La Jolla Music Society will celebrate 51st year with biggest season ever

How will the La Jolla Music Society top its recently concluded 50th anniversary season, which featured 34 performances and climaxed with the April opening of the nonprofit arts organization’s eye-popping, $82 million Conrad Prebys Center for the Performing Arts?

By presenting even more performances and expanding the range of programming in its eye-popping new performing arts center.

That expansion includes the debut of a new family concert series and a new lecture series that will be presented in collaboration with National Geographic. In addition, acclaimed classical music guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas will become the society’s first ambassador of education, a role that will see him spend three weeks in San Diego to perform at the center and do community outreach programs.

“This will be the biggest season we’ve ever had, and it will showcase the next step in our evolution,” said Leah Rosenthal, the society’s director of programming.

“We’ve doubled our chamber music series from four concerts last season to eight this season. And our Discovery Series will feature musicians from Hungary, China, Austria Italy and France.”

The new season will open Oct. 2 with a concert by jazz greats Chick Corea, Christian McBride and Brian Blade. It will conclude May 2 with a family-friendly concert by bilingual Mexican troubadour Sonia de Los Santos.

In between will come performances by a diverse array of artists, including the Martha Graham Dance Company, Chinese accordion virtuoso Hanzhi Wang and a borders-leaping trio that teams banjo innovator Béla Fleck, Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain and bass great Edgar Meyer.

The lineup also includes the Brentano Quartet and violinist Joshua Bell leading the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. (The full season lineup appears below.)

Altogether, there will be 45 performances — up from 34 last season — and that number could grow.

“We’d like to do more, because there are a lot of amazing artists coming through and we could look at adding some,” said Rosenthal, who is now in her 11th year with the society.

“Classical music and dance are the core of who we are as an organization. Our new performing arts center presents us with opportunities to expand the breadth of our programming and enhance the work we do. Whether we cast a bigger shadow now, I don’t know. I just know it’s our mission to present first class artists in San Diego and that expanding makes us a better presenting organization.”

Rosenthal has also been working closely with Inon Barnatan, the new music director of the society’s annual SummerFest, which will run from Aug. 2 to Aug. 23. She credits Barnatan’s artistic vision for helping to expand her own.

“Inon has realty inspired me in how I program and in looking for connections and deeper meanings,” Rosenthal said.

“Our dance series focuses on pioneering women in dance, from Martha Graham to Dorrance Dance and Crystal Pite. And our new Speaker Series, which will begin in 2020, will feature National Geographic writers and explorers talking about their journeys and showing videos and photos. We’ve not done anything in the past that did not have some musical aspect attached to it, but this will help draw people people who wouldn’t necessarily come to our musical offerings. It’s a wonderful opportunity.”

The upcoming season will be the first under new La Jolla Music Society CEO and President Ted DeDee, who came on board in April.

He is the third person to head the society since January of 2018, a period that saw the abrupt resignation of Kristin Lancino.

Her replacement, Florida Grand Opera Executive Director Susan T. Danis, was announced in July of 2018. Less than three weeks before Danis was to assume her new job here last October, however, she announced she would remain in her position in Florida, following a bizarre episode in which Danis was falsely defamed by a disgruntled former colleague at Florida Grand Opera.

Such upheaval on the executive level could wreak havoc on any nonprofit arts organization. But these upheavals appear to have had no visible impact on La Jolla Music Society’s 2018-19 season, next month’s SummerFest or the just-announced 2019-20 season.

“Ted DeDee, who I’m getting to know, is a generous spirit and a good, kind man who leads by example,” Rosenthal said.

“We’re feeling very stable and secure right now. And we are happy to have Ted on board, and his years of experience, so I’m feeling pretty positive.”

La Jolla Music Society 2019-20 season

Subscription packages go on sale July 23. Single tickets for all events included in the subscription packages go on sale Aug. 2. Performances marked * will go on sale in September. Tickets and more information are available from the La Jolla Music Society ticket services office at (858) 459-3728 and online at ljms.org.

Oct. 2: Chick Corea Trilogy, with Christian McBride and Brian Blade. 8 p.m. Balboa Theatre. $33-$102.

