San Diego Symphony
Encyclopedia
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. On 6 December 1910, it gave its first concert as the San Diego Civic Orchestra.
Currently, the Symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
performs over 100 concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
s each season. The symphony performs subscription series concert at Copley Symphony Hall
Copley Symphony Hall
Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego, California, designed by Weeks and Day, opened in 1929 as the Fox Theatre for $2.5 million. The hall was conferred to the San Diego Symphony in 1984....
, which was built in 1929 as a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
style luxury movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
, the Fox Theater. It was conferred to the Symphony in 1984. The Symphony Towers
Symphony Towers
Symphony Towers is a high-rise building in San Diego, California, and is the city's second tallest skyscraper. The tallest in San Diego is One America Plaza of while Symphony Towers is . Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Symphony Towers is widely seen as one of Downtown's premier...
(the second tallest building in San Diego County) building was built around Copley Hall in 1989. The San Diego Symphony performances include the Masterworks series, the Winter Pops series, annual holiday programs, a Family Festival series, and the Light Bulb Series. From July through September, the Symphony presents an outdoor Summer Pops season. Recently, a "Thursday Night Lite" series was initiated. Since 2005, symphony musicians have also performed as the pit orchestra for San Diego Opera.
The orchestra encountered several periods of fiscal trouble over its history which forced it to cease operations. The first such period was from 1921 to 1926. The orchestra resumed limited summer concerts in 1927, but disbanded again in 1936. In 1949, the symphony began to play concerts again. From 1996-1998, the fiscal troubles of the orchestra led it to file for bankruptcy in May 1996 and to cease operations. With a bankruptcy plan centered around a $2 million gift from Larry Robinson and through the pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
efforts of prominent bankruptcy attorneys Ted Graham and Jeff Garfinkle of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison
Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison
Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP was a large law firm based in San Francisco, California. In 2003, the firm was liquidated under Chapter 7 of the U.S...
, the orchestra reorganized and restarted in 1998, with Jung-Ho Pak
Jung-Ho Pak
Jung-Ho Pak is an American symphony conductor, and is the current artistic director of Orchestra Nova San Diego and the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, as well as musical director of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra and the director of orchestras at the Interlochen Center for the...
serving as artistic director. He had become the symphony's assistant conductor in 1994.
Several years after the orchestra's reorganization, on January 14, 2002, the San Diego Symphony announced the single largest donation ever made to a symphony orchestra, US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
120 million by Joan and Irwin Jacobs
Irwin Jacobs
Irwin Jacobs may refer to:*Irwin M. Jacobs, chairman and former chief executive officer of Qualcomm*Irwin L. Jacobs, Minneapolis-based investor and chairman of Genmar Holdings...
. One report stated that the arrangement is for $50 million to be donated over a period of 10 years, at $5 million a year. The remainder would then be left to the orchestra as a bequest.
In 2001, the orchestra had ratified an agreement which would increase the musicians' annual base salary from $25,920 to $45,750, with an expansion of the concert season from 26 weeks to 41 weeks. In 2006, the orchestra ratified a new 5-year contract that raised the annual minimum salary from $45,750 to $57,776 over five years. The 41-week season will also enlarge to 42 weeks. As of 2006, the annual budget of the orchestra was $14 million.
Since 2004, the musical director is Jahja Ling
Jahja Ling
Jahja Ling is an orchestra conductor. He is of Chinese descent and is now an American citizen. He began to play the piano at age 4 and studied at the Yayasan Pendidikan Musik School of Music. At age 17, he won the Jakarta Piano Competition and, one year later, was awarded a Rockefeller grant to...
. In October 2007, Ling extended his contract with the orchestra to 2012. Since 2003, the executive director of the orchestra is Edward Gill. Since 2006, the principal pops conductor of the orchestra is Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch is an American composer. He is one of only thirteen people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony . He is also one of only two people to EGOT and also win a Pulitzer Prize...
.
Melvin G. Goldzband, the San Diego Symphony's archivist, has published a book about the orchestra, San Diego Symphony From Overture to Encore.
Music Directors
- Roscoe Schryock (1912-1920)
- Nino MarcelliNino MarcelliNino Marcelli was an Italian composer and conductor who revived the San Diego Symphony orchestra. Marcelli wrote compositions for musical theatre and oratorio including one for the Bohemian Club....
(1927-1938) - Robert ShawRobert Shaw (conductor)Robert Shaw was an American conductor most famous for his work with his namesake Chorale, with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Shaw received 14 Grammy awards, four ASCAP awards for service to contemporary music, the first Guggenheim Fellowship...
(1953-1958) - Earl Bernard Murray (1959-1966)
- Zoltan Rozsnyai (1967-1971)
- Peter ErősPeter ErosHungarian-American conductor Peter Erős was born in Budapest in 1932 and attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he studied composition with Zoltán Kodály, chamber music with Leo Weiner, and conducting with László Somogyi....
(1972-1980) - David AthertonDavid AthertonDavid Atherton OBE, is an English conductor.-Background:Atherton was born in Blackpool, Lancashire in a musical family. He was educated at Blackpool Grammar School. His father, Robert Atherton, was the Music Master at St Joseph's College, Blackpool and was also a conductor...
(1980-1987) - Yoav Talmi (1987-1996)
- Jung-Ho PakJung-Ho PakJung-Ho Pak is an American symphony conductor, and is the current artistic director of Orchestra Nova San Diego and the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, as well as musical director of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra and the director of orchestras at the Interlochen Center for the...
(1998-2002, artistic director) - Jahja LingJahja LingJahja Ling is an orchestra conductor. He is of Chinese descent and is now an American citizen. He began to play the piano at age 4 and studied at the Yayasan Pendidikan Musik School of Music. At age 17, he won the Jakarta Piano Competition and, one year later, was awarded a Rockefeller grant to...
(2004-present)
External links
- San Diego Symphony website
- Preston Turegano, "It's a tough job, but she enjoys it". San Diego Union Tribune, 4 June 2006 (profile of San Diego Symphony librarian Nancy Fisch)
- Valerie Scher, "Music to his ears". San Diego Union Tribune, 12 November 2006 (feature article on San Diego Symphony clarinettist Frank Renk)
- Valerie Scher, "Leading an orchestra on the upswing". San Diego Union Tribune, 31 December 2006 (feature article on San Diego Symphony concertmaster Jeff Thayer)
- James Chute, "Covering the basses". San Diego Union Tribune, 4 March 2007 (profile of San Diego Symphony principal double bass Jeremy Kurtz)