Mainly Mozart at Balboa Theater in 2019
The Mainly Mozart Festival is coming back into form on Friday, June 11. The incomparable Festival Orchestra is scheduled to perform five concerts at the Del Mar Surf Cup Sports Park June 11-19.
The repertoire for the festival was previously scheduled for the canceled 2020 festival. Highlights include Mozart’s
Symphonies Nos. 39 and 40, Beethoven’s
Symphonies Nos. Five and Seven, Haydn’s
Trumpet Concerto, and Bruch’s
Violin Concerto.
It’s a strong cast of musical characters as is the roster of the orchestra. The roster is full of concertmasters and principal players from the top orchestras in North America.
I’m
David L. Coddon,
and here’s your guide to all things essential in San Diego’s arts and culture this week.
Singer-songwriter
Michael Tiernan modestly calls it “one of the lesser known, longest-running showcases in San Diego.” Fans of this local musician, however, have known about Tiernan’s
“Acoustic Wednesdays” showcase since he began hosting it “many moons ago, back in 2006 or 2007” at En Fuego Cantina & Grill in Del Mar.
Every Wednesday, Tiernan would preside over an evening of music, performing and presenting other area artists to audiences.
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“It became kind of my office,” Tiernan recalled. “My listeners always knew I was there.”
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For many of the nationally prominent classical musicians who traveled to San Diego last October for the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra drive-in concert series, it was a welcome if surreal experience to perform in the main parking lot of the Del Mar Fairgrounds as cars zipped by on the adjacent Interstate 5.
For David Chan, it was also a homecoming.
“I grew up in Del Mar, and my parents live there to this day,” said the violin virtuoso, who is the concertmaster for New York’s famed Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
“It was amazing to play at the fairgrounds, a place I grew up going to in the summers for the rides, the cotton candy and the funnel cake! It brought back a lot of memories, and it was very meaningful, since San Diego is my hometown.”
Mainly Mozart is gearing up for a big return to the Del Mar Fairgrounds, where it staged a series of groundbreaking 2020 drive-in concerts after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered indoor and outdoor concert venues across the country and around the world.
The 2020 drive-in concerts were the first such performances in the nation by an established classical-music presenter and paved the way for San Diego Opera’s subsequent drive-in performances of “La bohème” with members of the San Diego Symphony and La Jolla Music Society’s upcoming four Del Mar drive-in concerts in February by jazz great Wynton Marsalis.
Founded 33 years ago, Mainly Mozart will kick off its even more ambitious 2021 Festival of Orchestras in February with four drive-in performances. The all-star festival will continue with drive-in concerts in April and June, when it hopes to shift to a car-free outdoor venue, health regulations permitting, and expand significantly adding performances in Orange County.