La Jolla Music Society to celebrate 55th anniversary with star-studded season and a record 71 performances

Singer, banjo player, songwriter and violinist Rhiannon Giddens, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for music

The 2023-24 lineup includes 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens, Herbie Hancock, Renée Fleming and more.

July 3, 2023 3:54 PM PT

Opera legend Renée Fleming, jazz keyboard giant Herbie Hancock and 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens are among the artists who will appear as part of the La Jolla Music Society’s 2023-24 season.

With a record 71 performances scheduled between October and next June by more than 75 headlining artists — 40 of them making their LJMS debuts — the season will be the largest in the nonprofit arts organization’s history.

Most of the events will be in La Jolla, while some concerts and dance performances will be at the San Diego Civic Theatre and the nearby Balboa Theatre.

The La Jolla Music Society will present Herbie Hancock on April 18 at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego.

The season also will mark an increase in the number of appearances by major dance troupes, including a 50th-anniversary performance by Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo.

And it will boast considerably more jazz than any previous edition, including an April weekend “mini piano festival” featuring Hancock and Hiromi, and four May and June concerts curated by — and featuring — 83-year-old San Diego saxophone legend Charles McPherson.

“Next year will be the 55th anniversary of La Jolla Music Society and the fifth anniversary of our Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center,” said Leah Rosenthal, the society’s artistic director. “It’s been really exciting to see how we’ve grown.”

The 49,200-square-foot center, which opened in April 2019 on Fay Avenue in La Jolla, houses the 513-seat Baker-Baum Concert Hall. It also is home to The JAI, a cabaret-style venue that, depending on the event, can accommodate 142 people seated at tables, 170 in rows of chairs or 300 standing.

‘A transformation’

“Our growth since the opening of The Conrad is ... really about a transformation of the organization and our growing in a way that enables us to serve the community in more and different ways,” said LJMS President and Chief Executive Todd Schultz.

Before The Conrad’s opening, the society averaged 25 to 30 fall-through-spring concerts and 15 during SummerFest. Its 2022-23 season at The Conrad boasted 61 concerts. SummerFest, which returns July 28 to Aug. 26, will have 21 concerts along with several education and outreach programs.

Those numbers don’t include the soaring number of rentals of The Conrad to other arts organizations — including Art of Elan and Camarada — or co-presentations with the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera. The venue also is rented out for events including high school proms, weddings and corporate meetings. LJMS now has three staff members focused on rentals, up from one in 2019.

“Between last October and this September, we will have hosted 220 active dates,” said Schultz, who has headed LJMS since January 2021. “That gives you a sense of the growth of the organization and the difference The Conrad has made.”

Under Rosenthal’s guidance, LJMS has built on its chamber music foundation with an array of other offerings from around the world.

The 2023-24 lineup features Grammy-winning South African vocal ensemble Ladysmith Black Mambazo, India’s Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and France’s Quatuor Ébène. Also on the schedule are Swiss jazz singer Tatiana Eva-Marie, Japanese pianist Mao Fujita and the all-female mariachi group Flor de Toloache, which is based in New York.

That is in addition to classical music stars such as cellist Alisa Weilerstein, pianists Yefim Bronfman and Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Kronos Quartet. The latter is on a 50th-anniversary and farewell tour.

“We’ll have almost double the number of concerts in The JAI than we had last season, and that’s where most of this expansion in our new season is coming from,” Rosenthal said.

“We had eight or nine concerts in The JAI last season and now it’s going up to 15. And for this year’s SummerFest, The JAI will have two evenings of jazz, as well as evenings with [SummerFest composer-in-residence] Thomas Ades. So we are continuing this thread and establishing The JAI as an incredible secondary performance space with its own atmosphere and appeal, including food and drinks.”

La Jolla Music Society 2023-24 season

When: Oct. 7 to June 9

Where: Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla. Events are in the Baker-Baum Concert Hall unless otherwise noted.

Tickets: Series subscriptions, available starting Tuesday, June 13, are priced from $59 to $446. Single-show tickets go on sale Monday, July 17, and are priced from $20 to $150. Series subscriptions and Choose-Your-Own packages for any four shows or more are discounted 10 percent. The box office at The Conrad is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and two hours before each evening performance.

Information: (858) 459-3728, theconrad.org

Schedule:

All performances are at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Asterisks indicate La Jolla Music Society performance debuts.

Oct. 7: Isata Kanneh-Mason, $55-$95

Oct.13: * Jean-Yves Thibaudet/Lisa Batiashvili/Capucon Trio, $53-$85

Oct.15: * Mariachi Herencia & Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernández, $32-$70, 3 p.m.

