The San Diego Symphony Announces 2018-2019 Jazz At The Jacobs and City Lights Series

The San Diego Symphony has announced its complete lineup for its Jazz @ The Jacobs and City Lights series for the 2018-19 season. Back for its fourth year, the successful Jazz @ The Jacobs returns with Gilbert Castellanos continuing in his role as series curator. From October through April, the five-concert series features a new and exciting lineup of programs and guest artists. The popular City Lights series also returns bringing the best of Broadway musicals and the American Songbook to San Diego in four exciting concerts.

The 18/19 jazz season opens on October 27 with a rare special performance by one of the greatest and innovative guitarists living today - An Evening with Pat Metheny. In November, it's pianist/composer/ bandleader Eddie Palmieri and his Latin Jazz Band. As part of the Symphony's January festival, "Hearing the Future," Jazz @ The Jacobs will present "Generation Next: Hearing the Future of Jazz". In February, Dave Brubeck's Time Out will be performed live in its entirety. World-renowned pianist Josh Nelson will be joined by special guest Joe LaBarbara on drums, young prodigy Danny Janklow on alto saxophone and highly sought-after bassist Anna Butters. The season closes on April 20 with "Freedom Writer: An Art Blakey Centennial Celebration." This concert will feature alumni members of Blakey's past ensembles: Donald Brown, Billy Pierce, Brian Lynch and more. Extraordinary drummer Carl Allen will be taking the position on Blakey's throne for the evening, with Gil Castellanos sitting in on a few charts.

City Lights is back with four very special concerts. The series kicks off in November with an appearance by singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones and her special guest the sensational New Orleans singer and guitarist, Anders Osborne. Also in November will be a special concert featuring two of Broadway's brightest stars together for one glittering evening of American song with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra: An Evening With Kelli O'Hara and Matthew Morrison. In February, San Diego welcomes back America's most honored cabaret artist, Michael Feinstein. The series will close out with an appearance by Lea Salonga, one of Broadway's most acclaimed leading ladies and the voice of two Disney princesses.

Subscriptions for the 2018/19 season are on sale now. Single tickets go on sale August 26. For more information or to make a purchase, visit http://www.sandiegosymphony.org.

2018-19 JAZZ @ THE JACOBS

SAT OCT 27 - SPECIAL CONCERT (8 p.m.)
AN EVENING WITH PAT METHENY
With Antonio Sanchez, Linda Oh and Gwilym Simcock
Four decades into a career at the leading edge of progressive and contemporary jazz, Pat Metheny has virtually redefined the sound of modern jazz guitar. An early proponent of twelve-string guitar, electric guitar and synthesizer in jazz, Metheny was recently named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master for "bringing fresh sonic potential" to jazz guitar "while offering a deep reservoir of improvisational insight and musicality." He will be joined on this special concert evening by his renowned collaborators drummer Antonio Sánchez, bassist Linda Oh, and pianist Gwilym Simcock.

SAT NOV 24 (8 p.m.)
EDDIE PALMIERI LATIN JAZZ BAND
Winner of ten Grammy awards (including the first-ever Grammy for Best Latin Recording), Eddie Palmieri is a living legend and innovator who in the 1970s dared to combine elements of salsa, funk and soul with a Latin jazz heritage absorbed from early collaborators Tito Rodríguez, Carl Tjader and his own beloved brother, Charlie Palmieri. Founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II and Harlem River Drive, Palmieri recently received the coveted Jazz Master award from the National Endowment of the Arts and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

SAT JAN 26 (8 p.m.)
GENERATION NEXT: HEARING THE FUTURE OF JAZZ
Just as popular melodies find new life and perspective with every jazz improvisation, so too is jazz music constantly revitalized by the emerging artists who fall under its spell and make it their own. In the spirit of "Hearing the Future," this concert will feature some of today's most interesting and innovative young jazz musicians.

SAT FEB 23 (8 p.m.)
BRUBECK'S TIME OUT IN CONCERT
With its bewitching tunes ("Take Five," "Blue Rondo à la Turk") and exotic multi-meter grooves, Dave Brubeck's Time Out album has become an indispensable favorite in many music collections around the world. The classic 1959 Columbia recording has been inspiring musicians for decades, and now it will get the Jazz @ The Jacobs treatment as Series Curator Gilbert Castellanos brings together several of today's most exciting jazz artists for an unforgettable performance of the album in its entirety!

