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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—Wenbin Lyu, Christian Quiñones, and Marc Migo Cortes—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!
Covid-19 public health and safety guidelines will be followed, including requiring proof of full vaccination for all audiences, staff, and artists. Masking will be required indoors at all times. Read our full Covid Policy here.
ITW COMPOSERS
WENBIN LYU
(b. 1994, Liaoning)
Wenbin Lyu is a U.S.-based Chinese composer and guitarist whose compositions combine contemporary western techniques with ancient oriental culture. He seeks inspiration from nature, science, and video games. Lyu’s works have been performed at many events, including Tanglewood, Alba, TUTTI, ICMC, EMM, NYCEMF, and SPLICE. His music has been performed by Beijing Symphony, Tianjin Symphony, Fifth House Ensemble, Del Sol Quartet, Tacet(i), icarus Quartet, and Transient Canvas. Based on his outstanding academic performance, he was honored to receive the China National Scholarship in 2016 and Donald Martino Award for Excellence in Composition in 2020. Lyu is the recipient of the 2021 ASCAP Young Composer Awards. Two VR movies he composed premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2016. Lyu serves as a composer-in-residence at HAcappella based at Harvard University, and the all-female musician group New Downbeat in Cincinnati. Lyu received his degrees from China Conservatory of Music and New England Conservatory of Music, and he is currently pursuing a Doctorate at College-Conservatory of Music–University of Cincinnati.
MARC MIGÓ
(b. 1993, Barcelona)
After receiving a Deutsche Grammophon CD collection from his grandfather for his 16th birthday, Mark Mígo became unexpectedly and passionately drawn to its contents. This discovery led him to seek out guidance from pianist Liliana Sainz and composer Xavier Boliart. Three years later, he enrolled at ESMUC (Superior Music School of Catalonia). In 2017, thanks to a scholarship from Fundación SGAE, Mígo moved to New York to continue his musical studies. He pursued his Masters at The Juilliard School, where he was awarded the 2018 Orchestral Composition Prize. In 2019 he received The Pablo Casals Festival Award for his Cello Sonata Cerdanyenca, a Morton Gould young composers award by ASCAP, and the New Juilliard annual commissioning competition award. More recent accolades include being a fellow at the 2020 Minnesota Orchestra Composer’s Institute, a winner of the George Enescu Prize 2020, the Organ Taurida Competition (1st prize, 2021), and the recipient of the 2022 Dominick Argento Fellowship for opera composition. Mígo is currently a C.V. Starr fellow at Juilliard, where he is earning a DMA in composition under the mentorship of John Corigliano. He has received commissions from leading institutions, ensembles, and performers, such as UrbanArias, the Dutch National Opera, Liceu Opera House, the New Juilliard Ensemble, L’Auditori de Barcelona, the Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, l’Associació Joan Manén, Fundación Pro Arte Córdoba, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and duo Isas-Kwiek, among others.(b. 1993, Barcelona)
CHRISTIAN QUIÑONES
(b. 1996, Puerto Rico)
Christian Quiñones is a Puerto Rican composer whose music explores concepts such as cultural identity and the intersection between vernacular music, electronic textures, rock, and Latin music. Recently Quiñones was selected as a composer in residence at the Copland House, as a fellow for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Workshop, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. In 2020 he was selected for the Earshot Underwood Orchestra Readings where he worked with the American Composers Orchestra. He has received commissions from the Brooklyn Arts Council, the icarus Quartet, the Bergamot String Quartet, and the Victory Players where Quiñones was the 2018-2019 composer in residence. Quiñones is a graduate of the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico (B.M.) and the University of Illinois (M.M), where he was the recipient of the Graduate College Master’s Fellowship. Currently, he is a Ph.D. President’s fellow at Princeton University.
ITW PROGRAM NOTES
Germination (2022)
Wenbin Lyu (b. 1994)
World Premiere
Germination refers to the process by which an organism grows from a seed. This concept inspired me to compose a piece in which I use the orchestra to replicate the process of a seed’s germination. After composing and revising the piece for a couple of months, however, my original idea had vanished and was replaced by new ideas. Most of the music was composed during the fall of 2019 when I noticed that the trees in Boston started to yellow, and it reminded me that germination is a process, the significance of which is to observe a seedling grow into a plant. Just like my music, the texture and harmony function as the branches and leaves of the plant, so I kept the original title for this piece, Germination.
— Wenbin Lyu
Dumka for Anya (2022)
Marc Mígo (b. 1993)
World Premiere
Initially, I named this piece Berceuse–Lament because of its rocking nature, usually attributed to the berceuse or lullaby, and its lament-like melancholy and formal traits. However, a serendipitous encounter with my good friend and outstanding violist Marta Lambert gave me a good reason to change this title. Marta introduced me to the genre of the dumka: being of Slavic origin, it translates as “thought,” and an agitated middle section often breaks its predominantly ruminative, elegiac mood. I found that the term dumka aptly synthesized the two names forming my initial title. It also highlights the work’s Slavic influences, in regard to both musical style and the dedicatee, who is my wife Anya. We first met in Lviv in 2015, and since then, I have felt a special affection and sympathy for Ukraine–her home country. Tragically, the Russian invasion of Ukraine broke out a little before I started working on what I would finally title Dumka for Anya. As I was composing it, I realized that the tribute to my wife also extended to her country. This piece is, therefore, an invocation to hope and healing.
— Marc Mígo
I’m everything that I am and everything that you think I am (2022)
Christian Quiñones (b. 1996)
World Premiere
For this piece I wanted to explore the duality of how I feel living in the U.S. and how my identity has become a huge part of that experience. In particular, the contradiction of how the idea of stereotypes and biases have become a big issue for me, but at the same time how I struggle with the notion that it is essentially impossible, or maybe futile, to try to be truly unbiased or not have preconceived notions about someone or something. Ultimately, how our biased construct of a person or an idea is is as real as is that person’s actual identity.
I was also interested in exploring how that dichotomy reflects in music, specifically my relationship with the standard orchestra repertoire and the traditional orchestral tropes. As a result, I started writing small notes on my phone about things that I thought were a core part of my identity (both musically and as a person) and contrasting that with common stereotypes that I would often hear. In the piece these two–or multitude–sides are in constant friction, fighting for attention. But because they are so chaotic, in the end, it might be hard to appreciate each individual side on their own merit, the “real identity” exists amalgamated to the outsider’s perspective. Because of this, I decided, in a peculiar way, to embrace that inevitable outcome. Embrace a version of me where all your expectations about who I am coexists with the way I see myself.
— Christian Quiñones