“At the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, new works are always the main course. Under music director Marin Alsop, the annual event offers a total immersion experience, exploring a full range of stylistic concerns and often presenting young composers before they become household names. In the process, Cabrillo has become a summer mecca for musicians and a premier musical destination for audiences.” –Georgia Rowe, San Jose Mercury News

“…the evening’s top honors went to Turnage’s “Scherzoid,” a pulsing, fast-paced piece that grabs the listener from the outset. After a jolting introduction, the British composer spreads the adrenaline throughout the orchestra, activating the sound of tightly wound strings, bellicose brass, insistent woodwinds and a hyperactive percussion battery….Alsop and the orchestra clearly relished every turn, giving the work’s West Coast premiere a bang-up performance.”–Georgia Rowe, San Jose Mercury News

“The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is a hip and splashy event, North America’s most important festival of new orchestral music.” –Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News

“I caught the afternoon performance and again was bowled over by this orchestra’s steady way of rising to the challenges of this summer event. How it learns such quantities of intricate new music so well in so short a time in one of those mysteries. Clearly the players covet their annual Cabrillo immersion.” –Jeff Dunn, San Francisco Classical Voice