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

Arlene Inch

Jerri-Ann Jacobs

Warren O. Kessler, M.D.*

Kris Kopensky

Deborah Pate

Alan Prohaska

Sherron Schuster

Marivi Shivers

Christopher D. “Kit” Sickels

Donald M. Slate*

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

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.

JOAN* AND IRWIN JACOBS

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 August 8, 2024

$1,000,000 AND ABOVE

Sophie & Arthur Brody Foundation

Nikki A. and Ben 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

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

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

Lulu Hsu

$100,000 AND ABOVE

Anonymous

Alfred F. Antonicelli*

Rosanne B. and W. Gregory Berton

Julia R. Brown

Margaret and David* Brown

Roberta and Malin Burnham

The Carton Charitable Trust*

Joan R. Cooper*

Bob and Kathy Cueva

Elizabeth and Newell A. Eddy*

Esther and Bud* Fischer

Pam and Hal Fuson

Joyce A. Glazer

Nancy and Fred Gloyna

Muriel Gluck*

Judith Harris* and Dr. Robert Singer

Susan and Paul Hering

Barbara M. Katz

Evelyn and William Lamden

Inge Lehman*

Sandy and Arthur* Levinson

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

Marjory Kaplan

Patricia A. Keller*

Anne* and Takashi Kiyoizumi

Carol Lazier and James Merritt

Joan Lewan*

Jaime z’’l* and Sylvia Liwerant - JCF

Gladys Madoff*

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*

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

Dr. Carol Randolph 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*

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*

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

*Deceased

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.

THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The San Diego Symphony Orchestra performed its first concert on December 6, 1910, making it the oldest orchestra in the state of California. In the 110-plus years since its inception, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra has become one of the finest orchestras in the United States.

The San Diego Symphony Orchestra offers a wide range of concert experiences and performs over 120 concerts annually, including the Jacobs Masterworks series of classical concerts. The Orchestra’s Music Director is Rafael Payare, who became Music Director in the 2019-20 season. Notable featured guest conductors include Christoph von Dohnanyi, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Cristian Măcelaru and Charles Dutoit as well as today’s emerging conducting talent. In addition, some of the finest guest soloists regularly appear with the orchestra; these include Lang Lang, Pinchas Zukerman, Joyce Yang, Gil Shaham, Yefim Bronfman, Augustin Hadelich and Itzhak Perlman. The Orchestra also performs a wide range of music including film concerts, family concerts and other special presentations. The Symphony comprises 82 full-time musicians.

The home of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra is the Jacobs Music Center in downtown San Diego. Originally built in 1929 as The Fox Theatre movie palace, a premier movie house, this lush movie palace-style hall became the property of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association in 1984. The beauty and majesty of this historic hall has added to the stature and artistic growth of the orchestra. In 2013 the complex consisting of Copley Symphony Hall, newly renovated lobbies, backstage areas, the Grosvenor Family Musicians’ Center and the Symphony administrative offices were officially named the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Music Center. The hall has reopened in the fall of 2024 after a three-year-long renovation.

Each year, especially during summer, the Orchestra presents an outdoor series of concerts featuring classical favorites and popular programs at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, a vibrant, beautiful outdoor setting on San Diego’s picturesque bayfront. The Orchestra worked closely with the Port of San Diego on creating this permanent public performance park with an outdoor concert venue and community gathering place, opening the facility to the public in Summer 2021 for San Diego’s first post-pandemic concert gatherings. This state-of-the-art stage and park improvement allows the Symphony to elevate its musical presentations and present a wider range of musical performances in a beautiful

In October 2013 the SDSO made its acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut conducted by Jahja Ling and featuring piano soloist Lang Lang. Immediately following, the orchestra departed for an 11-day China Friendship Tour with concerts in Beijing, Shanghai and San Diego’s sister city, Yantai. The San Diego Symphony made a return engagement to Carnegie Hall in October 2023, under the direction of Music Director Rafael Payare. n

outdoor setting, activating the park as a year-round community gathering space and creating a landmark attraction for the region.

