Conductor Rafael Payare’s 2024–25 season includes inauguration of San Diego’s newly renovated Jacobs Music Center with San Diego Symphony, European tour with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Daniil Trifonov, guest engagements with NY Phil and Royal Opera, much more

(August 2024) — Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare – proclaimed “a fireball of energy
onstage” and “a musician to watch” by the Wall Street Journal – embarks on a banner season in
2024–25 as Music Director of California’s San Diego Symphony (SDS) and Canada’s Orchestre
symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM). The conductor inaugurates
San Diego’s newly renovated Jacobs Music Center with an opening night concert featuring
pianist Inon Barnatan, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, SDS concertmaster Jeff Thayer, and Korean
soprano Hera Hyesang Park as soloists, plus a world premiere composed for the occasion by
Texu Kim (Sep 28); and conducts a full roster of performances in the venue across the season,
bookended by Mahler’s Second (Oct 4–6) and Third Symphonies (May 23–25). Payare leads the
OSM on a European tour of eight cities with stellar pianist Daniil Trifonov (Nov 19–30) in
addition to their season of performances in Montreal, and he releases his third album with the
OSM – an all-Schoenberg program – on the Pentatone label in October. The conductor also
makes high profile return appearances with the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia
Orchestra and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Payare elaborates:

“I’m really looking forward to this coming season. Next month, I return with the San Diego
Symphony to our newly renovated Jacobs Music Center. It will be so wonderful to return to our
home, where we will perform classical masterpieces from across the repertoire that will showcase
the full capability of the renovated venue, and this wonderful orchestra, throughout the season.
In Montreal, we start the season with a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Schoenberg
featuring his monumental Gurre-Lieder, before embarking on a fantastic tour with stops all across
Europe. I hope people will also enjoy hearing our new all-Schoenberg recording, coming in
October.
I’m also thrilled to come back to the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra this
season, and look forward to performing some great repertoire with those ensembles. Of course
I’m so excited to return to the Royal Opera House, which will be such a joy after last season’s
Barber of Seville. There are so many more great things coming this season – I truly cannot wait!”

San Diego Symphony

Payare’s tenure with the SDS and partnership with its CEO, Martha Gilmer, has seen the
orchestra, and the cultural life of the city itself, go from strength to strength. Writing in 2019, just
a year after the announcement of Payare’s appointment, Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times
wrote: “It has taken more than a century, but California now has another crucial orchestra.”
Following their 2022 release of Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony and a performance at
Carnegie Hall last season about which New York Classical Review declared that the orchestra had
“showed it could go toe-to-toe and note-for-note with those more storied ensembles up the coast,
” Payare and the orchestra reach a new milestone this season when they return to their home
concert hall, the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center, on September 28.

The transformation of the Jacobs Music Center represents a critical component of Gilmer’s
vision for the SDS, coupled with the hiring of Payare and the 2021 opening of the Rady Shell, the
$85 million venue that now serves as the orchestra’s summer stage and was cited last month by
the New York Times as prime evidence of San Diego’s rising cultural profile. The Jacobs Music
Center project began in early 2022 to enhance the musical and performance experience for artists
and audiences alike while honoring the legacy of the nearly 100-year-old Fox Theatre. Designed
by architectural firm HGA in collaboration with acoustician Paul Scarbrough of Akustiks and
theater planner Schuler Shook, the renovation included substantial alterations to the stage and
main seating level to elevate the hall’s acoustics, as well as new seating and finishes; restored
architectural details; modernized lighting, sound, video and recording equipment; updated
and expanded support spaces for musicians; and enhanced audience amenities.

The inaugural performance in the renovated Jacobs Music Center will feature the world
premiere of Texu Kim’s fanfare Welcome Home!! along with music of Paganini, Rachmaninoff,
Tchaikovsky, Rossini, and Ravel. A full roster of soloists will also be on hand: pianist Inon
Barnatan, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, SDS concertmaster Jeff Thayer, and Korean soprano Hera
Hyesang Park (Sep 28).

Payare hits the ground running after this opening with three separate programs in the month
of October. The first features the San Diego Symphony co-commissioned Time by Austrian
composer Thomas Larcher sharing the bill with Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony, the latter
featuring soprano Angela Meade and mezzo-soprano Anna Larsson and marking the debut of
the San Diego Symphony Festival Chorus (Oct 4–6). The following week, Payare and the
orchestra return with a program that juxtaposes Brahms’s sole Violin Concerto – performed by
celebrated young Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan – with Schoenberg’s Pelleas und
Melisande, in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth (Oct 12, 13). Yet
another unique program is presented the week after that, when Payare and the SDS are joined by
Emanuel Ax for a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, paired with a new
musical-theatrical reimagining of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet that incorporates projections
and Shakespeare’s original text, directed by Gerard McBurney (Oct 18–20).

