San Diego Symphony extends Music Director Rafael Payare\u2019s contract through 2029<\/a><\/p>\nThis was followed by the 2021 opening of The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, the orchestra\u2019s $85 million outdoor concert venue alongside San Diego Bay, and the $163 million rebuilding of the symphony\u2019s indoor Jacobs Music Center, which reopened last fall after four years of redesign work and construction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was given an incredible opportunity when I came here because the leadership of the San Diego Symphony had big dreams,\u201d said Gilmer, who was previously the Chicago Symphony\u2019s Vice President for Artistic Planning and Audience Development.\u00a0\u201cWhat we have done would not be possible without the dreamers and the people who support the orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilmer was previously honored as one of Musical America\u2019s Top 30 Professionals of the Year\u202fin 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t usually give these honors to producers\/presenters\/impresarios,\u201d Musical America\u2019s Cohn said by phone Monday from New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething has happened in San Diego that hasn\u2019t happened at America\u2019s long-established musical institutions. Martha has moved your orchestra and its operations to a whole new level. Being a community resource is essential for a contemporary musical organization, and that is something Martha clearly understands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those sentiments are shared by Payare, whose international profile has risen since he began conducting the orchestra here. He is also the music director for the Montreal Symphony, a position he assumed in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so happy that Martha is receiving this recognition, as she is a truly visionary leader,\u201d Payare said Monday via email.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the very beginning of our partnership, she has worked tirelessly on behalf of the San Diego Symphony, constantly inspiring everyone within the organization through her remarkable leadership. No matter how complex a project may seem, with Martha, as soon as we are close to completing one, we immediately begin dreaming about the next\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cEven through the extraordinary challenges we have faced, including the pandemic, what the San Diego Symphony has achieved under her leadership is remarkable. Today, we have two world-class venues, and the orchestra is soaring artistically and receiving ever greater recognition. I am deeply proud and grateful to have partnered with Martha in serving this remarkable orchestra and the San Diego community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilmer\u2019s Musical America award is her latest honor. She was honored as the 2025 Director of the Year by the Corporate Directors Forum, named a\u202f2024 Cool Women honoree\u202fby the Girl Scouts of San Diego and received the\u202f2022 Moving San Diego Forward Award\u202ffrom the Regional Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to the next five years, Gilmer is working to have the San Diego Symphony do more recordings and tour abroad to grow its national and international reputation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s imperative that people, the stakeholders, feel included and that their ideas are heard,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is also critical that we are part of the fabric of this community. One of the things I\u2019m so proud of is that we take our music to people who cannot get to our stages. In just he past two weeks we have had some of our musicians perform at three San Diego medical facilities and at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do this all the time, not just the holiday season. Knowing that we are making a positive impact on people is inspiring to me and is crucial to what this orchestra does.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego Symphony President and CEO Martha Gilmer has been selected as Impresario of the Year by Musical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[53079,53078,53076,53077,74,76,75,25937],"class_list":["post-96859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-emanuel-ax","tag-impresario-of-the-year","tag-martha-gilmer","tag-musical-america","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-symphony"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sut-l-sdsymphony-payaregilmer.jpg\")
San Diego Symphony Music and Artistic Director Rafael Payare, left, and Symphony President and CEO Martha Gilmer have worked closely together since Payare came on board in 2019. (Todd Rosenberg)<\/p>\n