The upcoming performance will be notable even within Foreigner’s orchestral touring series. While most shows on the band’s orchestral run feature approximately twenty musicians backing the group, the San Diego performance will include 57 musicians from the San Diego Symphony, creating a dramatically expanded soundscape for the band’s catalog of arena rock classics.
That larger orchestra will add sweeping arrangements to songs that helped define the band’s decades-long career, including hits like “Cold as Ice,” “Feels Like the First Time,” “Hot Blooded,” and the power ballad “I Want to Know What Love Is.” With the Shell’s waterfront acoustics and the full orchestral complement, the concert promises to present Foreigner’s music in a scale rarely heard on the tour.
The show also arrives during a milestone moment for the band. Foreigner is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary tour, marking five decades since the group first emerged in the late 1970s and went on to become one of the best-selling rock acts in history.
The band is simultaneously performing a residency at The Venetian in Las Vegas, where it is currently in the middle of a limited run of shows across two weekends while continuing to tour with orchestras around the country.
For San Diego audiences, the combination of Foreigner’s catalog and a full symphonic arrangement performed by nearly sixty musicians could make this one of the most ambitious orchestral rock concerts staged at The Rady Shell since the venue opened.
Foreigner performs with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra on Friday, March 20 at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park in downtown San Diego. Tickets and additional information are available at the venue’s website.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit theshell.org/performances/foreigner-plus-sdso.
Originally published on March 11, 2026.
Originally published on March 11, 2026.
