Performances Magazine San Diego | San Diego Symphony, April 2026

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P1 Program

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

6 In the Wings

The San Diego Museum of Art’s centennial, Art Alive exhibition and Bloom Bash soiree; La Jolla Playhouse’s 2026 WOW Festival; San Diego Symphony’s Jacobs Masterworks concerts in April; Broadway San Diego shows; and more.

8 Feature: Ballet Spotlight

A look inside the esteemed San Diego Academy of Ballet (SDAB), which marks 25 years of shaping dedicated young dancers into future stars on the global stage.

13 Dining

Dining gems around town for fabulous French fare—such as À L’ouest in North Park, Fleurette in La Jolla, Bonne Vie Brasserie & Bar at The Westgate Hotel, Saint James French Diner at Palihotel San Diego, Bleu Bohème in Kensington, and more

OUR NEW SPACE IS JAW-DROPPING.

We call it Amazement in the Basement because it’s amazing and it’s in the basement. Our biggest new exhibition in years offers a behind-the-scenes look at fascinating specimens from our collection and scientists at work in the new Paleo Center.

Come visit—you’ll be amazed. Tickets at sdnat.org.

PUBLISHER

Jeff Levy

EDITOR

Sarah Daoust

ART DIRECTOR

Carol Wakano

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Glenda Mendez

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Diana Gonzalez

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Christine Noriega-Roessler

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Leanne Killian Riggar

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IN FULL BLOOM

MARKING ITS 100TH anniversary this year, The San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) is bustling with new exhibits and events in celebration of its centennial. Of note: Local Visions: Reimagining the Façade, on view through July 26, displays works by 10 local artists offering contemporary interpretations of the museum’s iconic exterior; and SDMA 100 Years, through Feb. 7, 2027, is an exploration of the institution’s rich history told through various media, incorporating community submissions. And of course, don’t miss SDMA’s signature annual exhibition, Art Alive, April 24-26—when around 80 works from the Museum’s permanent collection will be reimagined in the form of live floral sculptures. The 2026 event draws inspiration from another new SDMA centennial exhibition, Cafes and Cabarets: The Spectacular Art of Toulouse-Lautrec, on view April 4-Sept. 20. Art Alive’s “Bloom Bash” soiree on April 24 will channel the Moulin Rouge, circa 1890s Paris in all its “bohemian glamour” glory. 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park, 619.232.7931, sdmart.org

Beethoven to Broadway

THREE SPECTACULAR JACOBS Masterworks concerts, presented by San Diego Symphony, await at Jacobs Music Center in April. Pianist Conrad Tao joins the Symphony Orchestra April 10-11; the portfolio includes Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3, Century Rolls by John Adams, and Cool Cat by Adam Schoenberg. Pianist Ingrid Fliter takes the stage April 18-19; revel in Polish film composer Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa; as well as Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2; and works by Borodin. And it’s “A Feast of Beethoven” April 24-25, featuring pianist Alexandra Dovgan; you’ll hear Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, Piano Concerto No. 5, and Coriolan Overture. sandiegosymphony.org At the Civic Theatre, Broadway San Diego brings us Riverdance, May 1-3, celebrating the dance troupe’s 30th anniversary with an electric production: new choreography, costumes and graphics; and MJ: The Musical, the Tony Awardwinning smash that captures Michael Jackson’s 1992 Dangerous World Tour, May 5-10. broadwaysd.com

Clockwise from top: Conrad Tao; La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival; Riverdance

THEATER

PLAYWRIGHT AUGUST WILSON (1945-2005) is best known for his collective of 10 plays called The Pittsburgh Cycle. The Old Globe stages one of them: Wilson’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences. The play follows a former Negro League baseball star-turned sanitation worker, from 1957 to 1965. Delicia Turner Sonnenberg directs. theoldglobe.org Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a “light, sweet romantic comedy,” James Sherman’s Beau Jest is just that—staged by North Coast Rep, April 22-May 17. Omri Schein directs the humorous, heartfelt play centered on the experiences and dynamics of a JewishAmerican family. northcoastrep.org Comprising boutique theater performances and immersive art experiences staged in locales “without walls,” the acclaimed WOW Festival architected by La Jolla Playhouse returns. The festival takes place April 23-26, presented with UC San Diego at locations around the La Jolla campus. lajollaplayhouse.org

LEAPS AND BOUNDS

San Diego Academy of Ballet Marks 25 Years of Pursuing Excellence

by STEPHANIE SAAD

ALTHOUGH SAN DIEGO can boast more than a few professional dance companies, you might not expect to find in our city a relentless, high-stakes engine of classical ballet discipline. Historically, if you wanted to reach the pinnacle of the ballet world, you

packed your bags for the gray skies of London, the storied avenues of Paris, or the frantic energy of New York.

Yet for 25 years, the San Diego Academy of Ballet (SDAB) has been quietly doing just that. It is an outlier in every sense of the word—a regional

studio that has somehow transformed into a pipeline for some of the most exclusive dance institutions on the planet.

The Academy was founded in 2001 by Max Tchernychev and Sylvia Tchernychev, now retired. Today, it is steered by director Simone Gabrielle, an alumna of the academy, whose own journey through the school’s rigorous ranks informs her leadership. Under her watch, the school is producing impressive results.

Gabrielle took over SDAB in 2021, during the pandemic. “Max and Sylvia were ready to retire, and I could not even fathom that school closing and denying its potential to so many students,” she says. “It would have been a real tragedy befalling the community if it closed.”

From the start, Gabrielle followed the guiding

principles set by the Tchernychevs. “Max was Bolshoi-trained, and Sylvia trained with [Marius] Zirra, who was Vaganovatrained,” she says. “Their desire was to imbue the community with top-tier training typically not found in a ballet studio. Our commitment remains to sky-high standards, an allergy to average, and rigid and challenging classes. In that structure comes the freedom to do anything and go anywhere, and turn heads everywhere you go.”

Gabrielle says SDAB tuition is “aligned with the caliber of training, and nationally under-market for what we’re accomplishing. If I didn’t have such high standards, I’d have much higher enrolment numbers.” She calls it “couture ballet without a Chanel price tag.”

Class sizes are kept small on purpose, and

/ CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

FROM THE PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Dear Friends,

Throughout this season, we have explored the idea of Stories in Music—the powerful ways composers and performers use sound to tell stories of people, places, history, and imagination.

We begin April with the final concert on this season’s Jazz @ The Jacobs series. You’ll hear a landmark in American music—a performance of the album tracks from Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out. This recordbreaking album redefined what jazz could be, became the first jazz album to sell one million copies, and tells a uniquely American story of the cool, inventive spirit of the West Coast.

Our Masterworks programs continue that spirit of storytelling.

In Journeys to California, we mark the 175th anniversary of the State of California and the 250th anniversary of the United States with music shaped by reinvention and new beginnings. Adam Schoenberg’s Cool Cat recounts the unlikely story of P-22, the mountain lion who became a symbol of resilience in Los Angeles. John Adams’ Century Rolls evokes the rhythmic vitality of early American player-piano culture. Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony, written after his emigration to the United States, weaves a deeply personal narrative—nostalgia for the Russia he left behind intertwined with the optimism of his adopted homeland.

Slavonic Fantasies brings stories rooted in heritage and folklore. Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 sings with youthful passion and national pride. Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa pulses with the traditions of Southern Poland’s mountain musicians, while Borodin’s Symphony No. 2 and the electrifying “Polovtsian Dances” from Prince Igor conjure epic tales of celebration and cultural identity.

Finally, A Feast of Beethoven presents stories of courage and triumph through some of the most iconic music ever written. The dramatic intensity of the Coriolan Overture, the majesty of the “Emperor” Concerto, and the unstoppable drive of the Seventh Symphony reflect Beethoven’s profound belief in resilience and the human spirit—music that continues to speak across centuries because its story is, ultimately, our own.

From groundbreaking jazz to symphonic masterworks, these concerts affirm that music is one of humanity’s most enduring forms of storytelling.

We are honored to bring these stories to life for our community. Thank you for believing in the power of music to connect us all.

With gratitude,

Martha A. Gilmer President and Chief Executive Officer

RAFAEL PAYARE

MUSIC & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

With his innate musicianship, charismatic energy, gift for communication, and irresistibly joyous spirit, conductor Rafael Payare is “considerable grace and considerable swagger, making the two go unusually yet inexorably together” (Los Angeles Times). Payare conducted the San Diego Symphony (SDS) for the first time in 2018 and was subsequently named the orchestra’s music director designate one month later, assuming the role of music director in January 2019.

Now in the seventh season of his transformative tenure, Payare and the SDS continue their ongoing performances of the complete cycle of symphonies by Shostakovich and Mahler, performing Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony and Mahler’s Seventh. Other highlights include Bruckner ’s Fourth Symphony; Beethoven’s First Symphony; Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony; a two-week Brahms festival in the spring encompassing the German Requiem, all four symphonies, and the Violin Concerto performed by Leonidas Kavakos; and Gabriela Ortiz’s new ecology-themed cello concerto, Dzonot, featuring dedicatee Alisa Weilerstein.

The 2025-26 season also marks his fourth as music director of Canada’s Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM. With the OSM he leads a similarly full season with Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust, followed in October by a Berlioz album release. Other season highlights there include Mahler’s Fourth and Ninth Symphonies; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto featuring Emanuel Ax; Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro; and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The conductor rounds out his season with high profile returns to the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, London’s Philharmonia, and the NHK Symphony. He also makes his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

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 2014-19, making multiple appearances at London’s BBC Proms.

Also a dedicated opera conductor, Payare has made debuts at both London’s Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and the Glyndebourne Festival with Il barbiere di Siviglia and he has led Madama Butterfly and La bohème at Stockholm’s Royal Swedish Opera, Tosca at the Royal Danish Opera, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at the Castleton Festival, and a new production of La traviata in Malmö, Sweden.

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 New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra, while his notable European appearances include dates with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic , Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and Vienna Philharmonic, which he has led at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, on a Baltic tour, and at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. n

THE MEMBERS OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY

MUSIC AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

RAFAEL PAYARE

VIOLIN

Jeff Thayer^ Concertmaster

DEBORAH PATE AND JOHN FORREST CHAIR

Wesley Precourt

Associate Concertmaster

Jisun Yang^

Assistant Concertmaster

Katia Tesarczyk

Principal Second Violin

Cherry Choi Tung Yeung

Associate Principal Second Violin

Nick Grant

Principal Associate Concertmaster Emeritus

Ai Nihira Awata

Jing Yan Bowcott

Yumi Cho

Alicia Engley

Kathryn Hatmaker

Kenneth Liao

Alexander Palamidis

Igor Pandurski

Evan Pasternak

Julia Pautz

Yeh Shen

Xiaoxuan Shi

Edmund Stein

Hanah Stuart

John Stubbs

Pei-Chun Tsai

Tiffany Wee

Zou Yu

Yeim Lee*

Margeaux Maloney*

Sarah Schwartz*

VIOLA

Chi-Yuan Chen

Principal

KAREN AND WARREN KESSLER CHAIR

Nancy Lochner

Associate Principal

Jason Karlyn

Alexander Knecht

Wanda Law

Sung Jin Lee

Zeyu Victor Li

Qing Liang

Ethan Pernela

Megan Wei

CELLO

Yao Zhao

Principal

Chia-Ling Chien

Associate Principal

Vivian Chang

Maximus Gurath

Andrew Hayhurst

Tzu-Wei Jack Huang

Richard Levine

Nathan Walhout

Xian Zhuo

BASS

Jeremy Kurtz-Harris

Principal

SOPHIE AND ARTHUR BRODY FOUNDATION CHAIR

Susan Wulff

Associate Principal

Aaron Blick

P.J. Cinque

Kevin Gobetz

Samuel Hager

Margaret Johnston+

FLUTE

Rose Lombardo Principal

Sarah Tuck

Lily Josefsberg

PICCOLO

Lily Josefsberg

OBOE

Sarah Skuster Principal

Rodion Belousov

Andrea Overturf

ENGLISH HORN

Andrea Overturf

DR. WILLIAM AND EVELYN LAMDEN CHAIR

CLARINET

Sheryl Renk Principal

Max Opferkuch

Frank Renk

BASS CLARINET

Frank Renk

BASSOON

Valentin Martchev Principal

Ryan Simmons

Leyla Zamora

CONTRABASSOON

Leyla Zamora

HORN

Benjamin Jaber Principal

Darby Hinshaw

Assistant Principal & Utility

Tricia Skye

John Degnan

TRUMPET

Christopher Smith Principal

Ray Nowak

TROMBONE

Kyle R. Covington Principal

Greg Ochotorena

Kyle Mendiguchia

BASS TROMBONE

Kyle Mendiguchia

TUBA

Aaron McCalla Principal

HARP

Julie Phillips Principal

TIMPANI

Ryan J. DiLisi Principal

Andrew Watkins Assistant Principal

PERCUSSION

Gregory Cohen Principal

Andrew Watkins

Matthew West

PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN

Courtney Secoy Cohen

LIBRARIAN

Rachel Fields

* Long Term Substitute Musician + Staff Opera Musician

^ Performs on an instrument generously gifted by Dr. Irwin & Joan Jacobs

The musicians of the San Diego Symphony are members of San Diego County, Local 325, American Federation of Musicians, AFL-CIO.

PARTNER PLAYER WITH A

The San Diego Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Partner with a Player members, whose contributions make a profound impact. This program offers donors a unique opportunity to personally connect with the orchestra and engage in meaningful ways.

Listing reflects gifts and pledges as ofF February 3, 2026.

$100,000 AND ABOVE

Raffaella and John* Belanich

Rafael Payare, Music and Artistic Director

$50,000 – $99,999

Anonymous (2)

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Michele and Jules Arthur

Kevin Gobetz, Bass

Terry Atkinson

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Eloise and Warren* Batts

Alicia Engley, Violin

Annette and Daniel Bradbury

Yao Zhao, Principal Cello

James Silberrad Brown Foundation

Katia Tesarczyk, Principal Second Violin

Julia R. Brown

Leyla Zamora, Bassoon and Contrabassoon

Ross Caleca and Hayley Janecek

Gregory Ochotorena, Trombone

Karen and Donald* Cohn

Hanah Stuart, 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

Drs. Martha G. and Edward Dennis

Samuel Hager, Bass

Mr. and Mrs.* Brian K. Devine

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Phyllis and Daniel J. Epstein

Sheryl Renk, Principal Clarinet

^ Joan* and Irwin Jacobs

Martha Gilmer, President and Chief Executive Officer

Pam and Hal Fuson

Courtney Cohen, Principal Librarian

^ Elaine Galinson and

Herbert Solomon

Yumi Cho, Violin

Carol and Richard Hertzberg

Nick Grant, Principal Associate Concertmaster Emeritus

Arlene Inch

John Degnan, Horn

Karen and Warren Kessler

Chi-Yuan Chen, Principal Viola

KAREN AND WARREN KESSLER CHAIR

Carol and George Lattimer

Rodion Belousov, Oboe

Monica and Robert Oder

Gregory Cohen, Principal Percussion

^ Linda and Shearn* Platt

Ryan J. DiLisi, Principal Timpani

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

Eduardo Maneses, Percussionist

Jaqueline and Jean-Luc Robert

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Sally and Steve Rogers

Kyle Mendiguchia, Trombone

Elena Romanowsky

Edmund Stein, Violin

Penny and Louis Rosso

Andrew Watkins, Assistant Principal Timpani

PENNY AND LOUIS ROSSO CHAIR

+ Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

Yeh Shen, Violin

Jean and Gary Shekhter

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Karen and Kit Sickels

Jeremy Kurtz-Harris, Principal Bass

SOPHIE AND ARTHUR BRODY FOUNDATION CHAIR

Karen Foster Silberman and Jeff Silberman

Jisun Yang, Assistant Concertmaster

^ Gayle* and Donald Slate

Wesley Precourt, Associate Concertmaster

Dave and Phyllis Snyder

Julia Pautz, Violin

Gloria and Rodney Stone

P.J. Cinque, Bass

Jayne and Bill Turpin

Max Opferkuch, Clarinet

Karen Wahler

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Leslie and Joe* Waters

Ethan Pernela, Viola

+ Sue and Bill* Weber

Jing Yan Bowcott, Violin

+ Kathryn A. and James E. Whistler

Rachel Fields, Librarian

Cole and Judy Willoughby

Christopher Smith, Principal Trumpet

Mitchell Woodbury

Valentin Martchev, Principal Bassoon

Sarah and Marc Zeitlin

Cherry Choi Tung Yeung, Associate Principal Second Violin

$25,000 – $49,999

Anonymous (2)

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Diane and Norman Blumenthal

Aaron Blick, Bass

Nicole A. and Benjamin G. Clay

Nathan Walhout, Cello

Stephanie and Richard Coutts

Chia-Ling Chien, Associate Principal Cello

Ann Davies

Xian Zhuo, Cello

Kathleen Seely Davis

Qing Liang, Viola

Karin and Gary Eastham

Jason Karlyn, Viola

Lisette and Mick Farrell/Farrell Family Foundation

Rose Lombardo, Principal Flute

Diane and Elliot Feuerstein

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Kelly Greenleaf and Michael Magerman

Vivian Chang, Cello

Judith Harris* and Robert Singer, M.D.

