Pictures at an Exhibition invites you to see the world in sonic technicolor. Modest Mussorgsky
composed the work in memory of a friend’s posthumous exhibit. From the opening “Promenade” to the majestic “Great Gate of Kiev,” this masterpiece is one you don’t just hear, you experience. French conductor Ludovic Morlot leads the program, which includes works from two venerable American composers: Ned Rorem’s Concerto for English Horn with Andrea Overturf, San Diego Symphohy’s Dr. William and Evelyn Lamden English Horn Chair, and Samuel Barber’s lyrical Second Essay for Orchestra.

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Pictures at an Exhibition

Joan and Irwin Jacobs Music Center

Experience Sergei Rachmaninoff’s iconic Piano Concerto No. 2, among the greatest piano showpieces in classical repertoire. The concerto’s emotional peaks and valleys will sparkle in the hands of soloist Sir Stephen Hough. Conductor Sir Mark Elder, in his first appearances in San Diego, leads this program of classical titans, including Camille Saint-Saëns’ sonorous Symphony No. 3 featuring the organ of Copley Symphony Hall. Rimsky-Korsakov’s passionate Suite from The Tale of Tsar Saltan opens this vivid program.

Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2

Get ready to rock ‘n roll down memory lane with an evening of music and memories straight from the radio featuring the biggest pop songs of all time. Groove along to over eight decades of chart-topping hits from the greatest names in music history including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Adele and more.

Rock ‘n Radio

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

The Wonders we Carry Inside

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M5Hi6O80

The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59E40S_EQSY

The Artelize Podcast: A love letter that was never sent

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THv6htilWtI

The Artelize Podcast and Adolfo Corrado: Mediterranean flavors, opera and social media

The music. The moves. The icon. Now, the unparalleled artistry of the greatest entertainer of all time comes to San Diego as MJ, the multi Tony Award®-winning new musical centered around the making of the 1992 Dangerous World Tour, begins a tour of its own. Created by Tony Award®-winning Director/Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, MJ goes beyond the singular moves and signature sound of the star, offering a rare look at the creative mind and collaborative spirit that catapulted Michael Jackson into legendary status. MJ is startin’ somethin’ as it makes its San Diego premiere at the San Diego Civic in March 2024.

San Diego Civic Theatre

A star of the Metropolitan Opera, Lawrence Brownlee is a leading figure in opera, both as a singer on the world’s top stages and as a voice for activism and diversity in the industry. Captivating audiences and critics around the globe, he has been hailed as “an international star in the bel canto operatic repertory” (The New York Times) and “one of the world’s leading bel canto stars” (The Guardian).

Lawrence Brownlee

Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center

Described as “phenomenally musical,” (Daily Journal), dynamic young violinist Maria Ioudenitch has won multiple awards and is poised on the cusp of a major international career.

Maria Ioudenitch, violin

Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground), in collaboration with Emmy Award®-winning writer and editor Joe Bini (Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Grizzly Man), takes the stage with the legendary classical music group Kronos Quartet to create a “live documentary” that chronologically unfolds the quartet’s groundbreaking, continent-spanning, multi-decade career. Wildly creative and experimental in form, A Thousand Thoughts is a meditation on music itself—the act of listening closely to music, the experience of feeling music deeply, and the power that music has to change the world.

Kronos Quartet & Sam Green

Kings Return made a triumphant SummerFest debut in 2021, bringing audiences to their feet with their a cappella stylings inspired by gospel, jazz, R&B, soul, and classical music. The group became internet sensations in 2016 when they started posting videos to social media from the stairwell where they rehearsed and now have more than 10 million views across digital platforms.

Kings Return

The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center

Post-post-modern diva Meow Meow has hypnotized, inspired, and terrified audiences globally with unique creations and sell-out seasons from New York’s Lincoln Center and Berlin’s Bar Jeder Vernunft to London’s West End and the Sydney Opera House. Named one of the Top Performers of the Year by The New Yorker, the crowd-surfing artist has been called “sensational” (The Times), a “diva of the highest order” (New York Post), “The Queen of Chanson” (Berliner Zeitung), and “a phenomenon” by the Australian press. Her award-winning works have been curated by David Bowie, Pina Bausch, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and numerous international arts festivals.

Meow Meow

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis, NEA Jazz Master, GRAMMY Award winner, and Tony Award nominee, is equally at home performing concertos with symphony orchestras and sitting in with members of the Grateful Dead, but the core of his musical universe remains the Branford Marsalis Quartet. After more than three decades of existence with minimal personnel changes, this celebrated ensemble is revered for its uncompromising interpretation of a kaleidoscopic range of both original compositions and jazz and popular classics.

