SAN DIEGO – After 16 long months, live music returned Sunday afternoon to the Spreckels Organ Pavilion at Balboa Park.
There will yet again be live free concerts every Sunday at 2 p.m. to hear the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world.
“But then our civic organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez pointed out that it’s also the largest outdoor musical instrument of any kind in the world,” said Jean Samuels, Spreckels Organ Society President.
“We love it, they love it too, the younger ones,” said audience member Haydee Salas.
“It was exciting to see that he was maybe going to do some West Side Story,” said audience member Gina Abbiate.
The return of live music was not only enjoyed by audience members, but also by performers who have been waiting to play at the pavilion once again.
“I also have some very romantic, thick stuff at the end that is so loud even the monkeys in the zoo are going to dance to it, so there is a little bit of eveything for everybody on every concert and every Sunday’s different,” said civic organist Raul Ramirez.
Sunday afternoon’s concert was the first live show hosted at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion since March 2020.
Instead, they’ve been working overtime to bring music online.
“We came at night when there was nobody around without notice, so we don’t have a crowd gathering,” Ramírez said. “We would close the perimeters, seven cameras, six microphones, and play. Instead of one hour I would play for three hours.”