'Six Seasons': Lei Liang with Mivos Quartet
Music
The Nunavut Inuit indigenous community in Canada follows at least six seasons on their calendar based on hunting and migration cues. This calendar informed a new work from composer and UC San Diego professor of music Lei Liang, based on a long collaboration with Scripps Institute of Oceanography scientists — specifically recordings made from the floor of the remote Chukchi Sea by oceanographers. In a live performance, Liang weaves new music with those sounds from the ocean, including water noises, the movement of ice and the sounds of belugas and other ocean creatures. The composition's title might suggest Vivaldi, but Liang's piece explores the transitions and journeys found in the sea, inspired by each Inuit season.
The piece is for electronics (the recordings) and strings (primarily in response to the recordings), commissioned by Mivos Quartet, and they'll perform the work in a unique and immersive concert presented by ArtPower UCSD.
Details: 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. Conrad Prebys Music Center, 9500 Gilman Dr., UC San Diego. $9-$30. Note: Both performances are now sold out. Watch for a recording of this work in the near future.
Pacific Lyric Association: 'Carmen'
Theater, Opera, Music
The music in Bizet's opera "Carmen" is provocative, moody and gloriously showboating. It's also distinct, familiar and used in a ton of pop culture and commericals: from the "Prélude" to Carmen's "Habanera" to "Sortie d'Escamillo." NPR called it Bizet's "hit parade" on par with "West Side Story." (Warning: that NPR segment is pure earworm.)
The opera is set in Spain, about a gypsy, Carmen, and a soldier, Don José, embroiled in tragic seduction and jealousy. Pacific Lyric Association (PLA) is bringing the production to the California Center for the Arts in Escondido this weekend in three performances. "Carmen" is an "opera comique," which generally means the plot is progressed with both song and dialogue between songs, and PLA also uses narration of their own in English before major scenes to help explain what's going on. If opera intimidates you, this one might be your gateway.
Additional performances will take place next weekend, Oct. 21-23, at the Joan B. Kroc Theater.
Details: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 14-15, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022. California Center for the Arts Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $60+.
Lani Emanuel: 'Beside Herself'
Visual art
Gesture, fashion and emotion were the first things I noticed in Lani Emanuel's work, in a new exhibition at Oceanside Museum of Art. "Beside Herself" is a series of large figurative paintings that chronicle the formative years of a girl's life, and the swings from joy to grief to annoyance to awkwardness are so palpable. Emanuel paints with a minimal backdrop, so the focus is on the light and movement in the image.
Details: On view through Feb. 26, 2023. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, with extended hours until 8 p.m on Fridays. Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. $0-$10.
'Checked Out: An Experimental Music and Art Festival'
Music, Sound, Visual art
An all-ages music festival at the library — sounds super wholesome, right? Stay Strange is an experimental noise art and music collective, and if your idea of "wholesome" is dark and very loud, this is the show for you. Noise art takes some getting used to, but there's a joy to be found in pushing boundaries, whether from experimenting with electronics, sound and gear or just plain old, ear-busting screaming. Artists like Quadra, Dark Friends, Christian Hell, Kole Galbraith and more will perform, and in the courtyard, there'll be art and zines from a bunch of vendors, including San Diego Zine Fest.
Details: 12:30-5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., downtown. Free.
Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra Festival
Music
Two concerts remain of this season's Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra Festival, which mark a return to indoor concerts for the organization. Mainly Mozart innovated outdoor classical music performances with drive-in and pod-style picnic concerts early in the pandemic, but now they turn to a new home: a new theater at the Del Mar Fairground that will ultimately be operated by the Belly Up.
Friday's performance, "Pure Soul," features piano concertos from Mozart and Ravel, plus 20th century French composer Jacques Ibert's playful "Divertissement." Also in the lineup is Ralph Vaughan Williams' contemplative and poetic single-movement piece, "The Lark Ascending."
Saturday is subtitled "Mozart & Folk," and features Mozart's "Violin Concerto No. 5," another by Vaughan Williams — his "Fantasia on Greensleeves," and Dvorák's "Slavonic Dances Op. 72."
Details: 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 14-15, 2022. The Center at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. $20+.
'Awakening'
Dance
The California Ballet ceased professional performances several years ago, but on Saturday, former principal dancer Trystan Merrick will lead the company in a new production with works by Merrick, Thor Sutowski, Christina Krejer. Also of note are two world premieres, one by Daniel Wentworth and another by Zaquia Mahler Salinas of local contemporary dance company Disco Riot.
Details: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. Joan B. Kroc Theatre, 6611 University Ave., Rolando. $30-$65.
More weekend arts events we're covering
The "Script/Rescript" exhibition opens at San Diego State University Art Gallery Thursday evening with a reception from 4-7 p.m. Read this feature to learn more about the works from ten artists with disabilities.
Film Festivals galore: the San Diego Filipino Film Festival and the San Diego Italian Film Festival both kick off this weekend.
There's an entire exhibit devoted to appearances, cameos and homages of Hemingway in comics and pop culture, now on view at the Comic-Con Museum.
For more arts events or to submit your own, visit the KPBS/Arts Calendar. And be sure to sign up for the weekly KPBS/Arts newsletter.
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COVID-19 booster rates remain low, just as new omicron variants of concern emerge. Then, San Diego approves new agreements with the city’s eight private trash haulers, with new state requirements on recycling organic waste looming. Next, why was San Diego listed as only the 8th best American city for tacos in a recent survey? And Rick Steves explores stories of famous works of European art in a new six-hour series called “Art of Europe.” Finally, the San Diego Filipino Film Festival was founded to raise awareness for Filipino cinema as an important art form and tool for representation, education and entertainment. The festival returns to San Diego tonight. -
The future of electric cars has created an enormous demand for lithium. Imperial County is rich in deposits and companies are prepared to mine the metal. In other news, parents protested outside the headquarters of the San Dieguito Union High School District Thursday, rallying to oppose antisemitism. Plus, we have some weekend arts events worth checking out.
