“You can expect dizzying feats of derring-do when the San Diego Symphony stages its fourth annual monthlong festival in January,” writes George Varga in Sunday’s (9/23) San Diego Union Tribune. “ ‘Hearing the Future’ will feature more than two dozen performances and events…. They range from symphony music director designate Rafael Payare, 38, … to trumpeter Stephanie Richards, 33, and jazz vocal great Sheila Jordan, 90…. The festival’s lineup includes … cutting-edge forays and visual works by 42 artists from San Diego and Tijuana…. Matthew Aucoin, the 28-year-old composer, conductor, pianist, poet, educator and all-around creative wunderkind [will serve] as … curator…. Collaborations … include the Old Globe Theatre; Art of Élan; the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library; Fresh Sound; Malashock Dance; San Diego Dance Theater; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; and Sandbox.” Aucoin inspired San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer to “envision ‘Hearing the Future’ as a festival that would focus on young composers and performers.” Highlights include Payare conducting the orchestra in music by Mozart and Tchaikovsky; and Were You There, “a musical and theatrical work about racial injustice, featuring [bass-baritone] Davóne Tines, which draws from words and melodies of African-American spirituals and Walt Whitman’s poetry.”
Posted September 25, 2018
In photo: Composer Matthew Aucoin will curate the San Diego Symphony’s 2019 “Hearing the Future” festival, to be held in multiple venues. Photo courtesy San Diego Symphony