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Linda Hervey

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Suzanne and Lawrence Hess

San Diego Symphony Musicians

^ Jerri-Ann and Gary Jacobs

Ai Nihira Awata, Violin

Marilyn James and Richard Phetteplace

John Stubbs, Violin

Helen and Sig Kupka

Lily Josefsberg, Piccolo/Flute

Jo Ann Kilty

Tricia Skye, Horn

Dr. William and Evelyn Lamden

Andrea Overturf, Oboe

DR. WILLIAM AND EVELYN LAMDEN CHAIR

Lisa and Gary Levine, Arthur J.

Gallagher & Co.

San Diego Symphony Musicians

^ Sandy and Arthur* Levinson

Kyle Covington, Principal Trombone

Eileen Mason

Julie Smith Phillips, Principal Harp

Anne and Andy McCammon

Richard Levine, Cello

Val and Ron Ontell

Darby Hinshaw,

Assistant Principal & Utility Horn

Deborah Pate and John Forrest

Jeff Thayer, Concertmaster

DEBORAH PATE AND JOHN FORREST CHAIR

Jane and Jon Pollock

Evan Pasternak, Violin

^ Allison and Robert Price

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Joetta* Ragland

San Diego Symphony Musicians

Carol Randolph, Ph.D. and Robert Caplan/ Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek

Pei-Chun Tsai, Violin

Jeanette Stevens

Kathryn Hatmaker, Violin

Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft

Wanda Law, Viola

Linda and Raymond* ThomasR.V. Thomas Family Fund

Ray Nowak, Trumpet

Sandra Timmons and Richard Sandstrom

Sarah Skuster, Principal Oboe

The Zygowicz Family (John*, Judy, and Michelle)

Nancy Lochner,

Associate Principal Viola

For more information, or to join, please contact Sheri Broedlow, Vice President of Institutional Advancement, at (619) 615-3910 or sbroedlow@sandiegosymphony.org.

The Beethoven Society is designed to raise consistent, critical funding for artistic, educational and community programs. Members pledge multi-year support and commit to annual gifts of $50,000 and higher, designated for projects ranging from classical and jazz concerts to education and military programs.

The Symphony and its Board of Directors are pleased to thank the following for their leadership and to acknowledge them as Members of The Beethoven Society.

For information about supporting the San Diego Symphony Orchestra through membership in The Beethoven Society, please call Sheri Broedlow at (619) 615-3910.

The following listing reflects pledges or gifts entered as of February 3, 2026. * Denotes deceased

Anonymous (2)

Michele and Jules Arthur

Terry L. Atkinson

Eloise and Warren* Batts

Annette and Daniel Bradbury

The James Silberrad Brown Foundation

Julia R. Brown

Ross Caleca and Hayley Janecek

Karen and Donald* Cohn

Kevin and Jan Curtis

Una Davis and Jack McGrory

Drs. Edward A. and Martha G. Dennis

Mr. and Mrs.* Brian K. Devine

to

Phyllis and Daniel J. Epstein

Pam and Hal Fuson

Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon

Carol and Richard Hertzberg

Arlene Inch

Karen and Warren Kessler

Monica and Robert Oder

Linda and Shearn* Platt

Sally and Steve Rogers

Elena Romanowsky

Penny and Louis Rosso

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

Jean and Gary Shekhter

Karen Foster Silberman and Jeff Silberman

Gayle* and Donald Slate

Dave and Phyllis Snyder

Gloria and Rodney Stone

Jayne and Bill Turpin

Karen Wahler

Leslie and Joe* Waters

Sue and Bill* Weber

Kathryn A. and James E. Whistler

Cole and Judy Willoughby

Mitchell Woodbury

Sarah and Marc Zeitlin

SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY BOARDS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

David R. Snyder, Esq. Chair of the Board*

Harold W. Fuson Jr. Immediate Past Chair*

Colette Carson Royston Vice Chair*

Una Davis Vice Chair*

Kathleen Davis Treasurer*

Linda Platt Secretary*

*Executive Committee Member

HONORARY LIFETIME DIRECTORS

Dr. Irwin M. Jacobs

Joan K. Jacobs (1933-2024)

Warren O. Kessler, M.D.

Michele Arthur

Lisa Behun*

Steve G. Bjorg

Anthony C. Boganey, M.D., FACS

Annette Bradbury*

Julia Brown

Martha G. Dennis, Ph.D.

Susan Dubé

Karin Eastham

Phyllis Epstein*

Sarah Flatley*

Karen Foster Silberman

Janet Gorrie

Dr. Nancy Hong*

Anne Francis Ratner (1911-2011)

Lawrence B. Robinson (d. 2021)

FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Warren O. Kessler, M.D. Chair

David R. Snyder, Esq. Vice Chair

Sandy Levinson Secretary

Mitchell R. Woodbury Treasurer

PAST BOARD CHAIRS

2021-23 Harold W. Fuson Jr.

2018-21 David R. Snyder, Esq.

2015-18 Warren O. Kessler, M.D.

2014-15 Shearn H. Platt

2011-14 Evelyn Olson Lamden

2009-11 Mitchell R. Woodbury

2008-09 Theresa J. Drew

2007-08 Steven R. Penhall

2005-07 Mitchell R. Woodbury

2004-05 Craig A. Schloss, Esq.

2003-04 John R. Queen

2001-03 Harold B. Dokmo Jr.

2000-01 Ben G. Clay

1998-00 Sandra Pay

1995-96 Elsie V. Weston

Eunice Bragais

Robert Caplan, Esq.

Harold W. Fuson Jr.

Martha Gilmer

Susan Mallory

Jeremy Pearl

Gretchen Shaffer

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

Enrique Meza

Deborah Pate

Rich Paul

Jean Luc Robert

Robert A. Rubenstein, M.D.

Sherron Schuster

Gloria Stone

Frank Vizcarra

James Whistler

Mitchell R. Woodbury*

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

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 February 3, 2026.

*Deceased

$3,000,000 AND ABOVE

Raffaella and John* Belanich

Pamela Hamilton Lester

In memory of James A Lester

Joan* and Irwin Jacobs

The Miller Fund

Price Philanthropies Foundation

$1,000,000 - $2,999,999

Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon Through the Glickman Fund of the S.D. Jewish Community Foundation

The Rev. Michael Kaehr

Willis J. Larkin

Dick* and Dorothea Laub

Lou and Penny Rosso and the Rosso Family

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

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

Haeyoung Kong Tang

The Katherine “Kaylan” Thornhill Artistic Initiatives Fund

Timmstrom Family

$500,000 - $999,999

Anonymous

The James Silberrad Brown Foundation

Debby and Hal Jacobs

Dr. Paul Jacobs

Mitchell R. Woodbury

$250,000 - $499,999

Michele and Jules Arthur

The Bjorg Family

Julia R. Brown

Karin and Gary Eastham

Arlene Inch

Annie and Jeffrey 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

Gayle* and Donald Slate

Kathryn A. and James E. Whistler

$100,000 - $249,999

Anonymous

Eloise and Warren* Batts

Rosanne B. and W. Gregory Berton

David Bialis

Drs. Edward A. & Martha G. Dennis

The Fuson Family

Tom and Carolina Gildred

Carol and Mike Kearney

The Littman Jonkman Community

Engagement and Education Fund

Susan and Peter Mallory

In honor of Martha Gilmer

Debby Parrish and Lori Moore

Robert, Monica, and Celeste Oder

Debby Parrish and Lori Moore

Chris and Kris Seeger

Dr. Seuss Foundation

In honor of Ted and Audrey Geisel

Dave and Phyllis Snyder

Sue and Bill* Weber

Jo and Howard* Weiner

$50,000 - $99,999

Lisa and Ben Arnold

Trupti and Pratik Multani

Carol Rolf and Steven Adler

Richard A. Samuelson*

$25,000 - $49,999

Kathleen S. Davis and Stephen J.* Davis

Una Davis Family

Janet and Wil Gorrie

The Hong-Patapoutian Family

Robert* and Laura Kyle

Carol and George Lattimer

Amy and John Malone

David Marchesani

In loving memory of Alex and Judy McDOnald

In memory of Lorna Nemcek

Linda and Shearn* Platt

Ingrid Van Moppes

In honor of Willard Howard Kline

Karen Wahler

In memory of Michael Gay Waldron Family Trust

$10,000 - $24,999

Ben Brand and Shara Williams

James and Lynn Caughey

Charles and Charyle Chiles

Susan and Peter Crotty

Dr. Peter Czipott and Marisa SorBello

Leticia Falquier and Craig Sapin

Monica Fimbres

Gertrude B. Fletcher

Eva Halpern & Ed Midgette*

Jason and Somi Han

In memory of Lillian Hauser

Wolfgang* and Erika Horn

Marilyn K. James and Richard Phetteplace

Sharon Lapid

In honor of Gilbert and Miriam Lapid

Karen Zurawski Leland

Joan Lewan Trust

Sylvia and Jaime* Liwerant

Jack McGrory

Deb Pate and Jack Forrest

Joan Salb Trust

Diane and Bill Stumph

Linda Thomas

In honor of John Zygowicz

Building a Sound Tomorrow

Jacobs Music Center Renovation and Endowment Campaign

The San Diego Symphony has completed a landmark transformation of its indoor home. The renewed Joan and Irwin Jacobs Music Center now stands alongside The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, giving San Diego two world-class venues that celebrate music, community, and the future of the arts. Just as these venues secure our artistic home, the San Diego Symphony Foundation’s Endowment ensures long-term financial strength—allowing live music to inspire our community for generations.

PLAY A PART IN THE SYMPHONY’S FUTURE

The Endowment is the cornerstone of our stability and artistic ambition. Your support helps sustain world-class performances, expand education programs, and fuel innovation. By contributing, you become part of a legacy that protects the future of music in San Diego.

NAME A SEAT

Celebrate this historic renewal by naming a seat. $10,000 – Orchestra Level • $25,000 – Grand Tier Pledges may be fulfilled over a period of five years.

Your gift supports the orchestra, elevates the audience experience, and strengthens the cultural vitality of downtown San Diego. To learn more, email campaign@sandiegosymphony.org

San

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

SATURDAY, APRIL 4 | 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

JAZZ @ THE JACOBS

DAVE BRUBECK’S QUARTET’S TIME OUT

Josh Nelson, piano

Nicole McCabe, alto saxophone

Luca Alemanno, bass

Joe LaBarbera, drums

Young Lions Jazz Conservatory, preshow performance

Steinway is the official piano of the San Diego Symphony.

PROGRAM

TO BE ANNOUNCED ON STAGE.

Total Program Duration: 2 hours Includes one 20-minute intermission

JOSH NELSON PIANO

Pianist, composer and recording artist Josh Nelson maintains an active and creative schedule. He has performed with some of the most respected names in jazz, including Natalie Cole, Anthony Wilson, George Mraz, Jeff Hamilton, Walter Smith III, Dayna Stephens, Eddie Daniels, Richard Galliano, Michael Buble, Benny Golson, Sheila Jordan, Greg Hutchinson, John Clayton, John Pizzarelli, and Lewis Nash.

Josh has performed around the world and contributed to numerous recordings, films and television shows. He made an impressive debut with his first two albums, Anticipation (2004) and Let It Go (2007, Native Language Music), both of which garnered international critical acclaim. Josh’s third album, I Hear a Rhapsody (2009), featured his original compositions, interpretations of standards, and the re-imagining of some popular repertoire. Discoveries (2011) introduced a pairing of classic science fiction film footage with new compositions for a brass and wind ensemble. Live performances of this music feature a video projection and art installation component

as well, called The Discovery Project. Exploring Mars (2015) delved into musical themes about the Red Planet, augmented by spectacular NASA/JPL Martian video footage. Dream in the Blue (2016) featured Josh in an intimate duo setting with his longtime collaborator, vocalist Sara Gazarek. The Sky Remains (2017) delved into musical stories and themes originating from his hometown of Los Angeles. A pair of live albums followed, The Discovery Project Live in Japan (2020) and Live at Blue Whale | Volume 1 (2021).

Over the years Josh has earned many awards, scholarships, and accolades including the Louis Armstrong Award and the John Philip Sousa Award. In 2006, Josh was one of 12 semi-finalists in the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. Josh toured the world for six beautiful years with the legendar y vocalist Natalie Cole. He continues to tour and arrange for artists such as Kenny Washington, Lorca Hart, Anton Schwartz, Allison Adams Tucker, Kathleen Grace, Sinne Eeg, Nicolas Bearde, Gaby Moreno, Alicia Olatuja, Tom Scott, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and Christian Howes. www.JoshNelsonMusic.com n

NICOLE MCCABE

ALTO

SAXOPHONE

Nicole McCabe is an alto saxophonist, composer, and educator from Marin County, California, and now works and lives in Los Angeles. A rising star in the city’s interdisciplinary scenes, her new album A Song to Sing marks her fulllength debut on local creative hotbed Colorfield Records. The LP follows the Jeff Parker-produced Mosaic, McCabe’s fourth album as a bandleader, on Ghost Note Records. Her electro-jazz duo Dolphin Hyperspace released its latest album What Is My Porpoise? on Dox Records last fall.

A Song to Sing showcases McCabe in a more improvisational mode, composing and recording the album’s music on the spot in sessions with producer Pete Min, who encouraged McCabe to explore her palette as a multi-instrumentalist. Frequent collaborators Justin Brown, Paul Cornish, and partner Logan Kane are featured.

McCabe has performed or recorded with Salami Rose Joe Louis, Luke Titus, Kiefer, Ari Hoenig, Dan Weiss, David Binney, George Cooligan, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Darryn Dean, Louis Cole, Sasha Berliner, Genevieve Artadi, Myles Martin, Devin Daniels, and 10.4 Rog, among others. She previously appeared on Colorfield as a guest on Amy Aileen Wood’s The Heartening. She performs with Dave Harrington and Spencer Zahn as the trio Mr. Tape and is featured on Zahn’s recent album Statues Live. In the last year she made

her debut at North Sea Jazz Festival and SFJazz.

A teacher since high school, McCabe is currently an educator and jazz ensemble director at Loyola Marymount University. She was a 2024 Next Jazz Legacy awardee as an apprentice under Gerald Clayton, and was the 2022 recipient of the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s Jeff Clayton Memorial New Note Award. She studied with Jason Moran in Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead residency at the Kennedy Center. She earned a master’s from University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies at Portland State University. n

LUCA ALEMANNO BASS

Luca Alemanno is an upright/electric bassist with 18 years of international touring experience. He has appeared on over 60 recordings and performed in 42 different countries around the world. Originally from Lecce, Italy, Alemanno is based in Los Angeles. He is considered by critics “among the finest young modern jazz musicians that Italy has to offer.” Touring, recording, and performing in Europe, Asia, and North and South America, Alemanno has appeared with international jazz artists such as Herbie Hancock, Arturo Sandoval, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jane Monheit, Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl, Gerald Clayton, Eric Reed, Dave Koz, Miguel Zenón, Mark Turner, Walter Smith III, Tierney Sutton, Greg Osby, Bob Mintzer, Joe Lovano, Esperanza Spalding, Eric Reed, Stanley Jordan, Jonathan Kreisberg, Logan Richardson, Jerry Bergonzi, Steve Leheman, Justin Brown, among many others.

An alumnus of the world-renowned Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance (2018), Alemanno studied and performed with jazz legends including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Chris Potter, Danilo Perez, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Jimmy Heath, Billy Hart, Billy Childs. Alemanno also earned diplomas in Classical Double Bass at the T. Schipa Conservatory of Music (Lecce) and Jazz Electric Bass at the G. Martucci Conservatory of Music (Salerno).

Alemanno is on the music faculty at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and is a lecturer at San Diego State University School of Music and Dance.

Alemanno’s debut album I Can See Home From Here was released on October 9, 2019 (Workin’ Label) and features alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, trombonist Jon Hatamiya, vibraphonist Simon Moullier, pianist Isaac

Wilson, and drummer Jongkuk “JK” Kim. Alemanno’s solo bass performance of “Stardust” reached Japan’s Top 100 Jazz Charts on iTunes in 2019. The album was also included among the top 100 best jazz albums of 2019 in Musica Jazz (Italy). n

JOE LABARBERA DRUMS

Joe La Barbera is highly regarded in the world of jazz and has been in demand by some of the greatest names in music for five decades. From his first professional appearance at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas—with Frankie Randall and the Buddy Rich band in 1968—to his work with jazz great Bill Evans and up to the present, he has always been regarded by his peers as a tasteful, musical drummer and a supportive accompanist. Bill Evans summed it up best when he said, “Joe is very dedicated to playing quality music and he’s willing to make the concessions of dues toward that end. He’s a top soloist and he does the right thing at the right time.”

As a performer, the list of artists Joe has worked with is impressive and spans generations and continents including Woody Herman, Chuck Mangione, John Scofield, Mike and Randy Brecker, Toots Thielemans, Lee Konitz, Joe Locke, John Abercrombie, Gary Burton, Dado Maroni, Enrico Pieranunzi, Phillipe Catherine, and Kenny Wheeler, to name only a few.