In December, pianist Inon Barnatan – also the Music Director of San Diego’s La Jolla Music Society
SummerFest – joins Payare and the orchestra once again. Their program highlights the lighthearted
and humorous side of classical music with Richard Strauss’s Don Juan – written when the
composer was just 24 – and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, along with Shostakovich’s two Piano
Concertos. Concerto No. 2, written as a 19th birthday present for his son Maxim, who would also
play it at his conservatory graduation exam, is an uncharacteristically cheerful piece. Concerto No. 1
was written during the height of the composer’s early career for his own performance; it is sardonic
and tongue-in-cheek, quoting and parodying several well-known pieces (Dec 6–8).

In the New Year, Payare conducts two sets of winter performances at the Jacobs Music Center. Rising
star pianist Alexander Malofeev joins the orchestra for Prokofiev’s demanding Piano Concerto No.
3, a work originally written for the composer himself to play on tour in the U.S. in the 1920s and 30s.
The program begins with the world premiere of Los Angeles-born, Grammy Award-winning
composer Billy Childs’s Concerto for Orchestra, and ends with Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony
(Jan 31; Feb 1). Soon thereafter, Payare conducts the SDS in Strauss’s tone poem Tod und
Verklärung (“Death and Transfiguration”), on a program with Brahms’s Second Symphony and
William Walton’s Viola Concerto, performed by SDS principal violist Chi-Yuan Chen (Feb 8, 9).

Three more sets of performances close out Payare’s San Diego Symphony season. First he is joined
by his wife, celebrated cellist Alisa Weilerstein, for a performance of South Korean composer
Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto, sharing the program with Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony (May 10,
11). Next, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is featured in Camille Saint-Saëns’s final Piano Concerto,
No. 5, subtitled “The Egyptian” because he wrote it on vacation in Cairo. Shostakovich’s Symphony
No. 7, “Leningrad,” rounds out the program. Since its first performance in August 1942, a year into
the 30-month blockade of the city by Axis powers, the symphony has become a powerful
international symbol of human resistance to brutality, barbarism and injustice (May 16, 17). For
their season finale, Payare conducts the SDS and mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill in Mahler’s
Symphony No. 3 in D minor, an expansive ode to nature, humanity, and the splendor of the cosmos
that still stands as the longest symphony in the standard repertoire (May 23–25).

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arnold Schoenberg, and Payare, a
passionate advocate for that composer’s music, serves on the Artistic Honorary Committee of
Schönberg 150, dedicated to the worldwide celebration of the occasion. An all-Schoenberg
album that includes Pelleas und Melisande and Verklärte Nacht and marks Payare and the OSM’s
third on Pentatone is due for release in October. Their first Pentatone release offered “a reading of
Mahler’s Fifth of intensity and rich orchestral exploration, a real marker in their ongoing
partnership” (Gramophone). Reviewing the live performance of Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben and
Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder captured on the second Pentatone album, Montreal’s Le Devoir raved:
“What we heard yesterday is what we hear on record with the greatest. … It’s more than precious,
it’s blessed bread, almost unbelievable.”

Anticipating the new album, Payare and the OSM open their season in Montreal with
performances of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder featuring soprano Dorothea Röschmann, tenor
Clay Hilley, mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, tenor Stephan Rügamer, baritone Thomas E. Bauer,
and tenor Ben Heppner performing the sprechstimme role. The September 13 performance –
falling on Schoenberg’s exact birthday – will be broadcast live on Mezzo, celebrating ten years of
partnership with the orchestra (Sep 11, 13).

Celebrated Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov joins Payare and the OSM for performances of
Schumann’s Piano Concerto (Sep 18) and Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto (Sep 19) in
Montreal as a lead-in to a high-profile European tour the following month (Nov 19–30). Focusing
on cultural capitals, the tour takes in London, Luxembourg, Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam,
Munich, and Vienna. On tour, Trifonov performs the Schumann and Beethoven concertos in
repertory, with other rotating repertoire including Iranian-Canadian composer Iman Habibi’s
reflection on the climate crisis, Jeder Baum spricht (“Every tree speaks”), also composed to
celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday; Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and Symphonie
fantastique; and Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony.

