La Jolla Music Society Announces Its Impressive 2021-2022 Season of Music and Dance

In more tranquil times before the current pandemic, San Diego music aficionados would have already marked their calendars with the La Jolla Music Society’s (LJMS) music and dance presentations for the 2021-2022 season. Fortunately, today the LJMS announces its exciting new season, with three stellar October offerings launching its varied performance panoply.

On October 15, 2021, the internationally acclaimed Takács Quartet plays; on October 22 the French-Canadian chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy will appear with mandolin virtuoso Avi Vital, and on October 31 the prize-winning 19-year-old Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev plays a solo recital. These three performances all take place in the Baker-Baum Concert Hall at The Conrad in downtown La Jolla.

Yuja Wang, the Chinese pianist known for her brilliant technique and revealing concert attire, joins the Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos in a duo recital on November 10 in the Balboa Theatre in downtown San Diego. Among the society’s impressive array of pianists, we will hear Emanuel Ax at Baker-Baum on January 7, 2022, and Lang Lang at the Balboa Theatre on March 18. The young keyboard wizard and composer Conrad Tao and dancer Caleb Teicher will collaborate at Baker-Baum on February 4, and Italian pianist Beatriz Rana, less known to American audiences but winner of the Silver Medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition, performs at Baker-Baum on March 4.

If the upcoming season appears a bit short on star violinists, we have the compensation of hearing Joshua Bell with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra on March 14 at the San Diego Civic Theatre.

November opens the society’s prestigious jazz series with Canadian jazz trumpeter Bria Skonberg appearing on November 13 at The Conrad’s JAI. In January of 2022, Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis returns to San Diego with two performances for the LJMS: on January 22 at the Balboa Theatre and on January 24 at the Baker-Baum Concert Hall. Popular jazz trumpeter Chris Botti appears at the Balboa on April 8, and Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca crowns the society’s jazz offerings and the 2021-2022 season at Baker-Baum on June 3.

In addition to the Takács Quartet, San Diego audiences will have the opportunity to hear both the Dover Quartet and the Escher String Quartet on Feb. 26 at Baker-Baum. In earlier SummerFest seasons, the Escher String Quartet has impressed with their command of challenging composers such as Henri Dutilleux, Alexander Zemlinski and Leoš Janáček.

All who follow modern dance will be excited to see the Joffrey Ballet at San Diego Civic Theatre on May 4, as well as the San Francisco-based Alonzo King LINES Ballet, also at Civic Theatre, on January 20. For musical traditions beyond classical and jazz, the acclaimed Silk Road Ensemble will perform its mulit-cultural magic  on April 3 at Baker-Baum, and banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck will present “My Bluegrass Heart” on December 16 at the Balboa Theatre.

For additional programs. lectures, and performances especially for children, check the website of the La Jolla Music Society.