Downtown is the happening place this month when the big guns fire off their classical seasons.
Oct. 13 and 15 San Diego Symphony Music Director Jahja Ling opens his third season at the helm in a Jacobs’ Masterworks Series program that features internationally renowned pianist/recording artist Garrick Ohlsson in performance of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1.
Born in White Plains, N.Y., the San Francisco-based Ohlsson was a student of the late, great Claudio Arrau. He came to worldwide attention when he won the gold medal in the 1970 Chopin Competition in Warsaw. To this date, he is extremely popular in Poland, Chopin’s native land. In 1994 Ohlsson was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize.
Also programmed are William Schuman’s American Festival Overture and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2. These Masterworks concerts begin at 8 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Copley Symphony Hall, 7th & B St. Tickets range from $20-$85. Visit www.sandiegosymphony.com or phone (619) 235-0804.
The Symphony’s fund-raising gala takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14. Ling conducts the San Diego Symphony in works by Aaron Copland and Hector Villa-Lobos, and Ohlsson performs Chopin’s “Andante Spianato” and “Polonaise Brillianate.”
Joined by the San Diego Master Chorale, Ling and the orchestra continue the Jacobs’ Masterworks Series Oct. 20-22 with Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms.” Also programmed are works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert. Acclaimed violinist Glenn Dicterow performs Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1.

San Diego Chamber Orchestra

San Diego Chamber Orchestra’s new artistic director/conductor, Jung-Ho Pak, inaugurates his tenure with a Downtown Series concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, 2728 6th Ave. Programmed are a new work, “For Jung-Ho,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1 and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1.
Pak holds two other positions. He is music director with Connecticut’s New Haven Symphony and music director of the World Youth Symphony at Interlochen, Mich. Interlochen is a six-week camp for talented youth. “I love to work with minds that are not jaded and still believe in the power of what they do,” he said recently. “It feeds me optimism throughout the rest of the year.”
Former artistic director of the San Diego Symphony, Pak is optimistic indeed about San Diego Chamber Orchestra. “I’m here in San Diego because the musicians with this orchestra are among the most hungry and flexible and open-minded musicians I’ve ever worked with. They were always in my backyard, but I didn’t know them that well.”
Tickets range from $20-$55. Go to www.sdco.org or phone (858) 350-0290, ext 7.