La Jolla Music Society Presents Ten Thrilling Events in March

Ten thrilling events are presented by La Jolla Music Society (LJMS) in March 2024! From an operatic tenor Recital and classical Indian dance to the Kronos Quartet, Branford Marsalis, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Artistic Director Leah Rosenthal has programmed a month of performance riches.

March Events by La Jolla Music Society

LAWRENCE BROWNLEE, tenor
Co-produced by San Diego Opera
Saturday, March 2, 2024, at 7:30 PM
The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
Recital Series

A star of the Metropolitan Opera, Lawrence Brownlee is a leading figure in opera, both as a singer on the world’s top stages and as a voice for activism and diversity in the industry.

Captivating audiences and critics around the globe, he has been hailed as “an international star in the bel canto operatic repertory” (The New York Times) and “one of the world’s leading bel canto stars” (The Guardian).

In this recital, his local debut, Brownlee will feature selections from his new album RISING, for which he commissioned six of today’s leading African-American composers to set poetry from the Harlem Renaissance to song.

The songs revolve around themes of joy, empowerment, faith, love, and strength in the face of challenge.

MARIA IOUDENITCH, violin & KENNETH BROBERG, piano
Sunday, March 3, 2024, at 3 PM
The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
Discovery Series

Described as “phenomenally musical,” (Daily Journal), dynamic young violinist Maria Ioudenitch has won multiple awards and is poised on the cusp of a major international career.

KRONOS QUARTET & SAM GREEN
A Thousand Thoughts: A Live Documentary with the Kronos Quartet, Written & Directed by Sam Green and Joe Bini
Friday, March 8, 2024, at 7:30 PM
The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
ProtoStar Innovative Series

Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground), in collaboration with Emmy Award®-winning writer and editor Joe Bini (Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Grizzly Man), takes the stage with the legendary classical music group Kronos Quartet.

They will create a “live documentary” that chronologically unfolds the quartet’s groundbreaking, continent-spanning, multi-decade career.

Wildly creative and experimental in form, A Thousand Thoughts is a meditation on music itself—the act of listening closely to music, the experience of feeling music deeply, and the power that music has to change the world.

KINGS RETURN
Saturday, March 9, 2024, at 6 PM & 8:30 PM
Concerts @ The JAI

Kings Return made a triumphant SummerFest debut in 2021, bringing audiences to their feet with their a cappella stylings inspired by gospel, jazz, R&B, soul, and classical music.

The group became internet sensations in 2016 when they started posting videos to social media from the stairwell where they rehearsed and now have more than 10 million views across digital platforms.

MEOW MEOW
Sunday, March 10, 2024, at 6 PM & 8:30 PM
Concerts @ The JAI

Post-post-modern diva Meow Meow has hypnotized, inspired, and terrified audiences globally with unique creations and sell-out seasons from New York’s Lincoln Center and Berlin’s Bar Jeder Vernunft to London’s West End and the Sydney Opera House.

Named one of the Top Performers of the Year by The New Yorker, among other accolades. Her award-winning works have been curated by David Bowie, Pina Bausch, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and numerous international arts festivals.

AN EVENING WITH BRANFORD MARSALIS
Thursday, March 14, 2024, at 7:30 PM
The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
Jazz Series

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis, NEA Jazz Master, GRAMMY Award winner, and Tony Award nominee, is equally at home performing concertos with symphony orchestras and sitting in with members of the Grateful Dead, but the core of his musical universe remains the Branford Marsalis Quartet.

After more than three decades of existence with minimal personnel changes, this celebrated ensemble is revered for its uncompromising interpretation of a kaleidoscopic range of both original compositions and jazz and popular classics.

ALPHABET ROCKERS
Saturday, March 16, 2024, at 3 PM
The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
ConRAD Kids Series

Alphabet Rockers make music that makes change! Founded by Kaitlin McGaw (she/her) and Tommy Shepherd (he/him/they), this intergenerational group creates brave spaces to shape a more equitable world through hip hop.

You and your little ones will explore elements of hip hop together, have shared moments to express and uplift affirmations and reflections, and get your bodies MOVING in celebration and joy!

ĀHUTI: NRITYAGRAM & CHITRASENA
Wednesday, March 20 & Thursday, March 21, 2024, at 7:30 PM
The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
Dance Series

One of the premier Indian dance ensembles performing today, the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble has the unprecedented distinction of making The New York Times’ “Best Dance of the Year” list two consecutive years in a row.

More than a dance company, Nrityagram was founded as a Gurukula (school) devoted to Indian dance. The all-female ensemble’s daily life of intensive training and meditation brings to the stage compelling captivating performances that are at once sensual and lyrical, accompanied by live music.

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO
Friday, March 22, 2024, at 7:30 PM
The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
Global Roots Series

Called by the late President Nelson Mandela “South Africa’s Cultural Ambassadors to the World,” the all-male choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo came to international prominence after singing with Paul Simon on his smash hit 1986 album Graceland.

They have become internationally famous and have won multiple awards, including five GRAMMYs, and received more GRAMMY Award nominations (19) than any World Music group in the history of recorded music.

More than 60 years after their creation, the current members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo make their LJMS debut and continue to live out the group’s mission of bringing peace and harmony to the world through musical performance of the highest quality.

RAY CHEN, violin & JULIO ELIZALDE, piano
Thursday, March 28, 2024, at 7:30 PM
The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
Recital Series

Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Ray Chen is a violinist who redefines what it is to be a classical musician in the 21st century.

With a media presence reaching out to millions, his remarkable musicianship transmits to a global audience that is reflected in his engagements with the foremost orchestras and concert halls around the world.

Artists, concerts, dates, and venues subject to change.