Joe was on the faculty at California Institute for the Arts from 1993 until 2021 and stays busy as a clinician and guest

artist at prestigious programs including Centrum Jazz Camp in Port Townsend, Washington; St. Louis Conservatory in Rome; Capbreton, France; McGill University in Montreal; and Cornish College in Seattle. n

YOUNG LIONS JAZZ CONSERVATORY

Young Lions Jazz Conservatory (YLJC) was founded by its artistic director, jazz trumpet virtuoso Gilbert Castellanos. Through his passion for jazz education, Castellanos started the Young Lions Series program in 2013, a series currently presented weekly at Balboa Park’s Panama 66 restaurant at the San Diego Museum of Art. These performances showcase young blooming jazz artists, ages 11-18, with whom he works closely as instructor and mentor.

Building on the success and momentum of the Young Lions Series, Castellanos expanded his vision and passion to raise up the next generation of jazz with the launch of Young Lions Jazz Conservatory. The non-profit organization focuses on the educational components of music: jazz theory, history, cultural context, Latin/Afro/Brazilian rhythms, and master classes with internationally recognized musicians. Conservatory students are placed in small combos of seven or eight students and rehearse weekly. Conservatory students are featured every Wednesday in the Young Lions Series at Panama 66 at the San Diego Museum of Art. Conservatory combos also perform at Jazz @ The Jacobs, Adams Avenue Street Fair, KSDS Jazz 88.3 Live Series, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, and more. Students also have the opportunity to attend jazz education festivals throughout the state, including Next Gen Monterey Jazz Festival. n

2026 CONRAD PREBYS SUMMER SEASON

Jun 26 Opening Night with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Jun 27 The Beach Boys with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Jun 28 Kool & the Gang with The Sugarhill Gang*

Jul 3 Blockbuster Broadway!

Jul 4 America The Beautiful: 250

Jul 10 Let The Sunshine In: The Music of ‘69

Jul 11 Wynonna Judd & Melissa Etheridge: Raised on Radio Tour*

Jul 12 Beethoven by the Bay

Jul 17 Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY

Jul 18 How To Train Your Dragon 2 in Concert

Jul 31 The Music of John Williams

Aug 1 St. Vincent with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Aug 7 Disney ‘80s-’90s Celebration in Concert

Aug 8 Stayin’ Alive: The Bee Gees & Beyond with Rajaton & the San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Aug 9 Gipsy Kings featuring Nicolas Reyes*

Aug 14 The Gershwins in Hollywood with Michael Feinstein

Aug 21 & 22 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone™ in Concert

Aug 23 Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Aug 28 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in Concert

Aug 29 Classic Albums Live performs The Beatles (The White Album)*

Aug 30 Tchaikovsky Spectacular

Sept 5 Manteca! A Dizzy Gillespie & Chano Pozo Celebration*

Sept 11 Buddy Guy 90*

Sept 16 “Weird Al” Yankovic: Bigger & Weirder 2026 Tour*

Sept 18 The Sixties Show*

Oct 17 Bonnie Raitt: Live 2026*

*The San Diego Symphony Orchestra does not appear on this program

FRIDAY, APRIL 10 | 7:30PM

SATURDAY, APRIL 11 | 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

JACOB MASTERWORKS

JOURNEYS TO CALIFORNIA

Robert Spano, conductor

Conrad Tao, piano San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Steinway is the official piano of the San Diego Symphony.

PROGRAM

ADAM SCHOENBERG

Cool Cat

JOHN ADAMS

Century Rolls ���� = 120 Manny’s Gym Hail Bop Conrad Tao, piano

INTERMISSION

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 44 Lento; Allegro moderato Adagio ma non tr oppo Allegro

Total Program Duration: 1 Hour and 43 Minutes

(Includes one 25-minute intermission)

Exclusive Representation for Robert Spano: Kirshbaum Associates Inc.

307 Seventh Avenue Suite 506 New York, NY 10001 www.kirshbaumassociates.com

ROBERT SPANO CONDUCTOR

Robert Spano, conductor, pianist, composer, and teacher, is known worldwide for the intensity of his artistry and distinctive communicative abilities. He is music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO), the Washington National Opera (WNO), and the Aspen Music Festival and School. At Aspen he oversees the programming of more than 300 events and educational programs for 630 students and young performers, and he directs the Aspen Conducting Academy. After 20 seasons as music director with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), he now serves as its music director laureate. He is principal guest conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and Music School this season, where he previously served as principal conductor.

In 2025-26, Spano leads the FWSO in six symphonic programs, including a world premiere by Michael Gandolfi. He leads two productions at WNO: Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Robert Ward’s Pulitzer Prizeand Tony Award®–winning opera The Crucible. In addition to his week with the San Diego Symphony, he returns to the ASO for two programs and makes appearances with the Louisville Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. In August, he released his newest recording, Songs of Orpheus, as pianist and composer, in collaboration with mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, on Sono Luminus.

Recent highlights include several world-premiere performances including The Sacrifice of Isaac by Jonathan Leshnoff with the ASO; Steven Mackey’s Aluminum Flowers and James Ra’s Te Deum with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra; Jake Heggie’s Earth 2.0 with the F WSO; Of Earth and Sky: Tales From the Motherland by Brian Raphael Nabors with the FWSO and Rhode Island Philharmonic; and Voy a Dormir by Bryce Dessner at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor.

With a discography of acclaimed recordings for Telarc, Deutsche Grammophon, and ASO Media, Robert Spano has garnered four Grammy™ Awards and eight nominations with the ASO. He is on the faculty at Oberlin Conservatory and has received honorary doctorates from Bowling Green State University, Curtis Institute of Music, Emory University, and Oberlin. Spano is a recipient of the Georgia Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities and is one of two classical musicians inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. n

CONRAD TAO PIANO

Conrad Tao is a pianist and composer celebrated for his boundary-defying artistry as well as his powerful performances of traditional repertoire. Described by New York Magazine as “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music,” and praised by The New York Times for his “probing intellect and open-hearted vision.”

In the 2025–26 season, Tao returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as both soloist and recitalist, performing Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Karina Canellakis and later presenting a recital program featuring Gershwin song arrangements alongside works by Schoenberg, Strayhorn, Schumann, and others. Recital highlights include returns to Klavierfestival Ruhr, and to the Celebrity Series of Boston, and the Seattle Symphony with Poetry and Fairy Tales, a program blending works by David Fulmer, Rebecca Saunders, Todd Moellenberg, Brahms, and Ravel.

In addition to his appearance in San Diego, Tao reunites with Robert Spano for a performance of Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety (Atlanta Symphony). He also joins Matthias Pintscher and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin for Pintscher’s NUR, and travels to Tokyo to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 with the NHK Symphony and Jaap van Zweden. He makes his harpsichord debut at Princeton University in Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s Dies Irae.

Tao continues performing his own works including Flung Out, which he played recently at the Aspen Festival, and The Hand which was commissioned and performed by the Kansas City Symphony. His orchestral work Everything Must Go premiered with the New York Philharmonic and in Europe with the Antwerp Symphony. He also tours Counterpoint, his collaboration with dancer Caleb Teicher, and he performs regularly with the Junction Trio alongside Stefan Jackiw and Jay Campbell. Additional recent collaborators include the brass quartet, The Westerlies.

Tao’s acclaimed recordings include Voyages, Pictures, and American Rage (all on Warner), as well as the loser by David Lang, and Bricolage with The Westerlies.

He is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gilmore Young Artist Award, and a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for his collaboration with Caleb Teicher on More Forever. n

Cool Cat

ADAM SCHOENBERG

Born November 15, 1980, West Salem, Massachusetts

P-22 was a mountain lion that became a sort of folk hero in Los Angeles. Born in the Santa Monica Mountains, he made a dangerous migration eastward to Griffith Park, crossing both the 101 and 405 freeways in the process. For about a decade, P-22 lived in the Hollywood Hills, where he appeared on countless video systems and lived the life of a lonely bachelor in that small urban wilderness. A particularly impressive photograph by a wilderness camera caught P-22 in front of the Hollywood Sign, symbolizing the ongoing presence of wildness even in a vast urban center. When P-22 was captured in a weakened state and euthanized in 2022, it was the occasion for mourning among his millions of admirers. The following year, composer Adam Schoenberg wrote a piece inspired by P-22 and called it Cool Cat. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and Juilliard, where he studied with John Corigliano, Schoenberg currently teaches at Occidental College.

On his website, the composer has offered a concise introduction:

“Cool Cat is inspired by the extraordinary life of P-22, the mountain lion that captured the heart of Los Angeles and beyond. This playful and celebratory concert-opener, aka fanfare, is meant to get the party started. It is dedicated to my son, Leo, our very own cool cat.”

Karen Kamensek led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the premiere of Cool Cat at the Hollywood Bowl on September 12, 2023, and it has gone on to a very successful life in the concert hall. Cool Cat has also been arranged for concert band. n

Century Rolls

JOHN ADAMS

Born February 15, 1947, Worcester, Massachusetts

John Adams composed Century Rolls for pianist Emanuel Ax, who gave the first performance with the Cleveland Orchestra and Christoph von Dohnanyi on September 25, 1997. The composer furnished an introduction to this work:

“The germinating idea behind Century Rolls was an experience I had late one night listening to a recording of old piano roll music from the 1920s. I was struck in an unexpected way by the fact that, regardless of the performer or the repertoire—be it Gershwin or Rachmaninoff, Jelly Roll Morton or Paderewski–the technology of the piano roll transformed the music into a realm that could not have been anticipated before— what Walter Benjaman called the ‘age of mechanical reproduction.’ So Century Rolls, a concerto requested by my friend, Emanuel Ax, became in part an attempt to recreate that initial response I had received to the sound of the piano as heard via the medium of the piano roll. That conceit is utilized for some, but not all of the concerto. In other parts I was conscious of the special gifts of Emanuel Ax, and particularly in the central slow movement, I attempted to tame my normally clangorous style of piano writing and create something that would fit the sense, timbre, and lyrical warmth that sets his performances apart from all other pianists.”

“ The concerto takes a kind of polymorphous-perverse pleasure in the whole past century of piano music, both popular and classical. In retrospect I see that it owes more than I realized not only to my own Grand Pianola Music (1982), but also to the early studies for player piano by Conlon Nancarrow. The last movement, ‘Hail Bop’ (so named in honor of my misapprehension of the name of the comet, Hale-Bopp) is a kind of homage to Nancarrow’s peculiarly whimsical way of wedding American vernacular music to a spiky, disjunct rhythmic texture.” n

-John Adams, reprinted with kind permission of www.earbox.com

Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 44

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

Born April 1, 1873, Semyonovo

Died March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills

In the spring of 1935, Rachmaninoff and his wife fled to Senar, the opulent villa they had constructed looking out over Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. Rachmaninoff was drained. He had just completed an exhausting concert tour that included recitals in Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Manchester, London, Zurich, Paris, Spain, and many other places. Now he lamented: “In the future I must cut down the number of concerts or find some remedy against old age.” But the 62-year-old Rachmaninoff had other plans for that summer than just rest—he wanted to write a new

symphony. But still there were interruptions: he suffered from arthritis, and his doctor sent him off for two weeks of what the composer described as “pine-electrical baths.” Despite all this, he had the first two movements complete by the end of the summer. Then it was back to the grueling concert season: recitals in Paris, then on to the United States where he played in Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York, then back to Europe where he gave recitals in Poland, Vienna, and London. Finally in the spring of 1936 he could escape to Senar, and there he completed the third and final movement of his Third Symphony.

Leopold Stokowski led the premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra on November 6, 1936, and the symphony was widely performed in the United States and Europe. The reaction, however, was not what the composer had hoped. He described it: “Both audiences and critics responded sourly. Personally, I’m firmly convinced that this is a good work. But—sometimes the author is wrong, too! However, I maintain my opinion.” The Third Symphony has always been the dark swan among Rachmaninoff’s major works, but it has had many enthusiastic champions, including such conductors as Stokowski (who recorded it in 1975 at age 93), Koussevitzky, Ormandy, Previn, Ashkenazy, Slatkin, Zinman, Gergiev, and many more.

The vast majority of Rachmaninoff’s works were composed before he was 45. These include his most popular works: the Second and Third Piano Concertos, his Second Symphony, and almost all his solo piano music. But when Rachmaninoff fled Russia in 1917 to escape the Communist Revolution, he lost everything, and he spent the next decade recovering his fortune by playing the piano. Between 1917 and 1926 Rachmaninoff composed nothing, and over the remaining 17 years of his life he composed only six more pieces. These late pieces are quite different from the popular early works,

with their big tunes and dramatic rhetoric. In his later years, Rachmaninoff wrote a much different sort of music: leaner in sonority, more focused in construction, and not so dependent on the great soaring melody.

Rachmaninoff’s late music is also more concerned with subtle instrumental color, and we sense that from the first instant of his Third Symphony. With a huge orchestra onstage, he begins with just four instruments, all playing pianissimo: clarinet, two muted horns, and muted cello. Their quiet introductory chant will return at moments in the symphony that follows but now it gives way to a great rip for that full orchestra as the Allegro moderato bursts to life. The movement is built on two themes: a lean woodwind chorale and a big soaring cello melody. This is dramatic music, full of excitement and color, and after all its energy, the opening chant returns to draw the movement to its subdued conclusion. The central Adagio ma non troppo is in ternary form, and it functions as both slow movement and scherzo. Once again, Rachmaninoff surprises us with his scoring: the opening belongs to just two instruments–horn and harp, soon joined by solo violin—only gradually does the rest of the orchestra join them. Rachmaninoff places the symphony’s scherzo in the middle of this slow movement: the music leaps ahead at the Allegro vivace, which features some brilliant writing for the trumpets, and the movement winds down on a brief return of its opening material. Out of this calm, the finale explodes. This is a high-energy movement, and at its center comes a blistering fugato introduced by the strings. Calmer episodes intrude on all this activity, but the music’s seething energy always manages to break free, and an Allegro vivace coda hurtles the Third Symphony to its sudden, violent conclusion. n

-Program notes by Eric Bromberger

THE LEGACY SOCIETY

The Legacy Society honors the following individuals who have made cash pledges or future commitments from their estates to the San Diego Symphony Foundation and/or the San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association to ensure the success of the orchestra for generations to come. The following listing includes commitments as of February 3, 2026.

$1,000,000 AND ABOVE

Raffaella and John* Belanich

Sophie & Arthur Brody Foundation*

Nicole A. and Benjamin G. Clay

Phyllis and Daniel J. Epstein

John Forrest and Deborah Pate

Norman Forrester and Bill Griffin

Pauline Foster*

Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon

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 Rev. Michael Kaehr

The Miller Fund

Marilyn James and Richard Phetteplace

Penny and Louis Rosso ^

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

Lyn Small and Miguel Ikeda

Katherine “Kaylan” Thornhill

Sue and Bill* Weber

Kathryn A. and James E. Whistler

Mitchell R. Woodbury

UNDISCLOSED OR UNDER $100,000

Anonymous (3)

Leonard Abrahms*

Pat Baker and Laurence Norquist*

William Beamish

Stephen and Michele* Beck-von-Peccoz

Alan Benaroya

Lt. Margaret L Boyce USN*

Dennis and Lisa Bradley

Gordon Brodfuehrer

Joseph H. Brooks and Douglas Walker

Donna Bullock

Melanie and Russ Chapman

Clancy-Jordan Family

Catherine Cleary

Warrine and Ted Cranston*

Elisabeth and Robert* Crouch

Anna Curren

Peter V. Czipott and Marisa SorBello

Caroline S. DeMar

Ms. Peggy Ann Dillon*

Alice Dyer*

Arthur S. Ecker*

Ellen C. Revelle*

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

Marjory Kaplan

*Deceased

$100,000 - $999,999

Anonymous

Alfred F. Antonicelli*

Rosanne B. and W. Gregory Berton

Julia Brown

Margaret and David* Brown

Roberta and Malin Burnham

The Carton Charitable Trust*

Joan R. Cooper*

Bob and Kathy Cueva

Karin and Gary Eastham

Elizabeth and Newell A. Eddy*

Esther and Bud* Fischer

Pam and Hal Fuson

Joyce A. Glazer

Nancy and Fred Gloyna

Muriel Gluck*

Susan and Paul Hering

Barbara M. Katz

Evelyn and William Lamden

Inge Lehman*

Sandy and Arthur* Levinson

The Rev. Michael Kaehr

Patricia A. Keller*

Anne* and Takashi Kiyoizumi

Carol Lazier and James Merritt

Joan Lewan*

Jaime z’’l* and Sylvia Liwerant

Gladys Madoff*

Amy and John Malone

Richard Manion

James Marshall, Ph.D.

Patricia and Peter Matthews

Antoinette Chaix McCabe*

Sandra Miner

Judith A. Moore

Ermen and Fred Moradi*

Mona and Sam Morebello

Joani Nelson*

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

Carol Randolph Ph. D and Bob Caplan

Sarah Marsh-Rebelo and John Rebelo

Lois Richmond - JCF

Debra Thomas Richter and Mark Richter

Carol Rolf and Steven Adler

Dr. Arno Safier*

Joan and Jack Salb*

Pamela Mallory

Elizabeth R. Mayer*

Vance M. McBurney*

Imozelle and Jim McVeigh

Michael Napoli

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

Col. Joseph Timmons (Ret.) and Mrs. Joyce Timmons

Leslie and Joe Waters

Jennie Jackson Werner

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

Judith Harris* and Robert Singer, M.D.

