San Diego History

Mainly Mozart 2006 Launch Announced

Officials from Mexico, Austria and San Diego Present
By Mark S. Burgess
Posted on Oct 17 2005
Last updated Oct 20 2005

(from left) Nancy Bojanic, Jessie Knight, Reint

Reinders, Pam Slater-Price (at the podium),

Jorge Hank Rhon and Peter Katz

Copyright©2005 sandiego.com, Inc.

In 2006, the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart turns 250 and San Diego turns into Austria West. At least that's what the Mainly Mozart organization, San Diego County Supervisors Slater and Horn and 64 arts and educational organizations intend. Monday evening, October 17, representatives of civic organizations from San Diego, Tijuana and Austria and interested parties gathered at the Lyceum Theater in Horton Plaza for an introduction to next year's celebration.

To get an immediate grasp of the extent of the celebrations, a few numbers:

• 64 arts and education organizations
• 270 individual events
• 140,000 paid attendees
• 114,000 children participating

By any measure, those figures add up to a major event for San Diego.

Speaking at Monday's event were Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, Chairwoman of the 2006 Celebration Committee; San Diego Chamber of Commerce CEO Jessie Knight and San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau CEO Reint Reinders who are both on the Steering Committee along with the Mayor of the City of Tijuana the Hon. Jorge Hank Rhon; Nancy Bojanic, Executive Director of Mainly Mozart; and Peter Katz, the Director of the Western USA Austrian Tourist Office Inc. (It was pointed out that the Tijuana Mayor and the Austrian representative both speak three languages: English, German and Spanish.)

The Mayor of Tijuana

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Originally, Supervisor Pam Slater-Price thought the occasion warranted bringing the Salzburg celebration (Mozart's birthplace) to San Diego. When she broached this idea to her longtime friend Nancy Bojanic (pronounced "boy-ahneech", Executive Director of Mainly Mozart, Nancy persuaded her that San Diego already had the resources and the interest to create a major celebration on its own. So, they started the planning process. "Mozart was kind enough to be born in January," Supervisor Slater-Price said, "and to die in December, giving us a good excuse to celebrate his life for an entire year."

As Peter Katz quipped after his introduction from the evening's MC, Supervisor Slater-Price, "...it took a dead Austrian to bring us all together in San Diego.

The celebration is modeled after the Salzburg Festival with events to take place every month of the year in concert halls, museums, streets and even the dressage arena. The festivities opens on January 1 at the San Diego Symphony with a "Salute to Vienna". "We started planning this far enough in advance," said Nancy Bojanic, "that theme could be incorporated into everyone's schedules, no extra programming was required to include all of these organizations."

Mainly Mozart Board Chair Chris Weil

and Executive Director Nancy Bojanic

Copyright©2005 sandiego.com, Inc.

There are plans for a street festival in Little Italy and one sponsored by County Supervisor Horn in Fallbrook. Concerts and galas in Mexico and San Diego. The Spotlight series of concerts follows through the Spring. The annual Mozart Festival held by Mainly Mozart in June will be expanded both in length and numbers of performances. And this year, Bojanic reported, the musicians of the festival orchestra and conductor David Atherton will be appearing bedecked in wigs, ruffled shirts, short pants and tights just as the performers were in Mozart's day. "We are more than fun and sun, " said CVB CEO Reinders, "but a city of arts and culture as well."

As depicted in greater detail on the Mainly Mozart 2006 Celebrations web site, events continue on throughout the year with performances from groups as diverse as the San Diego Actors Alliance and Orquesta de Baja California; City Ballet and the Reuben H Fleet Science Center; Sinfónica Juvenil de Tijuana and Lamb's Players Theatre. The year culminates as it started with a performance by the San Diego Symphony of Mozart's Messiah. Pointing out that San Diego has a rich creative and cultural environment to compete with the negative news regarding the city's finances, Chamber CEO Jessie Knight said "We can feed our souls with great culture and music."

Following the formal presentations, the gathering adjorned to the lobby of the Lyceum to sip champagne to harp music, discuss the coming celebration and browse the tables of literature from many of the presenting organizations.

"A year ago, we were hopeful to include 20 organizations in this effort," said Mainly Mozart Executive Bojanic, "Today we have 65 on board and growing." The year long festival is shaping up to be a world class event, a mirror of the Salzburg even with a Southwestern flavor to it.

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Comments

Posted by Chase	February 9, 2006
Hello: Our daughter & her husband are coming to your area after they come back for their cruise from San Diego on March 4th. I was telling them about Horton Plaza & your great city where they will be needing a hotel room for that 1 night. Perhaps you office can provide some information near Horton Plaza hotels that are reasonnably priced and within walking distance to some of the local attractions. I am a travel agent here in Vancouver, but I do not have any current information on San Diego to give them. Please advise what information you have and/or what web site we can go to, in order to look at it. Thank you. Chase Gold, ABC International Travel

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