Top picks | Live music picks | More art and culture weekend events
Top picks
'Welcome Home!!: Jacobs Music Center Opening Night'
Music, Classical | This weekend, the San Diego Symphony officially returns to their newly renovated indoor concert hall, the Jacobs Music Center. For the inaugural performance, they'll commemorate with a commission from local composer Texu Kim.
In his fanfare piece, "Welcome Home!!," he's interested in exploring the intersection of belonging and new — the idea of a homecoming. Kim said that the emotion we feel when we leave home is translated into the feeling when we return home after a long time — a thrill, but wrapped up in familiarity.
"In this case, this piece expresses excitement of having both a new home, and getting into the home after a while," Kim said of the composition. The song, for brass and percussion, embodies a blend of ideas of home, including K-Pop and sea shanties from Kim's own Seoul, South Korea, Venezuelan joropo from music director Rafael Payare's home, and Kumeyaay folk music from this region.
Check out my full interview with Kim here:
The symphony, conducted by Rafael Payare, will also perform works by Villa-Lobos, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Paganini and Rachmaninoff — pieces that will no doubt show off the renovated hall's improved acoustics.
Details: 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28. Jacobs Music Center, 1245 Seventh Ave., downtown. $113+.
'Primary Trust'
Theater | The La Jolla Playhouse is presenting the West Coast premiere of Eboni Booth's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Primary Trust." It follows the 38-year-old Kenneth, withdrawn from society, as he finds his way back. I saw a recent preview performance and this script, the staging and the acting is really a gem. Brilliant, quiet, funny and deeply human.
Details: On stage through Oct. 20. Lower-cost previews run through Sept. 28. La Jolla Playhouse Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre, 2910 La Jolla Village Dr., UC San Diego. $30-$94.
Trolley Dances
Dance, Contemporary | San Diego Dance Theater's annual festival of outdoor dance performances along the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) trolley line returns for the 26th year this weekend. Ticketholders take part in a two-hour tour, riding the trolley and disembarking at various stops to watch innovative, site-specific dance performances. This year's dances, along the trolley's Green Line, are choreographed by Monica Bill Barnes from New York, who has done work for Trolley Dances in the past, plus, bkSOUL collaborating with TranscenDANCE Youth Arts Project, Miroslava Wilson and Jean Isaacs. Plus, this year, Tijuana dance company ConnectArte has choreographed a piece for the first time. KPBS profiled ConnectArte's co-director Pamela Macías for our Fall Arts Guide, and spoke to the diversity that comes from site-specific work like Trolley Dances.
"Every dance I think is special and different because the space is different. So I don't think there is any choreography that it's the same and I think we're really excited to to work with the space and also to work with the different dancers that we have, because we know that each of the dancers is really different — and we really want to work with that, to bring the unique style of each dancer and to see the diversity of the dancers coming together," Macías said.
Hear more from Macías in our profile here:
While the official tours are ticketed, the dance performances are outdoors, in public spaces. Chances are, if you visit one of the trolley stops on the route (Old Town Transit Center, Gaslamp Quarter, Seaport Village and Santa Fe Depot) between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. this weekend, you may stumble upon some dancers.
Details: Tours depart hourly from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 28-29. Old Town Transit Center, 4005 Taylor St., Old Town. $25-$40.
Ballet Collective San Diego: 'Resonance'
Dance, Ballet | Established during the pandemic, Ballet Collective San Diego is fundamentally informed by heightening the expression and experience of dancers and choreographers — which in turn does the same for the audience. In their upcoming program, "Resonance," local chamber ensemble the Hausmann Quartet will perform live, and the dances will center on what resonates with each choreographer or dancer in a performance.
Locals Tylor Bradshaw, Reka Gyulai, Holly Meacham, Whitney Edwards and Emily Miller will have new works of choreography on stage, plus work by Holly Curran from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Details: 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28. The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla. $45+.
Marianela de la Hoz: 'Polvo de Luz / Stardust'
Visual art | Acclaimed local artist Marianela de la Hoz will open an exhibition of new paintings at Art Produce. De la Hoz's work is astonishing, with a remarkable depth of detail and mark-making that feels more like intricate pencil sketching than paint. The works in this exhibit are based on the idea that all living and nonliving matter is made of stardust, and that there's an inherent connection between humans and the stars, especially in the face of crisis and conflict.
