Artist Bio Links
RISING – GRAND FINALE
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)
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. We 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.