California Festival Family & Community Day at The Rady Shell At Jacobs Park™

The musical community is ripe with anticipation for the launch of the California Festival which begins celebrations next month. Over the course of two weeks, musical organizations up and down the 650-mile expanse of the state will be performing and presenting bold new works from the past five years that exemplify California’s unique history of leadership and innovativeness. From orchestras to chamber music groups, jazz ensembles to choirs, there will be a large number of offerings to choose from. Originally conceived by LA Phil Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare and San Francisco Symphony Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, the idea was to create a way to promote the interconnectedness of the state’s arts organizations by celebrating the diverse collective of communities that make up the state. Some of the statistics are impressive - over 24 nationalities and spanning ages from 27 to 97.

 We at the San Diego Symphony as one of the three coproducers of this event have incorporated a large part of our fall programming into the California Festival. Currently scheduled are west-coast and world premieres, exclusive commissioned pieces and exciting guest artists. One of the highlights of our programming is the California Festival Family & Community Day on Sunday November 5^th, 2023. This FREE event brings together several local San Diego music organizations for a fun-filled day of music at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park™. Starting at noon, audience members will be treated to lively interactive performances including a bilingual reading of Peter and the Wolf set to Prokofiev’s iconic score and played by the San Diego Symphony as well as a performance by the San Diego Suzuki School of Music.

 At its core, the California Festival Family & Community Day is part of a broader commitment by the San Diego Symphony to diversity, equity and inclusivity in the arts. Some of the current initiatives include our High School Ambassadors program and our Music Connects program which provides free tickets and free community concerts. We sat down recently with our VP of Impact and Innovation, Laura Reynolds, to speak more about the California Festival Family & Community Day.

 “San Diego is home to a wide range of cultural organizations championing new music. As one of the lead producers of the California Festival, we wanted to shine a light on the new music being created for our youngest audiences and across our community. That’s why we organized a whole day dedicated to celebrating new music in San Diego by inviting our friends at the San Diego Suzuki School, San Diego Youth Symphony, San Diego Master Chorale, and Art of Élan to create a free Family and Community Day! We’re excited to present musicians as young as three years old performing a variety of repertoire that spans more than 250 years, from the time of Mozart’s dad to music that is having its WORLD PREMIERE on the Festival Day. We hope that this day shows that music-making is for everyone and the San Diego is a destination for transformative musical experiences.”  

- Laura Reynolds, VP of Impact and Innovation 

For more information and to RSVP to reserve your spot to the California Festival Family & Community Day, click here.