San Diego Symphony’s new music director debuts this weekend.
Oct 04, 2019 -
Attention all music lovers: San Diego Symphony has a new music director, and his name is Rafael Payare.
As San Diego Symphony’s music director, Rafael will shape the musical vision for the orchestra moving forward. His international experience and profile will attract the very best orchestral players and guest artists to San Diego. In addition, his own personal story about the important role that music has played in his life supports his vision to reach into the community to find new and enduring ways for the San Diego Symphony to play a greater role in the vitality and vibrancy of the San Diego community and region.
Here’s more about Rafael from San Diego Magazine:
It’s time to pass the baton to Rafael Payare. The new music director of the San Diego Symphony officially takes the podium October 5 at Jacobs Music Center downtown, when he’ll kick off the 2019–20 season with Mahler: Symphony No. 5 and Mason Bates: Alternative Energy.
“Every piece I’ve chosen for this season is close to my heart, whether that’s Mahler or Mozart or Schumann or Debussy or Beethoven or Shostakovich,” Payare says. The maestro’s led dozens of orchestras around the globe, from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and also won first prize at Denmark’s 2012 Malko Conducting Competition. He’ll be the 13th music director of our symphony.
Of his inaugural season, he says, “I thought of this musical journey as a long train ride, where the audience can stop off at stations along the way and discover other things, like Strauss, French music, a special production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
And if that weren’t enough music to our ears, the symphony just broke ground on its new waterfront venue downtown, Bayside Performance Park, slated to open in summer 2020. All aboard, this train’s leaving the station!