Contact: Steph C Sherwood, steph@cabrillomusic.org, 831.426.6966 x2 or
Steven Swartz, steven@dotdotdotmusic.net, 646.206.3966
Season highlights include: Guest Conductor Daniela Candillari to conduct first 2 concerts of the season, 3 world premieres, 5 West Coast premieres, 9 composers in residence. Festival commissions include an orchestral song cycle by Stacy Garrop, the second Creative Lab featuring a multidisciplinary work by Darian Donovan Thomas, and a new co-commission by Jake Heggie featuring original text by Taylor Mac.
SANTA CRUZ, CA— April 9, 2025—The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music presents their 63rd season with the full spectrum of orchestral possibility, illuminating vibrant hues of music today running July 27 – August 10, 2025.
This transformative season features over 20 composers, with nine in residence, seven guest artists, and the unmatched Festival Orchestra bringing four Festival commissions including three world premieres to life through five orchestral concerts. The Festival will also present their beloved free Family Concert, career-defining Conductors/Composers Workshop performance “In the Works”, and inspiring Youth Ensemble concert.
In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of LGBTQIA Pride in Santa Cruz and the rich legacy of queer voices that have shaped the Festival, they’re proudly presenting a co-commissioned song cycle by Jake Heggie featuring original text by Taylor Mac. The season also showcases a new Creative Lab commission by Darian Donovan Thomas honoring the queer experience, while paying tribute to luminaries who have profoundly influenced the Festival’s journey, including Lou Harrison, John Corigliano, and Jennifer Higdon. The Festival continues to be true to its mission and illuminates vibrant voices both established and emerging.
“Elevating colorful and courageous voices has been intrinsic to the spirit of the Festival since day one. Lou Harrison’s foundational impact and joyful activism, Marin Alsop’s groundbreaking career and bold artistic vision, and many other queer voices have been integral to shaping who we are – I am so proud to further their legacy, as we remain firmly grounded in our values of inclusion. The 50th anniversary of Pride in Santa Cruz is a timely moment to celebrate our incredible community and the indelible impact of queer artists in orchestral music,” says Music Director, Cristian Măcelaru.
Widening programmatic breadth even further, the Festival announces special guest conductor Daniela Candillari, bringing her “confidence and apparently inexhaustible verve” (The New York Times) as well as new composers never heard by Festival audiences to the first two concerts of the season. Cabrillo Festival Music Director, Cristian Măcelaru will return for the final 2 concerts. By choosing Candillari, the Festival broadens perceptions on the colors of music today – Candillari collaborated with Music Director Măcelaru in selecting composers for the 2025 Season. An alumni of the Cabrillo Festival’s Conductors/Composers Workshop, Candillari has gone on to conduct with preeminent orchestras around the globe, and has a proven and deep history of championing new music and new voices in the field – a force for creative innovation and contemporary ideas.
This year’s composers in residence are Jake Heggie, John Corigliano, Stacy Garrop, Missy Mazzoli, Jennifer Higdon, Tyson Gholston Davis, Rene Orth, Aleksandra Vrebalov, as well as Creative Lab composer and guest artist Darian Donovan Thomas. Works by Lou Harrison, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Adolphus Hailstork, Julia Wolfe, Karen LeFrak, Nina Shekar, and Frank Duarte are also on the program. This year’s guest artists include Jennifer Koh and Justin Bruns on violin, Tim McAllister on saxophone, soprano Michelle Areyzaga, mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, as well as baritone Sidney Outlaw.
This season illuminates the spectrum of color, nuance, and complex humanity found in both timeless and timely topics. The 2025 Cabrillo Festival explores themes from love and beauty to democracy and human rights, weaving together sounds and stories that reflect the expansiveness of our shared humanity. Through a kaleidoscope of creative possibility, the Festival champions artists from diverse backgrounds, unlocking unprecedented artistic innovation while addressing historical imbalances in classical music. The Festival stands at the forefront of expanding orchestral repertoire, ensuring new music reflects the rich mosaic of perspectives that make our cultural landscape vibrant and relevant.
“Especially at this tumultuous time, we are firmly grounded in our values of inclusion and access to the creative process – a spirit that is embedded in our Festival model. We work to deepen everyone’s connection to the artform – from young music students to the most preeminent artists today, from orchestral aficionados to those who have never heard an orchestra before,” says D. Riley Nicholson, Executive Director. “We break down barriers through free open rehearsals, livestreams, radio broadcasts, composer talks, professional development opportunities, community partnerships, and more; we’re building a more inclusive future for orchestral music where everyone belongs.”
