City in California, USA. Located on the Pacific coast, it lies near the US-Mexican border. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who entered the harbour in 1542, called the area San Miguel; it was renamed San Diego in 1602. In 1769 the Spanish government sent a military expedition with 16 Franciscans to establish garrisons and to found missions; in July Junípero Serra established the Mission San Diego de Alcalá, and dedicated the Presidio, the first Spanish fort in California. The city was incorporated in 1850 and has developed into an important musical centre in the western USA.
Before the arrival of European settlers, the area was inhabited by Diegueño Indians. Their music, primarily vocal, was characterized by syllabic melodies, unison singing and a distinctive three-part structure; gourd rattles were the only instruments used for accompaniment. In his first report to the Mexico City viceroy (1773), Fray Francisco Palóu wrote that what attracted the Indians to Mission San Diego was ‘their fondness for hearing the neophytes sing’. A spinet was brought to the mission and was used to accompany the celebration of mass at the Presidio (see Bolton). By 1776 a boys' choir had been formed there. The earliest ‘organ’ to reach San Diego was a three-cylinder barrel instrument given in 1793 by the explorer George Vancouver to Fermín de Lasuén, president of the California missions. Built by Benjamin Robson of London in 1735, it played 30 tunes, including Go to the Devil, College Hornpipe, Lady Campbell's Reel and Spanish Waltz. Juan Bandini, born in Peru and a resident of San Diego during much of his life, introduced the waltz in California in 1820. At Christmas 1837, while the religious play El diablo en le pastorela was performed in Pío Pico's house in San Diego, the women sang hymns of adoration; some of these hymns and fragments of pastorela music are at the Whaley manuscript collection of the Serra Museum, San Diego Historical Society.
In 1868 a minstrel show, Negro Delineations, was given by the Tanner Troupe. The second floor of Horton Hall (built 1869, destroyed by fire in 1897) opened as a theatre in 1870. Although some well-known touring artists appeared there, including the soprano Anna Bishop (1873), the pianist Arabella Goddard (1875) and the violinist Emile Sauret with his wife Teresa Carreño (1875), the hall was used chiefly as a venue for local performers.
Six other theatres were built in the decades surrounding the turn of the century. In 1887 musical events also took place at the Villa Montezuma, the residence of Jesse Shepard, a flamboyant pianist and singer known for his improvisations. At San Diego's centennial celebration, held in 1876, Eli T. Blackmer led the San Diego Philharmonic Society (founded 1872) in a performance of Hail to thee, Liberty! and conducted 200 schoolgirls in Hail our country's natal morn. Instrumental airs were played by the Silver Cornet Band (founded 1874), an ensemble of 12 players. The first brass band in San Diego was organized in 1869 and consisted of seven musicians; other brass ensembles included the Harmonie Cornet Band (1875), whose ten members were mostly German immigrants, and the City Guard Band (1885), which gave its inaugural concert at Armory Hall to celebrate the completion of the California Southern Railroad line.
In the 1880s two conservatories were formed: one, founded in 1882, was led by Maurice H. Strong; the other was led from 1887 to 1890 by J.H. Hill. The Reform Congregation Beth Israel, which celebrated Jewish high holy days with an organ and a choir, was established in 1887. An important music organization, the Amphion Club, was formed in 1893; from 1907 to its dissolution in 1948 it sponsored concert series bringing touring artists. The club's longtime president, Gertrude Gilbert, wrote the first published history of music in San Diego (1936), and the composer Alice Barnett served on its board of directors (1920–48)
In 1902 the San Diego SO was formed with 54 members; it was directed first by R.E. Trognitz, and from 1910 by Richard Schliewen of Berlin. Under Schliewen the orchestra played Beethoven's First Symphony in 1910 and his Fifth in 1911. Schliewen was succeeded by Lionel Gittelson (1879–1963), a violinist from South Carolina who had been trained in New York. The following season Buren Roscoe Schryock assumed the orchestra's leadership; he remained until 1920.
From 1927 to 1936 Nino Marcelli (b Rome, 21 Jan 1890; d San Diego, 4 Aug 1967) conducted an orchestra that included members of the San Diego SO supplemented by other local musicians. The San Diego SO appeared under his direction at the California-Pacific International Exposition in 1935, where the Los Angeles PO and orchestras from Seattle, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, were also heard. Nikolai Sokoloff conducted summer concerts of the San Diego SO at Ford Bowl from 1938 to 1941; he presented works by William Grant Still and A Trojan Legend by the local composer Charles Marsh. After World War II the San Diego SO lacked a permanent conductor until Robert Shaw's appointment as music director for summer seasons in Balboa Park (1953–8); during these six summers he taught choral workshops with Julius Herford at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University). Under the direction of Earl Bernard Murray (1959–66), the San Diego SO played several works by local composers: in 1961 the Variations for Orchestra and in 1966 the Variations and Dance on California Mission Themes by Robert Heinzinger, a member of the faculty at Mesa College; in 1962 the Symphony 1959 by David Ward-Steinman, from 1961 a faculty member at San Diego State University; and in 1965 Conrad Susa's Pastorale. The San Diego SO performed for several years in San Diego High School's Russ Auditorium before moving in 1966 to the San Diego Civic Theater (cap. 3000).
