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BE THERE!

• Renew subscriptions by May 1 to retain price guarantee and seating priority. Faculty and staff save 30 percent on series subscriptions and 25 percent on choose-your-own (CYO) subscription packages, plus 25 percent on series add-ons and 20 percent on CYO add-ons.
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The announced its 15th anniversary season over the weekend, another strong lineup from start (Los Tigres del Norte on Sept. 21) to finish (San Francisco Symphony, May 24 next year).

And there are all kinds of special treats in between, including Garrison Keillor the storyteller, jazz legends Chick Corea and Eddie Palmieri, the Boston Pops, a three-part tribute to Leonard Bernstein and the second year of the India in the Artist’s Eye Festival.

The new presenting program also includes family shows and holiday shows (St. Patrick's Day, for one), the With a Twist series (including the Reduced Shakespeare Company, performing William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged), and the Visions series, featuring “some of the most innovative artists working today in spaces that encourage engagement and discovery.”

The 2017-18 season — the center’s 16th overall — “furthers our tradition of bringing together established and emerging artists from diverse cultural backgrounds,” said Don Roth, executive director. “As we brought the season together, we sought out artists and thinkers who are doing some of the most interesting and creative work, both classic and contemporary, around the globe.”

A Latin vibe

The Norteño band Los Tigres del Norte from San Jose makes its Mondavi Center debut, launching one of the new season's distinct themes: Latin artists.

The center also welcomes stars of a new generation of Cuban artists: pianist Harold López-Nussa in a four-night run in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre; and Pedrito Martinez, percussionist and singer, leading his group in a studio theatre show that promises to raise the roof with musical joy.

Spain is represented by the Cristina Pato Quartet, with Pato on the bagpipes. Make that the gaita, as the instrument is called in her native Galicia in northwestern Spain, whose early inhabitants were Celtics — thus explaining the bagpipes. In Pato’s hands, the instrument is a melodic delight, merging traditions from jazz, classical and folk.

In a show for children and adults, the Los Angeles band Ozomatli presents Ozokidz — with songs about trees, animals, germs and even exercise, providing positive, hummable lessons on nature and parenting.

Finally, two Latin jazz titans bring their big bands to Jackson Hall: Arturo O’Farrill leads the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, one of the most acclaimed large ensembles working today; and Palmieri, pianist and bandleader who’s a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, celebrates his 80th birthday with a Latin jazz extravaganza.

Leonard Bernstein centennial

The Mondavi Center presents three shows celebrating the late pianist, composer and conductor, one of the most influential American musicians of the 20th century, during the centennial year of his birth.

• Pianist Lara Downes pairs Bernstein’s “Anniversaries for Piano” with a group of newly commissioned “Anniversaries” by modern composers.
• Jazz pianist and composer Bill Charlap revisits his 2004 album Somewhere, joined by his longtime trio and the vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant.
• Honoring one if its most successful students, the Curtis Institute of Music’s Chamber Ensemble will perform Bernstein’s Clarinet Sonata, played by David Shifrin.

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All that jazz

Besides the Bill Charlap concert, the Jackson Hall Jazz series includes:

• Drummer and composer Jack DeJohnette, celebrating his 75th birthday with a tour featuring John Scofield, John Medeski and Larry Grenadier.
• Pianist Corea sitting in with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, while Winton Marsalis sits out this tour.
• Terence Blanchard featuring the E-Collective.

Pianist Fred Hersch and clarinetist Anat Cohen perform in the Studio Jazz Series, sharing a musical conversation covering the history of modern jazz.

Dance, dance, dance

The centerpiece of Mondavi Center dance programming this season is the Compañía Nacional de Danza performing Johan Inger’s modern interpretation of Carmen over two performances.

Other dance programs:

• Dorrance Dance honors and revitalizes tap dancing through adventurous, accessible choreography.
• Circa brings a work firmly at the crossroads of cirque and modern dance, in Il Ritorno. (Circa also presents a family program, Carnival of the Animals).

So many pianists

A major thread in the forthcoming season is a surfeit of talented pianists. The Concert Series features three:

• Vladimir Feltsman in the first recital of a three-year project with the Mondavi Center, this time performing Bach, Haydn and Beethoven.
• Simone Dinnerstein, known for her interpretations of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” joins San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra in Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in G Minor and a new piano concerto by Philip Glass.
• Steven Hough joins the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet in works by Mozart, Poulenc and his own Trio for Piccolo, Bassoon and Piano.

Orchestras and soloists

• Daniil Trifonov plays his own piano concerto with the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev.
• The ever-expressive Charles Dutoit conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist on Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
• The San Francisco Symphony returns with David Robertson conducting Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist Kirill Gerstein.

India in the Artist’s Eye

This festival in its second year focuses on theater and dance, with Kudiyattam, a 2,000-year-old form of Sanskrit drama, and a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity honoree, leading the way. Devendra Sharma and Company bring Nautanki musical theatre to life with the story of Sultana Daku. And Canada’s inDANCE features traditional and modern versions of Indian dance forms.

American Heritage

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the musical heartbeat of New Orleans, performs with the Crescent City’s “Soul Queen,” Irma Thomas, whose recording of “Time Is On My Side” inspired the Rolling Stones.

The American Heritage lineup also includes:

• Leyla McCalla, who has deep Creole roots, and whose music modernizes French, Haitian and Creole traditions.
• The O’Connor Band with Mark O’Connor, mixing modern bluegrass with country and indie folk.

Speaking of the new season …

Keillor, former host of A Prairie Home Companion, returns to the Mondavi Center with a show titled “Just Passing Through,” taking his audience “on a journey to understanding love, modernity, nostalgia, politics, religion and all other resounding facets of daily life.”

Other speakers:

• Pete Souza, chief official White House photographer for Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, telling the story of the presidency through his iconic photos.
• Janet Mock, one of the most influential trans women and millennial leaders in America, author of the 2017-18 Campus Community Book Project, Redefining Realness.
• Author J.D. Vance, whose Hillbilly Elegy examines the struggle of growing up middle class in white, working-class America.

More highlights

• Alexander String Quartet — Performing works by Brahms, and Robert and Clara Schumann, in two series.
• Visions — Ballaké Sissoko (Malian kora master) and Vincent Ségal (French cellist), presenting Musique de Nuit; and Merima Ključo (Bosnian-born concert accordionist) and Miroslav Tadić (acclaimed guitarist of Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian origins), performing Aritmia.
• Family — IMAGO Theatre (La Bella, Lost in the World of the Automaton), MOMIX (Opus Cactus), Yamato drummers (Chousensha) and Cirque Éloize (Saloon).
• Holidays — American Bach Soloists (Messiah), The Hot Sardines (Holiday Stomp), and Danú and Beoga (St. Patrick’s Day).