If you think music from the medieval time period is boring, she wants you to think again

Early music — the kind defined as being from the medieval, Renaissance and Baroque time periods — reminded Pamela Narbona Jerez of home. As a girl growing up in Santiago, Chile, she sang in the choir at her all-girls Catholic school, continuing to sing and perform in this style of music after graduating.

“Then, I moved to the U.S. in my 20s, and the first thing I did was to try to find ensembles that did this music. The collaboration with the other singers was very moving to me. The soundscape sounds like home. I have other musical tastes outside of it, but I always return to it,” she says.

That return has included joining the San Diego Early Music Society, first as a volunteer board member, and currently as the organization’s executive director. The nonprofit, which was started in the 1980s, presents early music concerts that feature about half a dozen main performances each year, along with a solo series featuring another three to four concerts (their solo series for the 2025-26 season begins with Corina Marti and Michal Gondko on Jan. 18 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral). Their outreach program features primarily local musicians, workshops and community events that are free to the public by way of a grant from the city of San Diego. Most of the concerts take place at St. James by-the-S...