The lineup for the five-week event, whose 2025 theme is ‘Milestones,’ includes opera great Renée Fleming, composer/violinist Jessie Montgomery and award-winning chef J. Kenji López-Alt.
With a lineup that includes the SummerFest debuts of opera legend Renée Fleming, award-winning composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery, and a rare performance of Philip Glass’ 20-part Complete Piano Etudes by 10 rotating pianists, a bounty of aural treats is in store for the event’s 39th annual edition. But one of the most intriguing offerings on this year’s menu is going to be cooked up on stage, literally.
The festival’s Aug. 14 “Tasting Notes” concert will team a chamber quartet led by pianist and SummerFest Music Director Inon Barnatan with James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef and New York Times food columnist J. Kenji López-Alt.
Part of the festival’s enterprising Synergy series, their joint performance of Dvořák’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major and other pieces may be a tantalizing experience that listeners can relish in more ways than one. This will hold especially true if attendees can sample the food prepared on stage by López-Alt and several prominent San Diego chefs as the music is being played.
“I’m hoping there is audience participation, but we haven’t confirmed that yet,” said Barnatan, speaking from a recent concert tour stop in Boston. “We don’t want to divulge too much ahead of time.”
It is not yet known if the dishes that will be prepared during the concert require cooking, or if an electric stove will be used on stage by López-Alt and the other chefs, who have yet to be announced. A trained classical violinist and best-selling author, López-Alt did his first “Tasting Notes” event last July under the auspices of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.
“We can’t have any flame or fire in the concert hall, so I don’t think we’ll do any charring of frying fish!” said Leah Rosenthal, La Jolla Music Society’s veteran artistic director. “But Inon and Kenji are putting together this beautiful evening that showcases the parallels between music and cooking.”
“I think you’ll find that, almost to a person, musicians are really keen on food. The idea is to create an event where — through playing music, cooking and discussion — you reflect on the commonalities and differences between the two art forms. Kenji and the other guest chefs will be doing demonstrations alongside festival musicians performing. Between each piece we play, we’ll talk about music and cooking, and what it takes to be successful in both.”
It remains to be seen if a future edition of SummerFest features the overdue San Diego debut of Austria’s Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. Its members make instruments out of freshly bought produce that they then perform on, followed by serving soup made of leftovers to audiences.
As the increasingly successful music director of SummerFest since 2019, Barnatan uses a gourmet chef-like approach in putting together each edition of the four-week fete at La Jolla Music Society’s $82 million Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center.
“When you are creating a festival menu, you’re talking about how to balance certain aspects, certain flavors, certain attributes, how to contrast them and how to create an experience,” he noted.
“Music programming and food have a lot in common, and you prepare for a great musical experience and a great meal. We tend to talk about music in a lot of the same ways that we talk about food, and vice versa.”
Curating memorable musical experiences is Barnatan’s forté as the major creative force behind SummerFest. The theme of this year’s edition, “Milestones,” was one he gave careful consideration to before finalizing the event’s 2025 repertoire.
“I settled on this theme because I realize SummerFest has always had several layers to it, and so do the stages in a composer’s life and how this is reflected in their music,” Barnatan explained.
“Whether these milestones occur in their youth, middle age or later, we look back and reflect on composers’ legacies and how these different stages their lives are reflect in the music. That’s the main framework for this theme, and it amazes me how some composers wrote some of their most enduring works when they were still in their teens.”
As a curator and as an in-demand international piano soloist, Barnatan is steeped in the traditions of classical music, as demonstrated by the standout works this year’s SummerFest will showcase by Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Brahms and other timeless composers. But Barnatan is not bound to those traditions. He strives to achieve just the right mix for listeners who savor chamber music but are also open to other approaches and new twists.
Those welcome twists will again be evident at SummmerFest this year. They include: a joint performance by innovative dancers Caleb Teicher and Nic Gareiss; a “New York Takeover” concert by composers Matthew Aucoin, Timo Andres and Patrick Castillo; and a concert by multiple-Grammy Award-winning singer Cécile McLorin-Salvant at which she will fuse baroque music and jazz with various folkloric traditions.
Also in store is the first-ever SummerFest performance by legendary soprano Fleming, who will join Barnatan for a voice and piano concert of works by Strauss and Messiaen. The schedule includes several concerts featuring the masterful cellist Alisa Weilerstein, as well as the Aug. 23 festival finale, which will feature Montgomery as both a composer and violinist.
