San Diego's Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez is teaming up with his wife, concert pianist Maria Teresa Sierra, for a free performance at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion on August 24 at 7:30 PM, bringing their Barcelona-born organ-and-piano duet act to Balboa Park. The pair, who perform together as Duo MusArt Barcelona, met at a music festival two decades ago and now have a 3-year-old daughter named Alicia.
According to CBS 8, the couple's music-making is inseparable from their marriage. “Music is everything for both of us,” Prieto Ramírez told the outlet, adding that he and Sierra still argue while rehearsing because, in his words, music is serious business. Sierra, for her part, described the emotional stakes of performing together, saying that music involves sharing emotions and telling a story.
Duo MusArt Barcelona was formed in 2007 by the husband-and-wife pair to build a classical concert team that blends organ and piano, a rare instrumentation pairing they later documented on a dedicated duets album for Brilliant Classics, according to Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists. Sierra trained classically at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia, and now runs a private teaching studio in between international duet tours, per the Spreckels Organ Society.
A Civic Organist With a Global Résumé
Prieto Ramírez was appointed San Diego's eighth Civic Organist and Artistic Director of the Spreckels Organ Society in December 2017, chosen unanimously by a search committee after previously becoming the first Organist-in-Residence at Spain's National Concert Hall in Madrid at age 27, according to The Diapason. San Diego has kept an official, municipally funded Civic Organist position continuously since 1917, a civic arrangement shared with only one other American city, Portland, Oregon, per KPBS.
The instrument Prieto Ramírez plays is no small thing. Built in 1914 by the Austin Organ Company, the Spreckels Organ carries 81 ranks and 5,098 pipes ranging from 7.5 inches to 32 feet long, along with nine built-in percussion instruments, KPBS reports. It stands as the largest open-air musical instrument in the world, per the seed CBS 8 report.
Free By Law Since 1915
Every concert staged at the pavilion is legally required to remain free and open to the public, a condition written into the original 1915 Deed of Gift when sugar magnates John D. and Adolph B. Spreckels donated both the organ and the pavilion structure to the city, according to the Spreckels Organ Society. That nonprofit was established in February 1988 to manage programming and preserve the instrument in partnership with the City of San Diego.
The Duo MusArt performance falls within the 38th San Diego International Summer Organ Festival, a nine-week run from July 13 through September 7 featuring artists from five nations in 90-minute Monday evening concerts without intermissions. The festival is billed as the largest free outdoor organ series in the United States, and this year's lineup features international artists performing a variety of musical styles, per the seed report.
Parking Politics Loom Over Balboa Park
Concertgoers heading to the pavilion this summer are navigating a newer wrinkle: paid parking across Balboa Park, instituted January 5, 2026. Free parking for up to three hours remains available at the Lower Inspiration Point lot with a complimentary shuttle to central park destinations including the pavilion, and parking across the park turns free after 6 p.m., per the Spreckels Organ Society.
The fee rollout has not gone unchallenged. In April, civic organizers launched a signature drive at the pavilion itself for the Balboa Park Fee Parking Restoration Act, seeking roughly 82,000 signatures to place a parking fee repeal before voters in November, as Hoodline reported. The petition drive, launched by former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey, unfolded on the same grounds where Duo MusArt will now perform.
Whatever the outcome of that political fight, the century-old promise of free admission to the organ pavilion itself remains untouched. For Prieto Ramírez and Sierra, the August 24 show is simply the latest chapter in a partnership that predates their daughter, their touring schedule, and even their disagreements over how a phrase should be played.
