If all goes well on the health front, 2022 promises a list of excellent classical music events. But it’s not only what’s this is happening this year, it’s or.
Last year, chamber music concerts were heard in the new 120-seat theater of the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park. And the even newer University of California San Diego @ Park & Market complex in East Village will host musical events in its 225-seat black box theater.
At La Jolla Woman’s Club, Le Salon De Musiques – an intimate, stage-less chamber music concert series – kicked off last fall and will run monthly through June.
Listen carefully, as the music will spread across the county and south of the border.
Douglas Hall, San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare, Zou Yu, CEO Martha Gilmer and Erin Dowrey pose for photos at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, one of the venues where the symphony will perform during its next winter-spring season.
(Eduardo Contreras / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
San Diego Symphony: “Hear Us Here”
Many local choirs and chamber groups have dealt with not having a permanent venue by performing regularly in churches and halls.
Some, like Art of Elan, 13, intentionally incorporate performances in a variety of venues into their organizational DNA, planning a unique, site-specific repertoire for each event.
The San Diego Symphony – pending completion of renovations to its downtown home, Copley Symphony Hall at the Jacobs Music Center – will be among the modern musical vagabonds for its winter-spring 2022 season. “Hear Us Here” will include 31 concerts at nine venues in the San Diego area, plus one in Palm Desert. This is the highest number of venues in any symphony season in its 112 years.
Opening the season at the downtown Civic Theater and closing at the Symphony Orchestra’s Rady Shell in Jacobs Park, the orchestra will perform in Escondido, Poway, Chula Vista and Rancho Santa Fe, as well as neighborhoods in the city like La Jolla, Del Cerro and Rolando.
Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare and CEO Martha Gilmer are interested in more than geographic extent. Seven of the works for the upcoming season were composed by people of color. Ten of the soloists featured this season are women. And three guest chefs come from BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) communities. Lesser-known works will be presented alongside favorite works by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Brahms and Ravel.
Camarada: David Buckley, Dana Barnett, Andres Martin, Beth Ross Buckley
(Photo by Monique Feil Photography)
Border collaborations
Two cross-border projects are expected to generate excitement this season.
Ruben Valenzuela, conductor of the dynamic early music group from San Diego, Bach Collegium, worked closely with music specialist Mario Montenegro, artistic director of the vocal ensemble of the Tijuana Cultural Center (CECUT). The project “El Mesías: Messiah for a New World” appears to be Handel’s first complete booklet in Spanish of “Messiah”.
The world premiere will be presented in Cardiff and La Jolla on March 18 and 19, respectively, and in Tijuana at the CECUT Centro Cultural on March 20. For more information: bachcollegium.org
Camarada, the eclectic chamber music ensemble will perform in familiar venues this season and is also embarking on a brand new project, “Music of the Americas,” at the Park & Market downtown. Conceived by UCSD Associate Chancellor Mary Walshok, the series is designed to feature lesser-known composers from North America, including Mexico, and South America.
Camarada’s Beth Ross Buckley and Tijuana-based bassist / composer Andrés Martín, full member of Camarada, are the co-artistic directors of the series at Park & Market. Martín, whose “Double Bass Concerto” will be performed by the San Diego Symphony in April, will also serve as a link between Camarada and the Tijuana Hall, which hosts “Music of the Americas”.
The San Diego “Music of the Americas” shows will take place at the Park & Market downtown on February 19 and May 14, while the Tijuana concerts will take place at La Caja Arte y Cultura on February 20 and May 15. . concerts can be attended as separate events or attendees can choose a “full day excursion,” which will include group rides in vans, wine tasting, concert and celebratory dinner. For more information: camarada.org
