Department of Music Concert and Event Listing
UC San Diego Department of Music concerts are open to both internal and external audiences. All guests are requested to RSVP for all concerts, as listed: music.ucsd.edu/tickets.
Learn more about the University's Indoor Event Requirements.
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Summer with Stuart: Westwind Brass
Thursday, July 23rd, 2026 6:00 pm
Sun God Lawn
Free. Open to the Public.
More information: UC San Diego Events Calendar
July 23: Sun God, Manny Cepeda + Westwind Strings & Brass
We’ve never done this before — and that’s exactly the point: For one electrifying hour, strings, brass, and the irresistible Manny Cepeda come together for a brand-new program of salsa, rhythm, and pure Latin joy. Sábor means flavor, and this concert has it in abundance. Cepeda — one of San Diego’s most beloved Latin musicians — leads a combined ensemble of Westwind string and brass players through salsa, cumbia, bolero, and cha-cha: forms rooted in Cuba, Colombia, and Puerto Rico and built on syncopated rhythm and call-and-response. The strings, unusual in a Latin dance band, lend lush warmth beneath the brass’s punch and swagger — the full sound of the great Tito Puente–era orchestras. The Sun God lawn's open footprint gives the music room to move.
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Check out the band in advance: Listen to Manny Cepeda on his website
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Location: Sun God in Google Maps
Additional Description:
View Google Map | Add to Google Calendar
Summer with Stuart: Hornswoggle
Thursday, July 30th, 2026 6:00 pm
Sun God Lawn
Free. Open to the Public.
More information: UC San Diego Events Calendar
July 30: La Jolla Project, Hornswoggle
Thirty French horns gather at dusk at the La Jolla Project - and the results are elemental. Hornswoggle is one of the few ensembles in the country performing at this scale, and the French horn genuinely sounds better outdoors than in any hall. Thirty players spread across the grounds, dispersing the sound so it surrounds you rather than faces you - hunting calls and fanfares dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, hymn-like chorales and folk songs that bloom across horns in unison, and contemporary works written for the spatial possibilities of many horns in open air. Against the backdrop of La Jolla Project, it becomes a glorious, soaring wall of brass rolling into the sky.
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Check out the band in advance: Listen to Hornswoggle on their website
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Location: La Jolla Project in Google Maps
Additional Description:
View Google Map | Add to Google Calendar
Summer with Stuart: Chamber Orchestra
Thursday, August 6th, 2026 6:00 pm
Bear
Free. Open to the Public.
More information: UC San Diego Events Calendar
August 6: Bear, Chamber Orchestra
The Second Summer with Stuart ends the only way it could - with everyone on stage, Handel in the air, and Bear hearing Water Music for the very first time. Handel wrote Water Music in 1717 to be played outdoors, from a barge on the River Thames for King George I - one of the earliest masterpieces written for the open air. Three hundred years later, the combined forces of our summer series bring it back where it belongs: beside Tim Hawkinson’s granite boulder Bear, under a summer sky. Roughly twenty musicians - strings, brass, and winds drawn from every ensemble of the season, many of them former San Diego Chamber Orchestra players - gather for the full sweep of Handel’s suites: stately overtures, graceful minuets, and spirited hornpipes.
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Location: Bear in Google Maps
Additional Description:
View Google Map | Add to Google Calendar
Most Department of Music events are general admission, FREE and open to the public. Ticketed performances are listed above and available for sale online or via the Music Box Office: (858) 534-3448.
Maps: to the Conrad Prebys Music Center pdf / Google Maps Link
ACCESSIBILITY:
1. If you require special assistance or adaptive services, I.e. audio description, captioning/sign language interpreting, listening devices, and or locating the accessible entrances/exits, please notify Jessica Flores (j3flores@ucsd.edu) immediately so we can arrange for the services to be in place.
2. The UC San Diego campus is an Aira Access Location. To read more about the Aira service, please visit osd.ucsd.edu/resources/aira.html.
PLEASE NOTE: NO LATE SEATING. Guests arriving late may be turned away or will be asked to enter between pieces.
In an effort to conserve resources and reduce paper waste, we post our event programs as electronic documents on this page (see listings). If you are not at a computer, you can easily access this page by scanning the QR code at right (for iPhones we recommend using the built-in camera app). Programs for past events dating back to October 2008 are available in our events archive with links below.
PLEASE NOTE: As an experimental and new music department, much of our music is very intimate and quiet, for this reason, we request that students preparing concert reports refrain from writing or rustling papers during events. We also respect the artistry of our musicians and adhere to a strict policy of NO LATE SEATING. Guests arriving late may be turned away or will be asked to enter between pieces.
Please Note: The Department of Music does not take responsibility for the content of external websites, Facebook pages, and other outside UC San Diego sites.
Copies of events performed by the faculty and students of UC San Diego Department of Music are available for educational use only by the performers, composers and faculty involved in the event pursuit to all applicable copyright laws. View our Dubbing Policy for more information.
We hope that you will join us in upholding and promoting our Principles of Community in all UC San Diego events and keeping our community free from any and all forms of discrimination and harassment.
View events only for these locations:
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall | Recital Hall | Experimental Theater | Mandeville Auditorium
View Event Archives:
2025/26 2024/25 2023/24 2022/23 2021/22 2020/21 2019/20 2018/19 2017/18 2016/17 2015/16 2014/15 2013/14 2012/13 2011/12 2010/11 2009/10 2008/09 2007/08 2006/07