Montgomery was named Musical America’s Composer of the Year in 2023. She won a Grammy Award last year for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her piece, “Rounds.”
‘A wonderful artist’
Montgomery is not the first female artist of color to be selected as SummerFest’s composer-in-residence, an honor first achieved in 2021 by Gabriela Lena Frank. But she is the first African American artist of either gender to garner this designation.
“Jessie is one of the most in-demand composers and performers anywhere,” Barnatan said. “She is such a wonderful artist. And it’s great to feature her as both a composer and as a performer who is being woven into the fabric of SummerFest, the way (2024 composer-in-residence) Thomas Adès was last year.”
Barnatan, 45, has done concert tours with Fleming and his close rapport with her played a key role in Fleming agreeing to make her SummerFest debut this year. His frequent performances across the nation and in Europe have enabled him to scout for new and established talent to perform here.
“SummerFest is based on Inon’s creativity, tastes and personal curation, and he has a great intellectual curiosity,” said La Jolla Music Society CEO and President Todd Schultz.
“Inon is an academic at heart, but he loves experimenting and connecting with the audience. And all that is reflected in how he makes choices for SummerFest. What I love about art is seeing the personality and character of the artist reflected in the work. And Inon crafts the festival as an artist whose sense of fun and curiosity really comes to the fore.”
Schultz came on board at the nonprofit society in early 2020, shortly after Barnatan curated his first SummerFest in 2019. He provides steady support to Barnatan and Rosenthal for SummerFest, and to Rosenthal for her fall, winter and spring programming at The Conrad, as the society’s performing arts center in La Jolla is also known.
“Leah directly supervises Inon, and I supervise her,” Schultz said. “I see my role more as thinking about how we are serving the greater San Diego community. What are our priorities? I guide the long-term growth and direction, and give Inon and Leah the resources to do their best work.
“Any manager should avoid micromanagement. Inon and Leah are the curators, and I support them … And I want to make sure that we don’t grow at a pace that is faster than the marketplace can handle.”
Rebound and expansion
In 2020, SummerFest pivoted to a truncated, entirely online format because of the pandemic shutdown. But it rebounded in the next year and has grow exponentially since then.
In 2022, SummerFest expanded from three weeks to four. It has thrived ever since as a four-week event. Last year’s edition drew 7,474 attendees to 20 concerts in the 500-seat Baker-Baum Concert Hall and the adjoining 144-seat cabaret venue, The JAI.
“It’s worked extremely well,” said Rosenthal, who was hired by the now-56-year-old society in 2008. “Ticket sales are stronger than they’ve ever been, which allows Inon to take deeper dives with SummerFest and for Allison Boles, our educator director, to provide more daytime learning opportunities.”
In 2024, there were 3,320 attendees at SummerFest’s free learning and engagement events. And for the first time in the event’s history, concerts at SummerFest were filmed and streamed by Paris-based Medici.TV, which has the world’s largest video-on-demand classical music library.
SummerFest is now one of only two festivals in the United States — the Aspen Music Festival is the other — to be featured on Medici.TV. There have been more than 60,000 views in 82 countries of the three 2024 SummerFest concerts streamed by Medici.TV, which will film three more concerts at this year’s edition.
“That is quite a coup for us,” Rosenthal said. “It shows the growth and elevation of the festival with Inon.”
For Barnatan, SummerFest is a gathering of kindred spirits, on stage and off, a shared communal experience between musicians and music fans alike.
“I think people have ownership in the festival,” he said. “One of the best things about a chamber music festival, and chamber music in general, is that it’s a meeting of equals. It’s not a meeting of stars, even though there are people playing at SummerFest who are stars.
“This is about people coming together, everybody being on equal footing, and everybody being there in service of the music.”
SummerFest 2025 schedule and ticket information
Unless otherwise indicated below, all concerts are at 7:30 p.m. at The Baker-Baum Concert Hall in The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla. Some events take place in The JAI, the center’s smaller, 144-seat cabaret venue. Artists, concerts, dates, and venues are subject to change.
Friday, July 25: Opening Night: “Great Expectations:” Mozart’s Divertimento in D Major; Ravel’s Ma Mère l’oye for Piano Four-Hands; Rachmaninoff’s Valse and Romance for Piano Six-Hands; and Enescu’s String Octet in C Major, Opus 7, featuring Yulianna Avdeeva, Inon Barnatan. Jennifer Frautschi, Clive Greensmith, Njioma Chineyere Grievious, Jeremy Kurtz-Harris, Yura Lee, Matthew Lipman, Nathan Meltzer, Steven Osborne, Jonathan Swensen, Jonathan Vincour and the SummerFest Chamber Orchestra.
