Beyond Borders: North American Music Initiative
Sep 29, 2026Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony are launching Beyond Borders: North American Music Initiative, a growing network of artistic relationships connecting San Diego with communities and cultural institutions in Mexico and Canada. The initiative builds on the Symphony’s sustained work in Baja California and expands that cross-border perspective north through a new artistic relationship with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM). Together, the relationships create new opportunities for musicians, young artists, cultural institutions and audiences to connect across Mexico, the United States and Canada, with San Diego as a meeting point.
The initiative’s first major collaboration with Montréal takes place October 29–30, when OSM and San Diego Symphony musicians come together in San Diego under the leadership of Payare, Music and Artistic Director of the San Diego Symphony and Music Director and Artistic Director of OSM. On Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m., Payare will conduct OSM at Jacobs Music Center in a program featuring Montréal-based composer Samy Moussa’s Elysium, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with internationally acclaimed violinist Leonidas Kavakos, and Stravinsky’s The Firebird. The following day, Friday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m., Payare will bring his two ensembles together on one stage for a free concert at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. Titled “Sound of Two Cities,” the performance will offer San Diego audiences a unique opportunity to experience the distinct musical perspectives of San Diego and Montréal while bringing musicians of the San Diego Symphony and OSM together for a meaningful artistic exchange. The program features works by Bartók and Ravel performed by each orchestra individually, followed by Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite and Respighi’s Pines of Rome, performed by the combined ensembles. The concert is free and open to the public, but it is recommended that people RSVP at sdsymph.org/sdso-osm26.
Says Payare:
“Music reminds us that we are connected. When we cross borders with an orchestra, we are not just bringing a concert—we are creating a conversation. We celebrate our neighbors, learn from one another, and create a future through collaboration and creativity. We believe cultural exchange can bring our continent closer together. From Mexico to the United States to Canada, we share so many stories, traditions, and hopes. Through music, we can listen to one another and inspire the next generation of artists and audiences.”
The artistic relationship between San Diego and Montréal continues beyond the OSM’s West Coast visit. Jimmy López serves as composer-in-residence with both the San Diego Symphony and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. The two orchestras have co-commissioned López’s Symphony No. 6, Monarch, which both ensembles will perform in 2027.
López described the symphony’s poetic concept using the migration patterns of monarch butterflies as a metaphor. “They encompass all of North America. Their breeding grounds are in the Midwestern United States, then they go all the way to Southern Canada, and then they fly all the way to their wintering sites in Mexico, and back to the States. This cycle happens within a year and over three generations of monarch butterflies. He continued, “It reminds us that borders are something that we humans invented, but that actually, the natural world doesn’t acknowledge.”
In San Diego, Monarch will receive its U.S. premiere and close the Symphony’s 2026–27 season, performed alongside Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Choral at Jacobs Music Center June 4–6, 2027. “Monarch is a wonderful symbol of what can happen when artistic relationships cross borders,” says Payare. “It is a work shared by two orchestras, written by a composer whose life and work cross cultures, and it will be performed for audiences in two countries. That is the kind of connection we want to keep building.”The Symphony’s North American vision will continue to develop in the seasons ahead, with additional exchanges and performances planned with partners in Mexico and opportunities to expand its cultural relationships in Canada.