Other highlights of Payare and the OSM’s season in Montreal include two world premieres: an
OSM-commissioned work by Canadian composer Michael Oesterle (Sep 18, 19) and a work for
voices and orchestra sung in Indigenous languages, composed and written by Indigenous,
non-Indigenous, and Métis artists Andrew Balfour, Ana Sokolović, and Ian Cusson with the
intention of protecting disappearing languages by immortalizing them with music (May 28, 29).
Performances also include an all-Latin American program featuring OSM principal trumpet Paul
Merkelo (Nov 6, 7); pianist Bruce Liu playing Scriabin’s sole Piano Concerto (Nov 13, 14);
Mahler’s “Tragic” Symphony No. 6 paired with Alma Mahler’s Five Songs featuring Glaswegian
mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor (Jan 16, 18); Alisa Weilerstein showcased in Prokofiev’s Sinfonia
concertante (Feb 12, 13); Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, “The Year 1905” paired with
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, marking the OSM debut of Armenian violinist Sergey
Khachatryan (Feb 19, 20); and a jazz-inflected program featuring pianist Marc-André Hamelin
and music of George Antheil, David Schiff, John Harbison, and George Gershwin (Feb 22). A
month of Mozart performances in April – which also marks the beginning of a multi-year cycle of the
composer’s three operas with librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte – includes the Requiem (April 16, 17),
a semi-staged Così fan tutte (April 23, 25), the Piano Concerto No. 27 featuring pianist Kevin
Chen, and the “Jupiter” Symphony (April 24). Payare’s season with OSM culminates with Mahler’s
Das Lied von der Erde (May 28, 29).

Guest conducting engagements

Also in high demand as a guest conductor, this season Payare returns to the New York
Philharmonic to lead Anthony McGill in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, Tchaikovsky’s
“Pathétique” Symphony, and Sofia Gubaidulina’s Fairytale Poem, inspired by Miloš Macourek’s
The Little Piece of Chalk, an allegory of artistic perseverance (Oct 23–25). In January, the conductor
revisits the Tchaikovsky, this time on the podium of the Philadelphia Orchestra, along with Ravel’s
Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2 and Kaija Saariaho’s Graal théâtre for violin and orchestra
performed by German violinist Carolin Widmann (Jan 23–26). In the spring, Payare returns to the
Royal Opera House Covent Garden – where he made a triumphant 2022 debut with Rossini’s
Barber of Seville – to conduct Puccini’s Turandot with Sondra Radvanovsky singing the title role
(March 19–April 4).

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Rafael Payare: 2024–25 season engagements

Sep 11, 13
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Dorothea Röschmann, soprano
Clay Hilley, tenor
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
Stephan Rügamer, tenor
Thomas E. Bauer, baritone
Ben Heppner, sprechstimme
Mani Soleymanlou , presenter
OSM Chorus (Andrew Megill, chorus master)
SCHOENBERG: Gurre-Lieder for voice, choir and orchestra

Sep 18, 19
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Daniil Trifonov, piano
Michael OESTERLE: World premiere (commissioned by OSM)
SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 (Sep 18)
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Sep 19)
BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique , H 48, Op. 14

Sep 28
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Inon Barnatan, piano
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Jeff Thayer, violin
Hera Hyesang Park, soprano
Texu KIM: Welcome Home!! (world premiere)
PAGANINI: Caprice No. 24
RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
TCHAIKOVSKY: Variations on a Rococo Theme
RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloe: Suite No. 2

Oct 4, 5, 6
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Angela Meade, soprano
Anna Larsson, mezzo-soprano
San Diego Symphony Festival Chorus (Andrew Megill, Advisor and Chorus Master)
Thomas LARCHER: Time (SDS co-commission)
MAHLER: Symphony No. 2

Oct 12, 13
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Sergey Khachatryan, violin
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto
SCHOENBERG: Pelleas und Melisande

Oct 18, 19, 20
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Emanuel Ax, piano
Gerard McBurney, director
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K.503
PROKOFIEV: Romeo & Juliet

Oct 23, 24, 25
New York, NY
Lincoln Center
New York Philharmonic
Sofia GUBAIDULINA: Fairytale Poem
MOZART: Clarinet Concerto (Anthony McGill, clarinet)
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 6

Nov 6, 7
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Paul Merkelo, trumpet
Gustavo Castillo, baritone
Philippe-Audrey Larrue-St-Jacques , presenter (Nov 7 only)
VILLA-LOBOS: Choros No. 6 (Nov 6 only)
Gabriela ORTIZ: Altar de bronce, trumpet concerto
ESTÉVEZ: Mediodía en el Llano
GINASTERA: Estancia, Op. 8

