Centennial Organ Gala Rocks Balboa Park

Civic Organist Carol Williams and her cohorts at the Spreckels Organ Society made Wednesday’s (Dec. 31) Spreckels Organ Centennial Concert a gala party, a fast-paced variety show that included whimsy, humor, flashy new compositions, brass, bagpipes, a 150-voice chorus, and a partridge in a pear tree . . .

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San Diego Opera’s Requiem?

From its first performance in Milan’s church of San Marco in 1874, Guiseppe Verdi’s Requiem Mass catapulted its listeners from the solemn cadence of the Roman Catholic liturgy to the raw emotional drama of the opera stage. So it was entirely appropriate for San Diego Opera to present a concert performance of this Requiem on the company’s usual opera stage on March 20 . . .

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Ken-David Masur Leads Masterful “Ode to Joy”

The San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Master Chorale brought a joyful and tasteful Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony ( the “Choral Symphony”) to the Jacobs Music Center Friday, Dec. 6 under the baton of the orchestra’s Associate Conductor Ken-David Masur. Son of a famous German conductor, the highly skilled Ken-David Masur needs no coattails upon which to ride.

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