Mainly Mozart has announced the dates and program for its 38th All‑Star Orchestra Festival, set to take place June 17–27, 2026 in San Diego. The festival, recognized as North America's largest Mozart celebration, will bring together concertmasters and principal players from the nation's top orchestras for six performances under Music Director Michael Francis.
The first five concerts will be held at Baker‑Baum Concert Hall in The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, with the finale on June 27 at UC San Diego's Epstein Family Amphitheater. The All-Star Orchestra comprises musicians from prestigious ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. The full roster will be released in May.
For the first time in eight years, the 2026 season will feature a single concertmaster across all six concerts: David Kim of The Philadelphia Orchestra. In recent years, concertmaster duties were shared among multiple musicians. Nancy Laturno, Founding CEO of Mainly Mozart, stated that the festival reaffirms San Diego's status as a destination for world-class classical music, offering audiences both familiar and unexpected repertoire.
The soloist lineup includes acclaimed pianist Anne-Marie McDermott performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 on June 17; guitarist Mak Grgić in Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez on June 21; pianist Anton Nel in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 on June 23; and violinist James Ehnes in Schumann's Violin Concerto on June 25. Ehnes returns on closing night for Brahms's Double Concerto alongside cellist Robert DeMaine.
Ticket packages for 6, 4, or 2 concerts are available starting Feb. 15, 2026 at https://www.mainlymozart.org/allstar or by calling 619-239-0100. Single tickets range from $68–$155 at The Conrad and $25–$250 at Epstein Family Amphitheater.
The festival program includes works by Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Copland, Mendelssohn, Strauss, and others. Mainly Mozart, founded in 1988, also supports over 350 young musicians through its youth orchestra and string programs. In 2025, the festival joined the International Mozarteum Foundation's "Mozart Communities," one of only two in the U.S.