SAT APR 20 (8 p.m.)
FREEDOM RIDER: AN ART BLAKEY CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
In a career that spanned the decades between the Big Band sounds of Billy Eckstine and the modern generation of neo-traditional jazz practitioners such as Wynton Marsalis, percussion master and band leader Art Blakey boldly blazed a trail of his own. For 35 years he led several incarnations of the Jazz Messengers through the glory years of bebop and beyond, incubating a dazzling lineup of young jazz talent along the way. Series Curator Gilbert Castellanos has assembled a stellar group of musicians, including some former Jazz Messengers, for this centennial tribute.

2018-19 CITY LIGHTS

FRI NOV 9 (8 p.m.)
RICKIE LEE JONES AND ANDERS OSBORNE
Our City Lights season opens with an artist who has been blazing her own trail for years, singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. From her early collaborations with Tom Waits and Dr. John to her own breakout hits "Chuck E.'s In Love" and "The Last Chance Texaco," Jones became a "cool pop" icon in the late '70s/early '8os, appearing on Rolling Stone covers and SNL. Two Grammys and 15 critically-acclaimed albums later (including her landmark 1981 breakup album Pirates), Jones has fearlessly explored a number of American musical idioms such as rhythm & blues, jazz and (most recently) New Orleans soul. Rickie Lee Jones' vast repertoire, musical curiosity and "confessional" style of songwriting will make for a memorable evening at Copley Symphony Hall. Her special guest will be sensational New Orleans singer and guitarist, Anders Osborne.

TUE NOV 27 (7:30PM) - SPECIAL CONCERT!
AN EVENING WITH KELLI O'HARA AND MATTHEW MORRISON
Two of Broadway's brightest stars come together for one glittering evening of American song with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra! Matthew Morrison is well-known for his featured roles in Broadway's Hairspray, The Light in the Piazza and South Pacific as well as the landmark Fox TV series, Glee. Before winning the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for the 2015 revival of The King and I, Kelli O'Hara was Morrison's co-star in The Light in the Piazza and South Pacific. Together they and the Symphony will make Copley Symphony Hall shine like the Great White Way.

FRI FEB 22 (8 p.m.)
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN
America's most honored cabaret artist, Michael Feinstein, brings his intimate talent and style to the Symphony Hall stage. Feinstein has built a dazzling career over the last three decades bringing the music of the Great American songbook to the world. From recordings that have earned him five Grammy Award nominations to his Emmy nominated PBS-TV specials, his acclaimed NPR series and concerts spanning the globe, his work as an educator and archivist define Feinstein as one of the most important musical forces of our time. Famous for his interpretations of songs by Jimmy Webb, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Frank Sinatra, Feinstein's unique gift for live performance will make for one unforgettable City Lights evening.

SUN APR 7 (2 p.m.)
AN AFTERNOON WITH LEA SALONGA
Lea Salonga's unique talent burst upon the world as the 18-year-old star of the searing Vietnam War musical Miss Saigon, the role for which she won the first-ever Tony Award for an Asian woman. Since then, Salonga has made a name for herself as one of Broadway's most celebrated leading ladies, starring in LES MISERABLES, Flower Drum Song and a show that had its record-smashing debut at the Old Globe before transferring to Broadway, Allegiance. She is also beloved by Disney fans as the singing voices of the characters Jasmine in Aladdin and Fa Mulan in Mulan, for which she has been honored as Disney Legend. Recent acclaimed, sold-out cabaret runs in New York City's famous Feinstein's/54 Below and Café Carlyle affirm Lea Salonga's status as one of today's most exciting live performers of Broadway standards and much more!

About the San Diego Symphony
Founded in 1910, the San Diego Symphony is the oldest orchestra in California and one of the largest and most significant cultural organizations in San Diego. The Orchestra performs for over 250,000 people each season, offering a wide variety of programming at its two much loved venues, Copley Symphony Hall in downtown San Diego and the Embarcadero Marina Park South on San Diego Bay. In early 2018, the San Diego Symphony announced the appointment of Rafael Payare as music director designate. Payare will lead the orchestra's 82 full-time musicians, graduates of the finest and most celebrated music schools in the United States and abroad, also serve as the orchestra for the San Diego Opera each season, as well as performing at several regional performing arts centers. For over 30 years, the San Diego Symphony has provided comprehensive music education and community engagement programs reaching more than 65,000 students annually and bringing innovative programming to San Diego's diverse neighborhoods and schools. For more information, visit http://www.sandiegosymphony.org.

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