Join Us for A Celebration of Rhythm & Sound!

This 2023 Cabrillo Festival season will be one of unparalleled energy, dynamism, and celebration with music by some of the world’s greatest composers and its most renowned soloists. We’ll present three thrilling percussion concerti and a brand new concerto for violin and double bass! Two amazing weeks will highlight the Festival’s commitment to artistic excellence, discovery, and community. World, U.S., and West Coast premieres will abound, along with Festival commissions. An incredible program of works by 17 composers–14 of whom will be in residence–will be brought to life by Music Director and Conductor Cristian M?celaru and our amazing Festival Orchestra. Audiences can experience the creative process almost daily through open rehearsals–enjoyed in-person at the Civic Auditorium or streamed live to wherever you are in the world!

A roster of international guest artists includes percussionists Colin Currie, Beibei Wang, Svet Stoyanov, and Matthew Strauss; and violinist Eunice Kim joins composer/bassist extraordinaire Xavier Foley for his world premiere commission. This season will also include a special memorial tribute to beloved Cabrillo Festival co-founder Robert Hughes who passed away in 2022; and a heartfelt send-off to longtime Executive Director Ellen Primack, who steps down from her role after 33 seasons.

Schedule:

Saturday, July 29, 2023

7:00pm: Donors Concert

Donors $500+ are invited to inaguarate our 61st season with this intimate concert performed by brilliant Cabrillo Festival musicians and followed by a reception.

In recognition of the important commitment made by our Annual Fund donors of $500 or more, we are thrilled to reprise our very special Donors Concert.  This intimate gathering allows a more personal opportunity for each of these talented artists to share more of themselves and their virtuosic playing. Cristi M?celaru and the Cabrillo Festival Board and Staff want to celebrate the extraordinary dedication of our patrons and our orchestra!

Tickets are not required for this event. There will be a welcome/check-in table for donors for $500 or more at the Civic Auditorium doors. You may make your donation any time until doors open!

Not sure of your current giving level? Give us a call at 831.426.6966, or send us an email!

PROGRAM

Featuring Cristi M?celaru and members of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra.

X Suite for Solo Violin, excerpts (2019)
Paul Wiancko (b. 1983)
Matt Albert, violin

Winter Spirits (1997)
Katherine Hoover (1937-2018)
Adam Sadberry, flute

Ay, There’s the rub (2001)
Marco Stroppa (b. 1959)
Kathleen Balfe, cello

Paraphrase (2023)
Cristian M?celaru (b.1980)
[World Premiere]
Cristian Macelaru, violin
Galen Lemmon, percussion
Andrés Pichardo-Rosenthal, percussion

Followed by a light reception and an opportunity to toast the season.

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

7:00pm: In The Works

You’ll find yourself at the very center of contemporary music-making with a special free concert of new works performed by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra penned by under-30 composers—Edward Babcock, Alistair Coleman, and Yanchen Ye, conducted by six emerging conductors, all studying in the Conductors/Composers Workshop.

The concert is a chance to hear new voices now shaping the future of orchestral music, and a fascinating look at variations offered by a conductor’s interpretation. Don’t miss the excitement when the creative sparks fly!

This concert is free—no tickets required!

Friday, August 4, 2023

8:00pm: FORWARD

DINNER/TALK 6:30pm

Sarah Kirkland Snider: Forward into Light (West Coast Premiere)
Jennifer Higdon: Duo Duel for Two Percussionists (Svet Stoyanov and Matthew Strauss, percussion) (West Coast Premiere | Festival Co-commission)
Sebastian Currier: Track 8 (West Coast Premiere)
Bora Yoon: The Wind of Two Koreas (West Coast Premiere)

Maestro M?celaru kicks off the 61st season with an evening of West Coast premieres by composers Sarah Kirkland Snider, Jennifer Higdon, Sebastian Currier, and Bora Yoon.

Dubbed “one of the decade’s more gifted, up-and-coming modern classical composers” (Pitchfork), Sarah Kirkland Snider writes music of direct expression and vivid narrative. Her work Forward into Light is a meditation on perseverance, bravery, and alliance, inspired by the work of American women suffragists.

Master percussionists Matthew Strauss and Svet Stoyanov take center stage in the West Coast premiere of Duo Duel. This electrifying work was co-commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival. Dubbed “limb defying” and composed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon, Duo Duel showcases the full spectrum of percussion’s expressive power. Higdon composed the work specifically for Stoyanov and Strauss, two artists the composer praised for their “extraordinary technique and musicality.”

