This weekend is packed with music, art and… even science. We've got the City Ballet presenting works by Balanchine, a pairing of science and music at the Salk Institute plus a band raised in National City. And it's your last chance to catch a nostalgic — and unsettling — exhibition at the Athenaeum.
City Ballet Of San Diego Presents 'Balanchine And More'
Dance
This weekend, the City Ballet of San Diego presents a program of Balanchine ballets alongside some other favorites, including Peter Martins' "Hallelujah Junction" and the Marius Petipa-inspired "Le Corsaire Pas de Deux."
Famed choreographer and founder of the New York City Ballet, George Balanchine is said to be one of the most influential choreographers in modern ballet. He worked from the late 1920s up until his death in the 1980s. The City Ballet will perform two of his works "Walpurgisnacht Ballet," which has music by Charles Gounod from the final act of the composer's "Faust" opera, and "Who Cares?" which is a piece set to music by George Gershwin.
Balanchine started working on this piece with Gershwin shortly before the composer's death, and then it took Balanchine another 33 years to finally choreograph the ballet, using 16 Gershwin songs. The piece includes such favorites as "Strike Up The Band," "Sweet and Lo Down," "Fascinatin' Rhythm" and, of course, "Who Cares?" The ballet, while choreographed in the late 1960s and premiered in 1970, evokes that 1920s Manhattan aesthetic.
Details: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Spreckels Theatre, 121 Broadway, Downtown; find tickets here.
The Salk Science And Music Series
Music
Held at the Salk Institute's Conrad T. Prebys Auditorium, these quarterly concerts pair a Salk scientist with some music. This Sunday, Dannielle Engle will give a talk for a general audience about her work with the Salk Cancer Center. Engle studies pancreatic cancer, trying to develop early detection and effective therapies by making miniature "organoids" in the lab.
Peppered with her research, audiences will hear music by pianist Karen Joy Davis and cellist Juliette Herlin, performing a wide repertoire of works: From Domenico Scarlatti sonatas to a Brahms rhapsody, from a series of Chopin dances to a dark and dynamic Rachmaninoff sonata.
Details: 4 p.m. Saturday. The Salk Institute's Conrad T. Prebys Auditorium, 10010 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla; find tickets here.
Los Shadows, Cones At Soda Bar
Music
Los Shadows plays at Soda Bar on Sunday night. They're performing with Los Angeles-based indie band Cones — who have a dreamy, indie sound — and Sugar World.
National City locals Los Shadows released their full-length album "NOT A Safe Space" last fall, and it's a great listen. Raised on rap and hip-hop, the band's singer and songwriter Andy Saldana discovered poetry through Nirvana in middle school. The band eventually landed on a style that pairs textured synth instrumentation with melodic vocal, and some of the tracks feel almost cinematic. The album — and "2:00 AM" in particular — feel fresh and strange while still being catchy with a total groove.
Details: 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights; find tickets here.
Closing Soon: Christine Oatman, 'Stories Of Innocence And Experience'
Visual Art
Saturday is your last chance to see a profound exhibition at the La Jolla Athenaeum. Longtime San Diego artist Christine Oatman's "Stories of Innocence and Experience" centers on altered midcentury children's books in a series of tableaux-style installations. It mimics vintage classrooms, with cardboard cutout children and actual classroom desks, furniture, toys and more, with the modified books — including a Curious George book about going into outer space, "The Steadfast Tin Soldier." By modifying these books and including more modern history — like the Vietnam War, September 11, animal cruelty and lockdown drills — she takes the rosy optimism of the 1950s and sheds light on it from the actual future.
The exhibition closes on Saturday, which coincides with the San Diego Architectural Foundation's free OH! tours this weekend, and the Athenaeum is a site on those tours. So be sure to include the Athenaeum in your tour plans on Saturday while the exhibition is still up.
Details: Christine Oatman's "Stories of Innocence and Experience" closes on Saturday, (museum hours are 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m). Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla; find more information here.
