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Premieres Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025 at 8 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream with KPBS+. Enjoy Tchaikovsky's holiday classic set in Edwardian-era London. Clara embarks on a fantastical adventure with her enchanted nutcracker, featuring over 100 dancers and a magical, dreamlike realm. Choreographed by Aaron S. Watkin and Arielle Smith.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a long list of accomplishments, many of them progressive. In the race for New York City mayor, that experience hasn't given him the boost he wanted.

President Trump lavished praise on New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as the two met for the first time in the Oval Office after a history of trading political insults.

With job losses, food benefit reductions and higher prices, many in the U.S. are having to scrimp this holiday season.

Sensors and artificial intelligence help a prosthetic hand act more like a natural one, new research shows.

Buckingham Palace said the king's brother will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and not as a prince, and he will move from his Royal Lodge residence into "private accommodation."

This tiny disc of zinc with just a smidge of copper has played an outsized role in our national (and international) discourse. The U.S. Mint ended production of the one-cent coin last week.

Superstar cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia returns to open our season with a dreamy duo program of French sonatas, unique transcriptions, and Stravinsky’s "Suite Italienne" (adapted from his ballet "Pulcinella"). Cañón-Valencia is a BBC Next Generation Artist and Tchaikovsky Competition silver medalist; his skill is hailed by The Strad as “technically flawless … totally under the skin of the composers’ idioms.” Program: Henri Duparc (1848–1933) - Lamento from "Melodies" Claude Debussy (1862–1918) - Cello Sonata Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) - “Posthume” Sonata Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) - "Suite Française" - "Pause" - "Ravel" - "Pavane pour une infante défunte" - "Pièce en forme de Habanera" Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) - "Suite Italienne" Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia is a prolific soloist, composer, commissioner, recording artist, painter, and photographer. A 2022 BBC New Generation Artist, he was born in Bogotá in 1995 and made his debut with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá at age six before going on to win the Silver Medal at the 2019 XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition, the 2018 Starker Foundation Award, third prize at the 2017 Queen Elisabeth International Competition, and first prize at the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition, among many other accolades. During the 2025–2026 season, Cañón-Valencia takes on an international schedule, including solo recitals in Spain and Portugal, a performance with the Macedonian Philharmonic, and a seat on the jury for the Budapest International Cello Competition. In the United States, he performs with the Kansas City Symphony, Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, and Camerata Pacifica. He also appears in recitals with pianist Victor Asuncion at Stanford and in La Jolla. His Latin American schedule takes him to the Puerto Rico Symphony, the Festival de Música de Morelia in Mexico, and the Cartagena Music Festival in Colombia. Cañón-Valencia’s solo career has taken him worldwide, with multiple world and regional premieres. In 2025–2026, he premieres Amparo Angel’s Cello Concerto at the Morelia Festival in Mexico. Previously, he performed World premieres, including Carlos Andrés Mejía’s cello concerto “Aurora” at Colombia’s Pereira Music Fest, Jorge Pinzón’s cello concerto “Rapsodia a los 4 Elementos” at the Cartagena International Music Festival, and Carlos Izcaray's commissioned cello concerto Stringmaster with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. In 2024, Cañón-Valencia released his debut single on Deutsche Grammophon, a recording of Arvo Pärt’s Fratres with pianist Naoko Sonoda. Two additional singles will follow. He has recorded four additional complete albums, the most recent being "Ascenso on Sono Luminus" (2022). Cañón-Valencia has been sponsored by the Mayra & Edmundo Esquenazi Scholarship through the Salvi Foundation since 2011. Learn more at www.santiagocanonvalencia.com. Hailed by the Washington Post for his “poised and imaginative playing,” Filipino American pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion has appeared in concert halls in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey, and the United States as a recitalist and concerto soloist. He made his orchestral debut at age 18 with the Manila Chamber Orchestra and his New York recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In addition, he has worked with conductors including Sergio Esmilla, Enrique Batiz, Mei Ann Chen, Zeev Dorman, Arthur Weisberg, Corrick Brown, David Loebel, Leon Fleisher, Michael Stern, Jordan Tang, and Bobby McFerrin. A chamber music enthusiast, he has performed with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Andres Diaz, James Dunham, Antonio Meneses, Joshua Roman, Cho-Liang Lin, Giora Schmidt, and the Dover, Emerson, Serafin, Sao Paulo, and Vega String Quartets. He was a member of the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Summer Music Festival. He was also the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet for three seasons. Festival appearances include the Amelia Island, Highland-Cashiers, Music in the Vineyards, and Santa Fe. His recordings include the complete Beethoven Sonatas with cellist Tobias Werner, Sonatas by Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff with cellist Joseph Johnson, the Rachmaninoff Sonata with cellist Evan Drachman, and the Chopin and Grieg Sonatas, also with cellist Evan Drachman. He is featured on the award-winning recording "Songs My Father Taught Me" with Lynn Harrell, produced by Louise Frank and WFMT-Chicago. Asuncion is the founder and artistic and board director of FilAm Music Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to promoting Filipino classical musicians through scholarship and performance. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts in 2007 from the University of Maryland at College Park under the tutelage of Rita Sloan. He is a Steinway artist. All concerts are preceded by a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m. and are followed by a reception with the artists in the Sharon & Joel Labovitz Entry Hall. Athenaeum Music & Arts Library on Facebook / Instagram

DaCosta has directed blockbusters like Candyman and The Marvels. Her latest is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 1891 play, Hedda Gabler, recasting the main character as a queer, mixed-race Black woman.