LUMINA – Friday, August 1, 8pm
The 63rd season kicks off with guest conductor Daniela Candillari leading the Festival Orchestra in works by John Corigliano, Nina Shekhar, and Missy Mazzoli.
Beginning their season, John Corigliano – a foundational Festival veteran whose work has been featured 16 times and an essential voice in our Pride celebration – returns with two mesmerizing pieces. His Phantasmagoria presents an orchestral suite from his opera, offering a kaleidoscope of shifting, vivid, colorful sequences. They’ll also feature his Three Hallucinations, a reality-bending work based on music written for Ken Russell’s film “Altered States”.
Nina Shekhar‘s Lumina explores the spectrum of light and dark and the murkiness in between. Using swift contrasts between bright, sharp timbres and cloudy textures with dense harmonies, the piece captures sudden bursts of radiance amongst the eeriness of shadows.
Missy Mazzoli‘s Violin Concerto (Procession) features soloist Jennifer Koh as a soothsayer and healer, leading the orchestra through five interconnected healing spells with bold musical courage and chromatic brilliance. From “Procession in a Spiral” referencing medieval processions to the final “Procession Ascending” where the soloist leads the orchestra skyward, this work traverses movements inspired by saints, hymns, and ancient charms for healing, illuminating the rich spectrum of human resilience.
CHASING LIGHT – Saturday, August 2, 7pm
For the second Festival concert, guest conductor Candillari leads the Festival Orchestra in works by Rene Orth, Stacy Garrop, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and Julia Wolfe, presenting a palette of compositions that both illuminate and embolden.
The Festival will introduce composer Rene Orth to audiences for the first time with her piece Chasing Light. Connecting with the theme of light and iridescence, Chasing Light is a heart-pumping relay race through the orchestra. The piece captures not only the infinite energy of youth but also ageless, relentless anxiety – a colorful testament to the courage required to outrun our shadows.
The Festival presents the world premiere of a new song cycle for baritone Sidney Outlaw and soprano Michelle Areyzaga by Festival veteran Stacy Garrop. Frederick and Susan B. sets text sourced from correspondence, papers, and speeches of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony – leaders of two of the 19th Century’s most important social movements. This Festival Commission will explore Douglass and Anthony’s dynamic 45-year friendship and their unflinching courage in the face of opposition, painting their struggles in suffrage with vibrant historical hues.
For composer Aleksandra Vrebalov, “a kiss is a sign of an open heart, of acceptance.” This Kiss for the Whole World, inspired by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and its message that mutual love and solidarity strengthen us against hardship and oppression, reflects how artists have always courageously responded to difficult times.
Julia Wolfe‘s West Coast Premiere of Pretty boldly refracts society’s complicated conception of feminine beauty. Returning to the less saccharine old English origin of the word – “cunning, crafty, clever,” Pretty is a raucous celebration – embracing the grit of fiddling, the relentlessness of work rhythms, and inspired by the distortion of rock and roll. Wolfe’s composition dares to strip away superficial layers, revealing the true colors of strength that lie beneath conventional beauty.
FAMILY CONCERT, Sunday, August 3, 1pm
The Festival’s cherished free Family Concert program features Karen LeFrak‘s delightful Sleepover at the Museum, an accessible and charming story for audiences of all ages. Alight with adventure, it’s a scavenger hunt brought to life through clever instrumentation and musical motives. This engaging orchestral work invites listeners on a whimsical journey through a museum at night, blending storytelling with vivid musical themes that capture the excitement and wonder of discovery.
The program will also include a vibrant performance of Frank Duarte‘s Xhnisa, a musical reflection on the beauty, vitality, and cultural significance of water, inspired by a poem he wrote in the Central Valley variant of Zapotec. Rooted in his indigenous and Latino heritage, the composition captures water’s ever-changing nature—its clarity and turbulence, its movement and stillness—expressing both a personal and universal connection to this essential element.
The Family Concert’s beloved tradition, ‘Tour of the Orchestra’, invites curious minds of all ages to visit orchestra sections and explore the fascinating instruments that breathe life into the music—offering a rare, close up glimpse into the orchestral world. And new this year, in a special partnership with El Sistema Santa Cruz/Pajaro Valley, select honor students will perform side-by-side during the Family Concert and will be provided mentorship and coaching by orchestra musicians.
