Year in review: The biggest San Diego classical music stories of 2025

Despite facing some major challenges, San Diego’s classical-music concert presenters — big, small and in-between — consistently brought excellent music to our ears in 2025.

Grants withrawn

In January, several area nonprofits received grant approvals from National Endowment for the Arts to implement upcoming projects. In May, most of those grants were summarily yanked by the disapproving federal government. Bodhi Tree Concerts, Project [Blank] and Sacra/Profana are among the groups here that have had to change their plans, reduce their number of paid artists and scramble for rescue funds. The Prebys Foundation, other organizations and individual donors have stepped up to help protect local arts projects.

Work supported

For the first time in its 56-year history, La Jolla Music Society named four distinguished San Diego classical and chamber-music organizations — Art of Elan, Bach Collegium, Camarada and Mainly Mozart — as Resident Companies at The Conrad. In May, the society’s artistic director, Leah Rosenthal, welcomed the organizations’ respective leaders: Kate Hatmaker, Ruben Valenzuela, Beth Ross Buckley and Nancy Laturno. The three-year residencies give the companies scheduling advantages, more visibility, a discount rate to perform at the society’s state-of-the-art concert hall and much more.

Securing the future

At a time when most classical-music groups are counting their pennies, Mainly Mozart launched a $1 million campaign in June and reached it in September. In June, its All-Star Orchestra Festival attracted 4,000 people to six concerts. Highlighting All-Star orchestra members as soloists, the festival also featured pianist Joyce Yang and violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley. Mainly Mozart’s Next Stage Campaign is now underway to secure future plans and strengthen 350-member youth orchestra.

Powerful return

San Diego Symphony opened its second season in the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center by powerfully demonstrating that its ambitious programming for 2025-26 is being executed beautifully. The whimsical semi-staging of Ravel’s opera, The Child and the Magical Spells, was delightful. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard brilliantly played the mischievous 6-year-old, supported by seven expressive vocalists, two choirs, and the ever-nimble orchestra. Happily, its dynamic leader, Rafael Payare, has extended his tenure with the symphony through the 2028-29 season – with the new title of Music and Artistic Director. The symphony’s Rady Shell’s summer programming was diverse this season, concluding with the Tchaikovsky Spectacular, featuring guest conductor Stephanie Childress and pianist Kiron Atom Tellian. On Dec. 16, the prestigious publication Musical America announced that its 2026 Impresario of the Year award will be given to the San Diego Symphony’s tireless and innovative president/CEO, Martha Gilmer.

Noteworthy news

Soprano Susan Narucki, a longtime UC San Diego music professor, has been nominated for a 2026 Best Classical Solo Vocal Recording Grammy Award. This nomination, her fourth, is for “György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments”… Through its app, Art of Elan has reached listeners in almost 30 countries by offering its livestreamed concerts for free… Early this month, the San Diego Symphony named the first participants in its Conducting Fellowship Program, director Rafael Payare’s initiative to help cultivate the next generation of orchestral leaders… The International Society of Bassists 2025 Convention premiered Andrés Martín’s Concerto No. 2 for Double Bass. Martín is composer-in-residence here for both Camarada and Hutchins Consort. In a lovely mid-December concert, Camarada’s fine musicians played a piece by up-and-coming composer/singer Oliviana Marie, as well as compositions by Brahms and Valerie Coleman.

Ebullience matched

Bach Collegium San Diego had a bountiful November. Its musicians recorded “El Mesías: Handel’s Messiah for a New World.” This one-of-a-kind Spanish-language oratorio will be released next year. The nonprofit also received its first legacy gift, which enabled the hiring of new staff member Lauren Hartz. In May, internationally acclaimed countertenor Reginald Mobley joined the collegium’s skilled players, led by music director Ruben Valenzuela, whose ebullient fondness for the music was matched by Mobley.

Inspired collaborations

Works by composer Lei Liang have been performed this year all over the U.S. and in China. The UCSD professor was the composer-in-residence at January’s New Music Festival in Boston. The festival hosted a preview of Inaudible Ocean, Liang’s absorbing composition, which will premiere next year in San Diego. In September, Liang’s “Echoes of Shanshui,” was shown at and in conjunction with Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art. The moving program featured solo musicians playing Liang’s lovely pieces in front of a screen displaying paintings by world-renown concept artist Charles C. Liu, with insightful narration by both artists.

La Jolla’s jewel of a festival

On SummerFest’s closing night in August, two important announcements were made. La Jolla Music Society signed a new five-year contract with SummerFest Music Director Inon Barnatan and launched the society’s new $60 million endowment fund, 60 x 60, and is already close to achieving half that goal. The four-week festival attracted 6,900 attendees and some of its concerts are being streamed by Medici.tv, classical music’s largest video-on-demand service. Here are three of the many memorable SummerFest 2025 concerts. SummerFest composer-in-residence and violinist Jessie Montgomery created an intimate atmosphere with her congenial banter and the spirited playing of her intriguing works. “Glass Menagerie” was a cleverly staged performance of Philip Glass’ etudes expertly played by nine top pianists, including Barnatan. “Northern Lights” showcased music by Denmark’s Carl Nielsen and Finland’s Jean Sibelius and Olli Mustone, whose Nonet No. 2 for nine strings thrilled the audience.

Musical weaver

Alisa Weilerstein performed Fragments 3 and 4, respectively at the Jacobs Music Center in April and October. The concerts highlighted her outstanding skills as a cellist and uncanny ability to weave parts of Bach cello suites and short works by contemporary composers into a seamless hour of mesmerizing music.