JAN 10, 8PM

Payare Conducts
Mozart and Tchaikovsky

Rafael Payare, conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello

MOZART: Overture to Don Giovanni
R. STRAUSS: Don Juan
TCHAIKOVSKY: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
MUSSORGSKY/Ravel: Pictures from an Exhibition

Don’t miss Rafael Payare’s momentous inaugural concert as San Diego Symphony’s Music Director Designate. As part of our January “Hearing the Future” festival looking at youthful creation, this program features Don Juan, composed by a 24-year-old Richard Strauss, and Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition (written in that composer’s 35th year) in its well-known orchestration by Maurice Ravel. The concert opens with the dramatic overture to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which he debuted at age 31. Just Announced! Cellist Alisa Weilerstein will join the concert, performing Tchaikovsky's beloved Rococo Variations.

All sales from this concert will go to support the San Diego Symphony’s Learning and Community Engagement programs.

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JAN 11, 8PM | JAN 12, 8PM | JAN 13, 2PM

Payare and Weilerstein

Rafael Payare, conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello

R. STRAUSS: Don Juan
BRITTEN: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10

Music Director Designate Rafael Payare makes his only Jacobs Masterworks appearance this season with acclaimed cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the SDSO’s first-ever performance of  Benjamin Britten’s Symphony for Cello and Orchestra. Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 was performed months after the death of Stalin, and is a self-reflective composition containing embedded messages of personal identity.

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Internationally acclaimed conductor Rafael Payare will become the San Diego Symphony’s next music director

On July 1, 2019, Rafael Payare will become the 13th music director in the San Diego Symphony’s 108-year history.

Since being awarded first prize at the Malko Conducting Competition in 2012, Payare has been celebrated as one of the most exciting conductors of his generation. He has appeared with many orchestras internationally including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, amongst others.

Born in 1980 and a graduate of the celebrated Venezuelan education program, El Sistema, Payare began his formal conducting studies in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu. He has conducted all the major orchestras in Venezuela, including the Simón Bolívar Orchestra. Having also served as principal horn of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra, he took part in many prestigious tours and recordings with conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel and Giuseppe Sinopoli.

As San Diego Symphony’s music director, Payare 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.