Richard Sipan*

Nora Jean Smith

Linda and Bob Snider

Suellen and James Sorenson

Valerie Stallings

Richard Stern*

Marjorie A. Stettbacher

Susan B. Stillings*

Joyce and Ted Strauss*

Gene Summ

Sheryl Sutton

Victor van Lint

Harriet and Maneck* Wadia

Pauline and Ralph Wagner*

Betty and Phillip Ward PIF Fund*

K. Nikki Waters +

Mike & Janet Westling

James R. Williams and Nancy S. Williams*

Martha Jean Winslow*

Marga Winston*

Edward Witt

Carolyn and Eric Witt

David A. Wood

Zarbock 1990 Trust*

LeAnna S. Zevely

Dr. and Mrs. Philip Ziring

If you are interested in more information about joining The Legacy Society, please contact Vice President of Institutional Advancement Sheri Broedlow at (619) 615-3910 or sbroedlow@sandiegosymphony.org.

UPCOMING SHOWS AT JACOBS MUSIC CENTER

Fri & Sat, May 9 & 10

Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony

Rafael Payare leads the San Diego Symphony Orchestra with cello soloist Alisa Weilerstein in Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz’s new cello concerto Dzonot The program concludes with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, written during World War II as a tribute to “the greatness of the human spirit.”

BEETHOVEN: Leonore Overture No. 3

GABRIELA ORTIZ: Dzonot

PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major

Fri & Sat, May 15 & 16

Folk Auras: Thayer and Mendelssohn’s “Scottish”

Three works inspired in very different ways by folk music and the mix of different cultures. Rafael Payare appears as conductor and Jeff Thayer performs as the violin soloist.

JIMMY LÓPEZ: Perú negro

BERG: Violin Concerto

MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, “Scottish”

Fri & Sat, May 22 & 24

Also sprach Zarathustra & Bluebeard’s Castle

Our season ends with Rafael Payare leading the Orchestra in two of the most spectacular scores from the late romantic period: Richard Strauss’s tone-poem Also sprach Zarathustra, and Bartók’s dramatic fantasy Bluebeard’s Castle.

R. STRAUSS: Also sprach Zarathustra

BARTÓK: Bluebeard’s Castle

SATURDAY, APRIL 18 | 7:30PM

SUNDAY, APRIL 19 | 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

JACOBS MASTERWORKS

FLITER PLAYS CHOPIN

Anna Sulkowska-Migon, conductor

Ingrid Fliter, piano

San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Steinway is the official piano of the San Diego Symphony.

PROGRAM

WOJCIECH KILAR

Orawa

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN

Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21 Maes toso Larghetto

Allegr o vivace

Ingrid Fliter, piano

INTERMISSION

ALEXANDER BORODIN

Symphony No. 2 in B Minor Allegr o Scherzo: Prestissimo Andante Finale: Allegr o

BORODIN

“Polovtsian Dances” from Prince Igor 17. Polovtsian Dance

Total Program Duration: 1 hour and 54 minutes Includes one 25-minute intermission

INGRID FLITER PIANO

Born in Kraków, Anna Sułkowska-Migoń won first prize at the 2022 La Maestra conducting competition in Paris and was awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize at the 2023 Gstaad Conducting Academy. She has since made regular appearances with all major Polish orchestras and is making debuts with orchestras in North America and Europe. In January 2024 she made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra on their subscription series. Since this critically acclaimed success, she has made important debuts with the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Québec Symphony, and in spring 2026, she will conduct a series of highprofile concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, working with major soloists including Leila Josefowicz, Inon Barnatan, and Ingrid Fliter.

Sułkowska-Migoń is a champion of Polish composers and conducted the 25th anniversary of Penderecki’s Credo at the Oregon Bach Festival in July 2023, as well as a special concert of Weinberg and Sikora to mark the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 2023. During the 2025-26 season, Sułkowska-Migoń will conduct all the top Polish orchestras, including the NFM Wrocław and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) in Katowice, who she returns to in their respective subscription series, and the Warsaw Philharmonic, who she led on their major tour to Japan in September with concerts in Nagoya, Osaka, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. She makes debuts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and Orchestre National de Lille and returns to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice as well as the Ulster Orchestra to open their season.

Sułkowska-Migoń’s recent highlights include her debut at the Bern Opera House in a new production of Eugene Onegin and debuts with the DSO Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. She appeared twice at the Palau de la Música Catalana in 2023, first with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Vallés and then as part of a tour with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana that also included performances in Valencia and Castellón.

She is the recipient of the 2022-24 Taki Alsop Conducting Award and participated in the 2022-23 Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors. She completed her master’s degrees at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, in viola, and at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, in conducting.

Intermusica represents Anna Sułkowska-Migoń worldwide. n

Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter has won the admiration and hearts of audiences around the world for her passionate yet sensitive music making and effortless technique. Winner of the 2006 Gilmore Artist Award—the only woman to have received this honor—Fliter divides her time between North America and Europe.

Fliter made her American orchestral debut with the Atlanta Symphony in 2006 and has since appeared with most of the major North American orchestras as well as the the Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Grant Park, Aspen, Ravinia, Blossom, Tippet Rise, and Brevard summer festivals. Equally busy as a recitalist, Fliter has performed in New York at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, Metropolitan Museum, and 92nd Street Y; at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall; and in Boston, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Detroit as well as for the Van Cliburn Foundation. In Europe, Fliter has performed in recital in London’s Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall and in music capitals across the continent, and participated in festivals such as La Roque D’Antheron, Prague Autumn, and BBC Proms.

A Linn recording artist, Fliter’s most recent recording is the first of two discs of Chopin Mazurkas. She has recorded both Chopin concertos and the Mendelssohn and Schumann concertos with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as Chopin’s complete Preludes and Nocturnes for the label. Her two all-Chopin recordings for EMI earned her the reputation as one of the preeminent interpreters of that composer while her most recent EMI recording is an all-Beethoven CD featuring the Pathetique and Appassionata sonatas. Live recordings of Fliter performing works by Beethoven and Chopin at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam are available on the VAI Audio label.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1973, Fliter began her piano studies in Argentina with Elizabeth Westerkamp. In 1992 she moved to Europe where she continued her studies in Freiburg with Vitaly Margulis, in Rome with Carlos Bruno, and with Franco Scala and Boris Petrushansky at the Academy “Incontrui col Maestro” in Imola, Italy, where she has been teaching since 2015. Fliter began playing public recitals at the age of 11 and made her professional orchestra debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires at age 16. A winner of several competitions in Argentina, she went on to win prizes at the Cantu International Competition, the Ferruccio Busoni Competition in Italy, and in 2000, she was awarded the silver medal at the Frederic Chopin Competition in Warsaw. n

Orawa

WOJCIECH KILAR

Born July 17, 1932, Lwów, Poland

Died December 29, 2013, Katowice, Poland

Wojciech Kilar studied piano and composition in Katowice and Krakow, then spent a year studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He began as an avant-garde composer, but his career soon took two new directions. One was film music: Kilar wrote scores for more than 150 films, including Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Pianist, The Truman Show, and The Portrait of a Lady. The other grew from his discovery of the folk music of southern Poland in the foothills of the Tatra Mountains, particularly the traditions of the Podhale region, often performed by voices and ensembles of fiddles, bagpipes, and basses.

Kilar composed Orawa in 1986, and it has become one of his most popular works. He sought to capture the “spiritual essence” of the Tatras and the Orava River that runs through the region. The music moves at a fast tempo that grows ever faster, drawing on minimalist techniques such as repeated figures, pulsing rhythms, and relentless energy. At moments, Orawa also recalls the Baroque concerto grosso, as solo instruments dart in and out of the larger orchestral texture.

The music opens with a solo violin stating the principal theme. Gradually, additional instruments enter, textures thicken, and the music seems to multiply its basic material. Ricochet bowing and swooping glissandos hint at folkfiddling roots. In its closing moments, Orawa accelerates toward a breathtaking conclusion, driven by Kilar’s urgent performance markings—precipitous, ferocious, and finally, startling. n

Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN

Born February 22, 1810, Zelazowa Wola

Died October 17, 1849, Paris

Chopin’s extraordinary gifts were evident early. One of his teachers summed him up in two words: “Musical genius.” His parents avoided pushing him as a child prodigy, and Chopin did not give an official public concert in Warsaw until March 1830, shortly after his 20th birthday. In preparation, he composed a piano concerto in F minor, which he premiered privately at home on March 3, then publicly at the National Theatre on March 17. The reviews were rapturous.

Publication of the concerto was delayed after Chopin misplaced the orchestral parts while traveling to Paris, and when the work finally appeared in print in 1836, it was labeled Piano Concerto No. 2—despite having been written before his E-minor concerto.

Mozart and Beethoven had transformed the piano concerto into a symphonic dialogue, but in Chopin’s concertos

the spotlight belongs almost entirely to the soloist. The orchestra provides a refined framework for the piano’s brilliance. Chopin scores the work for a Classical orchestra, with the addition of a single trombone.

Chopin marks the first movement Maestoso (“majestic”), but the opening impulse is lyric, as the orchestra launches the concerto with a graceful falling idea that will shape much of the movement. With the entrance of the soloist, the orchestra retreats to the shade, and the pianist dominates the remainder of the movement

The Larghetto was inspired by Chopin’s infatuation with the singer Constantia Gładkowska; its bel canto lyricism and tender expressiveness have often been compared to Bellini’s operas. As he worked on this movement, he wrote to his friend Titus Woyciechowski: “I have—perhaps to my misfortune—already found my ideal, which I worship faithfully and sincerely. Six months have elapsed, and I have not yet exchanged a syllable with her of whom I dream every night. While my thoughts were with her, I composed the Adagio of my concerto.”

Solo piano leads off the concluding Allegro vivace, and Chopin marks its opening theme semplice ma graziosamente (“simple but graceful”). Some have heard folk-tunes in this movement, but all the material appears to have been original with Chopin. A great fanfare from the horns leads to a properly spirited conclusion. n

Symphony No. 2 in B Minor

ALEXANDER BORODIN

Born November 12, 1833, St. Petersburg

Died February 27, 1887, St. Petersburg

Borodin was a member of “The Five,” a group of Russian nationalist composers that included Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Balakirev, and Mussorgsky. But Borodin was a composer only in his spare time—by profession he was a chemistry professor and research scientist at the Academy of Medicine and Surgery in St. Petersburg. So great were his professional demands that Borodin could find time to compose only when on vacation or when ill. Knowing of these demands, his friends would jokingly wish him ill health when they parted—it was their way of wishing that he could find more time to compose.

In the late 1860s Borodin began work on an opera based on the medieval tale of Prince Igor. Though the project stalled, Borodin reused some of its material in a symphony. He completed the outer movements by 1871 and sketched the inner movements in 1874. The first performance in 1877 was poorly received, but with Rimsky-Korsakov’s help, Borodin revised the orchestration and the symphony’s 1879 revival was a success.

Since then, Borodin’s Second has been regarded as a landmark of Russian nationalist symphonic writing. Though not programmatic, the music suggests vivid imager y through its powerful themes, sensitive wind writing, boundless rhythmic energy, and arresting color and character.

Borodin wrote that the first movement had been inspired by a gathering of ancient Russian princes, and it takes little imagination to see the flashing armor and snorting horses of pagan warriors in the symphony’s magnificent and powerful beginning. The entire string section stamps out the opening eight-note figure of narrow compass and full of harmonic tension. Borodin completes the first theme group with an animated melodic tag for woodwinds. The movement’s second subject is a yearning and instantly memorable melody in the cellos. The development, built largely on repetitions of the opening theme, eventually builds to the titanic restatement that brings the movement to a thunderous close.

The scherzo is extremely fast: Borodin marks it Prestissimo and sets it in the unusual meter 1/1. A striking wind chord modulates to the unexpected key of F Major, and off the music goes on the sound of pizzicato strings and chattering woodwinds, with French horns furnishing a racing, murmuring accompaniment. The central section offers a lovely singing melody for solo oboe before the opening material returns and rushes the movement to an unexpectedly subdued close.

Borodin said that the Andante was inspired by songs of the ancient Slav minstrels, the bayans. A haunting horn solo evokes a lyricism of another age. This movement also develops by repetition, though there are some sharply varied episodes before Borodin proceeds without pause into the finale. Here the music races ahead, and bits of a theme finally come together in a great explosion. Rhythmic vitality of this central theme comes from Borodin’s alternation between 3/4 and 2/4 measure by measure. He said that this movement was intended as a portrait of a “banquet of legendary heroes, held amid the rejoicing populace.” With lyric episodes along the way, the bright energy of the opening prevails and drives the symphony to a resounding close. n

“Polovtsian Dances” from Prince Igor

BORODIN

Borodin left several works incomplete when he suddenly died in 1887. Among these was the opera Prince Igor, based on the story of Prince Igor of Novgorod, a Russian Christian who in 1185 led an expedition against an invasion by the nomadic Polovtsians. Though Borodin was unable to complete the opera, it was finished by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov, working from the composer’s sketches.

Although it’s rarely staged, the “Polovtsian Dances” have achieved enduring popularity. Written in 1875 and first performed in 1879, they form the finale of Act II, depicting a lavish entertainment ordered by the Polovtsian leader Khan Kontchak for his captive, Prince Igor.

A brief Andantino introduces the slaves and the first dance quickly begins. The women sing of the beauty of their homeland—a melody that was later used in the musical Kismet, where it became the song “Strangers in Paradise.” This is followed by a dance for the men, given out first by a swirling solo clarinet. The timpani leads to the general dance: themes from the earlier dances are reprised as all sing of their devotion to their leader, the music gradually mounts in excitement, and the curtain to the second act comes down as slaves and dancers shout out “Hail Khan Kontchak!”

While accompanied by chorus in the opera, the “Polovtsian Dances” are often performed as an orchestral work, with the choral parts taken up by the orchestra. The Dances are heard in that orchestral version at this concert. n

-Program notes by Eric Bromberger

MEET THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY CONDUCTING FELLOWS

This season, the San Diego Symphony launched its Conducting Fellowship Program—an initiative created by Music and Artistic Director Rafael Payare to cultivate the next generation of orchestral leaders.

Designed for accomplished emerging conductors who are already making their mark in the field, the Fellowship provides meaningful podium experience alongside in-depth mentorship. Fellows work closely with Maestro Payare, guest conductors, and the Symphony’s artistic, education, and community engagement teams—gaining not only artistic guidance but insight into how a major American orchestra serves its audiences onstage and throughout the community.

You may already have seen our Fellows leading performances at Jacobs Music Center and across the region, including Family Concerts, Music Connects programs, and Beat and Groove school concerts at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. Throughout the season, they will continue to share their artistry with audiences of all ages, strengthening the Symphony’s connection to the community while developing their own distinctive voices on the podium.

“Mentorship is at the heart of what makes music flourish,” says Payare. “With this Conducting Fellowship, we’re giving gifted young conductors the opportunity to grow artistically, collaborate with extraordinary musicians and administrators, experience how a great institution operates, and discover their own voice on the podium.”

The Fellows represent a wide range of artistic backgrounds and international perspectives—mirroring the global and cross-cultural spirit that defines our orchestra and our region.

Our Fellows

NATHAN ASPINALL

Australian conductor Nathan Aspinall serves as resident conductor of the Nashville Symphony and has led orchestras across the United States, Europe, and Australia, including the Minnesota Orchestra and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

“Orchestras exist to serve their communities and inspire through great performances. My role is to share the incredible music we perform with as many people as possible. Whether in the concert hall or out in the community, symphonic music is for everyone.”

GERALD KARNI

Gerald Karni is a three-time Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award recipient who has led performances at the Elbphilharmonie and conducted the Lucerne Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic Ensemble. He makes his debut this season with the Nürnberger Symphoniker.

“As someone who came to conducting through the orchestra, the most meaningful part of this fellowship is the chance to work regularly with a single ensemble over time. My background as a violist taught me the power of listening—to colleagues, to the room, and to the energy between musicians. This fellowship allows me to deepen those relationships and continue growing with curiosity and sensitivity.”

KALENA BOVELL

Panamanian-American conductor Kalena Bovell is a trailblazer in classical music and the first Black woman to conduct an opera in Canada. A recipient of the 2024 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, she previously served as assistant conductor of the Memphis Symphony.

“I often say that people can’t be what they can’t see. Growing up as a violinist, I rarely saw myself reflected in this field. Fellowship programs like this provide not only access and training, but visibility. They help create space for those who have long been overlooked and open doors for future generations to step into leadership with confidence and belonging.”

NA’ZIR MCFADDEN

Na’Zir McFadden has made debuts with the Dresdner Philharmonie and the Boston, Baltimore, Nashville, and Utah symphonies. Formerly assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and music director of its youth orchestra, he now serves as assistant conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony.

“Even with the opportunities I’ve been fortunate to have, I know I still need the kind of mentorship and continuity that comes from being embedded with an orchestra. This fellowship gives me the chance to slow down, listen deeply, and grow in a more grounded way.”

TRISTAN RAIS-SHERMAN

A three-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, Tristan Rais-Sherman recently completed his tenure as assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. There he led performances at the Kimmel Center and Mann Center, helped launch the orchestra’s award-winning Orchestra After 5 series, and conducted the ensemble in Beijing during its 2023 China tour.

“Becoming a conductor is a marathon—a lifelong process of learning and growth. Spending time in San Diego listening to and conducting this orchestra, and working alongside Maestro Payare and other world-class artists, provides priceless opportunities to grow both as a musician and as a person.”