During the 1966–7 season the San Diego SO was led by a series of guest conductors including Carlos Chávez; it was then conducted by the Hungarians Zoltan Rozanyai (1967–70) and Peter Erös (1972–81), whose tenure was marked by some controversy over programming practices. The English conductor David Atherton served as musical director from 1981 to 1987. Financial difficulties led the orchestra to cancel its summer season in 1982. On 7 November 1985, however, the orchestra gave its opening night of the season in its new venue, the Fox Theater, purchased for $7.5 million in 1984. In March 1988 Murry Sidlin replaced Fabio Mechetti as interim conductor. Yoav Talmi was subsequently appointed music director, with Jung-Ho Pak as assistant director. When Wesley Brustad, executive director from 1986, quit in 1993 the symphony owed a debt of $900,000. After what was billed as the last concert in Copley Symphony Hall (13 January 1996) the orchestra declared bankruptcy. In 1998, with the help of Voice of the Symphony Audience, an independent organization established in October 1995, the San Diego SO once more started giving performances. Jung-Ho Pak was appointed artistic director and principal conductor.
Between 1919 and 1932 the San Diego Civic Grand Opera Association gave more than 40 productions of French and Italian works. The San Diego Opera Company was formed in 1964. In 1967 the city was the site of the American première of Henze's Der junge Lord. Capobianco succeeded Walter Herbert as director of the company in 1975; in 1978 he initiated an annual Verdi Festival, emphasizing lesser-known works. Under his direction Menotti's La loca was given its world première in 1979, with Beverly Sills in the title role, and his 1982–3 season included productions of such neglected operas as Verdi's Il corsaro, Saint-Saëns's Henry VIII, Chabrier's Gwendoline and Zandonai's Giulietta e Romeo, all performed in the Civic Theater (cap. 2902). To mark its 20th anniversary (1984–5) the San Diego Opera commissioned Leonardo Balada to write an opera based on the life of Emiliano Zapata. Capobianco left the company in 1983 and was succeeded by Ian D. Campbell. Campbell's reversion to a more conservative repertory, using original languages with surtitles, drew increased support from private organizations. Later notable productions have included Dialogues des Carmélites (1990) and Albert Herring (1991).
In 1996 the orchestras offering regular series of programmes included the La Jolla Symphony (Mandeville Center for the Performing Arts, University of California), the San Diego Chamber Orchestra (Sherwood Auditorium, Rancho Santa Fe), the San Diego State University SO (Smith Recital Hall) and the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (various auditoriums). The following organizations gave concert series: the International Chamber Players, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Point Loma Nazarene College, Poway Center for the Performing Arts Foundation and the San Diego Early Music Society.
The San Diego campus of the University of California was opened in 1964 at La Jolla and offers BA, MA and PhD degrees in music. In the mid-1990s the music department had 15 full professors and 14 other faculty members; the chair was Rand Steiger, a specialist in computer applications. In 1971 the Computer Audio Research Laboratory was established. Those on the faculty in the 1990s included Jann C. Pasler, Roger Reynolds, Jane Stevens and Bertram Turetzky. In 1995 San Diego State University awarded BA, BM, MM and MA degrees in 16 designated music areas. In the mid-1990s the School of Music and Dance had 56 active faculty and 19 retired faculty members.
T.T. Waterman: ‘The Religious Practices of the Diegueño Indians’, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, viii (1910), 271–358
Z. Engelhardt: San Diego Mission (San Francisco, 1920)
L. Spier: ‘Southern Diegueño Customs’, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, xx (1923), 297–358
H.E. Bolton, ed.: Anza's California Expeditions, iv: Font's Complete Diary of the Second Anza Expedition (Berkeley, 1930), 240ff
G. Gilbert: ‘Music in San Diego County’, History of San Diego County, ed. C.H. Heilbron (San Diego, 1936), 456
P. Mehran: ‘San Diego's Opera Unit of the WPA Federal Music Project’, Journal of San Diego History, xviii/3 (1972), 12–21
T.E. Treutlin: ‘The Junípero Serra Song at San Diego State Teachers College’, Journal of San Diego History, xxiii/2 (1977), 36–9
B. Kwiatkowska: The Present State of Musical Culture among the Diegueno Indians from San Diego County Reservations (diss., UCLA, 1981)
G. Madyun and L. Malone: ‘Black Pioneers in San Diego 1880–1920’, Journal of San Diego History, xxvii/2 (1981), 91–114
H. Schwartz: ‘Temple Beth Israel’, Journal of San Diego History, xxvii/4 (1981), 227–37
R. Stevenson: ‘Nino Marcelli, Founder of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra’, Inter-American Music Review, x/1 (1988–9), 113–23
R. Stevenson: ‘San Diego: Cradle of California Music’, Inter-American Music Review, x/1 (1988–9), 39–51
ROBERT STEVENSON