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 (Gabrielle Beteag, 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 Gabrielle Beteag. 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.
Join us afterward for a colorful afterparty and celebration of community and the season!
Stay after the show for our annual celebration of the season with cake and bubbly, to sounds of the season remixed by dj.ari.b, projections by Joshua Salesin, and more!
Featured Artists
Tim McAllister, Alto-Saxophone
Widely regarded as today’s most celebrated classical saxophonist, Timothy McAllister has appeared with the world’s finest orchestras in over twenty countries. He is a champion of contemporary music credited with over sixty recordings and two hundred fifty premieres of works by eminent composers worldwide.
John Corigliano composed Triathlon: Concerto for Saxophonist and Orchestra for McAllister, who premiered the work with Giancarlo Guerrero and the San Francisco Symphony, followed by a recording with the Nashville Symphony (due for imminent release). Longtime collaborator Tyshawn Sorey wrote his 2024 Pulitzer Prize winning work, Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith) for McAllister, which was premiered by the Lucerne Festival and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
McAllister premiered the John Adams Saxophone Concerto with the Sydney Symphony. He is honored with a GRAMMY Award for his Adams Concerto and City Noir recordings with the St. Louis Symphony under David Robertson. He later appeared with Marin Alsop and the BBC Symphony at the London Proms performing the Adams Concerto to widespread acclaim.
His recording of Kenneth Fuchs’ Rush, with the London Symphony under JoAnn Falletta, won another GRAMMY, and his reprisal of Adams’ City Noir with the Berlin Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel appears on the composer’s GRAMMY-nominated anthology.
Recent performances include the Spain and Belgium Premieres of Guillaume Connesson’s concerto: A Kind of Trane under Stéphane Denève, recorded with the Brussels Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon. Notable soloist debuts recently include the New York Philharmonic and the symphonies of Buffalo, Detroit, Galicia, Hong Kong, Houston, Indianapolis, Lyon, Milwaukee, Mineria (Mexico), and Seattle.
McAllister is the soprano saxophonist of the acclaimed PRISM Quartet, and he has been Professor of Saxophone at the University of Michigan since 2014, following previous posts at Arizona State University and Northwestern University, among others. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan, having studied with legendary saxophonist, Donald Sinta.
Gabrielle Beteag, Mezzo-Soprano
A graduate of the Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera, American mezzo-soprano Gabrielle Beteag returned to the company this season to sing Offred’s Mother in The Handmaid’s Tale, and to cover Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera. On the concert stage, she joined the Santa Rosa Symphony for her first Mahler Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, followed by a performance with the National Orchestra Institute and conductor Marin Alsop. Gabrielle debuted with Music of Rememberance as Gertrude Stein in Tom Cipullo’s After Life, reprised her performance of Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with the Hilton Head Symphony, and sings Mère Marie in The Dialogues of the Carmelites with Wolf Trap Opera. Next season will include her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Schwertleite in Act 3 of Die Walküre, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
Ms. Beteag began the 2023-24 season appearing with the San Francisco Opera as Stimme von Oben in Die Frau ohne Schatten, an Image of Frida Kahlo in El último sueño de Frida y Diego, and the Teacher in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. She also sang Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the San Francisco Ballet, and, during the summer, she joined Wolf Trap Opera as a Filene Artist, appearing as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (National Symphony Orchestra), as well as Anna I in Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins.
Inspired by contemporary repertoire, Beteag counts her role creation of Iras in John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra during San Francisco Opera’s Centennial Season (2022-2023) a career highlight.
Composers
Adolphus Hailstork
Adolphus Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He had previously studied at the Manhattan School of Music, under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, at the American Institute at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger, and at Howard University with Mark Fax.
Dr. Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and opera.
Hailstork’s second and third symphonies were recorded by the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra (David Lockington) and were released by Naxos. Another Naxos recording, AN AMERICAN PORT OF CALL (Virginia Symphony Orchestra) was released in spring 2012. His most recent recording is Piano Concerto no. 1 on Naxos Records conducted by JoAnn Falletta. (2023)
Hailstork’s new pieces include THE WORLD CALLED (based on Rita Dove’s poem TESTIMONIAL), a work for soprano, chorus and orchestra commissioned by the Oratorio Society of Virginia (premiered in May 2018) and STILL HOLDING ON (February 2019), an orchestra work commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
This last has become the first movement of Symphony no. 4 premiered by the Mannes School of Music on March 8, 2023. Other new works recently receiving notable first performances (2023) are A KNEE ON THE NECK (George Floyd Requiem) BLEST BE THE DAY (a Juneteenth Overture), premiered by the Baltimore Symphony, and Piano Concerto No. 2 commissioned by Lara Downes.
In 2023 Dr. Hailstork was inducted into the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS.
Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon, (b. Brooklyn, NY; New Year’s Eve, 1962) is always thrilled to be back at the Cabrillo Festival. Her works represent a range of genres, from chamber to orchestral and wind ensemble, as well as vocal, choral and opera.
