SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Symphony is pushing back until next year its return to Copley Symphony Hall at Jacobs Music Center, where the orchestra had been scheduled to open its 2023/2024 Jacobs Masterworks concert series on Nov. 4.
The reasons for the delay are being attributed to unexpected construction and redesign challenges that have emerged as the nearly 100-year-old hall undergoes a $125 million renovation.
Several of the November concerts scheduled for Copley Symphony Hall as part of the statewide California Festival will now be held at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, the orchestra’s outdoor venue alongside San Diego Bay. Some subsequent concerts are being pushed back until the orchestra resumes its indoor concerts next year.
“As this point, I want to stress everything is a work in progress,” San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer told the Union-Tribune.
“The best-case scenario is we’ll open as soon as we can. My prediction is it will be in early 2024. What I don’t want to do is get everybody’s hopes up and give a (new reopening) date I can’t deliver.”
The move was hailed by San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare, who will perform with the orchestra Oct. 13 at Carnegie Hall in New York.
“The thoroughness and thoughtfulness of every element of this project is impressive,” he said in a statement.
“We have anticipated this opening for so long, and the musicians and I cannot wait to take our places on the stage. A little while longer is worth it to get the best result.”
The $125 million price tag of Copley Symphony Hall’s redesign will rise by an undetermined amount because of the extended reconstruction work. The orchestra’s members will continue to be paid during the delay, said Gilmer, who on July 13 announced the decision to postpone the hall’s reopening.
“Even if we have to wait a few months, we will all look back and say that it was worth waiting for,” she said.
“Everybody has the will to get this done as soon as possible. At the same time, it is imperative that we stay true to the fidelity of the project and that we don’t shortchange the aesthetics or the acoustics or the concert hall, or the ability for our musicians to have time on the stage to adjust to the hall, just like they would with a new instrument. We won’t compromise that.”
The 113-year-old orchestra — the oldest in California — announced the renovation of Copley Symphony Hall in February 2022. That was two years after the orchestra, led by Payare, last performed at the venue. It was shuttered by the pandemic’s shutdown of live events. No concerts have been held there since then.
The symphony is working on the remake of Copley Symphony Hall with three collaborators. They are: Connecticut-based acoustical design company Akustiks; the Minnesota-based HGA, a leading design and restoration company for classical music concert halls and other arts facilities; and Schuler Shook, an international theater-planning and architectural-lighting design company.
The reinvention of the hall is extensive both on and off the stage of the venue, which will look and sound dramatically different once the project is completed.
Eight rows of seating have been removed from the rear of the venue’s orchestra seating section and one row from the balcony. The hall’s back wall on the main floor is being moved closer to the stage.
As a result, the capacity will decrease from 2,248 to 1,750. Many other enhancements are under way. They range from the addition of a permanent elevated choral terrace at the rear of the stage to newly angled seats for audience members and a climate-controlled instrument storage facility.
The challenge for the symphony now is to reconfigure its upcoming Jacobs Masterworks season.
It was scheduled to include 37 classical-music concerts between November and next May, along with three Jazz @ The Jacobs performances, three Broadway-themed concerts, three family concerts and the debut of the three-part Currents series, which will showcase new works. The first of those Currents concerts, originally scheduled for Nov. 28, will take place this fall at a date and venue to be announced.
Payare is also the music director of the Montreal Symphony and conducts orchestras around the world. The San Diego Symphony’s now-delayed season features soloists from across the globe. Rescheduling all of them will be a challenge.
The symphony is also determining when its now-postponed Nov. 4 grand opening concert at Copley Symphony Hall will take place. Symphony representatives will be in touch with all ticket buyers toward the end of the summer with a new date.
“It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle with a lot of pieces,” Gilmer said. “We’re seeing how they all fit together.”
Single-ticket sales for the 2023-24 season were scheduled to go on sale in August. A new sale date will be announced. Season-ticket packages went on sale in February, and purchasers are being contacted about schedule changes. More information is available at sandiegosymphony.org or by emailing tickets@sandiegosymphony.org.
San Diego Symphony’s revised fall schedule
Saturday, Nov. 4, at 7:30 p.m.: Texu Kim’s Zzan!!; Mozart’s Exsultate jubilate; the West Coast premiere of Billy Child’s Saxophone Concerto; the world premiere of Juan Colomer’s A Casual Walk to Extinction; R. Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra; featuring Rafael Payare, saxophone player Steven Banks and soprano Liv Redpath.
Friday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 11, at 7:30 p.m.: Carlos Simon’s Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by the San Diego Symphony; Wagner’s The Ring Without Words with Video Projections; featuring Payare.
Friday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m.: Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin Suite; Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 7; the world premiere of Vladimir Tarnopolski’s Danse Macabre; Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring; featuring Payare.
Jazz @ The Jacobs Series information: The concert titled “A Tribute to Ella, Billie and Sarah,” originally scheduled for Nov. 25, has been rescheduled for April 6, 2024.
———
