Sonic Realms Mingle Series @ Mingei | CAMARADA in San Diego

Enjoy stellar chamber music at the reopened, remodeled museum in their extraordinary new theatre in the heart of Balboa Park. CAMARADA to continue their adventure as Artists-In-Residence @ MINGEI INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM.

music at the crossroads of culture and imagination

music by Jake Heggie, Philip Glass, Fikret Amirov and Franghiz Ali-Zadeh

flute, string quartet, piano

Beth Ross Buckley, flute

David Buckley, violin

Batya MacAdam-Somer, violin

Travis Maril, viola

Ruslan Biryukov, cello

Dana Burnett, piano

Step into a world where sound knows no borders. Sonic Realms invites you on a vibrant journey through music that is deeply rooted in tradition yet boldly reimagined. This program features flute, strings and piano, woven together in an exhilarating fusion of classical form, folk rhythm, and global color.

Whether drawn from distant lands or reimagined traditions, this is music that pulses with spirit and surprise. Sonic Realms is not just a concert - it’s a vivid celebration of music’s power to transcend place, time, and genre.

Oyan! -

solo cello

Full Circle Fifty –

flute, cello, piano

Annunciation – Philip Glass

string quartet & piano

Pieces – Fikret Amirov

flute, piano
1. Bardenweise
2. Wiegenlied
3. Ander Quelle
4. Nocturne

Mugam-Sayagi -

string quartet

is a dynamic chamber music collective committed to elevating and enriching the San Diego community and beyond through phenomenal performances that ignite powerful connections between audiences, artists, and music. Guided by its mission to engage diverse audiences through visionary programming, Camarada champions living composers, commissions new music, and curates artistic experiences that illuminate both the traditional and the unexpected.

Founded in 1994, Camarada continues to define the San Diego musical landscape with invigorating performances of chamber masterworks and innovative cross-genre collaborations. Now in its fourth decade, Camarada is proud to serve as Resident Artists at both La Jolla Music Society and the Mingei International Museum, presenting programs that pair world-class musicians with intimate, art-filled spaces that deepen the concert experience.

A hallmark of Camarada’s artistic identity is The Camarada Tango Quartet, an ensemble that explores the passion, virtuosity, and cultural richness of tango through both classic repertoire and new commissions. With boundary-pushing collaborations, groundbreaking recording projects, and performances spanning traditional stages to immersive environments, The Camarada Tango Quartet embodies the ensemble’s commitment to innovation and artistic excellence.

Across all its work, Camarada remains dedicated to creating musical encounters that inspire, surprise, and resonate—inviting audiences into a shared journey of artistry, connection, and discovery.

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The Mingei International Museum offers insightful exhibitions as well as an on-site restaurant, Artifact Café. Both the museum and the café will be open prior to the start of each concert and will stay open until 8:00 pm. Admission to the Mingei International Museum is included in the purchase of your ticket to a Mingle@Mingei concert.
Please note that dinner reservations are required to dine at Artifact Café. The café also includes a bar with open seating.
For more information on the Mingei International Museum, please click here.
For more information on Artifact Café or to make a reservation, please click here.
For parking information, please click here.

Info: The title of this work literally means “Awaken!” in Azerbaijani. Yet the word conveys far more than a simple call to wakefulness. It may also be understood as “Come to yourself! Be courageous! Rebel!”—a summons to a new day, to good deeds, or even to an act of heroism. Its precise meaning depends on the inflection of speech and the surrounding context. By choosing one of these meanings, the performer gives the word a personal expression. The composition offers the performer numerous possibilities for free interpretation.

Info: Jake Heggie is a really imaginative composer and in this substantial work for flute, cello and piano he uses all the colouring of the instruments to give each of the four movements their individual character. The flowing piano accompaniment in 'Golden' underpins the gentle lines of the melody instruments, whilst 'Travel Travail' is much more angular. Busy parts for everyone and great use of glissandi combine to fully reflect the angst of a journey. 'Hummingbird' is marked 'gently swaying' and the static one-note piano part allows strange harmonies to evolve above. 'Full Circle' is full of notes and brings the work to a virtuoso close. This is an unusual piece which is contemporary but without real dissonance and it would make a really good addition to any flute and cello recital.

Info: The work is in two parts. The Part One opens with a meditative chromatic chord progression which eventually leads to the first entrance of the chant first stated in the piano. Glass develops this beautiful theme as it is shared by the various members of the quintet culminating in an opulent neo-romantic closing section recapping the introductory chromatic chord progression. A partial restatement of the theme ends the movement with a brooding D minor coda. Part Two is a poignant musical meditation on Part One revealing Glass's innate ability to connect the transcendental ethos of the original chant with his own spacious approach to musical time. A particularly expressive section features the piano in soaring sparse octave melody over undulating eighth notes in the violin and cello. The work ends with an increasingly energetic and ecstatic 7/8 coda based on the opening chant transformed into scale passages that ascend and dissipate into a pianissimo chromatic flourish.

Info: Fans of Sofia Gubaidulina will enjoy the music of a woman composer from another one of the former Soviet republics. Franghiz Ali-Zadeh was born in Azerbaijan. Studying at the Baku Conservatory, she became a masterful pianist, and introduced fellow Azerbaijanis to progressive or even avant-garde music that was unknown in the republic at the time. She was a pupil of composer Kara Karayev, who urged her to take a more conservative route in her own compositions. Fortunately, she did not take his advice, and while she was in her twenties, she wrote in a style that reflected her interest in what was going on in the US and in Western Europe. Mugam Sayagi, written in 1993 for the Kronos Quartet. An English translation might be "in the style of a mugam." (Mugam is a highly characteristic genre of Azerbaijani folk music). Mugam Sayagi contrasts two different style of music. One is contemplative. The other is militant, and, in its use a scale unfamiliar to Western ears, disorienting...

Info: Nazim Hajiyev is an Azerbaijani painter, art director, and muralist. Born in Azerbaijan, he is a visionary production designer and scenographer with a career spanning more than four decades.

In his early years, Nazim Hajiyev completed his studies in Azerbaijan in scenic artist and painter, and from a young age he held a strong interest in art. He continued his artistic life as a film at the Azerbaijan State Cinema and as the chief painter on various films. In 1988, he served as the chief painter on the film "Naughty," shot in Baku, which was ranked among the world's top 35 films. In 1991, he was awarded the Azerbaijan State Prize.

With a solid foundation in fine arts and a passion for visual storytelling, he has defined the look and feel of numerous award-winning films and international productions. His practice unites cinema and spatial design, positioning him as a uniquely influential creative force across both screen and built environments.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, San Diego, United States

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