San Diego Symphony on the Move

Single-ticket sales for San Diego's Symphony Hall Summer Pops season started selling on Monday, and it's obvious at first glance that there's more to the summer run than meets the classical-music eye.

It's not all just Tchaikovsky this summer at the Embarcadero Marina Park South, where music fans can see the symphony's orchestra perform alongside music icons like Art Garfunkel (Aug. 12-13), Burt Bacharach (Aug. 7) and country star Wynonna Judd (Aug. 26-27). Other highlights of the summer include, programmed especially for Comic-Con attendees on July 21, a Martial Arts Trilogy performance led by Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun, who will lead the orchestra though the scores of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Hero" and "The Banquet."

Some might be surprised to hear that LA music force Ozomatli, too, have signed on for a performance in late August. Also on the radar are the rock-band tribute shows featuring the music of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, as well as Neil Diamond -- that's a Super Diamond show.

Summer Pops conductor Matthew Garbutt, however, said he's looking forward to the Music of James Bond performance, with special guest Josie Jones, one of Bacharach's favorite singers. Garbutt, who has been with the symphony for 30 years, said he has worked with Garfunkel before.

"That was really fun. He's a great artist and a wonderful man ... might be eight or nine years ago," Garbutt said. "He's a lot of fun to work with."

Garbutt's looking forward to Ozomatli, too.

"That's a one-night only -- that's going to be really unique," Garbutt said. "That's a lot of fun for the orchestra to do things like that."

Garfunkel and Wynonna are in good musical company -- in the past, such other stars as LeAnn Rimes, Gladys Knight, Ricky Skaggs, Aaron Neville and Mary Wilson of the Supremes have performed with the Summer Pops in San Diego

Subscription sales began in mid-February for the 10-week long series of performances that run from the 4th of July through Labor Day Weekend. Still, there's 2,700 seats or so available for all the performances, so there are plenty of tickets left -- everything from the the high end Champagne seats (which Wolfgang Puck caters) to the lawn (typically $20 or less), where families can bring in a picnic.

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