Saturday, July 26: “The Glass Menagerie:” Philip Glass’ Complete Piano Études featuring pianists Timo Andres, Matthew Aucoin, Yulianna Avdeeva, Inon Barnatan, Conor Hanick, Steven Osborne, Juho Pohjonen and others.
Sunday, July 27 at 3 p.m.: “Emergence:” Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A Minor; Chopin’s Nocturne in E-Flat Major and Two Mazurkas from Opus 7; Clarke’s Viola Sonata; and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G Minor.
Sunday, July 27 at 7 p.m.: “New York Takeover” @ The JAI, an exploration of works by three leading compositional voices: Timo Andres, Matthew Aucoin, and Patrick Castillo. The JAI.
Wednesday, July 30 at 7 p.m.: Midweek Masterworks: “Youthful Passions:” Beethoven’s Piano Trio in C Minor; Jörg Widmann’s 180 Beats Per Minute; Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat Major.
Friday, Aug. 1: “Northern Lights:” Nielsen’s String Quintet, Olli Mustonen’s Nonet No. 2, and Sibelius’ String Quartet in D Minor.
Saturday, Aug. 2: “Prodigies:” Handel’s Trio Sonata for Oboe, Violin and Continuo in C Minor; Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G Minor; Korngold’s String Sextet in D Major.
Tuesday, Aug. 5 at 7 p.m.: “For the End of Time:” Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du Temps and Strauss’ Four Last Songs, featuring conductor Alan Gilbert, soprano Renée Fleming, and pianist Inon Barnatan with the SummerFest Chamber Orchestra.
Thursday, Aug. 7 at 7 p.m.: Takeover @ The JAI curated by Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery. The JAI.
Friday, Aug. 8: “Strung Together:” Jessie Montgomery’s Concerto Grosso, Ysaÿe’s Sonata for Two Violins, and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A Major.
Sunday, Aug. 10 at 3 p.m.: “Homage:” Purcell’s Chacony in G Minor (arr. Britten), Britten’s String Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un Lieu Cher, and Arensky’s String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor.
Wednesday, Aug. 13 at 7 p.m.: Midweek Masterworks: “Looking Back, Looking Forward:” Brahms’ Cello Sonata No.1 in E Minor, Koechlin’s Quatre Petites Pièces, and Glazunov’s String Quintet in A Major.
Thursday, Aug. 14 at 7 p.m.: Synergy: “Tasting Notes:” Dvořák’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, featuring chef J. Kenji López-Alt, violinist Tessa Lark, violist Masumi Per Rostad, cellist Sterling Elliott, pianist Inon Barnatan and guest San Diego chefs.
Friday, Aug. 15: “Love Songs:” Schubert’s Auf Der Strom for Tenor, Horn and Piano, Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 3 in G Minor, Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, and Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.
Saturday, Aug. 16: Synergy: “Book of Ayres:” featuring vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, pianist Sullivan Fortner, flutist Emi Ferguson, theorbo and lute player Dušan Balarin, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and percussionist Keita Ogawa.
Sunday, Aug. 17 at 3 and 6 p.m.: Synergy: Dance @ The JAI, featuring Caleb Teicher and Nic Gareiss.
Wednesday, Aug. 20 at 7 p.m.” Midweek Masterworks: “Transcendence:” Penderecki’s Clarinet Quartet and Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major.
Friday, Aug. 22: “Profound Reflections:” Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro, Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata, and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12.
Saturday, Aug. 23: SummerFest Finale, “Starburst:” Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst for String Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings, and Brahms’ Serenade in D Major (Reconstructed for Nonet, 1858).
La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest 2025
When: July 25-Aug. 23
Where: The Baker-Baum Concert Hall and The JAI at Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla
Tickets: SummerFest subscriptions are available now. A complete subscription for all 16 concerts in The Baker-Baum Concert Hall ranges from $1,268 to $1,465, depending on seat location. Concerts in The JAI are added onto packages. Summerfest Flex packages are also available. Single concert tickets will be available starting April 28 and range in price from $40 to $200.
Phone: 858-459-3728
Online: theconrad.org