San Diego Symphony in 2026–27: Rafael Payare leads monumental works of Mahler, Strauss, Shostakovich, Berlioz, Bruckner, & Beethoven; Daniil Trifonov debut; premiere of Composer-in-Residence Jimmy López’s Symphony No. 6; much more

Rafael Payare conducts San Diego Symphony (photo: courtesy of San Diego Symphony)

(February 2026) — In 2026–27, the San Diego Symphony (SDS) and Music and Artistic Director Rafael Payare – whose contract was recently extended through the 2028–29 season – look forward to the third season in their recently renovated indoor home, the Jacobs Music Center. Praised for its beauty and enhanced acoustics by several notable critics from outlets including the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal, the venue hosts 19 Masterworks programs over the course of the season, eight conducted by Payare, including many of the works that have earned him a reputation as “a noted authority on the late-Romantic repertoire” (BBC Music Magazine) and featuring a starry lineup of both debuting and returning soloists and guest conductors.

Season highlights with Payare on the podium include Strauss’s tone poem Ein Heldenleben on a program with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 featuring Yefim Bronfman (Oct 3 & 4); Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony complemented by Sergey Khachatryan as soloist for Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto (Oct 10 & 11); Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony sharing the bill with Brahms’s First Piano Concerto performed by Daniil Trifonov, making his SDS debut (Nov 14 & 15); Mahler’s “Tragic” Symphony No. 6 along with Liszt’s First Piano Concerto featuring Inon Barnatan (Nov 20 & 22); Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique paired with the Elgar Cello Concerto played by Alisa Weilerstein (Jan 29 & 30); and the SDS debuts of both violinist Joshua Brown, a 2025 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto (March 20 & 21) and Puerto Rican clarinetist Ricardo Morales, who performs Esa-Pekka Salonen’s kínēma clarinet concerto (March 26 & 27). The season finale concerts pair Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the SDS co-commissioned Symphony No. 6, “Monarch,” by Composer-in-Residence Jimmy López, in the second year of his two-year residency with both SDS and Payare’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM). That performance features the SDS debuts of mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz and baritone Hansung Yoo, along with the returns of tenor Viktor Antipenko and soprano Tasha Hokuao Koontz (June 4–6). The OSM – which also served as co-commissioner of López’s Sixth Symphony – will make a special appearance of its own this season in the Jacobs Music Center, with Payare conducting a program of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Samy Moussa that features violinist Leonidas Kavakos (Oct 29).

Martha Gilmer, the President and CEO of the San Diego Symphony, honored as the 2026 “Impresario of the Year” by Musical America, comments:

“I always love the moment when we announce a new season of carefully crafted programs. A tremendous amount of thought, imagination, creativity, and laughter goes into our programming sessions. It’s always hard to choose among the richness of the symphonic repertoire. This season has been created to inspire our orchestra in their ongoing desire to perform at an increasingly high level. It has also been created to uplift, connect, and inspire our audiences, both through music they know very well and works that are new. Together we have much to experience in the beautiful Jacobs Music Center!”

Payare adds:

“The Jacobs Music Center has become a truly inspiring place for our orchestra and community to come together for concerts. For the 2026-27 season, I am excited to continue this collaboration with the wonderful musicians of the San Diego Symphony – to bring moments of beauty to audiences who have embraced us so warmly. This connection is at the heart of our art form, and I am incredibly grateful and excited to share these incredible orchestral works with our fantastic audiences.”

Composer-in-Residence Jimmy López and more new music

Payare and the San Diego Symphony are notably enthusiastic about cultivating and performing 21st-century music, and this season they continue to feature the works of Composer-in-Residence Jimmy López, in the second year of his two-season residency with both the San Diego Symphony and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM). For the SDS’s season finale performances, Payare conducts the world premiere of López’s Symphony No. 6, “Monarch” – co-commissioned by both orchestras – which draws inspiration from the migration of monarch butterflies and reflects on the fragile harmony between life and environment (June 4–6). López’s Shift, Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, featuring Dutch virtuoso Jörgen Van Rijen in his SDS debut, will also be performed this season, under the baton of Ludovic Morlot (Oct 16 & 17).

Payare conducts works by three other living composers in the 2026–27 season, with all three works dating from 2021. His Jacobs Music Center performance with OSM features Elysium by Berlin-based Canadian composer Samy Moussa (Oct 29); the vehicle for Ricardo Morales’s SDS debut is Esa-Pekka Salonen’s kínēma for clarinet and string orchestra (March 26 & 27); and Payare conducts Kauyumari by Grammy-winning Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz (March 20 & 21), following spring performances in the present season of the same composer’s Grammy-winning cello concerto, Dzonot, with the concerto’s dedicatee, Alisa Weilerstein. The SDS will also perform Matthias Pintscher’s 2021 work, Assonanza for Violin and Chamber Orchestra featuring violinist Blake Pouliot, with the composer on the podium. (Feb 20 & 21).

Other season highlights

Among the critics who gave rave reviews to the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center were Gramophone’s James Jolly, who noted: “The sound is very impressive … the bloom and warmth, coupled with great precision, made for a very satisfying experience.” The venue is perfectly suited to, among other things, the large, dramatic works of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that allow the full orchestra to soar. While Payare continues his devoted survey of Shostakovich, Mahler, and Bruckner symphonies, he also showcases a wide range of other masterpieces including Bartok‘s The Miraculous Mandarin (March 20 & 21), Stravinsky‘s The Firebird Suite with OSM (Oct 29), and a pairing of Rachmaninoff‘s Symphonic Dances with Bernstein‘s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (March 26 & 27).

