San Diego Symphony Welcomes Composer-in-Residence Jimmy López  

The San Diego Symphony is delighted to bring internationally acclaimed composer Jimmy López, the Symphony’s recently named composer-in-residence, to the city this weekend for the first of four performances of his works during 2025–26 and 2026–27 seasons. This is a joint residency shared with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM). 

Both orchestras will showcase pieces from López’s vibrant and emotionally compelling catalogue. This season, San Diego audiences will hear the Symphony and Music Director Rafael Payare in López’s Piano Concerto Ephemerae with pianist Javier Perianes (October 11-12, 2025) and his dynamic orchestral work Perú Negro (May 15-16, 2026). 

As part of his residency, López will take part in pre-concert talks to engage local audiences through conversation about creativity, culture, and the power of music to connect communities. 

The two orchestras have also co-commissioned López’s Sixth Symphony, inspired by the migratory patterns of Monarch butterflies, which will receive its world premiere during the 2026–27 season. 

“Jimmy López is a composer of extraordinary imagination and humanity,” said Rafael Payare, music director of both the San Diego Symphony and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. “From his very unique background—Peruvian born and raised with advanced educated in Finland and California—he brings many different things together. His music is filled with a phenomenal panache of colors, Latin and African rhythms along with a ‘language of the moment,’ and he uses the orchestra in a magnetic and approachable way with an amazing ability to draw the audience into his world. I am thrilled to bring his voice to our orchestra and community.” 

The October 11 and 12 performances of Ephemerae mark the beginning of López’s residency. This work is rooted in his fascination with synesthesia, the phenomenon by which one sensory experience is involuntarily mapped to another (for example, sound to color). In López’s conception, Ephemerae associates sonorities with aromas. The concerto unfolds in three movements, each evoking a distinct “world of scents,” expressed through a richly varied palette of orchestral and pianistic colors.As the composer writes: 

“Fragrances may be among the most fleeting and ethereal sensations that most sentient beings experience in their daily lives. Although elusive, they are capable of making lasting impressions and remaining in our memory long after they are gone.” 

Born in Lima, Peru, and now based in California, López has earned international recognition for his distinctive voice that blends rhythmic vitality, lyrical intensity, and global influences. He continues to compose works that bridge cultural roots and contemporary sensibilities and his works have been performed by major orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Cleveland Orchestra. 

His music has been praised as “undeniably exciting” (Opera News) and lauded for its “brilliant command of orchestral timbres and textures” (Dallas Morning News) and “virtuoso mastery of the modern orchestra” (The New Yorker). 

The San Diego Symphony looks forward to celebrating López’s artistry throughout these two seasons—sharing his music, his insights, and his creative spirit with audiences across the region. 

 By Cathy Strauss