ENLUIS MONTES COLIVAR

Venezuelan conductor Enluis Montes Olivar is associate conductor of the Simón Bolívar Chamber Orchestra and winner of the 2024 Glenn Gould Protégé Prize. A former Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he has conducted at the Hollywood Bowl and Davies Symphony Hall.

“Community and family concerts are among the most important performances an orchestra can offer. They plant the seed of music in children and young people and help ensure the musicians and audiences of the future.”

SUNNY XUECONG XIA

Sunny Xuecong Xia is Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. Equally at home in opera and symphonic repertoire, her recent and upcoming engagements include the Dallas Opera, New Jersey Symphony, and Phoenix Symphony. Next season she joins the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg as Assistant Conductor in their Opera Studio.

“ The San Diego Symphony is an extraordinarily versatile orchestra, which is a gift for any conductor. Together we have explored music by Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky, as well as the brilliant contemporary voice of Anna Clyne. Working with our composer-in-residence, Jimmy López, on his music in his presence has been especially inspiring. These experiences will stay with me for years to come.”

FRIDAY, APRIL 24 | 7:30PM

SATURDAY, APRIL 25 | 7:30PM

Jacobs Music Center

JACOBS MASTERWORKS

A FEAST OF BEETHOVEN

Trevor Pinnock, conductor

Alexandra Dovgan, piano

San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Steinway is the official piano of the San Diego Symphony.

PROGRAM

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Overture to Coriolan , Op. 62

BEETHOVEN

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73, Emperor Allegr o Adagio un poco mo to Rondo: Allegro, ma non troppo Alexandra Dovgan, piano

INTERMISSION

BEETHOVEN

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 Poco sostenuto — Vivace Allegretto Presto Allegr o con brio

Total Program Duration: 1 hour and 54 minutes Includes one 25-minute intermission

TREVOR PINNOCK CONDUCTOR

Trevor Pinnock is renowned worldwide as a harpsichordist and conductor who pioneered the modern revival of early music performance.

In 1972 he founded the English Concert whose reputation for ground-breaking performances on period instruments led to an extensive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and international tours. In 2023, DG marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the English Concert by releasing a 100-disc box set of their complete recordings. Pinnock’s many solo recordings include suites by Rameau and Louis Couperin, Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Partitas, and The Well-Tempered Clavier. His most recent orchestral recording project was with students from the RAM and Glenn Gould School performing Bach keyboard Partitas in groundbreaking arrangements for chamber orchestra by Thomas Oehler.

In 2003, Pinnock stepped down from the leadership of the English Concert and since that time has divided his work between conducting, solo, and chamber music engagements. He has worked regularly with Koniklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Mozarteumorchester Salzburg. This season he makes several return visits to Tokyo as he continues his relationship with the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo as their Principal Conductor. He also returns to Kammerakademie Potsdam and Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestras. He conducts the Mozarteumorchester on tour across Spain and visits Warsaw Philharmonic and San Diego Symphony Orchestras. He returns to the English Concert and performs chamber concerts with Emmanuel Pahud and Jonathan Manson in Europe and China.

Trevor Pinnock is Artistic Director of the Anima Mundi Festival in Pisa and Principal Conductor of the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo, and the Royal Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra, London. He was awarded a CBE in 1992. n

ALEXANDRA DOVGAN PIANO

Alexandra Dovgan was born in 2007 into a family of musicians and began her piano studies at age 4. At the age of 5, she passed the highly competitive selection process to join the Academic Central Music School of the Moscow State Conservatory, where she studied under the renowned teacher Mira Marchenko. She is currently continuing her education at the Ateneo de Música in Malaga. Alexandra’s musical development has been greatly influenced by her creative communication with one of the most outstanding pianists of our time, Grigory Sokolov.

Alexandra is a prize-winner in five international competitions, including the Moscow International Vladimir Krainev Piano Competition, the International Young Pianists Competition “Astana Piano Passion,” and the International Television Contest for Young Musicians “The Nutcracker.” She was only 10 when she won the Grand Prix at the II° International “Grand Piano Competition” in Moscow. Recordings of this event have travelled the world on Medici.TV and YouTube.

Despite her young age, Alexandra has already performed in some of the most prestigious concert halls, including the Philharmonie and Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Tonhalle in Zurich, Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Konserthuset in Stockholm, the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, receiving enthusiastic reviews.

Since her acclaimed recital at the Salzburg Festival, Alexandra has impressed critics and the public alike with a remarkable series of international debuts. Among others, she performed with Gustavo Dudamel and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Kioi Sinfonietta and Trevor Pinnock, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and Paavo Järvi, the Stockholm Philharmonic and Ton Koopman, the Barcelona Symphony and Kazushi Ono, the Bergen Philharmonic and Pietari Inkinen, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Kazuki Yamada.

Highlights of the 2025-26 season include her debut at Carnegie Hall in New York and Kennedy Center in Washington, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Orchestre National de France, Dresden Philharmonic, Hamburg Symphony, Luzern Symphony, San Diego Symphony, as well as her return to Konzerthaus Vienna, Boulez Saal Berlin, Prinzregententheater Munich, and many others.

In June 2024, Alexandra Dovgan received the prestigious Prix Serdang from Rudolf Buchbinder and Adrian Flury in recognition of her achievements and her already significant career. n

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Born December 16, 1770, Bonn

Died March 26, 1827, Vienna

Overture to Coriolan, Op. 62

Caius Marcius was a Roman general who was given the name Coriolanus after his capture of the Volscian city of Corioli. One of the earliest accounts of his life appeared in Plutarch’s Lives, and it was on this source that Shakespeare based his final tragedy, Coriolanus. In this version Coriolanus is slain by the Volscians when he refuses to attack Rome. Beethoven’s overture, however, was inspired not by Shakespeare’s play but by a version written by the composer’s friend, Austrian dramatist Heinrich von Collin (1771-1811). In Collin’s play, first staged in Vienna in 1802, Coriolanus commits suicide rather than attack Rome.

Beethoven composed his Coriolan Overture early in 1807, and it was first performed at Prince Lobkowitz’s palace in March 1807 on a program that included official premieres of the Fourth Symphony and Fourth Piano Concerto. The overture is in C minor, a key Beethoven reserved for his most violent and dramatic music.

No matter the inspiration, this music is not a tone poem that tries to tell the story of Coriolanus in sound—rather it is abstract music that creates an enraged (and finally tragic) atmosphere. The searing beginning, with its incisive attacks and huge chords, is our introduction to the dark hero of Collin’s play.

The Coriolan Overture is a compressed sonata-form movement, but it has an unusual structure, one that intensifies its explosive atmosphere. The violent chords and attacks at the beginning not only rivet attention but instantly establish the fierce mood. The violins’ surging, rising first subject, with its nervous thrusts and tenutos, ratchets up the tension that underlies the entire overture, though a lyric second subject relaxes those tensions momentarily. Beethoven blurs the line between exposition and development here—we have barely heard this second theme when the music leaps back to develop the first theme. More surprises await—the recapitulation begins in the unexpected key of F minor, and now the lyric second subject reappears, but in the glowing key of C Major. The overture reaches its climax at the beginning of the coda: the opening chords return, but the music collapses on fragments of the opening theme. Things seem choked, shattered, and after all its furious energy the overture vanishes on barely audible pizzicato strokes that affirm C minor one final time. n

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73, Emperor

In the spring of 1809 Napoleon went to war with Austria. He laid siege to Vienna in May, and after a brief bombardment, the city surrendered to the French and was occupied through the remainder of the year. Beethoven remained in the city throughout the shelling and occupation, and it was during this period that he completed his Fifth Piano Concerto.

Beethoven found the occupation a source of stress and depression. During the shelling, he hid in the basement of his brother Caspar’s house, where he wrapped his head in pillows to protect his ears. To his publishers, Beethoven wrote: “The course of events has affected my body and soul…Life around me is wild and disturbing, nothing but drums, cannons, soldiers, misery of every sort.”

The concerto he wrote during this period is noble and powerful, despite the military occupation rather than because of it. The nickname “Emperor” did not originate with Beethoven. Despite various theories, the source of that nickname remains unknown. Beethoven had done much of the work on the concerto before the French army entered Vienna: his earliest sketches date from February 1809, and he appears to have had the concerto largely complete by April, before the fighting began.

Beethoven defies expectations from the opening instant of this music. The Allegro bursts to life with a resplendent chord for the whole orchestra, but this is not the start of the expected orchestral exposition. Instead, that chord opens the way for a cadenza by the piano that the orchestra punctuates twice more before sweeping into the movement’s true exposition. This is music of shining sweep, built on two main ideas: the strings’ vigorous main subject and a poised second theme, sounded first by the strings, then repeated memorably as a duet for horns. After so vigorous an exposition, the entrance of the piano feels understated, as it ruminates on the two main themes, but soon the piano part—full of octaves, wide leaps, and runs— turns brilliant. This Allegro is music of unusual spaciousness, though Beethoven maintains strict control; he does not allow the soloist the freedom to create his own cadenza but instead writes out a brief cadential treatment of the movement’s themes.

The Adagio un poco mosso transports us to a different world altogether, one of sylvan calm. Beethoven mutes the strings, which sing the hymn-like main theme. There follow two extended variations on that rapt melody: the first, for piano over quiet accompaniment, while the second is for winds, embellished by the piano’s steady strands of sixteenths.

Beethoven links the second and third movements through an expectant transition: The second movement concludes on a low B, and then Beethoven drops everything one halfstep to B-flat. Out of that change, the piano very gradually outlines a melodic idea, which struggles to take shape and direction. And then suddenly it does—it is as if these misty imaginings have been hit with an electric current that snaps them to vibrant life as the final movement’s main theme. This Allegro is a vigorous rondo that alternates lyric episodes with some of Beethoven’s most rhythmically energized writing. Near the close comes one of its most striking moments, a duet for piano and timpani, which taps out the movement’s fundamental rhythm. And then the piano leaps up to energize the full orchestra, which concludes with one final recall of the rondo theme.

At the time he wrote this concerto, Beethoven was 38 and his hearing was deteriorating rapidly. He knew he could not give the first performance of the concerto—this is his only piano concerto for which he did not give the premiere. It took place two years after its completion in Leipzig on November 28, 1811, with Friedrich Schuster as soloist. That performance, which Beethoven did not attend, was a great

success. A reviewer wrote that “It is without doubt one of the most original, imaginative, most effective but also one of the most difficult of all existing concertos…the crowded audience was soon put into such a state of enthusiasm that it could hardly content itself with the ordinary expressions of recognition and enjoyment.” n

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92

Beethoven turned 40 in December 1810, and things were going very well. True, his hearing had deteriorated to the point where he was virtually deaf, but he was still riding that white-hot explosion of creativity that has become known as his “Heroic Style.” Over the decade-long span of that style (1803-1813), Beethoven essentially reimagined music and its possibilities. The works that crystalized the Heroic Style—the Eroica and the Fifth Symphony—unleashed a level of violence and darkness previously unknown in music, and then triumphed over them. In these symphonies, music became not a matter of polite discourse but of conflict, struggle, and resolution.

In the fall of 1811, Beethoven began what would become his Seventh Symphony, and it would differ sharply from those two famous predecessors. There are no battles fought and won here—instead, this music is infused from its first instant with a mood of pure celebration. There had never been music like this before, nor has there been since— Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony contains more energy than any other piece of music ever written. Much has been made of Beethoven’s ability to transform small bits of theme into massive symphonic structures, but in the Seventh he begins not so much with theme as with rhythm: he builds the entire symphony from tiny figures, almost scraps of rhythm. Gradually he unleashes the energy locked up in these small figures and from them builds one of the mightiest symphonies ever written.

The first movement opens with a long, slow introduction. Tremendous chords punctuate the slow beginning, which gives way to a poised duet for oboes. The real effect of this long Poco sostenuto is to coil the energy that will be unleashed in the first movement, and Beethoven conveys this rhythmically: the meter of the introduction is a rocksolid 4/4, but the main body of the movement, marked Vivace, transforms into a light-footed 6/8. This Vivace begins with woodwinds tooting a simple dotted 6/8 rhythm and the solo flute announces the first theme, a graceful melody on this same rhythm. Beethoven builds the entire first movement from this simple rhythm, which saturates virtually every measure. As theme, as accompaniment, as motor rhythm, it is always present, hammering into our consciousness. At the climax, horns sail majestically to the close as the orchestra thunders out that rhythm one final time.

The second movement , in A minor, is one of Beethoven’s most famous slow movements. Beethoven could not decide whether to mark it Andante (a walking tempo) or Allegretto (a moderately fast pace). He finally decided on Allegretto, though the actual pulse is somewhere between those two. This movement too is built on a short rhythmic pattern—a five note pattern, long-short-short-long-long. This repeats almost as obsessively as the pattern of the first movement.

The opening sounds like a series of static chords—the theme itself occurs quietly inside those chords—and Beethoven simply repeats this theme, varying it as it proceeds. The central episode, in A major, moves gracefully along smoothly flowing triplets before a little fugato on the opening rhythms builds to a great climax. Beethoven winds the movement down on the woodwinds’ reprise of the fundamental rhythm.

The Scherzo explodes to life on a theme full of grace notes, powerful accents, flying staccatos, and timpani explosions. This alternates with a hymn-like trio section for winds. Beethoven offers a second repeat of the trio, then seems about to offer a third before five powerful chords cut the movement off abruptly.

These chords set the stage for the Allegro con brio built on the near-obsessive treatment of a short rhythmic pattern—a four-note fanfare, which punctuates the entire movement. It shapes the beginning of the main theme, and its stinging accents thrust the music forward continuously as this movement almost boils over with energy. The ending is remarkable: above growling cellos and basses (which rock along on a two-note ostinato for 28 measures), the opening theme drives to a climax that Beethoven marks fff—a dynamic marking he almost never used. This conclusion is virtually Bacchanalian in its wild power—the ending remains one of the most exciting moments in all of music.

The first performance of the Seventh Symphony took place in Vienna on December 8, 1813. Though nearly deaf at this point , Beethoven led the performance, and the orchestra was able to compensate for his failings. A huge success, the audience demanded that the second movement be repeated. n

—Program notes by Eric Bromberger

THE FUTURE IS HEAR CAMPAIGN

The San Diego Symphony is proud to announce that we have met our goal of $125 million for “The Future is HEAR” campaign! We gratefully acknowledge the donors who have made a gift of $10,000 or more toward this campaign supporting the construction of The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, improvements to Jacobs Music Center, and ongoing artistic initiatives for San Diego’s communities. For giving and recognition opportunities, please email campaign@sandiegosymphony.org or call (619) 237-1969.

The following listing reflects pledges entered as of February 3, 2026

^Jewish Community Foundation °Rancho Santa Fe Foundation +San Diego Foundation *Deceased

$1,000,000 AND ABOVE

Terry L. Atkinson

Bank of America

Dianne Bashor

Malin and Roberta Burnham

Harry and Judy Collins Foundation

^ Daniel J. and Phyllis Epstein

Ted and Audrey Geisel*

The George Gildred Family and The Philip Gildred Family

^ Joan* and Irwin Jacobs

Sheri Lynne Jamieson

The Kong Tang Family

Dick* and Dorothea Laub

Jack McGrory

The Alexander and Eva Nemeth Foundation

The Conrad Prebys Foundation

Allison and Robert Price

Evelyn and Ernest Rady

Lou and Penny Rosso and the Rosso Family

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

Sahm Family Foundation

T. Denny Sanford

Karen and Christopher “Kit” Sickels

Karen and Jeff Silberman

Donald and Gayle* Slate

The State of California

Gloria and Rodney Stone

Sycuan Casino Resort

The Kong Tang Family

Roger* Thieme and Sylvia Steding

° Sue and Bill* Weber

$250,000 - $999,999

Anonymous

Raffaella and John Belanich

Alan Benaroya

Susan and Jim Blair

The James Silberrad Brown Foundation

Julia Brown Family

David C. Copley Foundation

Sam B. Ersan*

Diane and Elliot Feuerstein

Esther Fischer

Pam and Hal Fuson

Karen and Warren Kessler

Carol Ann and George Lattimer

The Payne Family Foundation

M&I Pfister Foundation

Linda and Shearn* Platt

Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation

Dave and Phyllis Snyder

^ Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon

Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft

Jayne and Bill Turpin

+ Kathryn A. and James E. Whistler

$100,000 - $249,999

Jules and Michele Arthur

Denise and Lon Bevers

Rosanne B. and W. Gregory Berton

David Bialis

Catherine & Phil Blair,

Linda & Mel Katz, Manpower San Diego

Nicole A. and Benjamin G. Clay

Stephanie and Richard Coutts

Diane and Charles Culp

Diane and Elliot Feuerstein

Walt Fidler

Anne and Steve Furgal

Lisa Braun Glazer and Jeff Glazer

In memory of Jim Lester

The Hering Family

Carol and Richard Hertzberg

Arlene Inch

Brooke and Dan* Koehler

Bill and Evelyn Lamden

Curt Leland and Mary DiMatteo

^ Sandy and Arthur* Levinson

The Alex C. McDonald Family

Lori Moore, Cushman Foundation

The Parker Foundation

(Gerald T. & Inez Grant Parker)

