“Northern California’s most provocative summertime musical event.”—Allan Ulrich, Financial Times

“Marin Alsop, music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, means business. Of the 20 works she will conduct over two weekends, 17 of them will be world or West Coast premieres.”—Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

“The nation’s pre-eminent event celebrating living composers and new works.”—Rich Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News

“..new-music mecca…”—Vivien Schweitzer, New York Times

“Under Alsop’s baton, musicians from near and far, thrown together for only a few weeks each year, consistently become an ensemble that would make any concert hall proud.”—Janos Gereben, San Francisco Classical Voice

“One of the mysteries of Cabrillo is the way in which Alsop and the orchestra manage to quickly digest and perform so many difficult works so well.”—Rich Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News

“…the orchestra sizzled and all composers were in attendance.”—Scott McClelland, Santa Cruz Weekly

“It happens every time: A fast-rising wave of applause and war whoops — ‘Here she comes!’ — goes sweeping through the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium as Marin Alsop strides out from the wings. Big smile. Baton in hand. With her short sporty hairdo and fashionable pantsuit and tunic, always with a splash of color, the conductor is jaunty, hip and obviously jazzed to be back in town as leader of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, which happens every summer in the spruced-up gymnasium — an improbable setting for North America’s biggest festival of new music for orchestra. In the classical music world, Alsop is one of a relatively few conductors who know how to challenge listeners while shifting the paradigm — democratizing the presentation, making classical music feel cool, not elitist.”—Rich Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News

“Marin Alsop’s celebration of her 20th year at the helm of the festival exhibited the brilliant and incisive conducting we’ve come to expect, and the players again displayed a remarkable mastery of a huge amount of new music.”—Benjamin Frandzel, San Francisco Classical Voice

“…a feeling of occasion dominated as the maestra led her 67-member orchestra heroically through a pair of ambitious programmes.”—Allan Ulrich, Financial Times

“Once again the Cabrillo Festival brought the incomparable performances of exceptional new music to Santa Cruz. Marin Alsop, in two decades, has moved the festival into the national consciousness, and has provided the musical highlight of the summer, if not the entire year for local residents and those who travel to partake of its riches.”—Phyllis Rosenblum, Santa Cruz Sentinel

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