Highlighted guest conductors this season include Diego Matheuz leading Sibelius’s Second Symphony (Dec 4 & 5), Delyana Lazarova conducting Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony (Jan 16 & 17), Aziz Shokhakimov on the podium for Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony (Jan 23 & 24), Andreas Ottensamer conducting Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony (Feb 5 & 6), Matthias Pintscher leading Copland’s Third Symphony (Feb 20 & 21), Bernard Labadie conducting Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony (Feb 27 & 28), Edward Gardner leading Debussy’s La mer (Mar 5 & 7), Sir Mark Elder on the podium for Prokofiev’s Seventh Symphony (Apr 10 & 11), Osmo Vänskä conducting Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony (May 22 & 23), and Joshua Weilerstein leading Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony (May 29 & 30).

A notable roster of other soloists also graces the upcoming season. In addition to the debuts already mentioned, acclaimed pianists Alessio Bax, Benedetto Lupo, and Aristo Sham will give their first performances with the SDS, respectively featured in Grieg’s Piano Concerto (May 22 & 23), Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 (Feb 27 & 28), and Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto (Dec 4 & 5). Additional returning soloists include mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Mar 5 & 7), as well as three San Diego Symphony Orchestra principals: English hornist Andrea Overturf, featured in Rorem’s English Horn Concerto (Jan 16 & 17); harpist Julie Phillips, who performs Nino Rota’s Harp Concerto (Feb 5 & 6); and violinist Jeff Thayer, who is featured in Bartók’s First Violin Concerto (May 29 & 30).

San Diego Symphony 2026–27 season

All concerts take place at the Jacobs Music Center in San Diego, California

Oct 3 & 4
Rafael Payare, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Sofia GUBAIDULINA: Poema-Skazka (“Fairytale Poem”)
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491
R. STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben (“A Hero’s Life”), Op. 40

Oct 10 & 11
Rafael Payare, conductor
Sergey Khachatryan, violin
KHACHATURIAN: Violin Concerto
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9 in D minor

Oct 16 & 17
Ludovic Morlot, conductor
Jörgen van Rijen, trombone
DEBUSSY: “Nuages” and “Fêtes” from Nocturnes
Jimmy LÓPEZ: Shift, Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra
RAVEL: Alborada del gracioso
POULENC: Suite from Les biches (“The Does”)
RAVEL: Rapsodie espagnole

Special Concert
Oct 29
Rafael Payare, conductor
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Samy MOUSSA: Elysium
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird (full ballet)

Nov 14 & 15
Rafael Payare, conductor
Daniil Trifonov, piano
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93

Nov 20 & 22
Rafael Payare, conductor
Inon Barnatan, piano
LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat
MAHLER: Symphony No. 6 in A minor, “Tragic”

Dec 4 & 5
Diego Matheuz, conductor
Aristo Sham, piano
CARREÑO: Margariteña
PROKOFIEV: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 43

Jan 16 & 17, 2027
Delyana Lazarova, conductor
Andrea Overturf, English horn
GLINKA: Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla
ROREM: English Horn Concerto
RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27

Jan 23 & 24
Aziz Shokhakimov, conductor
Simon Trpčeski, piano
SMETANA: Overture to The Bartered Bride
GINASTERA: Concierto Argentino
ALBÉNIZ: Rapsodia española
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 8 in G, Op. 88

Jan 29 & 30
Rafael Payare, conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
ELGAR: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

Feb 5 & 6
Andreas Ottensamer, conductor
Julie Smith Phillips, harp
RAVEL: Rigaudon from Le Tombeau de Couperin
ROTA: Harp Concerto
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47

Feb 20 & 21
Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Blake Pouliot, violin
Matthias PINTSCHER: Assonanza for Violin and Chamber Orchestra
RAVEL: Tzigane, rapsodie de concert
COPLAND: Symphony No. 3

Feb 27 & 28
Bernard Labadie, conductor
Benedetto Lupo, piano
MOZART: Chaconne from Idomeneo
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K. 488
MOZART: Symphony No. 41 in C, K. 551, “Jupiter”

March 5 & 7
Edward Gardner, conductor
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
MENDELSSOHN: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage
TCHAIKOVSKY: The Tempest Fantasy-Overture, Op. 18
RAVEL: Shéhérazade
DEBUSSY: La mer

March 20 & 21
Rafael Payare, conductor
Joshua Brown, violin
Gabriela ORTIZ: Kauyumari
SHOSTAKOVICH: Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 99
BARTÓK: Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, Op. 19
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite (1919 version)

March 26 & 27
Rafael Payare, conductor
Ricardo Morales, clarinet
ESTÉVEZ: Mediodía en el llano (“Midday on the Plains”)
Esa-Pekka SALONEN: kínēma
BERNSTEIN: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
RACHMANINOFF: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45

April 10 & 11
Sir Mark Elder, conductor
PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131
DVOŘÁK: The Wood Dove, Op. 110, B.198
JANÁČEK: Taras Bulba: Rhapsody after Gogol

May 22 & 23
Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Alessio Bax, piano
SIBELIUS: Pohjola’s Daughter
GRIEG: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
NIELSEN: Symphony No. 5, Op. 50

May 29 & 30
Joshua Weilerstein, conductor
Jeff Thayer, violin
KLEIN: Partita for Strings
BARTÓK: Violin Concerto No. 1
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, “From the New World”

June 4–6
Rafael Payare, conductor
Tasha Hokuao Koontz, soprano
Nikola Printz, mezzo-soprano
Viktor Antipenko, tenor
Hansung Yoo, baritone
San Diego Symphony Chorus
Jimmy LÓPEZ: Symphony No. 6, “Monarch”
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, “Choral”