Higdon’s list of commissioners is extensive and includes The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well such groups as the Tokyo String Quartet, the Lark Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, and the President’s Own United States Marine Band. She has also written works for such renowned artists as baritone Thomas Hampson and mezzo Sasha Cooke; pianists Yuja Wang and Gary Graffman; and violinists Joshua Bell, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Hilary Hahn. Her first opera, Cold Mountain, was awarded the prestigious International Opera Award for Best World Premiere in 2016. And her second opera, Woman With Eyes Closed, sold out its premiere run at Pittsburgh Opera, with critical acclaim.
The Chicago Sun Times has cited her music as “both modern and timeless, complex and sophisticated, and immensely engaging in a way that both charms and galvanizes an audience craving something new and full of urgency, yet not distancing.” John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune called her writing, “beautiful, accessible, inventive, and impeccably crafted.”
Higdon enjoys more than 250 performances annually of her works. Her orchestral work, blue cathedral, is one of the most performed contemporary orchestral pieces in the repertoire (having had more than 1,200 performances).
Jennifer’s works have been recorded on more than 100 CDs. The Library of Congress has added the London Philharmonic recording of her Percussion Concerto to the National Recording Registry.
Tyson Gholston Davis
Tyson Gholston Davis (b. 2000, North Carolina) is an American composer who is frequently commissioned by organizations such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. His music is characterized by its expansive and resonant textures, imbued with kinetic gestures and a profound connection to the visual arts. His series “Studies on Helen Frankenthaler,” inspired by the artist’s paintings, has been performed by the Juilliard String Quartet and pianist Jonathan Biss.
Davis’s 17-minute solo piano work, …Expansions of Light, written for pianist Jonathan Biss, was praised by Biss in The Boston Globe, who commended its intentionality and profound meaning. Similarly, his work Amorphous Figures, inspired by a Frankenthaler’s painting, was co-commissioned by the Kennedy Center for the Juilliard String Quartet, touring extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Recent major works include As Juniper Storms, an orchestral piece for conductor Cristian Măcelaru and the Cabrillo Festival and …inner flame… deep and blue…, a song cycle for soprano Ariadne Greif and a consortium of university wind ensembles. Upcoming projects highlight his versatility, featuring new works for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the JACK Quartet, Da Capo Chamber Players, and Eighth Blackbird.
In the summer of 2019, Davis was a composer apprentice with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), where his work Delicate Tension premiered at the Konzerthaus Berlin conducted by Antonio Pappano. This experience marked a significant milestone in Tyson’s early career, leading to further commissions from ensembles and organizations. His recognitions include the 2024 Copland House Residency Award and the 68th BMI Student Composer Award. He holds degrees from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (high school diploma), a bachelor’s and master’s from The Juilliard School.
Jake Heggie
American composer Jake Heggie is best known for Dead Man Walking, the most widely performed new opera of the last 25 years. With a libretto by Terrence McNally, it has been received by enthusiastic audiences at major theaters in Dresden, Vienna, London, Madrid, Copenhagen, Sydney, Montréal, and Cape Town, in more than 80 international productions. His critically acclaimed operas Moby-Dick, Three Decembers, and It’s a Wonderful Life, with libretti by Gene Scheer, have also established themselves in the classical canon. In addition to 10 full-length operas and numerous one-acts, Heggie has composed more than 300 art songs, as well as concerti, chamber music, choral, and orchestral works. His compositions have been performed on five continents, and he regularly collaborates with some of the world’s most beloved artists as both composer and pianist.
Heggie is particularly drawn to the mezzo voice and has longstanding creative partnerships with Frederica von Stade, Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, Sasha Cooke, and Jamie Barton, whose album with Heggie, Unexpected Shadows, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Heggie’s recent nine-city recital tour with Barton showcased What I Miss The Most, a song cycle with new texts by important voices including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sister Helen Prejean, and Patti LuPone. His collaboration with the great Margaret Atwood, Songs for Murdered Sisters, was created in response to the global epidemic of gender-based violence, and earned a Classical Album of the Year nomination at Canada’s Juno Awards.
Heggie actively seeks out projects that invite a wide range of perspectives and possibilities. In the 24/25 season, he re-teams with choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Urban Bush Women for the world premiere of Earth 2.0, a monodrama commissioned by Fort Worth Symphony, featuring countertenor Key’mon Murrah with Robert Spano conducting. Heggie’s acclaimed collaboration with Margaret Atwood, Songs for Murdered Sisters, appears at Carnegie Hall and Marian Anderson Hall with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. A new commission for fast-rising countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen also appears at Carnegie Hall before touring to Houston and Washington, D.C. Following the highly acclaimed Met premiere of Dead Man Walking, the Metropolitan Opera welcomes a stunning Leonard Foglia production of Moby-Dick.
Program Notes
Saxophone Concerto (2024)
for alto saxophone and string orchestra
Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941)
[West Coast Premiere]
Commissioned by Gail Haefner Straith and University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance for Timothy McAllister and the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Kiesler, Music Director.
The world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s Saxophone Concerto was the 5th of the MORE (Michigan Orchestra Repertoire for Equity) project, a ten-year commissioning initiative, which was founded by Kenneth Kiesler in 2020.