Join us for the first edition of MCASD’s new program series, "Artist on Artist," featuring artist Esteban Cabeza de Baca (whose work, "Long Lost Relationship," is currently on view in Land and Sea) and artist Heidi Howard. Presented with Two Rooms, this program takes place ahead of the artists’ exhibition opening of "Visions for Civic Gardens." "Artist on Artist" brings two creative minds together for an intimate conversation, where artists explore each other’s methods, practices, and inspirations. Through dialogue, they uncover shared themes, unique approaches, and the stories behind their work, offering audiences a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the artistic process. Program: 5:30 p.m.: Doors Open 6 p.m.: Introductions 6:10 p.m.: Talk with Esteban Cabeza de Baca and Heidi Howard begins 7 p.m. – 9p.m.: Visions for Civic Gardens Exhibition Opening at Two Rooms. OFFSITE: 5560 La Jolla Blvd. Floor 2, Suite D, San Diego, CA 92037 (7 minute drive) About the artists: Esteban Cabeza de Baca Esteban Cabeza de Baca (he/they/him) (b. 1985, San Ysidro, California) is an American painter of Mexican and Native American heritage who lives and works between Queens, New York, and the Southwest United States. He numbers among his influences San Ysidro, the liminal border town of his youth, and his parents, whose intersectional political awareness and respect for human dignity led them to shelter migrants during his youth. Cabeza de Baca’s work entwines layers of graffiti, landscape, and pre-Columbian pictographs in ways that confound Cartesian single-point perspective. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Art, Cooper Union (2010) and Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University (2014). He has had solo exhibitions at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (2025); Parker Gallery, Los Angeles (2024); Garth Greenan Gallery, New York (2023); The Momentary, Arkansas (2022); Boers-Li Gallery, New York (2019); and Kunstfort Vijfhuizen, Amsterdam (2019). He has participated group exhibitions at MCA San Diego, California (2025); Museo Del Barrio, New York (2024); Armory Center for Arts, Pasadena (2023); the Drawing Center, New York (2019). Cabeza de Baca’s works are part of the permanent collections of Harvard University, the North Dakota Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Parrish Art Museum, Phoenix Art Museum and Williams College Museum of Art. Heidi Howard Heidi Howard (She/They) is an American artist born, raised, and currently based in Queens, New York. Howard’s work extends the legacy of New York painting looking from Alice Neel to the Abstract Expressionists. In Howard’s performances and installations, color engages space through gesture, marking a specific point in time and way of cultural and community-based engagement. The core of their practice stems from portraits painted with a sitter in the room. Their process and style changes with each person, reflecting the color feelings of both Howard and the sitter, their shared aesthetics, environment, and the images that emerge over the course of the sitting. Howard’s work has been exhibited across the United States and Europe. Their first monograph "Colors make us do vibrant deeds!" was released in 2024 and will be on view this fall at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam as part of the year’s Best Dutch Book Designs. @heidihoward About Two Rooms Gallery: Two Rooms is an artist-run gallery and project space founded by Lizzie Zelter in January 2023. Two Rooms works with artists engaged in contemporary practices in the San Diego / Tijuana bi-national region dedicated to experimentation, critical thinking, and the creative process. About "Visions for Civic Gardens": Esteban Cabeza de Baca and Heidi Howard August 29 - October 4 Book a visit to see the Two Rooms exhibition here. Two Rooms is proud to present "Visions for Civic Gardens," a two-person exhibition featuring Esteban Cabeza de Baca (b. 1985, San Ysidro, CA) and Heidi Howard (b. 1986, Queens, NY). Expanding upon the traditions of landscape painting and portraiture, Cabeza de Baca and Howard challenge conventional representations of place and personhood. Working both in their shared studio and directly within the natural environments they depict, the artists center collaborative and ecological approaches to artmaking. They have been creating alongside one another for over a decade after meeting in 2012 at Columbia University’s MFA program. Cabeza de Baca’s practice intertwines temporalities, histories, and cultural narratives. Incorporating plein-air painting with material experimentation, his paintings and sculptures reveal multiple dimensions of landscapes that are both observed and imagined. Howard is primarily a live portrait painter, channeling her sitters’ spirits into bright colors and wild patterns. She connects with her sitters through shared memories, conversations, and ideas. Howard then lets these conjured perceptions and associations guide her paintings. In "Visions for Civic Gardens," Cabeza de Baca and Howard share paintings and sculptures that reimagine San Diego’s past and future landscapes. Their work envisions a borderless city where humans and plants coexist and flourish. Drawing on both art historical references and contemporary political concerns, the artists explore the garden as a space of shared resources and civic possibility. Their paintings present speculative infrastructures that include outdoor activations, public restrooms, communal living spaces, and plant houses. Many works are influenced by Niki de Saint Phalle’s sculpture parks and her ethos as a feminist, activist, and collaborator with her partner, Jean Tinguely. Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego on Facebook / Instagram