A stellar cast of musicians, including Gilbert Castellano (trumpet), Brett Sanders (drums), and the Besos de Coco ensemble, demonstrate the influence of Jazz around the world.

"She is Fierce: The Art of Joyce Cutler-Shaw" is an exploration of the multimedia artist's expansive and diverse body of work, featuring commentary from colleagues and an in-depth interview with Cutler-Shaw. Throughout her long career the art of Joyce Cutler-Shaw has taken on a wide spectrum of forms, from melting iconic "ice words" and reflective light sculptures to installations and public commissions to intricately drawn depictions of the human form. Her subjects are human identity and the natural world; her themes are evolution and survival - from reptile into bird, from mammal to human, and from human, perhaps, to humane. But always at her art's core, according to Cutler-Shaw, is her use of drawing "as a way of knowing, as a mode of inquiry, as a visual language." Her "word images" have been central motifs, informing her works from the outset. Culter-Shaw's works are exhibited in museums and library collections worldwide.

Comprised of some the world's best musicians, the SummerFest Chamber Orchestra performs Prokofiev's popular Violin Concerto No. 2, wtih virtuoso soloist Gil Shaham and under the baton of renowned conductor James Conlon. Recorded on 8/26/2016.

Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, delves into design's many directions and into its future. She takes us on a fascinating tour of design to ask some very serious questions.

The serenade is a venerable 18th-century form as practiced by Haydn, Mozart and others. In his "Serenade in D Minor" Antonin Dvo ák adapted the form to his own purposes, scoring for an unusual combination of instruments and introducing an unusual thematic unity. The result is a piece of good-spirited, sunny music that reflects Dvo ák's own optimistic personality. Recorded on 08/20/2017.

This centuries-spanning concert takes its title from the violin concerto by English composer Thomas Ades, but it may just as well refer to the unexpected paths that link 20th-century French composer Francis Poulenc back to his medieval countryman Guillaume Machaut, and onward to Thomas Nee Commission recipient Tina Tallon's premiere work for orchestra & electronics. Recorded on 12/10/2017.

The La Jolla Symphony & Chorus perform two perennial audience favorites: Franz Liszt's "Les Preludes" for orchestra and Carl Orff's dynamic cantata "Carmina Burana," familiar from its use in many films, TV programs and commercials. The concert features the full La Jolla Symphony Chorus, joined by the treble chorus Caprice from San Diego North Coast Singers, the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus Chamber Chorale, and guest soloists. Choral Director Patrick Walders makes his conducting debut. Recorded on 03/18/2018.

In "Facing Off Across Sunset Boulevard" La Jolla Symphony & Chorus celebrate mavericks and visionaries. The concert's title refers to the giants of 20th-century music whose work bookends the program, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky. The two men lived scant miles apart in Los Angeles after fleeing Nazism yet never interacted, separated less by distance than by sharp differences in compositional method, aesthetic direction, and personality. Whatever their differences, their work inspired the other three composers represented on the program - Olivier Messiaen, Hannah Lash, and Toru Takemitsu - to continue their exploration of sonority, classical form, and movement. Recorded on 05/06/2018.

Composer Francis Poulenc maintained that one need not be solemn to praise God, and that belief is echoed is his "Gloria." Indeed, listeners not otherwise informed may not guess it's the setting of a sacred text (in this case, the second part of the Roman Catholic Mass liturgy). Poulenc's score is by turns melodic, rhythmic, serene, piquant, high-spirited, slightly dissonant, subdued, or strident, but is never less than charming. Recorded on 12/10/2017.

The requiem has long been a popular form among composers, and celebrated practitioners of the genre include Mozart, Verdi, Brahms, Berlioz, and Britten. Unlike those of his fellow composers, Fauré's Requiem contains no Sturm und Drang, no thundering crescendos or rallying cries to the deceased. Rather, it's a gentle, contemplative work, more of a meditation on transience than an exhortation. It contains most of the form's familiar elements, including mixed chorus and soloists (in this instance baritone Jonathan Nussman and soprano Priti Gandhi), but they are employed in service of an effect that is uniquely Fauré's own. This piece has steadily gained in popularity and the final section, "In Paradisum," is familiar to many from its use in several films, television programs, and commercials. Recorded on 06/10/2018.