BECOMING – Saturday, August 9, 7pm
The second weekend of the Cabrillo Festival welcomes the return of Maestro Măcelaru with a program featuring the Cabrillo Festival’s second Creative Lab with a world premiere by Darian Donovan Thomas, a tribute to the enduring legacy of Festival Co-Founder Lou Harrison, and a powerful work by Anna Thorvaldsdottir.
A celebration of Pride would not be complete without Festival co-founder, Lou Harrison. His Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra stands as perhaps the most memorable ever composed by an American. Lou’s spirit of bold activism, innovation, and his courage to live authentically is a legacy they will honor in this season and every season of their Festival. This vibrant masterpiece for violin and five percussionists will feature Festival concertmaster, Justin Bruns.
The core inspiration behind Anna Thorvaldsdottir‘s CATAMORPHOSIS is our fragile relationship with our planet. The aura of the piece is characterized by an orbiting vortex of emotions and the intensity that comes with the realization that if things do not change, we risk utter destruction – catastrophe. The work is driven by the tension between various polar forces – power and fragility, hope and despair, preservation and destruction.
The Cabrillo Festival brings back the Creative Lab for the second year, a project that gives curatorial control to the composer, empowering them to reimagine the orchestral experience. Măcelaru leads the Festival Orchestra in a world premiere by genre-exploding, multi-instrumentalist Darian Donovan Thomas. This rapidly ascending composer has been given wide latitude through the Creative Lab to collaborate with the orchestra and utilize the venue and production team to create an entire experience. The work is dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of Santa Cruz LGBTQIA Pride and will explore the process of coming out – discovering self, love, and community.
RISING – Sunday, August 10, 7pm
The Cabrillo Festival concludes with a vibrant symphonic tapestry featuring the bold musical palettes of composers Adolphus Hailstork, Jennifer Higdon, Tyson Gholston Davis, and a new co-commissioned song cycle by Jake Heggie.
Festival friend Timothy McAllister, contemporary music heavyweight and GRAMMY Award-winning saxophonist, brings the West Coast premiere of a new saxophone concerto by Adolphus Hailstork to the Festival, a piece expressly dedicated to McAllister. This marks Hailstork’s long overdue Festival debut—one of our time’s most prolific and versatile composers whose brave musical palette draws from African, American, and European traditions, creating works of remarkable depth.
The Festival Orchestra will then perform Jennifer Higdon‘s Cold Mountain Suite, a recent orchestral suite from her critically acclaimed opera—using music as a prism to explore multidimensional themes of love, war, and death. They honor Higdon’s profound impact on both the field and the Festival—a celebration of Pride wouldn’t be complete without her, having programmed her works at the Festival 14 times.
Celebrating new voices— Tyson Gholston Davis, the second-ever winner of the Cabrillo Emerging Black Composers Prize, brings As Juniper Storms, a world premiere drawing inspiration from American artist Helen Frankenthaler. The painting that inspired Davis, fittingly titled “Overture,” is a lush, forest green abstraction that dramatically dances across the canvas. The music is rhythmic, energetic, and fleeting, with an orchestration that incorporates African and Latin instruments such as log drums, congas, and a steel drum that paint bold strokes across the musical landscape.
The season closes with a new song cycle composed by Jake Heggie with original poems by acclaimed author, actor, drag artist, activist, and worldwide personality Taylor Mac, powerfully voiced by guest mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz. Following the premiere of the first song, Good Morning, Beauty, at London Classical Pride last year, the Cabrillo Festival, LA Phil, and London Classical Pride are co-commissioning three additional songs to complete this cycle on gratitude and bliss in finding love in this chaotic world while wrestling with the queer community’s complex history and continued discrimination. This collaboration represents a bold exploration of the full chroma of human experience.
CABRILLO FESTIVAL TICKETS, SCHEDULE & SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
TICKETS
Festival tickets range from $24-$92 for individual concerts and $312-368 for full subscriptions. Many events are free and open to the public. The public may access information on the Festival website at www.cabrillomusic.org or call (831) 426-6966; and are encouraged to join the mailing list to receive updates.
Full Subscriptions may be ordered online, by phone (831-420-5260 x5) or in person at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium Box Office, 307 Church Street beginning April 9; Single Tickets may be purchased beginning May 28. The Box Office is open Tuesday through Friday, 12 to 4pm, and during Festival events.
WHERE:
All events will be held at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at 307 Church Street in Downtown Santa Cruz.