Bill and Clarice Perkins

Marilyn James and Richard Phetteplace

Jeanne and Arthur* Rivkin

Sage Foundation

In memory of Bob Nelson who loved the music, the bay and San Diego

Tucker Sadler Architects

Katherine “Kaylan” Thornhill

U.S. Bank

Jo and Howard* Weiner

Cole and Judy Willoughby

Richard* and Joanie Zecher

$50,000 -$99,999

Bonnie & Krishna Arora and Family

David A. and Jill Wien Badger

Carolyn and Paul Barber

Cindy and Larry Bloch

Lisa and David Casey

The John D. & Janice W. Cone

Family Trust

Scotty Dale

Kathleen Seely Davis

The den Uijl Family

In Loving Memory of LV

Gary and Karin Eastham

In loving memory of Kenrick

“Ken” Wirtz*

Jose Fimbres Moreno*

Karen Wahler and Michael Gay*

William and Martha Gilmer

Mark Gosselin Family Foundation

The Jaime Family Trust

Roy, Peggy, Dean, and Denise Lago

The Peggy and Robert Matthews Foundation

Admiral Riley* D. Mixson

Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas

Tom and Jen Ranglas

Marilyn & Michael Rosen, Juniper and Ivy Restaurant

Carol Rolf and Steven Adler

Richard Sandstrom and Sandra Timmons

Congresswoman Lynn Schenk

Kris and Chris Seeger

Deborah Heitz and Shaw Wagener

Emma and Leo* Zuckerman

$25,000 - $49,999

Anonymous

Lisa and Dennis Bradley

Gordon Brodfuehrer

Pamela and Jerry* Cesak

County of San Diego

The Druck/Silvia Family

Susan E. Dubé

Lisette and Mick Farrell

Dr. John and Susan Fratamico

Janet and Wil Gorrie

Virginia and Peter Jensen

Jeff Light and Teri Sforza

Sig Mickelson*

Sandy and Greg Rechtsteiner

The Segur Family

In honor of Robert (Bud) Emile, SDS Concertmaster 1960-1975

Bill and Diane Stumph

Gayle and Philip Tauber

In memory of my husband

Raymond V. Thomas, Lover of the Symphony

The Bartzis-Villalobos Family

RANAS

Leslie and Joe* Waters

John* J. Zygowicz and Judy Gaze Zygowicz

$10,000 - $24,999

4040 Agency - Mary, Bill & John

Erina Angelucci

Aptis Global, A subsidiary of The Kimball Group

Eloise and Warren* Batts

Lauren Lee Beaudry

Karl and Christina Becker

Edgar and Julie Berner

Diane and Norm Blumenthal

The Boros Family

Sarah* and John Boyer

Annette and Daniel Bradbury

Lori and Richard Brenckman

Sheri Broedlow and Kyle Van Dyke

Beth Callender and Pete Garcia

The Casdorph Family

Angela Chilcott

Kurt and Elizabeth Chilcott

Dr. Samuel M. Ciccati and Kristine J. Ciccati

P. Kay Coleman & Janice E. Montle

Dr. William Coleman

Peter V. Czipott and Marisa SorBello

Ann Davies

Caroline S. DeMar

Drs. Edward A. and Martha G. Dennis

George and Jan DeVries

Nina and Robert* Doede

In loving memory of Karen

Cooper Ferm*

Michael and Susan Finnane

Gertrude B. Fletcher

K. Forbes

Deborah Pate and John Forrest

Judith and William Friedel

Barbara and Doug Fuller

Vicki Garcia-Golden and Tim Jeffries

Gardiner & Theobald Inc.

Joyce M. Gattas, PhD

Lynn and Charlie Gaylord

In memory of Royce G. Darby*

Kimberly and Jeffrey Goldman

In memory of Samuel Lipman*Clarinetist

The Granada Fund

Robert and Carole Greenes

Carrie and Jim Greenstein

Georgia Griffiths and Colleen Kendall

Lulu Hadaya

Jeff and Tina Hauser

In memory of Lucille Bandel*

Marjorie Heinrich and Jan Nunn

In Memory of Dick Hess*

Richard A. Heyman and Anne E. Daigle Family Foundation

Cheryl J. Hintzen-Gaines

and Ira J. Gaines

Mary Ann and John Hurley

Thomas Jordan and Meredith M. Clancy

Keith and Cheryl Kim

Katherine Kimball

Helen and Sig Kupka

Linda and Tom Lang

Alexis and Steven Larky

Let the music play on, Drew!

Tom and Terry Lewis Foundation

The Li Family

Larry Low and Mikayla Lay

Josephine & Alex Lupinetti*

Scott MacDonald and Patti Kurtz

Daniel and Chris Mahai

Sally and Luis Maizel

Susan and Peter Mallory, in honor of Martha Gilmer

David Marchesani Family

Anne and Andy McCammon

The McComb Family

Katy McDonald

Larry McDonald and Clare WhiteMcDonald

Mark, Amy, Auguste & Paris Melden

In Memory of James C. Moore*

Judith and Neil* Morgan

Clara and Donald Murphy

Patricia R. Nelson

The Lorna* & Adrian Nemcek Family

The Ning Family

Frank O’Dea, O’Dea Hospitality

Val and Ron Ontell

Carol and Vann Parker

Philip and Sally Patton

The Hong-Patapoutian Family

The Pollock Family

Phillip Rand, M.D., dedicated Ob-Gyn, kind and gentle soul, humanitarian

In loving memory of Long “Chris” Truong*

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

McMahon Vitek

Dr. Vivian Reznik and Dr. Andrew Ries

Burton X and Sheli Rosenberg

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

+ The Ryde Family Memorial Foundation at The San Diego Foundation

Shari and Frederick Schenk

Colin Seid and Dr. Nancy Gold

Susan and Michael Shaffer

Brigg and Jayne Sherman

Shinnick Family

Ruey & Marivi Shivers

Stephen M. Silverman

Janet Simkins

DeAnne Steele, Carlo Barbara and Cole Barbara

Hon. Stephanie Sontag and Hon. David B. Oberholtzer

Jeanette Stevens

Sudberry Properties

Beatriz & Matthew Thome

Jacqueline Thousand and Richard Villa

Cynthia Thornton and Michael Keenan

Glenda Sue Tuttle

Michael and Eunicar Twyman

Susan and Richard Ulevitch

Aysegul Underhill

Patricia and Joe Waldron

Lori and Bill* Walton

The Warner Family

+ The K. Nikki Waters Trust

Shirli, Damien and Justin Weiss

Mike and Susan Williams

Jeffrey P. Winter and Barbara Cox-Winter

The Witz Family

In loving memory of Ching H. Yang

Howard and Christy Zatkin

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 February 3, 2026

^Jewish Community Foundation

STRADIVARIUS CIRCLE:

$100,000 AND ABOVE

Raffaella and John* Belanich

Alan Benaroya

City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture

^ Joan* and Irwin Jacobs

The Rev. Michael Kaehr

Dorothea Laub

The Miller Fund

The Conrad Prebys Foundation

Jaqueline and Jean-Luc Robert

Jerry Simms

Southwest Airlines

US Bank

MAESTRO CIRCLE:

$50,000 - $99,999

Anonymous (2)

Michele and Jules Arthur

Eloise and Warren* Batts

The Bjorg Family

Annette and Daniel Bradbury

The James Silberrad Brown Foundation

Julia Richardson Brown Foundation

Karen and Donald* Cohn

John and Janice Cone

DAOU Vineyards

Una Davis and Jack McGrory

Drs. Edward A. and Martha G.

Dennis

Mr. and Mrs.* Brian K. Devine

Phyllis and Daniel J. Epstein

Sarah and Jay Flatley

Pam and Hal Fuson

^ Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon

Carol and Richard Hertzberg

Arlene Inch

The Janecek Family Foundation

Karen and Warren Kessler

Brooke and Dan* Koehler

Carol Ann and George Lattimer

Monica and Robert Oder

Maryanne and Irwin Pfister

^ Linda and Shearn* Platt

Price Philanthropies

Qualcomm Charitable Foundation

Robert A. Rubenstein, M. D.

and Marie G. Raftery

Elena Romanowsky

Penny and Louis Rosso

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

^ Jean and Gary Shekhter

Karen and Kit Sickels

^ Karen and Jeff Silberman, Silberman Family Fund

Les J. Silver and Andrea

Rothschild-Silver

^ Gayle* and Donald Slate

Dave and Phyllis Snyder

Steinway & Sons

Gloria and Rodney Stone

Jayne and Bill Turpin

Vail Memorial Fund, Meredith

Brown, Trustee

Karen Wahler

°Rancho Santa Fe Foundation +San Diego Foundation *Deceased

Leslie and Joe* Waters

° Sue and Bill* Weber

‡ Kathryn A. and James E.

Whistler

Cole and Judy Willoughby

Mitchell Woodbury

Sarah and Marc Zeitlin

GUEST ARTIST CIRCLE:

$25,000 - $49,999

Anonymous (2)

Diane and Norman Blumenthal

Nicole A. and Benjamin G. Clay

Stephanie and Richard Coutts

Cutwater Spirits

Ann Davies

Kathleen Seely Davis

Karin and Gary Eastham

Elizabeth and Joseph Taft Foundation

Shirley Estes

Lisette and Mick Farrell, Farrell

Family Foundation

Diane and Elliot Feuerstein

Fit Athletic Club East Village

Kelly Greenleaf and Michael Magerman

‡ Hervey Family Fund

Suzanne and Lawrence Hess

^ Jerri-Ann and Gary Jacobs

Marilyn James and Richard Phetteplace

Jo Ann Kilty

Kiwanis Club of San Diego

Helen and Sig Kupka

Dr. William and Evelyn Lamden

Lisa and Gary Levine

^ Sandy and Arthur* Levinson

Eileen Mason

Maui Brewing

Anne and Andy McCammon

Karen and Adrian Nemcek

Val and Ron Ontell

Deborah Pate and John Forrest

Jane and Jon Pollock

^ Allison and Robert Price

Puesto

Carol Randolph Ph. D and Bob

Caplan

Sally and Steve Rogers

Jeanette Stevens

Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft

Tarantula Hill Brewing

‡ R.V. Thomas Family Fund

Sandra Timmons and Richard

Sandstrom

University of San Diego

The Zygowicz Family (John*, Judy, and Michelle)

CONCERTMASTER CIRCLE:

$15,000-$24,999

Anonymous

David Bialis

Mary and Stephen Birch

The Bjorg Family

Dr. Anthony Boganey

Gisele Bonitz

The Boros Family

Gordon Brodfuehrer

Barbara and Salvatore Capizzi

Cohn Restaurant Group/David

Cohn

Ana de Vedia

Susan Dubé

Hon. James Emerson

Scott and Tracey Frudden

Anne and Steve Furgal

Gatorade

Martha and William Gilmer

Jill Gormley and Laurie Lipman

Georgia Griffiths and Colleen

Kendall

Judith Harris* and Robert Singer, M.D.

Laurie Sefton Henson

JuneShine

Linda and Mel Katz

Krumholz Family Trust

Linda and Tom Lang

Carol Lazier and James Merritt

Marshall J. Littman, M.D.

Los Cuernos

Scott MacDonald and Patti

Kurtz

Janine and Paul Marcus

Edward and Elizabeth McIntyre

Lynn and Sue Miller

Rena Minisi and Rich Paul

NA Beverage Company

Owl’s Brew

Dave and Jean Perry

Pamela and Stephen Quinn

Dr. Vivian Reznik and Dr.

Andrew Ries

Cathy and Lawrence* Robinson

Dr. Karen Jon Rudolph

Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation

Chris and Kris Seeger

Gayle and Philip Tauber

Julie and Stephen Tierney

Tim and Jean Valentine

‡ K. Nikki Waters

Shirli Weiss

Whiskey Del Bac

The Willink Family

Lisa and Michael Witz

VIRTUOSO CIRCLE:

$10,000 - $14,999

Anonymous (3)

Guity Balow

Gordon Cheng

P. Kay Coleman & Janice E.

Montle

Anna Curren

Elaine Darwin

Nina and Robert* Doede

Julie and Mitchell Dubick

Karin and Alfred Esser

Leticia Falquier and Craig

Sapin

Karen Forbes

Norman Forrester and Bill

Griffin

Vicki Garcia-Golden and Tim

Jeffries

Joyce Gattas, PhD & Jay

Jeffcoat

Lynn and Charles Gaylord

Hanna and Mark Gleiberman

Lehn and Richard Goetz

Marcia Green and Laurie

Munday

Kay and Bill Gurtin

Dwight Hare and Stephanie Bergsma

Tina and Jeff Hauser

Beverley Haynes

Richard A. Heyman and Anne E. Daigle Family Foundation

Nellie High-Iredale

Angela and Cory Homnick

The Hong-Patapoutian Family

Nancy and Stephen Howard

Virginia and Peter Jensen

Angela and Matthew Kilman

Drs. Theresa and Mark

Kotanchek

Toby Kramer

Sharon Lapid

Jeffrey and Claudia Lee

Susan and Peter Mallory

Larry McDonald and Clare

White-McDonald

Oliver McGonigle

Morrison & Foerster

Mostra Coffee

Trupti and Pratik Multani

The Kenneth T. and Eileen L.

Norris Foundation

Sandy and Greg Rechtsteiner

ResMed Foundation

Carol Rolf and Steven Adler

Corky and Evelyn Schauer

John S. Sequeira

Sidley Austin LLP

Stephen M. Silverman

Hon. Stephanie Sontag and Hon. David Oberholtzer

DeAnne Steele and Carlo

Barbara

Mike Stivers and Alan Dwyer

Katherine “Kaylan” Thornhill

Ingrid M. Van Moppes

The Warner Family

Elisabeth Eisner and William Whelan

Karin Winner

Anna and Edward Yeung, M. D.

Gary and Amy Yin

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

Anonymous

Nicole Acuff and Anthony Williams

Sherry and Kevin Ahern

Cheryl and Rand Alexander

Bonnie and Krishna Arora

Kevin and Michelle Aufmann

Rena and Behram Baxter

Edgar and Julie Berner

Benjamin Brand and Shara

Williams

Ralph Britton

Ercil Brown and Linda Silverman

Loyce Bruce

Donna Bullock

Ken Bullock and Donna Bullock

Grace Evans Cherashore

The Chicago Community Foundation

^ Marilyn Colby

Ann DeFields

The den Uijl Family

Karen Dow

Dr. Carl Schmulen

Kenneth Fitzgerald

Susanna and Michael Flaster

Gertrude B. Fletcher

Calvin Frantz

Wendy and Harold Frysh

Janet and Wil Gorrie

Carrie and James Greenstein

Ivy Hanson

Beau and Brittany Haugh

Janet and Clive Holborow

Maryka and George* Hoover

Erika Horn

Lulu Hsu

James B. Idell and Deborah C. Streett-Idell

The Irmgard Cheek Foundation

^ Marge Katleman and Richard Perlman

Gerald Lanz and Lisa Kearns

Lanz

Philip and Johanna Lanzafame

Elizabeth Li

Ann and Joseph Lipschitz

Robin and Charles* Luby

Steve Lyman and Diane McKernan

Micolyn Magee

Mark C. Mead

Judith Morgan

Aradhna and Grant Oliphant

Antje Olivie

Kazeem Omidiji

Ricki Pedersen

Jerry Petree

Mary Ann and David Petree

Pratt Memorial Fund

Claudia Prescott

Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation

Sage Foundation

Dr. Carl Schmulen

Bonnie and Josef Sedivec

Ruey and Marivi Shivers

Linda J. & Jeffrey M.* Shohet

Kyle Short

Steak 48

Iris and Matthew* Strauss

Kiril and Dave Sweeny

Charles Tiano

Frank Vizcarra

Dr. Mary Walshok

Iris Whiting

Elizabeth Wohlford MacLeod and Clay MacLeod

Carmen Young

Debi and Robert Young

Joanie Zecher

Dr. and Mrs. Philip Ziring

SYMPHONY CIRCLE:

$2,500 - $4,999

3 Punk Ales Brewing Co.

Lyndsey and Allan W. Arendsee

Lauren Lee Beaudry

Dr. Thomas Beers

Signe Bergman and Jerry

Marshak

Blowfish Tequila

Mark and Ellen Bramson

Barbara Bry and Neil Senturia

Rew P. Carne

Georgia and Emery Cummins

Mayra Curiel and Carlos Larios

Michelle and John Dannecker

Susan and Steven Davis

Janie Decelles

Don Duda

Jeffrey D. Esko

^ Morey A. Feldman and

Jeanne D. Feldman Family

Endowment Fund

Sally and Dave Hackel

Judy and Neil Finn

Richard Forsyth and Katherine

Leonard

Ms. Linda Fortier

Brenda and Dr. Michael Goldbaum

Robert and Carole Greenes

Sharon and Garry Hays

Mert and Joanne Hill

Hornor Family Foundation

Dwight A. Kellogg

Erica and Kris Kopensky

Stephen Korniczky

Martha and Jerry* Krasne

Colleen and Jeffrey Lambert

Pat and Steve Lending

M&T Bank

Pamela Maher

Sally and Luis Maizel

Madonna Christine Maxwell and Jeffrey Omens

Menard Family Foundation

Dr. Sandra E. Miner

Drs. Elaine and Douglas Muchmoore

Takenori Muraoka

Shelley Neiman

Brent Orlesky and Ronald T.

