The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is an annual Festival dedicated to contemporary symphonic music by living composers. The music director since 2017 has been Cristian Măcelaru. According to Jesse Rosen, CEO of the

League of American Orchestras The League of American Orchestras, formerly the American Symphony Orchestra League, is a North American service organization with 700 member orchestras of all budget sizes and types, plus individual and institutional members. Based in New York Ci ...

, the Festival is "distinctive for being focused entirely on contemporary works." Each year, a tenured orchestra gathers in

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a po ...

to rehearse five programs of contemporary music, often world, US, or West Coast premieres. Most of the composers whose work is performed each season come to the Festival to be in residence and participate in the rehearsals and performances of their work, as well as to participate in public panel discussions, lectures, and concert introductions. The Festival also presents guest artists and ensembles known for contemporary music performance, such as

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...

or eighth blackbird.

History

The Festival was founded in 1963 by the composer

Lou Harrison Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his for ...

and collaborators from the Santa Cruz-area music community, on the campus of the newly opened

Cabrillo College Cabrillo College is a public community college in Aptos, California. It is named after the conquistador Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo and opened in 1959. Cabrillo College has an enrollment of about 12,000 students per term. Facilities Classes are of ...

just outside Santa Cruz in Aptos, California. The first music director was Gerhard Samuel. The Festival quickly grew to prominence, thanks in part to Harrison's stature and the participation of well-known composers such as John Cage and

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

. Subsequent music directors included Mexican composer

Carlos Chávez Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by nativ ...

, conductor

Dennis Russell Davies Dennis Russell Davies (born April 16, 1944 in Toledo, Ohio) is an American conductor and pianist, He is currently the music director and chief conductor of the Brno Philharmonic. Biography Davies studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard Sch ...

, and American composer

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...

. By the late 1970s, the Festival had established itself as an independent organization unaffiliated with Cabrillo College. After the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake caused major damage around Santa Cruz in 1989, the Festival established itself in downtown Santa Cruz, and the majority of the Festival's performances since 1989 have taken place at Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium or at

Mission San Juan Bautista Mission San Juan Bautista is a Spanish mission in San Juan Bautista, San Benito County, California. Founded on June 24, 1797 by Fermín Lasuén of the Franciscan order, the mission was the fifteenth of the Spanish missions established in presen ...

San Juan Bautista, California San Juan Bautista (Spanish for " Saint John the Baptist") is a city in San Benito County, in the U.S. state of California. The population was 2,089 as of the 2020 census. San Juan Bautista was founded in 1797 by the Spanish under Fermín de Las ...

. In 1992,

Marin Alsop Marin Alsop ( �mɛər.ɪn ˈæːl.sɑːp born October 16, 1956) is an American conductor, the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize for conducting and the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is music director laureate ...

was chosen as the Festival's new music director. Alsop rose to significant fame in the 2000s after being the first conductor awarded a

MacArthur Genius Grant The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...

in 2005 and the first woman named to direct a major American orchestra, the

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, it bega ...

, in 2007. In 1992, she was a young up-and-coming musician. She decided to more exclusively focus the Festival on the work of living composers. Since her tenure began, the Festival has promoted the careers of a number of prominent composers, performing their work and offering substantial commissions. Notable examples include Christopher Rouse, Jennifer Higdon,

Kevin Puts Kevin Matthew Puts (born January 3, 1972) is an American composer, best known for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera, ''Silent Night''. Early life and education Puts was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Alma, Michi ...

, and Michael Daugherty. The Festival also frequently features the music of Philip Glass,

James MacMillan Sir James Loy MacMillan, (born 16 July 1959) is a Scottish classical composer and conductor. Early life MacMillan was born at Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire, but lived in the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock until 1977. His father is James MacMi ...

, and

Osvaldo Golijov Osvaldo Noé Golijov (; born December 5, 1960) is an Argentine composer of classical music and music professor, known for his vocal and orchestral work. Biography Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family ...