Oct. 13: Lila Downs’ “Día de Muertos: AL CHILE,” featuring Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company and Mariachi Femenil Flores Mexicanas. 7 p.m. Balboa Theatre. $28-$62.

Oct. 16: Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer with Rakesh Chaurasia. 8 p.m. Balboa Theatre. $28-$78.

Nov. 8: Farruquito. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

Nov. 9: Garrick Ohlsson Brahms Exploration Part II. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $41-$92.

Nov. 16: Danish String Quartet performs PRISM I: Bach, Beethoven and Shostakovich. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

Nov. 17: Danish String Quartet performs PRISM II: Bach, Beethoven and Schnittke. 3 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

Nov. 22: Danish String Quartet performs PRISM III: Bach, Beethoven and Bartók. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

Nov. 23: Danish String Quartet performs PRISM IV: Bach, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. 3 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

Nov. 23: Danish String Quartet performs PRISM V: Bach, Beethoven and Webern. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

Dec. 3: The Storm Large Holiday Ordeal. 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. The JAI. $28-$62.*

Dec. 7: Guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas performs a tribute to Andrés Segovia. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

Dec. 12: Nat Geo Live! “Between River and Rim: Hiking the Grand Canyon.” 7 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$62.

Dec. 13: Voctave: “The Spirit of the Season” holiday program. 7 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

Jan. 22: Martha Graham Dance Company performs “Diversion of Angels,” “Chronicle” and a new work by Pam Tanowitz. 8 p.m. Civic Theatre. $23-$78.

Jan. 26: Cellist Kian Soltani and pianist Julia Elizade peform Stravinsky, Beethoven, Arvo Pärt and Franck. 3 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $41.

Jan. 28: Ranky Tanky. 7 and 9 p.m., The JAI. $28-$62

Feb. 1: Jazzy Ash & The Leaping Lizards perform a family-friendly program. 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The JAI. $15-$25.

Feb. 9: Accordionist Hanzhi Wang performs J.S. Bach, Scarlatti, Rameau, Schnittke and Grieg. 3 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $41.

Feb. 21: Brentano Quartet performs Mozart, Ravel, and a West Coast première by Matthew Aucoin. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

Feb. 28: Pianist Hélène Grimaud performs miniatures by Chopin, Debussy, Satie and Silvestrov, concluding with Schumann. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $41-$92.

March 2: Joshua Bell with Academy of St Martin in the Fields. 8 p.m. Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall. $33-$108.

March 1: Hot Club of Cowtown. 7 and 9 p.m., The JAI. $28-62.*

March 5: Pianist Murray Perahia. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $41-$92.

March 6: Pablo Sáinz Villegas’ Americano Trio. 7 and 9 p.m., The JAI. $28-$62.

March 11: Dreamers’ Circus. 7 and 9 p.m., The JAI. $28-$62.

March 15: Arod Quartet performs Haydn, Bartók and Beethoven. 3 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $41.

March 19 & 20: Dorrance Dance performs “SOUNDspace.” 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

March 26: Nat Geo Live! “Exploring Mars.” 7 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$62.

April 3: Christian Sands performs a tribute to Errol Garner, with Helen Sung and Tadataka Unno. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $41-$92.

April 18: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago performs works by Crystal Pite and Ohad Naharin. 8 p.m. Spreckels Theatre. $23-$78.

April 24: Hagen Quartet performs Shostakovich, Puccini and Mendelssohn. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

April 26: Pianist Zoltán Fejérvári performs J.S. Bach, Ravel and Chopin. 3 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $41.

May 1: Les Violons Du Roy and Avi Avital perform J.S. Bach and Vivaldi. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$72.

May 2: Kenny Barron Trio, with Dave Holland and Jonathan Blake. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall.$41-$92.

May 9: Guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas performs a family-friendly program. 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The JAI. $15-$25.

May 14: Nat Geo Live! “Ocean Soul.” 7 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $28-$62.

May 17: Pianist Beatrice Rana performs J.S. Bach, Schumann, Albéniz and Stravisnky. 3 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $41.

May 21: Pianist Igor Levit performs an all-Beethoven program. 8 p.m. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall. $41-$92.

May 30: Sonia De Los Santos performs a family-friendly program. 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The JAI. $15-$25.