Oct.22: Lila Downs “Dos Corazones,” $35-$90, 7 p.m., Balboa Theatre

Oct.27: * Banda Magda, 6 and 8:30 p.m., $50-$65, The JAI

Nov. 1: * “Turn It Out” — Tiler Peck & Friends, $25-$125, San Diego Civic Theatre

Nov. 10: “American Railroad” — Silkroad Ensemble with * Rhiannon Giddens, $35-$105, Balboa Theatre

Nov.11: * Disney Pixar’s “Coco” Live-to-Film Concert, $30-$70, 4 p.m. (Spanish) and 7:30 p.m. (English)

Nov.16: “Fragments II” — Alisa Weilerstein, $55-$95

Nov.19: * Mao Fujita, $30-$55

Nov.30: * Flor de Toloache, $55-$70, 6 and 8:30 p.m., The JAI

Dec. 2: * “The Magic of Bubbles” — Michele Cafaggi, $20-$30, 10 and 11:30 a.m., The JAI

Dec. 3: Seong-Jin Cho, $52-$115, 3 p.m.

Dec. 6: Davina and the Vagabonds holiday show, $65-$89, 6 and 8:30 p.m., The JAI

Dec. 10: * Matthew Whitaker Quartet, $65-$80, 5 and 7:30 p.m., The JAI

Jan. 18: * “70 Years of Everest” — Peter Hillary, $20-$45, 7 p.m.

Swiss jazz singer Tatiana Eva-Marie & the Avalon Jazz Band

Jan. 19: * Tatiana Eva-Marie & the Avalon Jazz Band, $55-$70, 6 and 8:30 p.m., The JAI

Jan. 21: * Tony Siqi Yun, $30-$55, 3 p.m.

Jan. 25: * Lucas and Arthur Jussen, $55-$95

Jan. 28: Lakecia Benjamin, $65-$80, 5 and 7:30 p.m., The JAI

Feb. 2: * Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, $45-$125, Balboa Theatre

Feb. 4: Balourdet Quartet, $30-$55, 3 p.m.

Feb. 10: * Blue Note Records 85th Anniversary Tour — The Blue Note Quintet, featuring Gerald Clayton, Joel Ross and Kendrick Scott, $43-$80

Feb. 14: * Renée Fleming and Inon Barnatan, $150, plus special gala pricing packages

Feb. 17: Arod Quartet, $43-$80

Feb. 23: * Ambrose Akinmusire Trio, $65-$80, 6 and 8:30 p.m., The JAI

Feb. 29: * “Making Waves” — Andy Man, $20-$45

March 2: *Lawrence Brownlee, $53-$85

March 3: * Maria Ioudenitch and Kenneth Broberg, $30-$55, 3 p.m.

The Kronos Quartet will appear March 8 in La Jolla as part of its 50th-anniversary and farewell tour.

March 8: Kronos Quartet 50th-anniversary and farewell tour, $45-$90

March 9: Kings Return, $55-$70, 6 and 8:30 p.m., The JAI

March 10: * Meow Meow, $70-$85, 6 and 8:30 p.m., The JAI

March 14: Branford Marsalis Quartet, $45-$90

March 16: * Alphabet Rockers, $25-$35, 3 p.m.

March 20-21: * Nrityagram Dance Ensemble in collaboration with Chitrasena Dance Company,
$43-$78

March 22: Ladysmith Black Mambazo, $32-$70

March 28: * Ray Chen and * Julio Elizalde, $55-$95

April 7: * Jakub Józef Orlinski and Il Pomo d’Oro, $53-$85

April 12: * Quatuor Ébène, $43-$80

April 14: * Abel Selaocoe and * Manchester Collective, $40-$75, 7 p.m.

April 18: Herbie Hancock, $55-$150, Balboa Theatre

April 19: * Dayramir González and Habana Entrancé, $65-$70, The JAI

Japanese pianist and jazz composer Hiromi

April 20: * Hiromi’s Sonicwonder, $43-$80

April 21: Hiromi and * PubliQuartet, $40-$75, 3 p.m.

April 26: Yefim Bronfman, $41-$115

May 4: * Kaki King, $29-$30, 10 and 11:30 a.m., The JAI

May 5: Junction Trio, featuring Conrad Tao, Stefan Jackiw and Jay Campbell, $43-$80, 3 p.m.

May 15: * Ballets Jazz Montréal, $20-$105, San Diego Civic Theatre

May 16: * Pablo Ferrández, $53-$85

Saxophonist Charles McPherson will play at The JAI at La Jolla's Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center on May 18 and June 9.

May 18: Charles McPherson & Friends, featuring * John Beasley and the Next Generation, $55-$80, 6 & 8:30 p.m., The JAI

May 19: * Jiji, $30-$55, 3 p.m.

May 23: * “How to Astronaut” — Terry Virts, $20-$45, 7 p.m.

May 31: * Bruce Liu, $55-$95

June 1: * Larry & Joe, $50-$65, 6 and 8:30 p.m., The JAI

June 7: Chris Thile, $55-$95

June 9: Charles McPherson Quintet, featuring Terell Stafford and Lewis Nash, $65-$80, 5 and 7:30 p.m., The JAI ◆

Arts & Entertainment Music

George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a double first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”