Walk Balboa Park’s paths and you’ll encounter the bronzed statue of Castilian nobleman El Cid, south of the San Diego Museum of Art. Look for the century-old Moreton Bay Fig tree (trunk girth more than 490 feet), then swivel to take in the San Diego Zoo, home to clouded leopards and other vulnerable species. Bikers, joggers, and downward-doggers crowd the landscape. Climb the seven stories of the Museum of Man’s California Tower-which doubled as Xanadu in the 1941 film Citizen Kane-and you will gaze out over some 1,200 acres spread across three parallel mesas. “It’s what music is for.” A celebrated historyīalboa Park, named for Spanish explorer and conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa, is celebrating its 150th birthday this year by stepping out of the shadow cast by such celebrated greenswards as San Francisco’s Presidio and Boston’s (considerably smaller) Common. His goal, he tells me, is to jolt audiences “out of reality” and into a more connected sense of self-particularly young San Diegans. Finishing a 17th-century composition or Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” he spins around his bench, springs to his feet, and bows to a crowd of 800 or more. he performs an hour of harmonic hits from memory. Photographs by Michael George, National GeographicĪ bolt of energy from Barcelona, Ramírez brings a new dynamic to San Diego’s arts scene.
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