Ron Bierman

What did our critic think of WHERE THE SHINING TRUMPETS BLOW at Jacobs Music Center? Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magical Horn) is a collection of more than 700 German folk poems and songs compiled in the early 19th Century. Several notable composers, including Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms, have written songs based on texts in the collection. Mahler used it for roughly two dozen of his songs and added orchestration to half of those. San Diego Symphony Orchestra Director and Conductor Rafael Payare and guest baritone Matthias Goerne selected six of those to perform in a program titled “Where the Shining Trumpets Blow,” which is also the name of one of the songs Goerne sang.

San Diego Opera opened its 2025-26 season on a Halloween night with an appropriately disturbing opera about a murderous clown. Its unsavory plot hasn’t kept Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci from becoming one of opera’s most popular creations. The reasons for its success? A can’t-wait-for-it tenor aria, lushly romantic melodies, Puccini-worthy orchestration and a winning mix of operatic voices atop that horror movie plot.

What did our critic think of ROMANTIC VISIONS at Jacobs Music Center? Conductor Rafael Payare showed why in a performance driven with his usual gymnastic vigor.

What did our critic think of OPERA À LA CARTE'S PRODUCTION OF OFFENBACH'S ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD at St. Peter's Episcopal Church Of Del Mar? With even large companies struggling to survive, why did soprano and voice teacher Abla Hamza decide to found Opera À La Carte? Her goals were laudable. As national opportunities continued to shrink, she wanted to provide new ones to local professional opera singers and attract San Diegoans new to opera with lower cost tickets and less intimidating venues. But could she succeed during such a difficult period? Opera À La Carte began with vocal recitals at small venues, and last year graduated to its first full opera.

The La Jolla Music Society concluded its 2025 four-week SummerFest with three works for chamber-sized orchestras. Learn more about the festival here!

What did BroadwayWorld's critic think of THE MAINLY MOZART ALL-STA FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA at Epstein Family Amphitheater? Read the review here and learn more!

What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO OPERA PRESENTS STRAUSS'S SALOME at San Diego Civic Theater? Richard Strauss’s eerie and perverse Salome is based on Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name, as adapted by librettist Hedwig Lachmann. Wilde was inspired by the Biblical tale of Princess Salome and John the Baptist, a prisoner of King Herod, her stepfather. In every version of the story, Salome dances for Herod, and he is so pleased with her dancing that he offers her anything she desires. Influenced by her mother Herodias whose marriage to the king had been condemned by John the Baptist, Salome asks for John’s head.

What did our critic think of THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY PRESENTS THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at San Diego Jacobs Music Center? Standing Ovations showed the audience's appreciation of pianist Yunchan Lim in Rachmaninov's second piano concerto and the orchestra's excellence under conductor Sir Antonio Pappano in Mahler's first symphony. The LSO was last heard in San Diego in 2015 as part of the La Jolla Music Society’s appropriately named Celebrity Orchestra series. That series was discontinued while the Society was busy with the construction of its new home in The Conrad and its subsequent concentration on the best in classical and world music for smaller ensembles. I have missed the series and hope this concert heralds a return to San Diego with a repeat of performances by such as the LSO, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Dresden Staatskapelle (founded in 1548).

What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY INTRODUCES A WORLD PREMIERE at Jacobs Music Center? Alexander Malofeev was 13 when he won the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians under 18. His technical prowess was exceptional, but his musicality at such a young age was what convincingly set him apart. Now 23, he has lived up to expectations, garnering rave reviews for performances with major orchestras around the world. Nor did he disappoint on this evening with Prokofiev’s 3rd piano concerto, but I’ll start with the most familiar work on the program, Beethoven’s 3rd symphony, the “Eroica.” It was the only work after intermission, and conductor Rafael Payare led without a score.

What did our critic think of THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY PRESENTS THE SPANISH HARLEM ORCHESTRA at The Conrad? The La Jolla Music Society has featured exceptional musicians in many genres over the years. Best known for staging classical concerts, since the opening of its intimate home at the Conrad the Society has also welcomed an outstanding variety of some of the best in dance, opera, jazz, and world music. The Spanish Harlem Orchestra, winner of three Grammys, is the latest example of the latter. The band is celebrating 25 years of success as an exponent of “hardcore” salsa both in its recordings and at live concerts. Pianist, leader and arranger Oscar Hernandez has a fourth Grammy for a quintet album and has worked with dozens of well-known Latin musicians over the years including Ray Barreto, Tito Puente, Rubén Blades and Celia Cruz.

