San Diego Opera Announces $4.5 Million Gift from Irwin Jacobs for Joan & Irwin Jacobs San Diego Symphony & San Diego Opera Collaboration Fund

San Diego Opera Announces Transformative $4.5 Million Gift from Irwin Jacobs  to Establish the Joan and Irwin Jacobs San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera Collaboration Fund

The fund, supported by Joan* and Irwin Jacobs will support the ongoing collaboration between San Diego Opera and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra

SAN DIEGO (Jan. 8, 2026) – San Diego Opera, one of San Diego’s leading arts organizations, is honored to announce a $4.5 million landmark commitment from Irwin Jacobs, renowned local philanthropist and steadfast supporter of the San Diego arts community. The gift to San Diego Opera will support the collaboration of San Diego Opera and the San Diego Symphony and will be donated over the course of three years. It will serve to strengthen and elevate the company’s artistic partnership with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. 

For more than 20 years, the San Diego Opera and San Diego Symphony Orchestra have partnered in bringing high-quality, innovative opera productions to the San Diego community. The Joan and Irwin Jacobs San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera Collaboration Fund will support expanding the collaborative work between the two institutions, ensuring that audiences across the region continue to experience opera of the highest artistic caliber with great opera singers and with the world-class San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

“Dr. Jacobs’ extraordinary generosity reflects his ongoing deep belief in the power of the performing arts and importance of partnerships that enrich our community,” said David Bennett, Joann Clark General Director and CEO of San Diego Opera. “The gift not only furthers our artistic visions, but advances a model of collaboration that is essential to the future of the arts in San Diego.” 

The newly established fund will strengthen the commitment between the two organizations, ensuring that the Symphony will continue to play for opera productions at the San Diego Civic Theatre and other venues. The fund will expand opportunities for collaborative ventures, support artistic planning, and reinforce the long-standing relationship between San Diego Opera and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

“I am pleased to support San Diego Opera with this gift,” said Irwin Jacobs. “Both San Diego Opera and the San Diego Symphony were very important to my late wife Joan, and I am delighted to be able to carry on her philanthropic vision with a gift to the Opera to benefit these two remarkable cultural institutions. The performing arts are vital to making San Diego a great place to live, and the outstanding collaboration between the Opera and the Symphony make both organizations stronger and better.”

San Diego Opera’s 2025–2026 Season is currently underway, featuring the San Diego Symphony Orchestra performing at all three productions. The season kicked off with Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, which the San Diego Union-Tribune hailed as “artfully staged” and “gorgeously conducted.” Upcoming mainstage productions at the San Diego Civic Theatre include Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (Feb. 13-15) and Bizet’s Carmen (March 27-29). This summer, San Diego Opera also presents the Southern California premiere of Fellow Travelers (July 10-12), the “seductively beautiful” (Opera Magazine) tale of forbidden romance between government workers Timothy Laughlin and Hawkins Fuller during the “Lavender Scare” of the 1950s McCarthy era. The San Diego Symphony Orchestra will accompany that opera as well.

To support San Diego Opera and learn more, please visit sdopera.org. 

ABOUT SAN DIEGO OPERA 

Founded in 1965, San Diego Opera has delivered exceptional performances and inspiring educational programs to a wide audience in San Diego for 60 seasons, with a strong focus on community partnerships and the transformative and expressive power of the human voice.  With a commitment to innovative storytelling, lifelong learning and engagement, and an awareness of great music’s power to bring audiences together, San Diego Opera provides a lasting cultural service to its community. To learn more, please visit www.sdopera.org or follow @sandiegoopera on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

* In memoriam