, among others. In September 2016, the Festival announced that

Cristian Măcelaru Cristian Măcelaru (born 15 March 1980, Timișoara, Romania) is a Romanian conductor. Biography Măcelaru is the youngest child from a family of 10 children. He studied violin as a youth. He continued his music studies in the United States at th ...

would succeed Alsop as music director, beginning in summer 2017. The 2021 program included the world premier of "Contested Eden" by

Gabriela Lena Frank Gabriela Lena Frank (born Berkeley, California, United States, September 1972) is an American pianist and composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Gabriela Lena Frank's father is an American of Lithuanian Jewish heritage and her mothe ...

, with recorded choreography filmed on locations of the nearby

CZU Lightning Complex fires The CZU Lightning Complex fires were wildfires that burned in Northern California starting in August 2020. The fire complex consisted of fires in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, including fires that had previously been separately tracked as ...

. The Cabrillo Festival Orchestra consists of professional musicians from around the world who travel to Santa Cruz annually for the two-week run of the festival. There is no formal audition process for the orchestra; new players are recruited by the music director in consultation with principal players, and undergo a three-season trial process before being granted tenure in their positions. The concertmaster of the Festival Orchestra is Justin Bruns, associate concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Other current principal players include Tim Munro (flute); Karen Wagner (oboe); Bharat Chandra (clarinet); Evan Kuhlmann (bassoon); Craig Morris (trumpet); Ava Ordman (trombone); Forrest Byram (tuba); Galen Lemmon (percussion); Nuiko Wadden (harp); Emily Wong (keyboard); Matt Albert (2nd violin); Sam Bergman (viola); Abraham Feder (cello); and Edward Botsford (bass).

Activities

In 2012, the Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of commissioned world premieres by such composers as

Laura Karpman Laura Anne Karpman (born March 1, 1959) is an American composer, whose work has included music for film, television, video games, theater, and the concert hall. She has won five Emmy Awards for her work. Karpman was trained at The Juilliard Scho ...

and

. This followed celebrations of Marin Alsop's 20th anniversary as music director in 2011, which also included a number of substantial commissions by John Corigliano,

Mark Adamo Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

, Philip Glass, and others. The Festival has a commissioning series for young composers identified in collaboration with

that has included new works by

Zosha Di Castri Zosha Di Castri (born 1985) is a Canadian composer and pianist living and working in New York. She is the Francis Goelet Assistant Professor of Music at Columbia University. Her work came to international attention when a specially commissioned ...

Dylan Mattingly Dylan Mattingly (born March 18, 1991) is an American composer from Berkeley, California. Early life Mattingly was born on March 18, 1991, in Oakland, California. He is a member of the Los Angeles-based musical family of the Allers/Altschulers, w ...

, and

Sean Friar Sean Friar (born 1985 in Los Angeles, California) is an American composer and pianist. He currently lives in Denver, Colorado. Biography Sean Friar was born and raised in Los Angeles. He studied Music Composition and Psychology at UCLA where he gr ...

. The Festival also runs a "Conductors/Composers Workshop" in collaboration with the Conductors Guild in which young conductors study with Marin Alsop while emerging composers study with a faculty member chosen from among the season's composers-in-residence. Alumni of this program include

Aleksandra Vrebalov Aleksandra Vrebalov (born September 22, 1970) is a Serbian composer based in New York City. Biography She studied composition with Miroslav Statkic at Novi Sad University, then with Zoran Erić at Belgrade University, Elinor Armer at the San F ...

and

Missy Mazzoli Missy Mazzoli (born October 27, 1980) is an American composer and pianist who is a member of the composition faculty at the Mannes College of Music. She has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral and operatic work. In 2018 she beca ...

. The Festival also produces a large street fair, the "Church Street Fair," held over two days during the first weekend of August. The Fair spotlights performances and art work by artists local to Santa Cruz County. The fair was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. After cancelling the entire festival in 2020, virtual works were performed in 2021. Because of its unusual focus on contemporary work, the New York Times has called the Festival a "mecca for new-music lovers."

References

{{reflist

External links

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
(official website) Classical music festivals in the United States Contemporary classical music festivals Music festivals in California