Guest Artists + Composers
(FREE) FAMILY CONCERT
Conducted by Octavio Más-Arocas
Karen LeFrak: Sleepover at the Museum
Frank Duarte: Xhnisa (West Coast Premiere)
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 make a special appearance and will be provided mentorship and coaching.
The concert is general/ open seating.
Tickets are available at the door, but you can reserve your ticket online in advance at santacruztickets.com.
Donations are vital to keep these educational programs thriving. Your generosity helps us bring the joy of music to families who might not otherwise have access. By donating, you’re nurturing a lifelong love of music in future generations.
Featured Artists
Rachel Lee Rogers, Narrator
Passionate about community, the arts, and especially Shakespeare, Rachel Lee Rogers (she/her) has been acting, directing, and developing for theatre for twenty years. Her current position as Director of Development at Santa Cruz Shakespeare has been a special delight. She was a founding member and Development Director for Shaking Will, a New Jersey Shakespeare Collective, and served as Development Director for Balagula Theatre Company before becoming Artistic Director. Most recently Producing Director for Bluegrass Opera and Music Theatre, her professional career includes years of acting (AEA), directing, design, and drama education, always with a commitment to outreach and the future of theatre. Rogers holds a B.F.A. in Acting/Directing and a B.A. in Literature and Playwriting from Northern Kentucky University with M.F.A. studies at Mason Gross School for the Arts, Rutgers, and post-graduate certification in Shakespearean and Jacobean Theatre from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.
COMPOSERS
Karen LeFrak
A native New Yorker, Karen LeFrak is a prolific and versatile composer and author whose vibrant, moving musical scores have been presented in prestigious concert halls around the world. Highlights of her career include 17 studio albums, a catalog of over 300 works, and worldwide performances by prominent organizations including the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Ballet, and Mariinsky Ballet. She has also received accolades for her children’s books, which are published by Bloomsbury, Random House, and Crown Books.
Gathering, Ms. LeFrak’s latest recording, marks the 14th release in a series of highly successful solo piano albums for her label, KL2, through Naxos. These albums were recorded by Jorn Swart, each featuring 10 short, atmospheric piano pieces that have been included in hundreds of curated playlists on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and other streaming services, yielding over 45 million global streams. Ms. LeFrak has also recorded three notable albums of chamber music and plans more chamber, solo piano and string ensemble recording projects in 2025-2026. She recently completed sessions for her first orchestral recording, Miami Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, with conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez and the internationally acclaimed, Grammy-winning guitar soloist Sharon Isbin, featuring New York City’s Orchestra of St. Luke’s. It was produced by Elaine Martone and is due for release on May 30, 2025.
Upcoming highlights of Ms. LeFrak’s 2024-25 season include live performances of her Miami Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, featuring Isbin, at the Aspen Music Festival, at the Vancouver USA Arts & Music Festival, and with the Las Vegas and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras. After nearly 20 performances around the world, including by the New York Philharmonic and National Symphony Orchestra, her multimedia family work Sleepover at the Museum will continue to be performed extensively. American Promise, a new work by Ms. LeFrak that was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, will be premiered in 2026. It will be followed by many other performances, including by the Miami Symphony Orchestra and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.
Frank Duarte
Frank Duarte (b. 1992) is an American composer whose music is influenced by a kaleidoscope of colors, emotion, and sonorities often inspired by nature, history, literature, and his Latino and Indigenous heritage.
His music has received awards, including the American Prize, Global Music Award, and ASCAP Plus Award. His music has been performed in over twenty states and abroad in Japan, Greece, and Colombia. Duarte’s music has been featured in books, conducting symposia, seminars, and conferences, and has been the subject of scholarly and academic documents. He has written for Sō Percussion, Imani Winds, and the Princeton Singers, and his music has been performed by the Utah All-State Band, Choral Arts Initiative, Minnesota Winds, the National Concert Band of America, and the Princeton Singers. His music has been performed at prominent institutions, including Arizona State University, Butler University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University of Cauca, Manhattan School of Music, Michigan State University, University of New Mexico, University of North Texas, Portland State University, Texas Tech University, and Tufts University, among many others.
Duarte received Associate of Arts degrees in Music, History, and Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Mathematics from Fullerton College. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from California State University, Northridge, and a Master of Music degree in Composition from Butler University. He pursued doctoral studies at Texas Tech University and was a University Enrichment Fellow at Michigan State University, where he received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition. Duarte also received an Artist Diploma from OAcademy Music Conservatory.
His works are published and distributed through Murphy Music Press, MusicSpoke, Tolliver Music Company, and ADJ•ective New Music.
Program Notes
Sleepover at the Museum (2019)
Karen LeFrak (b. 1947)
Written by Karen LeFrak and illustrated by David Bucs, Sleepover at the Museum tells the story of Mason and his friends as they engage in a birthday scavenger hunt through a natural history museum. If Mason and his friends solve all of the scavenger hunt clues, Mason receives the ultimate birthday present—he gets to choose where in the museum he and his friends will spend the night! Described as “an imaginative introduction to visiting museums” by Booklist, Sleepover at the Museum holds charms for older children, too.
Karen LeFrak composed a musical score (orchestrated by Bill Ross) to accompany her story, which premiered in February of 2019 with the Miami Symphony Orchestra. This lively score invites listeners to consider and explore the relationship between story and sound, as well as the composition process.
Xhnisa (2024)
Frank Duarte (b. 1992)
[West Coast Premiere]
Xhnisa is a work inspired by water. For millennia, water has been the essence of life. It can be serene and still, like a tranquil lake reflecting an image of the sky, or powerful and relentless, like a roaring river carving through a canyon. As an American with Indigenous and Latino roots, my connection to water is both spiritual and cultural, and my connection has inspired this piece and a poem of the same name. The versatility and beauty of water have inspired countless art forms and cultures, and they have undoubtedly inspired me.
Through this work, I sought to capture various moods, each influenced by my upbringing in California. These include taking a ferry to Catalina Island, experiencing Disneyland’s World of Color—which I affectionately call las aguas bailarinas (Spanish for “dancing waters”)—running along the shore in Newport Beach, and drinking Peñafiel, a renowned brand of Mexican sparkling mineral water. These experiences offer a glimpse into how I perceive water—simple, complex, foamy, wavy, and sparkling.
– Frank Duarte