Details: Opens with a reception from 5-8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28. On view through Nov. 16. Art Produce, 3139 University Ave., North Park. Free.
Disco Riot: 'S P A C E Rising Showcase'
Dance, Contemporary | Contemporary dance and movement company Disco Riot has expanded their "S P A C E" residency project to encourage emerging artists as well as promote collaboration and alliances amongst dancers and artmakers.
Artists include Karina Wilson and Patrick Li, who are in residence at Culture Shock San Diego. Their work looks at the intersection of interpersonal connection with technology. Giovanna Francisco and Briele Melahn are in residence at Malashock Dance. Their project focuses on the boundary between audience and performer. Emily Sutherland and Jenna Wu-Cardona are in residence at Ballet Center Studios, and their work uses dance film and projection to study ideas of the body and freedom.
Details: Disco Riot: "S P A C E Rising Showcase." 7 p.m. Sept. 27-28. City Heights Performance Annex, 3795 Fairmont Ave., City Heights. Free/donation based.
'Fusion: An Exhibition on the Art of Scrap Weaving and Sculpture'
Visual art | Revision is a nonprofit that works with artists of all ages with intellectual and developmental disabilities. For a San Diego Design Week and World Design Capital program, the organization held workshops to create communal sculptures like fiber sculptures woven from scraps, and rebuilt and repaired wicker furniture using the Japanese mending practice of kintsugi.
Details: On view from 12-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28. Revision La Mesa. 8691 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa. Free.
San Diego Arab Film Festival Fall Showcase
Film, Food | San Diego Asian Film Festival and the San Diego Arab Film Festival will co-present British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s award-winning feature "The Teacher." The event also involves a dinner with Palastinian dishes like musakhan and mujadara. KPBS arts reporter and film critic Beth Accomando previewed the event in our Fall Arts Guide film festival roundup, and you can read more here:
Details: 7 p.m. Sept. 28, 2024. Museum of Photographic Arts, 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park. $12.00-$15.00.
Live music picks
*Indicates local act
Thursday:
- Xiu Xiu and Dustin Wong at The Loft at UC San Diego (rock/synth pop)
- Illuminati hotties, Daffo and Maddie Ross at Casbah (indie)
- daste. and Moon Panda* at Soda Bar (pop/indie)
- Glass Beams and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith at Observatory (pop/dance/electronic)
- Goose at Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre (rock/progressive/jam)
Friday:
- Songwriter Sanctuary: Lauren Ong*, We the Commas* and Shua* at Normal Heights United Church (singer-songwriter/pop/R&B)
- Strung Out, Adolescents and A Wilhelm Scream at Brick by Brick (punk)
- No Know Sound Band*, New Tongues*, Codex Confiteor* at Comet Theater (experimental)
- Danny Ocean at Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre (alternative/indie)
Saturday:
- Montell Fish at Observatory (R&B/soul)
- Billy Bragg at Magnolia (punk/folk rock)
- LSD and the Search for God and Stevenson Ranch Davidians at Casbah (alternative/shoegaze)
- San Diego Latin Jazz Collective: The Palladium Mambo Orchestra* at Lou Lou's (jazz, Latin)
- Los Angeles Azules at Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre (cumbia)
Sunday:
- Lucinda Williams & Her Band, and Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs at The Sound (rock)
- Mas Guerrero, Trouble the Spirit* and more at Whistle Stop (experimental/electronic/DIY)
- Nerf Herder and Versus the World at Casbah
More arts and culture weekend events
| Event | Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acoustic Evening Concert | Lisa Sanders and Brown Sugar, Fred Benedetti, Sandé Lollis | 9/27/24 | 7:30 PM | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library |
| '(S)LIGHT OF HAND' | 9/27/24 | 11 AM | The Photographer's Eye: A Creative Collective |
| Exploring Mexico's Contemporary Classical Flute & Piano Music | 9/28/24 | 4 PM | St. Paul's United Methodist Church |
| Jeanne Dunn: 'Forest Bathing' | 9/26/24 | 11 AM | R. B. Stevenson Gallery |
| 'Don't Panic, We've Been Here Before' | 9/27/24 | 7 PM | Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center: Garfield Theater |
| CRSSD Festival | 9/28/24 | 12 PM | Waterfront Park |
| The Secret Morgue 5: Creatures and Monsters | 9/28/24 | 10 PM | Comic-Con Museum |
| 'Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors' | 9/26/24 | 7 PM | Old Globe Theatre |