Branford Marsalis Quartet

Alphabet Rockers make music that makes change! Founded by Kaitlin McGaw (she/her) and Tommy Shepherd (he/him/they), this intergenerational group creates brave spaces to shape a more equitable world through hip hop. You and your little ones will explore elements of hip hop together, have shared moments to express and uplift affirmations and reflections, and get your bodies MOVING in celebration and joy!

Alphabet Rockers

One of the premier Indian dance ensembles performing today, the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble has the unprecedented distinction of making The New York Times’ “Best Dance of the Year” list two consecutive years in a row. More than a dance company, Nrityagram was founded as a Gurukula (school) devoted to Indian dance. The all-female ensemble’s daily life of intensive training and meditation brings to the stage compelling captivating performances that are at once sensual and lyrical, accompanied by live music.

Nrityagram Dance Ensemble

Called by the late President Nelson Mandela “South Africa’s Cultural Ambassadors to the World,” the all-male choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo came to international prominence after singing with Paul Simon on his smash hit 1986 album Graceland. They have become internationally famous and have won multiple awards, including five GRAMMYs, and received more GRAMMY Award nominations (19) than any World Music group in the history of recorded music. More than 60 years after their creation, the current members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo continue to live out the group’s mission of bringing peace and harmony to the world through musical performance of the highest quality.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Revel in the magic and mystery of Vivaldi concertos for flute and guitar. Additional baroque treasures include masterworks by Marin Marais and J. C. Bach. Also featured is Concierto Barocco by José Enrique González-Medina; a glowing work with ardent Baroque nuance.

Vivaldi's Magic

Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Ray Chen is a violinist who redefines what it is to be a classical musician in the 21st century. With a media presence reaching out to millions, his remarkable musicianship transmits to a global audience that is reflected in his engagements with the foremost orchestras and concert halls around the world.

Ray Chen, violin

A program exclusively of firsts. Geoffrey Gonzalez premieres his new ballet, An American in Paris. Elizabeth Wistrich premieres her new ballet, Boléro – The Awakening. And City Ballet adds their first Christopher Wheeldon ballet to their repertoire, Morphoses.

An American In Paris

California Center for the Arts

Balboa Theatre

Join Artistic Director Javier Velasco, the artists of the San Diego Ballet, and special guest SDB resident composer Gilbert Castellanos for this truly unique evening “pulling back the curtain” on the various facets of the artistic process. Featuring conversations, performances, and sneak peeks into next year’s artistic offerings, this is a not to be missed opportunity for lovers of art to get up close and personal in a beautiful, intimate setting. 

Imagine the Creative Spirit

The Thursday Club

Ready, set, ride! The smash-hit London musical makes its U.S. premiere. It’s 1895, and Annie Londonderry wants to discover if a woman can ride a bicycle around the world. The problem? She’s only ridden one twice! As Annie and her unwitting secretary Martha share unbelievable adventures across four continents, they learn that no matter how far we ride, our past is always right behind us. With a high-energy score and a wildly versatile cast, this fresh and funny show is what Theatre Weekly called “an amazing piece of theatre and a must-watch for everyone.”

Ride

Old Globe Theatre

Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, lauded across the globe for a half-century of achievements in classical music, is featured with San Diego Symphony as both conductor and composer. Sibelius masterworks bookend the program: the 6th Symphony, which the composer reminisced upon as depicting the “scent of the first snow” opens the evening, with his 7th symphony described as his “most astonishing and fantastical” closing the program. Adding to this stellar program are works from Tilson Thomas: songs set to the master poet Rilke performed by Grammy® Award-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton, as well as Street Song, an ode to the experience of musicians greeting the dawn, featuring the brass of the San Diego Symphony.

Events in San Diego, CA

Pictures at an Exhibition...

San Diego Symphony

Rachmaninoff’s Piano Conc...

San Diego Symphony

Rock ‘n Radio

San Diego Symphony

The Wonders we Carry Insi...

San Diego Symphony

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

MJ

Broadway/San Diego

Lawrence Brownlee

La Jolla Music Society

Maria Ioudenitch, violin

La Jolla Music Society

Kronos Quartet & Sam Gree...

La Jolla Music Society

Kings Return

La Jolla Music Society

Meow Meow

La Jolla Music Society

Branford Marsalis Quartet...

La Jolla Music Society

Alphabet Rockers

La Jolla Music Society

Nrityagram Dance Ensemble...

La Jolla Music Society

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

La Jolla Music Society

Vivaldi's Magic

La Jolla Music Society

Ray Chen, violin

La Jolla Music Society

An American In Paris

City Ballet of San Diego

Imagine the Creative Spir...

San Diego Ballet

Ride

The Old Globe

Michael Tilson Thomas and...

San Diego Symphony