The San Diego Symphony’s annual January Festival returns in its fourth year entitled, Hearing the Future. Throughout the festival, which runs January 9 - 27, the organization explores and celebrates the power of music and art to give voice to the evolution and revolutions in the world at large. The festival, curated by composer-conductor Matthew Aucoin (b.1990), will shine a spotlight on the music being made today – from composers and performers who are still in high school, to a 90-year-old jazz master. The festival will also explore the way music from the past — from Haydn, Beethoven and Berlioz to the creators of African-American spirituals — engaged with the most urgent issues of their time.

WERE YOU THERE, presented by the San Diego Symphony: America’s memory is short, fractured, and skewed; this week’s tragedy is last week’s forgotten hashtag. Were You There, a musical and theatrical meditation featuring Davóne Tines, takes up the task of strengthening our collective memory by gathering and channeling some of America’s most prescient voices, from the words and melodies of African-American spirituals to the poetry of Walt Whitman. It is an invitation to give voice to, and shed light on, the memory of the lives lost at the hands of racial injustice, in the hope that by illuminating past and recent tragedies, we understand better why they happened and ensure that we do not repeat them. Were You There was developed and premiered by American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), and is directed by AMOC’s co-artistic director, Zack Winokur.