The May issue of San Diego Magazine includes an interview with Jahja Ling, who will conduct the final concert of his thirteen-year tenure as San Diego Symphony’s music director on May 28. Q: How do you choose the music? A: Well, when you eat food, you don’t want everything to be sweet, only dessert, or only salad. Q: The symphony has started offering new programs like Jazz at the Jacobs and performing the soundtracks to movies like Wizard of Oz and Harry Potter. Is it a struggle to appeal to popular tastes while also staying true to the classics? A: It is a struggle, because American culture is mostly pop culture…. I like to present a balanced diet, but our main core is still classical music. Q: Do you have a favorite memory? Carnegie Hall? A: That might be the highlight…. I was the first one to take them there, with Lang Lang [in 2013].… We also toured China, the first international tour the orchestra ever made.… But what I want to say is that … we not only perform, we also reach out to young people in the area. Every year we bring over 60,000 kids to Symphony Hall. And our musicians go to schools to perform.”
Posted May 18, 2017