This year’s final subscription concert at the new Jacobs Music Center began with Richard Strauss’s tone poem Don Juan and ended with his equally familiar Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. In between, Inon Barnatan was featured in two 20th Century piano concertos by Dimitri Shostakovich. The usual please-silence-the-phones admonition before the concert was more emphatic than usual. The audience was informed that this last of three performances would be recorded for possible commercial release. As you’ll see, that didn’t stop one competitive phone from auditioning. The familiar Don Juan lives up to its name. It’s a tone poem for orchestra with a mix of romance, heroism and tragedy. San Diego Symphony Music Director and conductor Rafael Payare was at his enthusiastic acrobatic best. The music’s many moods were reflected in his motions and facial expressions and then realized in the orchestra for an exciting performance.

What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO OPERA PRESENTS LA BOHÈME at San Diego Civic Center? San Diego Opera celebrated the opening of its 60th season with Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, the same opera the company staged to open its first season. Its magnificent melodies, a touchingly tragic love story, and arias that are among the most beautiful ever written have made it one of the world’s most performed operas for many years, an obvious choice for attracting audiences and donors. The story begins in a bohemian Parisian garret where Rodolfo, a young writer, rooms with a painter, a musician and a philosopher. Money is scarce, and the only source of heat is a small stove. With no wood left to burn, Rodolfo begins to use pages from the manuscript of a play he’s writing for what few moments of heat they can provide. When the flames die down a roommate comments, “It opened and closed on the same night.”

The music that people enjoy the most, whether they are fans of classical or hip hop, is music that evokes emotion. The San Diego Symphony under guest conductor Antonio Méndez took note of that with a concert of proven favorites, Mendelssohn’s Ruy Blas Overture, Bruch’s first violin concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s fifth symphony.

What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY PERFORM WORKS BY MAHLER AND LARCHER at the Jacobs Music Center? There were only two pieces on the San Diego Symphony’s program for the second weekend of the new season, the first after the renovation of the Jacobs Music Center. But one of them was Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection. At about 90 minutes, it is one of the longest ever written. In an exciting performance such as conductor Rafael Payare led, no one was nodding off, or even tempted to glance at a phone. Though a phone did elude its owner for three muffled rings before the transgressing audience member got it out where it managed one last defiantly louder, but futile ring before stifled.

What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY SHINES AT NEW JACOBS MUSIC CENTER OPENING! Shortly after the waterfront’s Rady Shell opened in 2021, I was standing in a short line behind San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer and complimented her on the Rady’s awesome state-of-the-art sound system. Then, as an afterthought, I suggested the Rady’s sound was better than that of Symphony Hall. Her reply was a terse determined, “We’re fixing that.” And have they ever!

About halfway into her two-hour plus recital with tenor Joshua Guerrero, soprano Andrea Carroll gave a well-earned compliment to their accompanist Stephen Hopkins for his technique and versatility. Both were challenged during the unusually varied program the two singers had fashioned.

The first act of Opera À La Carte’s production of La bohème featured costuming and well-used furniture that made Rodolfo’s bohemian Parisian garret seem more real than the elaborate expensive sets and costumes of many other productions. After all, Rodolfo (tenor Adam Caughey) and his three friends are starving artists, and bohème is a notable example of opera verismo. Who knew? Turns out you can stage a memorable version of La bohème with underappreciated local singers and a modest budget.

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is one of the most popular operas ever written. It has a wonderfully lyrical score, familiar arias and a story that remains compelling even after often heard. San Diego Opera’s most recent production played to a full house on opening night, and under the direction of Jose Maria Condemi the well-chosen cast delivered a performance with impressive emotional depth. Corinne Winters’s convincing portrayal of the naïve 15-year-old Cio-Cio-San brought bravas and enthusiastic applause at curtain call. But her portrayal of innocence exploited meant both bravos and boos over extended applause for tenor Adam Smith’s convincing version of her heartless seducer, Lieutenant Pinkerton.

Read BroadwayWorld's review of Stephen Hough with the San Diego Symphony at San Diego Civic Center Theater.

If this concert didn’t convince newcomers to classical music that they’d been missing out, nothing will. Conductor Rafael Payare went all out for excitement and got it with a program that displayed the orchestra's virtuosity. The result was an exceptionally enjoyable concert.