Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Davis and Bodhi Tree announce 2026 world premiere of bilingual ‘Pancho Rabbit’ opera
After a seven-year gestation, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis and San Diego’s Bodhi Tree Concerts have announced that Davis’ bilingual chamber-opera adaptation of the children’s book “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale” will receive its world premiere in January 2026 in both San Diego and Tijuana.
After a seven-year gestation, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis and San Diego’s Bodhi Tree Concerts have announced that Davis’ bilingual chamber-opera adaptation of the children’s book “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale” will receive its world premiere in January 2026 in both San Diego and Tijuana.
Combining elements of allegory, fable and social commentary, the chamber-opera is based on author Duncan Tonatiuh’s award-winning 2013 children’s book of the same name, which addresses current immigration issues and is set at the U.S.-Mexico border.
It will be sung in English, Spanish and a “border slang” combination of the two languages. The characters include the titular rabbit, a coyote, a snake, and monarch butterflies that freely migrate each year between the U.S. and Mexico.
The San Diego Union-Tribune: Fresh from White House dinner, Sameer Patel is Named New Music Director of La Jolla Symphony
His selection is the latest achievement for Patel, who also heads San Diego Youth Symphony and is the former associate conductor of the San Diego Symphony. ‘It’s a joy,’ he says of his new position.
It’s shaping up to be a landmark summer for San Diego’s Sameer Patel. His selection as La Jolla Symphony & Chorus’ new music director and conductor comes less than four weeks after he and his wife, Shannon, attended the state dinner at the White House that President Biden hosted for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“This is absolutely a dream gig — it’s a joy to be part of this wonderful music organization,” Patel said. “And, having not ever been to the White House before, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be a guest at a state dinner there.”
Patel, 40, is the artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony, a position he will continue to hold. The former associate conductor of the San Diego Symphony, he regularly conducts orchestras around the country.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
By George Varga
His selection is the latest achievement for Patel, who also heads San Diego Youth Symphony and is the former associate conductor of the San Diego Symphony. ‘It’s a joy,’ he says of his new position.
It’s shaping up to be a landmark summer for San Diego’s Sameer Patel. His selection as La Jolla Symphony & Chorus’ new music director and conductor comes less than four weeks after he and his wife, Shannon, attended the state dinner at the White House that President Biden hosted for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“This is absolutely a dream gig — it’s a joy to be part of this wonderful music organization,” Patel said. “And, having not ever been to the White House before, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be a guest at a state dinner there.”
Patel, 40, is the artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony, a position he will continue to hold. The former associate conductor of the San Diego Symphony, he regularly conducts orchestras around the country.
Patel’s selection to head La Jolla Symphony & Chorus — announced today — comes 14 months after his predecessor, Steven Schick, stepped down. Patel’s initial contract is for four years, with options to renew.
Read more here
The San Diego Union-Tribune: Pandemic pivots enrich orchestral director Sameer Patel’s family, career
Before the pandemic shutdown in March 2020, Sameer Patel was set to be at the podium of several orchestras across the country. But suddenly, he went from leading 60 to100 musicians in front of enthusiastic audiences to conducting an orchestra of one.
With all his gigs canceled, Patel, 40, stayed home with his 2-year-old son, Devan, whose preschool had closed. Patel’s wife, Shannon, a memory-care specialist, is an essential worker. After two or three weeks of caring for Devan, Sameer decided to become his teacher.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
By Beth Wood
Before the pandemic shutdown in March 2020, Sameer Patel was set to be at the podium of several orchestras across the country. But suddenly, he went from leading 60 to100 musicians in front of enthusiastic audiences to conducting an orchestra of one.
With all his gigs canceled, Patel, 40, stayed home with his 2-year-old son, Devan, whose preschool had closed. Patel’s wife, Shannon, a memory-care specialist, is an essential worker. After two or three weeks of caring for Devan, Sameer decided to become his teacher.
“I threw myself into it and consider it my greatest accomplishment of my life — teaching my son for nine months,” Patel recalled, speaking from his family’s Bankers Hill home. “I drew up lesson plans — I’d talk to my mother-in-law, a retired kindergarten teacher. I’d find little themes — volcanoes, bridges. Balboa Park became our backyard.
Read more here.
Photo: Brittany Cruz-Fejeran
The San Diego Union-Tribune: The Queen’s Cartoonists can make a jazz lover out of anyone
As Joel Pierson can attest, most young people would say they do not like jazz or classical music — genres that seem inaccessible, out-of-date or stuffy. That’s why he formed The Queen’s Cartoonists, a live band that plays music synchronized to classic and contemporary animation.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
By Nina Garin
Hey, kids! Do you like jazz music?
As Joel Pierson can attest, most young people would say they do not like jazz or classical music — genres that seem inaccessible, out-of-date or stuffy. That’s why he formed The Queen’s Cartoonists, a live band that plays music synchronized to classic and contemporary animation.
“There’s a lot of stigma against jazz and classical music,” he says. “There’s this sense of ‘Oh, that’s not for me’ or ‘it’s too complicated’ and I don’t think that’s true. I think we just need the right kind of exposure. You know, cartoons were created introducing classical music to people — everyone learned some Wagner and Rossini from Bugs Bunny and that kind of stuff. So I thought maybe I could do that with musicians and a band.”
Read the full article here.
The San Diego Union-Tribune: Meyers triumphs in Schoenberg concerto
The program’s highlight — the world premiere of a new violin concerto by 38-year old Adam Schoenberg — was something way out of the ordinary. Commissioned by and written in honor of San Diego native Anne Akiko Meyers, this meditation on age and memory (its title is “Orchard in Fog”) stands a good chance of entering the standard repertory, for it combines evocative tone painting with complex technical demands (like playing on the violin’s highest strings, where faulty intonation is ruthlessly exposed).
San Diego Union-Tribune
Marcus Overton
Commissioned by and written in honor of San Diego native Anne Akiko Meyers, this meditation on age and memory (its title is “Orchard in Fog”) stands a good chance of entering the standard repertory, for it combines evocative tone painting with complex technical demands (like playing on the violin’s highest strings, where faulty intonation is ruthlessly exposed). Its two outer movements, wistful, silvery-gray like a Whistler painting, frame a devilishly syncopated dance movement that almost seems improvised.
Meyers’ playing is what it always has been: a national treasure. Her unshowy approach to her work has saved her from becoming a celebrity, and she has left a trail of unsurpassed achievement behind her in recordings, chamber music and orchestra solo appearances around the globe, as well as authorial collaborations and, best of all, active championing of living composers.
Above all, she is a musical wizard, with astonishing access to every kind of expressive color. Whether within a phrase or on just a single note, she can change tone color in a micro-second from smooth grain to rough, from dark to radiant, from thoughtful to assertive. And she can, like magic, bring new work to vibrant life.
Read the full article here.