SD Symphony Orchestra kicks off summer Rady Shell season with trio of concerts

The San Diego Symphony Orchestra will launch its summer 2025 season with a trio of concerts over the weekend, starting Friday evening with an opening night concert featuring classical music.

Conductor and the symphony’s Music Director Rafael Payare will lead the orchestra Friday evening with trumpeter Paul Merkelo as they wend their way into the fifth summer season at the Rady Shell. The evening opens with Ginastera’s Four Dances from “Estancia,” followed by a trumpet concerto written by lauded trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” will follow, bringing the magic made famous by Disney’s “Fantasia,” and finally Debussy’s ode to the sea “La mer” will close out the night.

On Saturday, the symphony returns to the Rady Shell for “Music of the Knights,” led by Conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez. The event will feature the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Paul McCartney and Elton John — all of whom were knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Vocalists Chris Blem, Scott Coulter and Blaine Krauss and pianist John Boswell will bring the “Sir-prising” night to San Diego feature works including:

— Webber’s “Memory” and “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina;”

— John’s “Crocodile Rock,” “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” “The Circle of Life” and “Your Song;” and

— McCartney’s “Yesterday,” “Hey Jude” and “Maybe I’m Amazed.”

The San Diego Symphony’s opening weekend at the Rady Shell will conclude Sunday with “Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony.”

The Tennessee Mountain Home performance will also be conducted by Lopez-Yañez, and the symphony orchestra will be joined by nine Americana musicians, including Dean Berner on banjo and mandolin, Derek Drye on both acoustic and lap steel guitar and Katelyn Drye, Hollie Hammel and Julie Williams providing vocals.

While Parton will not be in San Diego in person, the concert will feature her songs “in an innovative multimedia symphonic experience featuring Dolly on screen, leading audiences in a visual-musical journey of her songs, her life and her stories,” a statement from the Shell reads.

“The threads of my life are woven together through my songs,” Parton said. “That’s why this project, Threads: My Songs In Symphony, is so special to me. It’s all about sharing my music and my musical journey with audiences in a new way.”

Performances by the orchestra continue on the Fourth of July with “America in Song” and “The Music of ABBA” on July 5th. For a full list of the symphony’s Rady Shell performances, visit https://www.theshell.org/performances/rady-shell-calendar/.

The San Diego Symphony Orchestra performs year-round at the Jacobs Music Center in Downtown San Diego.

–City News Service