Oliver

Ali Parsa

Sandra and David Polster

Drs. Radmila and Igor Prislin

Arlene Quaccia and Robin

Hughes

Jeff and Clare Quinn

Keith Record

Gagandeep Sheena Sahni

Lari Sheehan

Anne and Ronald Simon

Timothy Snodgrass and Elaine

King

Larry and Pamela Stambaugh

Kathryn Starr

Steve and Carmen Steinke

Diane Strong

Col. and Mrs. Joseph C. Timmons

William Townsend

Amy Shreve Von Novak

Norton S. and Barbara Walbridge Fund

Thomas P. Ward and Rosemary

T. Ward

Carolyn and Eric Witt

Karen and Rod Wood

Claudia and Paul Zimmer

Herb* and Margaret Zoehrer

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

Anonymous

Allegra

Dede and Michael Alpert

American Endowment Foundation-Voytek Fam. Phil. Fund

Nicole Anderson

Francisco Anguiano

Hector and Jennifer Anguiano

Patricia and Brian Armstrong

Roberta Baade

Mary Barranger

Rusti Bartell

Lisa Behun

David and Jasna Belanich

Ivy and Mark Bernhardson

Mary Ann Beyster

Virginia and Robert Black

Marcus and Kimberley Boehm

Jessica and Bradley Voytek

Joseph H. Brooks and Douglas

Walker

Maria Carrera and Corey Fayman

Carol Cesena

Caroline Chen and George

Boomer

Raymond Chinn

Stan Clayton

John Cochran* and Sue Lasbury Household

NancyBell Coe

‡ The Colwell Family Fund

Ann Craig

Bob and Kathy Cueva

Dr. Michelle D’Angelo

Martha Dacri

William Davidson

Mary G. Dawe

Maria Deacon and Patrick Davis

Caroline S. DeMar

Anne and Charles Dick

Marguerite Jackson Dill and Carol Archibald

John E. Don Carlos

Philip L. Dowd

Dr. Zofia Dziewanowska

Max Fenstermacher

FICO

Walt Charles Fidler

Marilyn Field

Douglas Flaker and Rikk

Valdivia

Jean Fort

Marilyn Friesen and John Greenbush*

Nicholas R. Frost, MD

Judith Fullerton

Nancy and Mike Garrett

‡ Kenneth F. Gibsen Memorial Fund

Joyce Glazer

James and Donna Gordon

Fred Hafer and Noel HaskinsHafer Household

Ann Marie and William Haney

Stephanie and John Hanson

Karen Hartz and Jan Adler

Thomas Hawkins

Brian Hays

Ann Hesselink and Paul Naour

Sarah Hillier and Paul Strand

Jennifer and Richard Hine

Barbara and Paul Hirshman

Thomas Houlihan

Borden Hughes

Jeanne Curtis Hurwitz

Barbara Hutchinson

Faith and Steve Jennings

Dimitri and Elaine Jeon

Zella Kahn-Jetter & Gary Jetter

Arthur Johnson

Dr. Henry Judd

Dr. James Justeson

Susan and David Kabakoff

Dr. Enoch Kariuki

Leon and Sofia Kassel

Wilfred Kearse and Lynne

Champagne

Tandy and Gary Kippur - JCF of

Southern AZ

Betty and Leonard Kornreich

Rhea and Armin Kuhlman

Wendy Kwasny

George and Mei Lai

Gautam and Anjali Lalani

Laura Laslo

Dr. Mary Lawlor

Eliza Lee

Greg Lemke

Gayle M. Lennard

Chito Leung

Jean Lim and Richard Levine

Ronald and Betty Livingston

Anne Macek

Catherine Mackey

Amy and John Malone

Eugene Malone

Suzanne S. Manley

Arnulfo Manriquez

Beverly and Harold Martyn

Ramona Master

Janet McClure

The McKay Family

Susan and Douglas McLeod

Julie and James Merkel

Richard Michaels

Paola Middleton

Martha and Chuck Moffett

Patricia Moises

Dr. Thomas Moore

David Morris

Nagel Family Trust

Tom and Anne Nagel

Lyn Nelson

Patricia R. Nelson

Don Nicholas

Barbara and Donald Dean

Niemann

Dr. Jon Nowak

Cynthia Obadia

Larry and Linda Okmin

Household

Maxwell Gregory Paley

James Pea and Sandra Petersen

Cathleen Pilkington

Robert Plimpton II

Dean and Sharon Popp

Jim Price and Joan Sieber

Cathy and William Primack

Carol Prior

Barbara Rabiner

Janet and Bill Raschke

Dr. Marilyn Friesen and Dr. Michael Rensink

Christa and Gerald Reynolds

Vivian J. Rich

^ Lois J. Richmond

Darci Roger-Tracy

Rose Marie and Allan Royster

Ryde Family Memorial

Foundation

Gloria and Dean Saiki

San Diego Downtown

Breakfast Rotary

° Susan and Edward Sanderson Household

Thomas Schwartz

Judith and Robert Sharp

Professor Susan Shirk

Ann Sixtus

Sandra Smelik and Larry Manzer

Suzy Soo

Fern Steiner

Terri and Ted Strait

Emily Stroebel and Christopher Garvie

Derek Stults

Nancy and Michael Sturdivan

John E. Sturla II

Kathleen Sullivan

Melissa and Gordon Swanson

Kay and Cliff Sweet

Elliot Tarson

Thomas Templeton and Mary Erlenborn

Jacqueline Thousand and Richard Villa

William Tong

Fred and Erika Torri

Jennifer and Stephen Toth

Edward Underwood

United Airlines

Paul Van Deusen

Kathleen and Louis Victorino

Pamela Wagner

John Walsh

Carol and Thomas Warschauer

Dr. Jeffrey and Barbara Wasserstrom

Margaret Weigand

Irene, David*, and Diana Weinrieb

Evette and Nathan Weiss

Scott Wesselkamper

Joyce Williams

Symphorosa Williams

Joseph and Mary Witztum

David A. Wood

Olga and Oscar Worm

Barbara A. Yost

Britt Zeller

SONATA CIRCLE:

$500 - $999

Anonymous (4)

Barbara Alderson

Dr. Robin Allgren

Elizabeth Andersen

Andrade Family Trust

Shane Arlt

Maureen Arrigo and Paul Ward

Nancy and James Balderrama

Tom Ball

Dr. Joshua Bardin

Joe Baressi Jr.

Dr. Constance Ann Benson

Lisa and Jay Berlin

Elena Bernardi

Dr. Leonard and Beverly Bernstein

Annette and Kyle Betts

Jerry and Karen Blakely

Elizabeth and Steven Bluhm

Sondra Boddy & Robert C.

Smith

Gordon and Leigh Boerner

Stephen and Priscilla Bothwell

Patsy Bouzan

Mary Catherine Bowell

Gloria and Sed Brown

Terri Bryson

Alyssa Brzenski

Jolie and Glenn Buberl

Kirk Buhler

Anita Busquets

Robert and Carolyn Caietti

Judith Call

William Carrick

Margaret Carrol

LaVonne and Paul Cashman

Gloria and Maurice Caskey

Juliana Caso

Edmund Chamberlain

Mary Ellen Clark

Geoff and Shem Clow

Joe and Elsian Contreras

Florence and Robert Crick

Dr. Peter Czipott and Marisa

SorBello

Jeffrey C. Dasch

Dr. Dalia Daujotyte

Erle Frederick Davis

Susan and Steven Davis

Morgan Day and Amy Larson

Julie and Don De Ment

Diane and Steven Dementer

Dr. Greg Dixon

Douglas P. Doucette

S. Downey Fund at The Chicago Community Foundation

Dr. Robert Drake

Pamela Dunlap

Jim Eastman

Jeffrey Edwards

Marti and James Eisenberg

Drs. Eric and Barbara Emont

Arlene Jayne Esgate

Joel Ewan and Carol SpielmanEwan

Dr. Thomas Fay and Fabiola

Lopez

Hank Finesilver

Linda and Gary Firestein

Darlene and Robert Fleischman

John Foltz

Nynke Fortuin

Michelle Fox

Dr. Laura Gomez Freeman and William Freeman

Judith and William Friedel

Barbara Fryer

Jeremy Gilbert

Roy Gilmour

Vivian and Richard Giudice

Dr. Gwen Gleason-Rohrer

Diane Glow

Kathleen and John Golden

Ser Andre Gonzalez

Daniel and Riki Green

Joel Greenberg

Andrew Stephen Greenhalgh

Stephanie and H. Griswold

Douglas Gross

George Guerra

Leona Gulck

Anthony Gurrola

Gerald Hansen and Marilyn

Southcott

Dr. Bev Harju

The Herr Family

Christine Hickman and Dennis Ragen

Richard Himmelspach

Harold Hoch

Robert and Cecile Holmes

Sandra Hoover

Gael Houghton

Ken Huff

Marilyn Hulquist

Mary Ann and John Hurley

Stefan Hyman

Laura Ingebritsen

Justin Jackson

Robert Jentner

Ashley Jimenez

Benjamin Johnson

Bruce A. Johnson

R. Douglas and Jeanette

Johnson

Thesa Lorna Jolly

Russell Jucovics

Janet Keating

John and Sue Kim

Cynthia King

Paul Krueger

Robert and Elena Kucinski

Bernard Kulchin and Paula

Taylor

Mary Kyriopoulos

John Lally

Elizabeth Leech

Lewis Leicher

Drs. Kathleen and William

Lennard

Claudia Levin

David Louie

Les Luckfeld

Helga Lupu

Scott Luttgen

Kyong Macek

Vonnie Madigan

Chris and Annie Magill

Richard Manion

Diena and Russ Mann

David Marchesani

Dr. Danessa Mayo

Mac McKay

Narriman McNair

Jeanne and Roger McNitt

Imozelle and Jim McVeigh

Maggie and Paul Meyer

Dr. Grant Miller

Susan Morse

Jan and Mark Newmark

Sherryl A. Nicholas

James and Jean O’Grady

Richard John Oleary

Neil Osborne

Roberto Paez

Julie Park and Michael Goble

Barbara Parker and Geoff Wahl

Roshann Parris

Katherine and Keira

Pendergraph

Annie Pham

Edward Phelan

Sheila and Ken Poggenburg

Dr. Melvin Pohl

Ellen and Myles Pomeroy

Mikhail and Irina Prishchepa

Angela and David Pryor

David Ramos and Bob Kubie

Patricia and John Ravits

Erin Gourley Reid

Joseph and Sara Reisman

Cindy and Daniel Reynolds

Patrick Ritto

James Kirkpatrick Robbins

Noyes Rogers

Alice Rosenblatt

Ronnie and Stuart

Rosenwasser

^ Sheryl Rowling

Norman and Barbara Rozansky

Michael Patrick Running

Karen Sade

Paul H. Scarbrough

Gretchen Louise Schafer

Joel Schaller

Mr. Daniel H. Schumann

David and Martha Schwartz

Dr. Sharron Seal and Larry Seal

Lu and Georgina Sham

Richard Shaughnessy

Donna Sher

Edward Sherer

Martha Shively

David Skinner

Anna Lydia Slaby

Holland M. Smith II

Marilyn and Brian Smith

Darryl and Rita Solberg

James and Phyllis Speer

Robert Stall

Gregory Stanton

Michael Stewart

Brent M. Summers

Donald and Linda Swortwood

Dr. Agnes Veronica Szekeres

Paul and Mary Anne Trause

Anne Turhollow

Orlando S. Uribe

Adam Villa

Allen Voigt

‡ VOSA Student Symphony

Ticket Fund

Karen Walter

Rex and Kathy Warburton

Nancy and Bruce Ward

Alexandra and Stephen Waterman

J. Susan Watson

Cynthia Weiler and E. Blake

Moore

Joseph Wessling

Mike & Janet Westling

Mindy Wilcox

Stephen Wilson

Peter and Carolyn Woodbury

Peter and Terry Yang

Naima and Mike Yelda

Tanya Young and Michael McManus

Maria and Randy Zack

Sandra and Peter Zarcades

MEMORIAL GIFTS

In memory of Warren Batts

Don Duda

Gerald Lanz and Lisa Kearns

Lanz

In memory of my brother,

Gordon M. Brown

Jennifer and Richard Hine

In memory of John C. Cochran

Sue Lasbury

In memory of Jim Dawe

Mary G. Dawe

In memory of Bob Doede

Marianne Augustine

Marilynn and Roger Boesky

Drs. Edward A. and Martha G.

Dennis

Karen Dow

Mary and Jon Epsten

Susan and Michael Gursky

Catherine Mackey

The McKay Family

Elspeth and James* Myer

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

Iris and Matthew* Strauss

Cynthia Weiler and E. Blake

Moore

For San Diego Symphony’s wonderful contribution to Anne Evan’s tribute and in honor of her love of music

Grace Evans Cherashore

In memory of Arthur Golden Anonymous

In memory of James Jessop Hervey

‡ Hervey Family Fund

In loving memory of Michael Howes

Mary Michele Wilmer

In memory of Joan Jacobs

Eliza Lee

In memory of Stephanie Jennings

In memory of Stephanie Jennings, Steve Jennings

In memory of John Lim

Scott Wesselkamper

In memory of Bob Kyle

Laura Kyle

In memory of Gilbert and Miriam Lapid

Sharon Lapid

Lois Richmond (of blessed memory)

Jewish Community Foundation

In memory of Alex and Judy McDonald

Elizabeth Krebs

Ann and Brian Mooney

In memory of Patricia L. Poss Ugalde Family Charitable Foundation

In memory of Aunt Ree Rice

Cecile and Robert Holmes

In memory of Hari Shuman

Linda and Shearn* Platt

In memory of Ursula Stroebel

Emily Stroebel and Christopher Garvie

In loving memory of Terry Keating

Janet Keating

In memory of Carleton and Andree Vail, late residents of Rancho Santa Fe Vail Memorial Fund

In memory of Dr. Edward Williams Symphorosa Williams

In memory of Kenrick G. Wirtz

Tracey Ferguson and Gloria Shepard

HONORARIA GIFTS

In recognition of Steve Bjorg’s inspiration

Diena and Russ Mann

In honor of William Grant

Bowen

Wendy Kwasny

In honor of Mr. & Mrs. John

R. Burr

S. Downey Fund

In honor of Don Cohn

Linda and Shearn* Platt

In honor of Jan and Kevin

Curtis

Claudia Levin

In honor of Mick Farrell

Debra Feinberg

In honor of Elaine Galinson’s birthday

Sherron and Jack Schuster

In honor of Martha Gilmer

Karin Winner

In honor of Irwin Jacobs on his birthday

Barbara and Stuart Brody

Drs. Edward A. and Martha G.

Dennis

Laura Freeman

Stacy and Donald Rosenberg

In honor of Jerri-Ann and Gary Jacobs

Chris and Emily Jennewein

In honor of Karen Jordan

Tina and Jay McCabe

In honor of Warren Kessler

Elisabeth Eisner and William Whelan

Diane and Elliot Feuerstein

Gayle Lennard

In honor of Ray Nowak

Linda Thomas

In honor of Dr. Richard Perlman and Marge Katleman

Sandra and Mark James

In honor of Jon and Janie Pollock

Dr. Carl Schmulen

In honor of Linda Shohet’s birthday

Linda and Scott Cole

In honor of Jeff and Marlyse Thayer

Terri Bryson

In honor of Carol Vassiliadis for her birthday

Patricia Moises

In honor of Leslie and Joe

Waters

Judith Call

SYMPHONY PARTNERS

Symphony Partners is the Symphony’s major giving program, providing vital support for our musicians and community and education outreach initiatives through generous annual gifts beginning at $15,000. The following listing reflects pledges and gifts entered as of February 3, 2026.

$50,000

Brooke and Dan* Koehler

Les J. Silver and Andrea Rothschild-Silver

$25,000

Shirley Estes

Anonymous

Gisele Bonitz

The Boros Family

Cohn Restaurant Group/ David Cohn

Scott and Tracey Frudden

Anne and Steve Furgal

Georgia Griffiths and Laurie Sefton Henson

$15,000

Colleen Kendall

Ina Cantor and Sammy Krumholz

Linda and Tom Lang

Lynn and Sue Miller

Janine and Paul Marcus

Pamela and Stephen Quinn

Dr. Vivian Reznik and Dr. Andrew Ries

*Deceased

Cathy Robinson

Chris and Kris Seeger

Gayle and Philip Tauber

Tim and Jean Valentine

K. Nikki Waters

Shirli Weiss

The Willink Family

Lisa and Michael Witz

GUEST ARTIST SPONSORS

Guest Artist Sponsors is a major donor program for supporters who want to support the orchestra’s programming and the Symphony’s guest artists and conductors, supporting exceptional talent from around the world that brings our performances to life. The following listing reflects pledges and gifts entered as of February 3, 2026.

Anonymous

Alan Benaroya

David Bialis

The Bjorg Family

Martha and Wiliam Gilmer

The Rev. Michael Kaehr

Dorothea Laub

Marshall J. Littman, M.D.

E dward and Elizabeth McIntyre

The Miller Fund

Karen and Adrian Nemcek

Dr. Karen Jon Rudolph

Jerry Simms

Julie and Stephen Tierney

Vail Memorial Fund, Meredith Brown, Trustee

Sue and Bill* Weber

BECOME A SYMPHONY OR GUEST ARTIST PARTNER!