The “genre-bending” (New Yorker) Korean-American composer, vocalist, and sound artist Bora Yoon offers up The Wind of Two Koreas, a work inspired by Stravinsky’s early orchestral works and his inspiration from Russian folklore. The Wind of Two Koreas excavates the idea of cultural blood memory and epigenetics—a recurring theme in Yoon’s work.

The evening begins with an outdoor Pre-Concert Talk by Music Director/ Conductor Cristi M?celaru and guests. A special alfresco dinner will be prepared by Moveable Feast and served outside the Civic Auditorium; advance tickets required.

Saturday, August 5, 2023

1:30pm: Meet the Composers

Meet the Composers panel discussion and Q&A, moderated by Cristi M?celaru. This year Cristi will be joined by Sebastian Currier, Andrea Reinkemeyer, Peter Shin, Carlos Simon, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Bora Yoon. Free, in person and live-streamed anywhere in the world!

7:00pm: Tears of Nature

Peter Shin: Relapse
Carlos Simon: Tales–A Folklore Symphony (West Coast Premiere)
Andrea Reinkemeyer: Water Sings Fire
Tan Dun: The Tears of Nature (Beibei Wang, percussion)

Maestro M?celaru leads the Festival Orchestra in works by composers Peter Shin, Carlos Simon, Andrea Reinkemeyer, and Tan Dun.

Composer Peter Shin’s music explores matters of national identity, social belonging, and other contemporary issues and has been described as “entirely fresh and personal” (New York Times). The Festival Orchestra performs Shin’s Relapse, a reflection on the composer’s upbringing as a Korean American.

Carlos Simon, whose music ranges from concert music for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism, was recently announced as Composer-in-Residence at the Kennedy Center. The Festival presents the West Coast premiere of his four-movement work, Tales–A Folklore Symphony, a composition exploring African American folklore as well as Afrofuturist stories.

The music of American composer Andrea Reinkemeyer has been described as, “hauntingly melodic and fun, dancing and almost running its way forward (Fanfare Magazine). It explores the interplay of visual metaphors, nature, and sound to create lush textures against churning rhythmic figures. Her piece, Water Sings Fire draws inspiration from Leigh Bardugo’s eponymous short story, a feminist origin myth to the Hans Christian Andersen classic, The Little Mermaid, in which themes of ambition and betrayal are explored allegorically through Ulla’s transformation from obscure mermaid to tempestuous sea witch.

The concert concludes with the percussion concerto, The Tears of Nature, by Academy and Grammy Award-winning composer Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). In writing about this work the composer says, “This work is about the beautiful sadness of nature’s predicament and the threat to our survival today. Throughout the music, nature’s tears tell us that the threat to our survival is ourselves.” Percussionist Beibei Wang is the featured soloist.

Sunday, August 6, 2023

7:00pm: kronos Quartet in Concert

The San Francisco-based, Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola) and Paul Wiancko (cello)—are the special guests for tonight’s concert. For nearly five decades Kronos Quartet has challenged and reimagined what a string quartet can be. Kronos is one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 70 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, and collaborating with many of the world’s most accomplished composers and performers. Through its nonprofit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association, Kronos has commissioned more than 1,000 works and arrangements for string quartet—including the recently completed Fifty for the Future library of free, educational repertoire.

Members of the Kronos Quartet

David Harrington (violin)
John Sherba (violin)
Hank Dutt (viola)
Paul Wiancko (cello)

Saturday, August 12, 2023

3:30pm: Student Staff

“Rarely do young musicians get their pieces performed…this is a great opportunity for us”

Hear the future of new music in this free chamber concert of original works programmed, produced, performed and presented by the adventurous 16-24 year-old members of Cabrillo Festival’s 2023 Student Staff Program!

The 2023 Student Staff Ensemble is:
Theodore Cartsonis
Kathryn Erskine
Benjamin Goodwin
Zoë Huet
Gavin Pinnow
Ellen Zhan

7:00pm: Rise and Fly

Gabriella Smith: f(x)=sin²x-1/x (West Coast Premiere)
Julia Wolfe: riSE and fLY (Colin Currie, percussion) (West Coast Premiere)
Gabriela Ortiz: TZAM (West Coast Premiere)
Robert Hughes: Uutiqtut
Olga Neuwirth: Dreydl (U.S. Premiere)

The second weekend of the Cabrillo Festival begins with works by Gabriella Smith, Julia Wolfe, Gabriela Ortiz, Robert Hughes, and Olga Neuwirth.

Gabriella Smith’s music is described as “high-voltage and wildly imaginative” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “the coolest, most exciting, most inventive new voice I’ve heard in ages” (Musical America). Her work, f(x)=sin²x-1/x, draws inspiration from mathematical curves to build waves of musical energy.

