Tony Bennett cancels two California concerts while recovering from virus

Tony Bennett is shown during his 2017 Bayside Summer Nights concert in San Diego.

The 93-year-old singing legend has been advised not to travel for the next two weeks, in order to ensure his full recuperation

San Diego Union-Tribune

Sept. 9, 2019 9:52 AM PT

Vocal legend Tony Bennett has canceled two upcoming Southern California concerts, under the advice of his doctor, in order to fully recuperate from a virus.

The 93-year-old singer and 18-time Grammy Award winner was scheduled to perform Sept. 14 at the San Diego Civic Theatre and Sept. 17 at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara. Both those dates have been canceled. Tickets can be refunded at point of purchase.

The cancellation of the two Southern California shows follows the Wednesday announcement that his Sept. 10 concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland had also been canceled. His concert scheduled for Saturday in Seattle has also been canceled.

Bennett has been advised not to travel for the next two weeks, according to a representative for Nederlander Concerts, the promoter of his San Diego and Santa Barbara concerts. His Sept. 25, 27 and 28 shows at The Venetian in Las Vegas are scheduled to take place as planned, according to Bennett’s longtime New York publicist.

In a late August Union-Tribune interview, which will be published Sunday, Bennett said he works out three times a week, eats well and has no intention of retiring.

“As I have gotten into my 80s and 90s,” he said, “people just say to me: ‘Tony, keep on going!’ So I am going to try to do that for as long as possible.”

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George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a double first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”