For more information, or to join, please contact Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Sheri Broedlow at (619) 615-3910 or sbroedlow@sandiegosymphony.org

CORPORATE HONOR ROLL

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

$200,000+

$100,000+

$50,000+

$25,000+

$15,000+

$10,000+

SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ADMINISTRATION

EXECUTIVE

Martha A. Gilmer President and Chief Executive Officer

Elizabeth Larsen Director, Executive Office and Board Relations

Maritza Aragón Executive Assistant to the President and CEO

Karen Jordan Interim Chief Financial Officer

ARTISTIC

Lea Slusher

Executive Director, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

Theodora Bellinger Director of Artistic Operations

Liam McBane Manager, Artistic Operations and Assistant to the Music and Artistic Director

Jeffrey Jordan Director of Rentals

Angela Chilcott Managing Director, Orchestra Operations

Adam Norton Orchestra Personnel Manager

Diego Plata Orchestra Operations Manager

Courtney Cohen Principal Librarian

Rachel Fields Librarian

Gerard McBurney Creative Consultant

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Ashley Madigan Controller

Jeanette Bunch Assistant Controller

Whitney Hall Revenue Accountant

Veridiana Reeder Senior Staff Accountant

Susan Cochran Payroll Manager

Kimberly Vargas Director of Human Resources

Amanda Gminski Human Resources Manager

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Craig Hall

Vice President of Marketing and Communications

Cathy Strauss

Director of Communications, Content & Digital Strategy

Elizabeth Holub Director of Marketing

J.D. Smith

Director of Marketing and Sales Technology

Abigail Kliebenstein

Director of Marketing, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

John Velasco Communications Manager

Ashley Smith, Brie Witko

Graphic & Production Designers

Maria Kusior

Digital Media Specialist

Savanna Hunter-Reeves

Marketing Specialist

Noëlle Borrelli-Boudreau

Marketing Coordinator

Sabina Spilkin

Digital Systems Analyst

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, Angel Cruz, Katherine Ely, Levan Korganashvili, Ben McLaren

INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT

Sheri Broedlow

Vice President of Institutional Advancement

Jennifer Nicolai Director of Individual Giving & Campaign

Ida Sandico-Whitaker Director, Donor Programs and Special Events

Bob Morris

Major Gifts Officer

Celina Maggi

Major Gifts Officer, Planned Giving

Sydney Wilkins Associate Director of Advancement Operations

Kirby Lynn Tankersley

Associate Director of Special Events

Eden Llodra

Corporate Relations Officer

Priya Richard Donor Services and Stewardship Manager

Citli Mejía Advancement Operations & Special Events Manager

Katelyn Rodrigue Annual Fund Manager

LEARNING & COMMUNITY

ENGAGEMENT

Laura Reynolds

Vice President of Impact and Innovation

Stephen Salts Director of Learning and Youth Programs

Lauren Rausch

Social Impact & Leadership Programs Manager

VENUE OPERATIONS

Travis Wininger

Vice President of Venue Operations

Rob Arnold

Managing Director, Venue Operations

Paige Satter

Director, Venue Operations Administration

Diane Littlejohn

Associate Director, Venue Operations Administration

Devin Burns Event Operations Manager

Roberto Castro Director of Guest Experience

Drew Gomes Director, Event Operations and Security

Danielle Litrenta Manager, Guest Experience

Front of House Managers: Ken Cooke, Christine Harmon, Kay Roesler, Karen Tomlinson

Front of House Staff:

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

Event Operations Leads: Mateo Alvarez, Kinsey Claudino, Gabriel Carlo De Guzman, Slaine Miller, Katie Reinholtsen, Tom Rufino

Event Operations Staff: Joshua Albertson, Kayla Aponte, Lindsey Balsley, Tyler Bao Buu, Wilson Blumenthal, Jason Boucher, Lily Castillo, Jafet Chavez, Brandon Croft, Stephen De La Cruz, Jessica Dau,Jesus Delgado, Ryan Fargo, Chelsea Hall, Mark Herrera, Brook Hill, Jocelyn Jenkins, Ben Kelly, Edward Manzo, Logan McKerring, Cyrille Morales, Valerie Navarrete, Taryn O’Halloran, Brennan Owen, Gabriela Perez, Chance Pettit, James Renk, Dylan Renk, Mario Ruiz, Jack Schweighardt, Mia Sevilla, Elias Valdivia, Gavin Wilkinson, Connor Wilson, Yadira Zuniga

Facilities Staff:

Dan Weaver

Facilities Manager

Robert Saucedo

Senior Technician

Peter Perez

Lead Facilities Technician

Arturo Ardilla, Garrett Lockwood Facilities Technicians

IT Staff:

Sean Kennedy Director of Information Technology

Shane Cutchall System Administrator

German Luna IT Specialist

Production Staff:

Connor Schloop Director of Production

Pete Seaney

Director of Stage Operations, Presentations and Rentals

Santiago Venegas II

Technical Director

Krysta Cihi

Production Manager, Orchestra

Joel Watts

Audio Director

William Zauscher

Video Director

SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ADMINISTRATION

Stage Personnel:

Shafeeq Sabir

Property Department Head, Jacobs Music Center

Jason Chaney

Audio Department Head, Jacobs Music Center

Michael Moglia

Carpentry Department Head, Jacobs Music Center

Bridget Zeiger

Electrics Department Head, Jacobs Music Center

Riley Strothers

Video Department Head, Jacobs Music Center

Adam Day

Carpentry Department Head, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

RJ Givens

Audio Department Head, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

Hunter Stockwell

Video Department Head, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

Jonnel Domilos

Piano Technician

OUR MISSION: CHANGING LIVES THROUGH MUSIC

The San Diego Symphony, through unquestionable commitment to the highest levels of artistic achievement, seeks to elevate human potential by providing a shared sense of pride and belonging to something bigger than any of us can achieve alone. We offer audiences the wonder of live music and transformative learning experiences that develop an understanding and passion for the arts. To ensure we are an enduring force in the region we commit to fiscal responsibility. We serve and shape the culture of the region, by being for all and with all, the musical heart of San Diego.

Strive: Always the Best

Learn: Creative, Expressive, Curious Reach: Music for Everyone

Ignite: Spark Passion

OFFICIAL PIANO OF THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY

Scan for more info

Now soaring with the symphony.

C’EST DÉLICIEUX!

From New Restaurants to Established Staples, French Cuisine Sings this Spring by

REVERED LOCAL CHEF Brad Wise and Trust Restaurant Group (Rare Society, Fort Oak, Cardellino) bring us À L’ouest—a “nouveau brasserie” nestled in North Park. The contemporary, Parisian-inspired bistro spans 4,800 square feet, outfitted with green upholstered banquettes, high ceilings with chic chandeliers, a glass-enclosed kitchen, imported Italian marble tile, an ample patio and bar seating outside, and plenty of live greenery. On the menu:

refined, SoCal-infused French fare, such as Confit Pork Shank, Aged Duck À L’Orange and Dover Sole Meunière; wood-fired treats like smoked mussels; a full raw bar; an array of charcuteries including crispy lamb-neck terrine and chicken-liver parfait; desserts like Banana MilleFeuille and Grand Marnier Soufflé; and specialty martinis and French cocktails to drink. Must Try: the Herb Spätzle with braised rabbit, maitake mushrooms and black truffles.

SARAH DAOUST

3002 University Ave., North Park, 619.257.0045, alouestsd.com

Since opening in December 2025, Fleurette has become a fast favorite of French cuisine fans. Helmed by Travis Swikard, the chef and owner of Michelin-recognized Callie in East Village, the 120-seat restaurant and lounge boasts a wave-like lighting installation, a stone-and-copper bar, travertine-clad walls, and a greenhouse-inspired, glass-enclosed patio. Dine on Swikard’s California-sourced

“cuisine du soleil” with dishes like the Provencal Lamb Duo with persilladecrusted lamb rack and glazed collar; San Diego “Bouillabaisse” with slowbaked sheepshead, spiny lobster, melted leeks and saffron bourride; and Hope Ranch Mussels “Vol-auVent” with confit potatoes. To wash it all down, Fleurette’s cocktails are both local and transportive; try the Del Mar with California Citron vodka, French melon, lime and ginger beer. Must-Try: the Egg Yolk Fettuccine with Golden Ossetra caviar and Meyer lemon butter. 4727 Executive Drive, Suite 100, La Jolla, 858.332.2655, fleurettesd.com

Revel in refined French fare inspired by coastal California at Bonne Vie Brasserie & Bar, The Westgate Hotel’s new all-day dining outpost. The contemporary restaurant with elegant European touches is accented by glowing chandeliers, plush velvet seating, and earth tones punctuated by deep blue and gold

accents. On executive chef Fabrice Hardel’s dinner menu: classics such as Burgundy Escargot, French onion soup, braised short ribs, and Coq Au Vin. We suggest beginning your evening in Bonne Vie’s sumptuous bar and lounge, serving French wines and cocktails like the Maple Manhattan and Le Martini Français. Must Try: the Bananas Foster Profiteroles for dessert. 1055 Second Ave., downtown, 619.238.1818, westgatehotel.com

Twelve floors up at the Manchester Financial building in Bankers Hill, Mister A’s has towered as a landmark dining institution for six decades. Famous for its unparalleled bird’s-eye views of the city, airport, bay, Balboa Park and beyond, the fine-dining perch is also hailed for its exceptional service and beautifully plated, French-infused American dishes with local ingredients— crafted by longtime executive chef Stéphane Voitzwinkler. The Maple Leaf Farm Duck Breast, Georges Bank Scallops and King Salmon “Wellington” are popular dinner entrées. Must Try: the decadent Butter-Poached Maine Lobster Cacio e Pepe with house-made linguine, black truffles and Pecorino. 2550 Fifth Ave., 12th floor, Bankers Hill, 619.239.1377, asrestaurant.com

Billed as an “American diner meets elegant French bistro,” Saint James French Diner is Palihotel San Diego’s signature restaurant, housed in a 1912 building. The all-day outpost offers classic French-inspired fare—Niçoise salad, moules frites, roasted chicken and steak frites; plus a selection of burgers; and French

wines and cocktails. Return for brunch and delight in the Croque Madame, honey-butter latte and chocolate croissants. Must Try: the Bouillabaisse Boil with snow crab, shrimp, sausage, potatoes and fennel. 828 Sixth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter, 619.678.1007, saintjamesfrenchdiner.com

In Kensington, Bleu Bohème has been a staple of the ‘hood since 2007. (When trendy, newer restaurants occasionally command our culinary radar, this quaint bistro is that familar friend that always welcomes us back—and rewards us with its comforting, consistently delicious French fare, inspired by all regions of France.) Dinner offerings include moules frites, Boeuf Bourguignon, duck confit, steak frites, escargots and Gnocchi à la Parisienne; plus French wines and the famed Basil Martini. Must Try: the “catch of the day” never

disappoints. (Swordfish Ce Soir was a recent catch of the day, served with lemon-garlic hummus, roasted carrots and parsley oil.) 4090 Adams Ave., Kensington, 619.255.4167, bleuboheme.com

In Carlsbad, Michelinstarred Jeune et Jolie is a must-visit for foodies. The modern French bistro boasts a four-course dinner menu by executive chef Eric Bost; plus seafood platters, a la carte options and French cocktails. Bost’s menu changes seasonally, but expect dishes like seabream crudo; Homard (San Diego spiny lobster) with sweet potatoes, sherry and sage; and Entrecôte (Lone Mountain ribeye) with black garlic, oxtail and Bordelaise sauce. Must Try: the pain et beurre bread service, with Meyer lemon, Raw Farm butter and sea salt, is divine. 2659 State St., Carlsbad, 760.637.5266, jeune-jolie.com

/ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

the audition process is rigorous, taking into account parents as well as students. Gabrielle has become known for a policy that many find jarring: the refusal to, as she puts it, “monetize false hope.” This means having difficult, often heartbreaking conversations with families early on. If a child does not possess the specific physical facility or the mental grit required for a professional career, Gabrielle tells them. She will deny enrollment or even un-enroll students rather than collect tuition for a dream that is mathematically impossible to achieve. By refusing to “pay to play,” SDAB ensures that every student in the studio has a genuine, verified potential to meet the demands of the global stage.

“The focus of our training is preparation to go on

to dance professionally,” Gabrielle says. “We don’t just look at the child—their potential and anatomy— we also look at parent behavior; their willingness to honor boundaries and

maintain the parent title and not blur it with coaching.” Nevertheless, parents are welcome on the SDAB premises (4696 Ruffner St., Kearny Mesa); Gabrielle says the facility has the

largest studio in the city, with large lobbies and an office converted into a working space for families, while their students are taking class.

Another successful initiative at the studio is the “Sunday Funday” program for adult ballet students, where all adult classes are half off. Adults can take a beginner ballet class in the morning and intermediate class in the afternoon. Class schedules, enrolment and more can be found on a proprietary app for adults: the San Diego Academy of Ballet on the App Store. “We did this in the spirit of ensuring adult students had access to the same instructors gener-

ating the student talent,” Gabrielle says.

Faculty at SDAB consist of alumni who return to ensure classes are conducted with the same rigorousness and artistry they experienced.

Students like 13-yearold Hemingway Smith come to SDAB seeking the kind of instruction that might make their dreams come true. “I had gone to another studio before SDAB, for about two years, but learned if I really wanted to do this right, I would have to switch to a higher-level training academy. That’s why I joined SDAB,” she says. “I’m hoping to be a principal dancer at New York

A light, sweet romantic comedy

City Ballet, which has been my dream for about three

Smith took ballet instruction seriously from the start. “Considering how much I love ballet, from the beginning, I was already putting in a tremendous amount of work and effort; so for it to be a ‘fun’ hobby for me was not

Unlike many other dance studios, SDAB does not focus on preparing its students for competitions. “We don’t compete locally; we place globally,” says Gabrielle. “Our benchmark isn’t the school across town; it’s the institutions shaping the future of professional ballet worldwide. We measure our success year after year with acceptance to companies’ intensives and schools. Our students are trained not to win the neighborhood, but to win the world.”

The results speak for themselves. Year after

year, SDAB students aren’t just gaining admission to the world’s most elite schools; they are walking away with full-ride scholarships that include room and board. These are institutions where the acceptance rate is often lower than 5 percent. Such places include: the School of American Ballet (the official school of New York City Ballet) in New York City; American Ballet Theatre’s JKO School in New York City; The Royal Ballet School in London; the Paris Opera Ballet School; the Royal Danish Ballet School; Stuttgart Germany’s John Cranko School; the Birmingham Royal Ballet; the Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle; San Francisco Ballet School; and Houston Ballet Academy.

By having tough conversations about professional viability at age 10 or 11, SDAB protects students from training for a decade

THE CONRAD

Home

of La Jolla Music Society

EMMET COHEN: JOHN COLTRANE AND MILES DAVIS AT 100

Monday, April 6 & Tuesday, April 7

TERENCE BLANCHARD & RAVI COLTRANE

Thursday, April 9 · Balboa Theatre

COLTRANE 100:

BOTH DIRECTIONS AT ONCE

Saturday, April 11, 2026

Featuring GRAMMY® winners Joe Lovano, Jeff “Tain” Watts, and others.

DANISH STRING QUARTET WITH THE DANISH NATIONAL GIRLS’ CHOIR

Sunday, April 12

Works by Schubert, Nielsen, Caroline Shaw, and a co-commission with Carnegie Hall

GAUTIER CAPUÇON, cello

JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET, piano

Wednesday, April 15

Works by Debussy, Brahms, Schumann, and Shostakovich.

BENNY BENACK III: THE MAGIC OF MANHATTAN

Saturday, April 18

ARISTO SHAM, piano

Sunday, April 19

Works by J.S. Bach, Brahms, and Chopin.

AARON DIEHL TRIO

Friday, April 24

DANCING ON TIPTOES

Saturday, April 25

Family fun featuring classical composers from Australia!

ALEXANDRE KANTOROW, piano

Saturday, April 25

Works by J.S. Bach, Chopin, Scriabin, Beethoven, and Medtner.

DAVID McLAIN

BLUE ZONES: UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF LONGEVITY

Thursday, April 30

Jobim: Portrait in Black & White

only to find a closed door at age 18. “The high level of excellence in this school is unmatched,” Smith says. “I have so many incredible teachers supporting my journey. Ms. Simone knows what it takes to make it—not as a mediocre dancer but as an incredible one.”

Smith’s commitment and training have already produced results. “I’ve done the SAB (School of American Ballet) summer intensive for three years (two juniors and one fiveweek program) and will be attending the five-week intensive again this year,” she says. “I’m hoping to go to PCS (Professional Children’s School) in New York while attending SAB full-time.” Her goals, she continues, are to perform in Balanchine’s Serenade, come up to New York City Ballet through SAB, and to be choreographed on by a director. “And most

importantly, to always pursue my love for ballet.”

One thing SDAB does have in common with other studios is presenting public performances twice a year featuring its students. “We do classical excerpts and full-length ballets, like The Nutcracker, and so on; but also present original choreography—mine and the teachers’,” Gabrielle says. The Academy’s next show is on May 17 at the Epstein Amphitheatre on the UCSD campus—a Spring Gala that will include both original and classical repertoire.

As for celebrating San Diego Academy of Ballet’s 25th anniversary, Gabrielle remarks, “the greatest celebration is to keep the studio going for another 25 years.”

For more info, please visit sandiegoacademyofballet.org or call 858.215.1511.

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