SCHEDULE
Friday, August 1, 8pm – LUMINA
John Corigliano: Phantasmagoria
Nina Shekhar: Lumina
Missy Mazzoli: Procession (Jennifer Koh, Violin) (West Coast Premiere)
John Corigliano: Three Hallucinations
Saturday, August 2, 7pm – CHASING LIGHT
Rene Orth: Chasing Light
Stacy Garrop: Fredrick and Susan B. (Michelle Areyzaga, Soprano/ Sidney Outlaw, Baritone) (World Premiere | Festival Commission)
Aleksandra Vrebalov: This Kiss for the Whole World
Julia Wolfe: Pretty (West Coast Premiere)
Sunday, August 3, 1pm – Free Family Concert
Karen LeFrak: Sleepover at the Museum
Frank Duarte: Xhnisa (West Coast Premiere)
Saturday, August 9, 7pm – BECOMING
Lou Harrison: Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra (Justin Bruns, Violin)
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: CATAMORPHOSIS (West Coast Premiere)
Darian Donovan Thomas: TBD, Creative Lab (World Premiere | Festival Commission)
Sunday, August 10, 7pm – RISING
Adolphus Hailstork: Saxophone Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra (Tim McAllister, Saxophone) (West Coast Premiere)
Jennifer Higdon: Cold Mountain Suite
Tyson Gholston Davis: As Juniper Storms (World Premiere | Festival Commission)
Jake Heggie: Good Morning, Beauty (Nikola Printz, Mezzo-soprano | Poetry by Taylor Mac) (Festival Co-Commission)
4 FESTIVAL COMMISSIONS
Tyson Gholston Davis: As Juniper Storms (World Premiere)
Stacy Garrop: Fredrick and Susan B. (World Premiere)
Jake Heggie: Good Morning, Beauty
Darian Donovan Thomas: TBD, Creative Lab (World Premiere)
5 West Coast PREMIERES
Frank Duarte: Xhnisa
Adolphus Hailstork: Saxophone Concerto
Missy Mazzoli: Procession
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Catamorphosis
Julia Wolfe: Pretty
9 COMPOSERS-IN-RESIDENCE, 20+ COMPOSERS, Including:
John Corigliano
Tyson Gholston Davis
Frank Duarte*
Stacy Garrop
Lou Harrison*
Adolphus Hailstork*
Jake Heggie
Jennifer Higdon
Karen LeFrak*
Missy Mazzoli
Rene Orth
Anna Thorvaldsdottir*
Darian Donovan Thomas
Nina Shekar*
Aleksandra Vrebalov
Julia Wolfe*
*not in residence
GUEST ARTISTS
Michelle Areyzaga, Soprano
Justin Bruns, Violin
Jennifer Koh, Violin
Tim McAllister, Alto Saxophone
Sidney Outlaw, Baritone
Nikola Printz (they/them), Mezzo-soprano
Darian Donovan Thomas, Multi-instrumentalist
ABOUT THE CABRILLO FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Cabrillo Festival is America’s preeminent and longest standing festival dedicated solely to new music for orchestra. As Joshua Kosman remarked, “an entire microcosm springs up around the proceedings, devoted not only to new music, but also to camaraderie and a shared sense of adventure that encompasses the musicians and the audiences alike… The festival’s welcoming warmth spills out beyond the confines of the hall.” [SF Chronicle, 2023]
An annual two-week event in Santa Cruz, CA, the Festival brings together a world-class orchestra of professional players, composers, and guest artists from around the world to present a series of concerts and free public programs celebrating new symphonic music by living composers, most of whom are in residence. Cristian Măcelaru, Music Director since 2017, follows a distinguished roster of artistic directors including Music Director Laureate Marin Alsop, John Adams, Dennis Russell Davies, Carlos Chávez, and Gerhard Samuel. The Festival has presented hundreds of world, U.S., and West Coast premieres involving the participation of more than nearly 400 composers on the “main stage,” plus more than 60 emerging composers from our Conductors/Composers Workshop. Cabrillo Festival has commissioned more than 50 works over the past fifteen years.
Over the past thirty years, the Festival’s commitment to mentorship of the next generation of conductors, composers, and performers, has become core to its mission. Educational programs include the prestigious Conductors/Composers Workshop and the Youth Ensemble.
Winner of the League of American Orchestras and ASCAP’s John S. Edward Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music, Cabrillo Festival has been acknowledged by New York’s WQXR radio as one of the top five incubators of new music in the world and dubbed a “new music mecca” by The New York Times.
###