Beethoven to Bernstein to Jurassic Park: Experience the San Diego Symphony Orchestra’s 2018-19 Season

Photo: Ewen Roberts (Flickr)

In the next couple of weeks, one of the most respected symphony orchestras in the USA kicks off a brand-new season absolutely stacked with highlights, and a boutique guestroom at the Sofia Hotel sets you up within close reach of all the concerts!

America’s Finest City has been home to the San Diego Symphony Orchestra since 1910 (give or take some hiatus years), and its spectacular H.Q., the 1929-built Copley Symphony Hall in the Jacobs Music Center, is a mere half-mile from our Downtown hotel here on Broadway. The 2018-19 season begins with a bang on October 4^th, and we thought we’d take the opportunity to preview some of the good stuff coming down the pike.

The Season Opener

The “bang” we referred to takes the form of Lang Lang Plays Mozart: star pianist Lang Lang joining conductor Edo de Waart and the SDSO for a performance on Thursday, October 4^th of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, bookended by Berlioz’s Overture to Béatrice et Bénédict and Respighi’s Fountains of Rome.

Rafael Payare’s Debut

The Lang Lang appearance on October 4^th is the first of three Special Concerts the Symphony presents this season. Another is the debut of the SDSO’s new music director designate, conductor Rafael Payare, who alongside cellist Alisa Weilerstein will present a program of Mozart and Tchaikovsky on Thursday, January 10^th.

Payare, who officially assumes directorship of the SDSO from the retiring Jahja Ling in January, will also conduct three of the season’s Jacobs Masterworks concerts on January 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th, also with Weilerstein.

Other Highlights

That abovementioned 2018-19 SDSO Jacobs Masterworks series will also see a two-week residency by acclaimed pianist Joyce Yang right off the bat, with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony on October 6^th and 7^th and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini on the 12^th and 14^th. On November 16^th and 17^th, the SDSO will carry on its celebration of the charismatic late composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein with Bernstein & His World, which’ll feature Steven Sloane at the podium and Orli Shaham at the piano; on the program is Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety symphony and the U.S. premier of Lenny, a composition by the recently passed Israeli composer Naom Sheriff.

The SDSO will once again be combining live music with big-screen magic in its Fox Theatre Film Series: two silent films accompanied by organist Russ Peck (Steamboat Bill, Jr. on November 8^th, Sunrise on March 14^th) as well as some modern Hollywood classics—Love Actually (December 14^th), Jurassic Park (February 9^th), and Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (April 4^th and 6^th)—backed by a live SDSO score.

Throw in Jazz @ the Jacobs (with a performance of Dave Brubeck’s classic Time Out album in its entirety on February 23^rd and a tribute to iconic drummer and bandleader Art Blakey on April 20^th), the Family Series and Chamber Music concerts, and a gaggle of stars, from Rickie Lee Jones to Matthew Morrison, in the City Lights series, and you’ve got a truly extraordinary season from SDSO awaiting you as a Sofia Hotel guest.

A Night at the Symphony With the Sofia Hotel

Join us for the finest in Downtown San Diego accommodations, and launch your evening on the town at a San Diego Symphony concert with a gourmet dinner at our Currant American Brasserie: What could be better?