San Diego Symphony unveils second season at newly transformed Jacobs Music Center

The San Diego Symphony and Music Director Rafael Payare recientemente announced the detailed programs of the 2025-26 Jacobs Music Center season.

This will be the second season in the orchestra’s new indoor home, a nearly 100-year-old theater that underwent a complete renovation before reopening in 2024.

The San Diego Symphony will transport audiences through the power of music with a spectrum of works such as Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Debussy’s The Toy Box, Holst’s The Planets, Mahler’s The Boy’s Magic Horn, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Ravel’s The Child and the Magical Spells, and Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra.

El 2025-26 Jacobs Music Center season will feature 21 programs on the Jacobs Masterworks series, including eight works new to San Diego Symphony, 11 concertos, 19 symphonies, a two-week Brahms Festival, audience favorites, and rarely heard works. Also, as a passionate, renowned champion of Mahler, Payare has programmed two of the composer’s works on the season. In addition, the Jazz @ The Jacobs, Family Concerts, and Symphony Kids series will return to Jacobs Music Center, presented by the San Diego Symphony.

Composer Jimmy Lopez begins a two-year residency with both the San Diego Symphony and The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) as Composer-in-Residence. In addition to performing two of his works in the current season – Ephemerae, a concerto for piano and orchestra; and Peru Negro for orchestra, the San Diego Symphony and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal have co-commissioned a work for orchestra by Lopez which will be performed in the 2026-27 season.

Artists making their debut with San Diego Symphony are conductors Anja Bihlmaier, Nicholas Carter, Thomas Guggeis, Trevor Pinnock, Anna Sulkowska-Migon, and Kahchun Wong; pianists Alexandra Dovgan and Steven Osborne; violinists Randall Goosby and Leonidas Kavakos; sopranos Julie Boulianne and Liv Redpath; baritone Matthias Goerne; and flamenco singer Marina Heredia.

Works being performed for the first time by the San Diego Symphony include John Adams’ Century Rolls, Lera Auerbach’s Icarus, Unsuk Chin’s subito con forza, Jimmy Lopez’s Ephemeraey Peru Negro, Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa, Gabriela Ortiz’ Dzonot, Adam Schoenberg’s Cool Cat, and Olly Wilson’s Shango Memory, plus the world premieres of David Mackenzie’s Right Whale, Wrong Letter and Ivan Trevino’s Space Junkas part of its Family Series.