Composer Julia Wolfe’s music is distinguished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers to extremes. She drew inspiration from the street performers that played music near her home in New York City for her percussion concerto riSE and fLY. The star of this piece is acclaimed percussionist Colin Currie who performs using his body and other objects including pans, oven racks, and buckets.

One of today’s most prominent Mexican composers, Gabriela Ortiz’s musical language synthesizes high art, folk music, and jazz. M?celaru leads the Festival Orchestra in Ortiz’s Tzam, a work that pays tribute to the composer’s father, her composition teacher, and faculty colleague—three important figures she lost in succession. The work is a departure from her usual style, and features different atmospheres with important harmonies and tone colors. The title means “dialogue” in a nearly extinct dialect from Mexico and Ortiz notes that the piece establishes a dialogue not only with her influences but also with herself.

Composer Robert Hughes co-founded the Cabrillo Festival more than six decades ago and passed away in August 2022. “Hughes was a visionary who kept coming up with ideas to make musical life in the Bay Area more exciting, more surprising and more responsive to the creative demands of the world around,” wrote Joshua Kosman in The San Francisco Chronicle. The Festival will feature Hughes’ Uutiqtut, one of several of Hughes’ works inspired by the Arctic region’s nature, people, and music. Uutiqtut is an Inuit term that means ‘movement.’

The Grawemeyer Award-winning Austrian composer and multimedia artist Olga Neuwirth is celebrated for her technical virtuosity and the elemental power of her work. The composer describes how her one-movement work, Dreydl, “emerged out of my preoccupation with memory and the passing of time.” Reflecting the circular rotation of the dreidel the piece is driven by cyclical repetitions of rhythmic patterns.

Sunday, August 13, 2023

7:00pm: Wild Geese

Dan Caputo: Liminal
Xavier Foley: Resurrection of Titan (Eunice Kim, violin; Xavier Foley, double bass) (World Premiere | Festival Co-commission)
Robert Hughes: Estampie
Kevin Puts: Concerto for Orchestra (West Coast Premiere | Festival Co-commission)
Anna Clyne: Wild Geese (World Premiere | Festival Commission in tribute to outgoing Executive Director Ellen Primack)

Cabrillo Festival concludes another extraordinary season on Sunday, August 13 with works by Dan Caputo, Xavier Foley, Robert Hughes, Kevin Puts, and Anna Clyne.

Dan Caputo, a composer of instrumental and electronic music, explores the ways detailed aural textures and curious musical behaviors can elicit complex psychological responses. M?celaru leads the Festival Orchestra in Liminal, a work that aims to reflect the psychological behaviors people experience during transitional states.

Rising star composer and double bassist Xavier Foley is celebrated for his virtuosity and passion for music on the double bass, which is rarely presented as a solo instrument. The recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Foley was one of the Washington Post’s “23 classical musical composers and performers to watch in 2023.” Cabrillo Festival, with the generous support of Mahler Foundation, commissioned the World premiere of Foley’s Resurrection of Titan, which will feature the composer on double bass and the acclaimed violinist (and his oft times collaborator) Eunice Kim.

M?celaru and the Festival Orchestra continue their posthumous tribute to Robert Hughes and revisit his popular work, Estampie. This work was deeply influenced by Hughes’ relationship with Lou Harrison–a composer who, along with Hughes, played an important role in shaping the beginnings of the Cabrillo Festival.

Cabrillo Festival veteran and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts was inspired by the poem, Hymn for the Hurting, by Amanda Gorman when composing his Concerto for Orchestra, a work co-commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Puts’ Concerto for Orchestra spotlights the virtuosity of each orchestra section and the principal players.

The Festival’s final work of 2023 was commissioned by the Festival as a tribute to longtime Executive Director, Ellen Primack, who steps down from her role after 33 seasons. During her tenure at Cabrillo, Primack has vigorously championed new music, building Cabrillo Festival into a preeminent force in the field, both nationally and internationally, and leading the organization with determination, passion, and grit. M?celaru leads the Festival Orchestra in the world premiere of Wild Geese, a work by Anna Clyne that draws its inspiration from the eponymous poem by Mary Oliver. Wild Geese marks the first implementation of the Augmented Orchestra, a new creative exploration that combines the sounds of a live orchestra with computer-controlled processes, developed by Clyne in collaboration with audio engineer Jody Elff. Described as a “composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods” (New York Times) and as “fearless” (National Public Radio), Clyne is a beloved presence at Cabrillo, making this a fitting sendoff to Primack.

The concert is followed by an outdoor reception for the audience, orchestra, and artists!

Date: Saturday, July 29, 2023 - Sunday, August 13, 2023

Location: Civic Auditorium - 307 Church St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060

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