EXECUTIVE

Martha A. Gilmer

THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ADMINISTRATION

President and Chief Executive Officer

Katy McDonald Chief of Staff

Elizabeth Larsen Sr. Executive Assistant to the CEO and Board of Directors

Ellen Damore Executive Coordinator

ARTISTIC AND PRODUCTION

Lea Slusher

Vice President of Artistic Administration and Audience Development

Alan J. (AJ) Benson Director of Artistic Planning

Theodora Bellinger Director of Artistic Operations

Liam McBane Artistic Coordinator

Seasonal Artistic Assistants: Kristen Garabedian, Michael Hull, Melyssa Mason, Sade Rains, Evelyn Zuniga

Jeffrey Jordan Director of External Events

Angela Chilcott

Managing Director, Orchestra and Stage Operations

Ed Estrada Director of Production

Pete Seaney Director of Stage Operations

Jason Rothberg Production & Technical Designer

Joel Watts Audio Director

Beth Hall

Production Stage Manager

Niko Lambros Smith

Production Stage Manager

Shea Perry Orchestra Personnel Manager

Diego Plata

Assistant Orchestra Personnel 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

Kimberly Vargas Director of Human Resources

Susan Cochran Payroll and Benefits Manager

Amanda Shepherd 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

Kristen Turner

Director of Communications, Content and Digital Strategies

John Velasco

Communications Manager

Graphic & Production Designers

Ashley Smith, Brie Witko

Maria Kusior

Digital Media Specialist

Savanna Hunter-Reeves

Marketing Specialist

Noëlle Borrelli-Boudreau

Marketing Coordinator

Sabina Spilkin

Digital Systems Analyst

Theater Direct Outbound Sales and Fundraising

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: Clelia Cabezas, Mollie Davis, 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 AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Laura Reynolds

Vice President of Impact and Innovation

Stephen Salts

Director of Learning and Leadership

Lauren Rausch

Social Impact & Leadership Programs Manager

VENUE OPERATIONS

Travis Wininger

Vice President of Venue Operations

Rob Arnold

Managing Director, Venue Operations

Paige Satter

Director of Operations Administration

Diane Littlejohn

Venue Operations Manager

Devin Burns

Event Operations Manager

Robert Saucedo

Senior Technician

Lead Facilities Technicians:

Peter Perez, David Russell

Lorenzo Peay

Facilities Technician

Sean Kennedy Director of Information Technology

Jovan Robles IT Operations Manager

German Luna IT Coordinator

Roberto Castro Director of Guest Experience

Danielle Litrenta

Manager, Guest Experience

Front of House Managers:

Beverly Feinberg, Christine Harmon, K Roesler, Karen Tomlinson

Front of House Staff:

Judy Bentovim, Sue Carberry, Julio Cedillo, Kerry Freshman, Sharon Karniss, Laurel Nielsen, Linda Thornhill, Marilyn Weiss

Drew Gomes

Director, Event Operations and Security

Devin Burns

Event Operations Manager

Event Operations Leads: Mateo Alvarez, Luke Ban, Jackson Butler

Event Operations Staff:

Joshua Albertson, Kayla Aponte, Tyler Bao Buu, Sydney Berman, Jason Boucher, Lily Castillo, Jafet Chavez, Kinsey Claudino, Brandon Croft, Jessica Dau, Gabriel Carlo De Guzman, Ryan Fargo, Brook Hill, Sophia Hirasuna, Jocelyn Jenkins, Ben Kelly, Garrett Lockwood, Edward Manzo, Harry McCue, Logan McKerring, Shannon McElhaney, Ricardo Mendoza, Casey Meyer, Slaine Miller, 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, Tom Rufino, Gabriel Sheaffer, Brandon Scott, Mia Sevilla, Aden Starr, Owen Stiefvater, Nicholas Stroh, Elias Valdvia, Paige Vigiletti, Chris Wilson, Connor Wilson, Yadira Zuniga

STAGE PERSONNEL

Adam Day

Head Carpenter

Evan Page

Electrical Department Head

Shafeeq Sabir

Property Department Head

RJ Givens

Audio Department Head

Jonnel Domilos

Piano Technician

The Power of Science

Jonas Salk, developer of the first safe and effective polio vaccine, understood that art and science come from the same creative source. He intentionally designed the Salk Institute to be a place that brings together the two worlds of science and art, each enriching the other and helping us develop a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world.

At the Salk Institute today, teams of world-class scientists use this creative drive to push the boundaries of knowledge in areas such as neuroscience, cancer research, aging, immunobiology, plant biology, computational biology, and more.

The Salk Institute is an independent, nonprofit research organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature, and fearless in the face of any challenge.

Join us at www.salk.edu/donate