// FEATURE // 

by Stephanie Saad Thompson

San Diego Symphony’s New Season Launches the Reborn Jacobs Music Center

OPENING NIGHT OF  Opening Night of the San Diego Symphony’s 2024-25 season will have a special frisson of excitement for audiences. As they enter Jacobs Music Center, opening with a concert and gala on Saturday, Sept. 28, they’ll be experiencing the completely refreshed and redesigned concert hall for the first time—the culmination of a two-and-a-half-year renovation project long overdue for the 95-year-old venue. (Formerly Copley Symphony Hall, it opened in 1929 as Fox Theatre.)

The Opening Night concert will feature Music Director Rafael Payare leading the orchestra in the world premiere of “Welcome Home!!” It’s a fanfare for Jacobs Music Center commissioned by the San Diego Symphony from Korean-born, American composer Texu Kim. Also performing that night will be some of San Diego Symphony’s favorite soloists: Inon Barnatan at the piano; Alisa Weilerstein on cello; soprano Hera Hyesang Park; and violinist Jeff Thayer. The program features works by Paganini, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Rossini, Villa-Lobos and Ravel.

Also slated for opening weekend is a free community day on Sunday, Sept. 29 that will feature performances by groups from both sides of the border—including student groups, a military band, youth orchestras and a community choir.

The opening concert launches an expanded inaugural season for Jacobs Music Center that features 20 programs—including new works, well-known masterpieces, rarely heard compositions, acclaimed and rising star soloists, and prestigious guest conductors.

Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer says the goals in the $125 million renovation of the hall were musical, aesthetic and practical. “Our main goal was to make the hall a more vibrant venue for our audiences and a better acoustic and aesthetic for our musicians; one complements the other,” she says. “The better the sound on stage, the better the musicians can play and the more exciting for our audiences.”

Following the renovation, the seating capacity of Jacobs Music Center has been reduced to about 1,800 (including the new Choral Terrace seating area at the back of the stage), from around 2,200 before. “Before, the hall was very large, and the audience had no real connection to the stage,” Gilmer says. “We’ve condensed the main floor and brought the back and side walls in to make it more elegant and soundproof. Visually, the audience connects to the whole experience in a way it never did before.”

Gilmer says Jacob Music Center is now an “ideal-sized concert hall. It’s acoustically much more connected with the stage, with a very even sound that has no differentiation from main floor to back wall. It’s a much better sound for the musicians, as well as the audience—it wraps around you. It’s a comfortable, elegant space but also an incredible sonic experience.”

That’s one of many changes made to the hall—some of which will not be discernible to the audience, but will make performing there a better and more comfortable experience. That’s what excites cellist Richard Levine, who was one of four Symphony musicians who served on the Orchestra Renovation Committee, consulting throughout the renovation.

“We were focused on all of the artistic concerns—what we could hear on stage, lighting, being able to see the conductor, backstage storage, that sort of thing,” says Levine, who has been a San Diego Symphony player since 1973. “There were so many details we got involved with.” One example he cites, that took a lot of time to get right, was designing a new set of permanent risers for the players on stage that maximize the available space and improve their sight lines. “Space is at a premium both onstage and offstage,” Levine says. “We tested some of the riser designs at The Shell and then made further revisions, solving a number of problems.”

With the acoustics as a primary concern, the renovation added acoustical tuning chambers and variable acoustic devices throughout the hall—allowing for it to be adjustable to accommodate music ranging from small chamber ensembles, to full orchestra with soloists and chorus, to amplified performances. There is now also enhanced stage lighting, an improved sound system, and an integrated video-display system.

In addition to the acoustic and configuration changes, the hall features new seating and finishes; restored architectural details; modernized lighting, sound and video equipment; updated and expanded support spaces for musicians; and enhanced audience amenities. The project was designed by architectural firm HGA, in collaboration with acoustician Paul Scarbrough of Akustiks, and theater planner Schuler Shook.

There have also been major upgrades made to the main mechanical systems of the hall, which contribute to its acoustic quality and allows space to be reprioritized.

The addition of the Choral Terrace at the back of the stage provides space for a large chorus for selected works. Also, with seats for 75 when no chorus is in use, it offers an opportunity to enjoy a concert from a new vantage point that audiences don’t usually get. They’re facing the conductor instead of watching his back, and viewing different sections of the orchestra they might not usually see. “From the Choral Terrace you can see the eye contact between the conductor and the players,” Gilmer says. “Everyone should try sitting there.”

Levine agrees: “You can watch the orchestra and see the conductor pretty much like we do.”

The Choral Terrace will be in full use during the two monumental works by Mahler that open and close the Jacobs Masterworks Series: the Symphony No. 2 Resurrection opening the series; and the Symphony No. 3 that closes the season. Both works require full orchestra, solo singers and full choruses.

Reminiscent of its origin as the Fox Theatre in the golden age of movie palaces, the hall has a pipe organ that has been taken out, cleaned and reinforced before being reinstalled. Gilmer says the Symphony also added two sets of pipes that are more classical and symphonic. The refurbished pipe organ will be showcased in the Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3, slated for Jan. 10-11, 2025.

In addition to Jacobs Masterworks, Jazz @ The Jacobs, the Family Concert series and recitals, the Symphony is also expanding its offerings starting this season with three new series: a Friday Matinee Jacobs Masterworks series, Currents and Symphony Kids.

Gilmer says longtime audience members “will not be prepared for how comprehensive the transformation is. You will recognize the hall, but it has a freshness about it—it’s really beautiful and inviting. You walk through the doors and leave the world behind, transported to another conscious space where you want to spend time. I really can’t wait for audiences to return. We’ve been watching lots of workmen doing their jobs for all this time, and now it’s time for us to do ours and bring it back to life.”

San Diego Symphony’s new season opens on Sept. 28 and runs through May 2025 at Jacobs Music Center, located at 750 B St., downtown. For tickets and more info: sandiegosymphony.org

Photos Rendering of the restored Jacobs Music Center
From the pages of Performances Magazine, September 2024