Written for saxophone and strings, the concerto unfolds over three movements in a fast-slow- fast format. The first movement, in ABA form, bursts with rhythmic energy and draws some of its inspiration from American folk traditions, particularly fiddling and folk dances. The second movement shifts to a lyrical and reflective tone, where the saxophone takes on a vocal, expressive quality. The final movement, a lively Rondo (ABACAB Coda), brings the piece to an exciting and joyful close.
Hailstork’s music is known for blending classical structures with American influences, spirituals and gospel traditions, and this concerto is no exception. It brings out the saxophone’s versatility and dual nature, with moments of virtuosity, lyricism, and playfulness.
– Francisco Fernandez Morales
Cold Mountain Suite (2022)
Jennifer Higdon (b.1962)
While creating this suite, it was a wonderful challenge to determine which music to feature in order to create a dynamic and engaging orchestral work. Because Cold Mountain is about love, war, and death (imagine that in an opera!) there was a lot of dramatic music from which to pick. I chose various arias, duets, and quintets, with the idea that they would be arranged not in story order, but in a manner to create the greatest contrast for the listener. The beginning and end of the suite come from the opening of Act 2 and the closing of Act 1—purely for its style of ramping up. It then quickly moves into the “Storm Music;” followed by the quintet, “I Should Be Crying;” the duet, “Orion;” (which I calculated would need two weeks to write, but in an amazing fit of inspiration, came to me in one day—the very thing creative types dream about); the fiddling duet, Bless You Ruby; Ada’s contemplative aria, “I Feel Sorry For You;” then music from the scene where Inman and Ada finally get together after four years of his being away at war; and finally to the music that ends Act 1 to close out the suite.
After taking 28 months to write this opera, and having lived with the characters so deeply in my heart and soul, it is truly a privilege to share this music with you. Thank you for joining us on this journey through Cold Mountain.
– Jennifer Higdon
Based on Charles Frazier’s National Book Award-wining novel, the opera, Cold Mountain, was commissioned by Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, North Carolina Opera, and Minnesota Opera. Its performances have consistently sold out. It garnered 2 Grammy nominations and won the International Opera Award for Best New Opera Premiere. The suite was commissioned by New Music for America, and co-commissioned by 36 regional orchestras.
As Juniper Storms (2025)
Tyson Gholston Davis (b. 2000)
[World Premiere | Festival Commission]
As Juniper Storms (2025) is a work that draws inspiration from American abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler. Frankenthaler’s painting, fittingly titled “Overture,” is a lush, forest green abstraction that dramatically dances across its canvas. The composition, like the artwork, is full of kinetic energy and dramatic gestures. I was drawn to these qualities in Frankenthaler’s painting as well as the painting’s earthy green colors, which reminded me of blooming trees that begin to overtake regions in late spring. Additionally, during this time of year, storms are frequent where I live in the Eastern U.S. Therefore, one often sees these vibrant green trees being hurled around in the wind as the storms rage. Frankenthaler’s canvas, with its sweeping waves of green, captures this aspect of the late spring climate, a period when juniper green storms. As Juniper Storms was commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and premieres with the Festival Orchestra conducted by Music Director Cristian Măcelaru in August 2025. The work is dedicated to my composition mentor, Melinda Wagner, with admiration and gratitude.
–Tyson Gholston Davis
Good Morning, Beauty (2025)
Jake Heggie (b. 1961)
[Festival Co-commission]
Good Morning, Beauty is a cycle of four romantic and humorous songs that explores the emotions and realities of being queer in a long-term relationship.
The project started late in 2023, when Classical Pride London approached me about composing a single song for its 2024 Festival at Barbican Hall. In need of a new text, I started dreaming of a collaboration with the great Taylor Mac. A mutual friend connected us, and he said yes! Not long after, he sent the glowing, inspired lyric for the song “Good Morning, Beauty.” The emotion and words felt so true and clear to me that the song practically set itself. It received its premiere in July 2024, featuring soprano Pumeza Matshikiza with the London Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Oliver Zeffman.
That collaboration went so well that a consortium of three companies (Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and Classical Pride London) asked us to add three more songs to create a complete cycle. What emerged is what Taylor refers to as “a present to queers in long-term relationships.”
The cycle begins with the gratitude and wonder of waking every day next to the person you love, then jumps to some of the very human challenges of partnering for life: the annoying routines that creep up on us, the ruts and misunderstandings. It ends with the humor, longing, and complexity of queer love—and the pressures of navigating the dominant culture’s fear of it—alongside its beauty and simplicity.
At the Barbican in London (July 3, 2025), Classical Pride premiered the third song, ”Or Am I in a Rut?” with mezzo Jamie Barton and the London Symphony Orchestra led by Oliver Zeffman.
The world premiere of the full cycle took place during Classical Pride at the Hollywood Bowl (July 10, 2025), performed by three singers: soprano Pumeza Matshikiza, mezzo Jamie Barton, and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. Each will sing a solo song, then join together for the fourth. The LA Phil will be led by Oliver Zeffman.
At the Cabrillo Festival (Aug 10, 2025), mezzo-soprano Gabrielle Beteag will perform the entire cycle with the Festival Orchestra, led by conductor Cristian Mǎcelaru.
– Jake Heggie