Nov 13, 14
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Bruce Liu, piano
Iman HABIBI: Jeder Baum spricht (“Every tree speaks”)
SCRIABIN: Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 20
STRAUSS: Alpine Symphony , Op. 64, TrV 233

Nov 19–30
European tour with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Daniil Trifonov, piano
Iman HABIBI: Jeder Baum spricht (Nov 19, 20, 22, 27, 30)
BERLIOZ: Roman Carnival Overture (Nov 25, 28)
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Nov 19, 20, 27, 30)
SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto (Nov 22, 24, 25, 28)
BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique (Nov 19, 20, 24, 25, 27, 28)
R. STRAUSS: Alpine Symphony , Op. 64, TrV 233 (Nov 22, 30)
Nov 19: London (Barbican Centre)
Nov 20: Luxembourg (Philharmonie)
Nov 22: Paris (Philharmonie)
Nov 24: Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie)
Nov 25: Berlin (Berliner Philharmoniker)
Nov 27: Amsterdam (Concertgebouw)
Nov 28: Munich (Isarphilharmonie)
Nov 30: Vienna (Wiener Konzerthaus)

Dec 6, 7, 8
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Inon Barnatan, piano
R. STRAUSS: Don Juan, Op. 20
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 35
R. STRAUSS: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28

Jan 16, 18
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Beth Taylor, mezzo-soprano
A. MAHLER: Five Songs
G. MAHLER: Symphony No. 6 in A minor, “Tragic”

Jan 23, 25, 26
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Orchestra
Carolin Widmann, violin
RAVEL: Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloé
SAARIAHO: Graal théâtre, for violin and orchestra
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”

Jan 31; Feb 1
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Billy CHILDS: Concerto for Orchestra (world premiere, commissioned by San Diego Symphony)
PROKOFIEV: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C, Op. 26
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat, Op. 55, “Eroica”

Feb 8, 9
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Chi-Yuan Chen, viola
STRAUSS: Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24
WALTON: Viola Concerto
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 73

Feb 12, 13
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
OSM Chorus (Andrew Megill, chorus master)
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia concertante in E minor, Op. 125
RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloé, M. 57

Feb 19, 20
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Sergey Khachatryan, violin
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103, “The Year 1905”

Feb 22
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
ANTHEIL: A Jazz Symphony
David SCHIFF: Stomp
John HARBISON: Remembering Gatsby, foxtrot for orchestra
GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue

March 19, 22, 24, 27, 29; April 1, 4
London, England
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Sondra Radvanovsky (Turandot)
SeokJong Baek (Calaf)
Anna Princeva (Liù)
Adam Palka (Timur)
PUCCINI: Turandot

April 16, 17
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Myriam Leblanc, soprano
Julie Boulianne, mezzo-soprano
Joé Lampron-Dandonneau, tenor
Robert Gleadow, bass
Jean-Willy Kunz, OSM organist-in-residence
OSM Chorus (Andrew Megill, chorus master)
BACH: Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544
BACH: Jesu, meine Freude, Motet, BWV 227
MOZART: Requiem in D minor, K. 626

April 23, 25
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Anna Prohaska, soprano (Fiordiligi)
Michèle Losier, mezzo-soprano (Dorabella)
Matthew Swensen, tenor (Ferrando)
Florian Sempey, baritone (Guglielmo)
Jenny Daviet, soprano (Despina)
Thomas Hampson, baritone (Alfonso) and semi-staging
OSM Chorus (Andrew Megill, chorus master)
MOZART: Così fan tutte, K. 588

April 24
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Kevin Chen , piano
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat, K. 595
MOZART: Fantasia for solo piano in C minor, K. 475
MOZART: Symphony No. 41 in C, K. 551, “Jupiter”

May 10, 11
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Unsuk CHIN: Cello Concerto
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7 in E

May 16, 17
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Concerto No. 5 in F, Op. 103, “Egyptian”
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 7 in C, Op. 60, “Leningrad”

May 23, 24, 25
San Diego, CA
Jacobs Music Center
San Diego Symphony
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
MAHLER: Symphony No. 3 in D minor

May 28, 29
Montréal, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano
Nikolai Schukoff, tenor
Elisabeth St-Gelais, soprano
Andrew BALFOUR, Ian CUSSON , Ana SOKOLOVIĆ: Work for voice and orchestra (world premiere of OSM
commission)
MAHLER: Das Lied von der Erde

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