Conductors Workshop

DEADLINE FOR 2025 HAS PASSED
2026 PROGRAM WILL BE ANNOUNCED MID-JANUARY

The Cabrillo Conductors/Composers Workshop brings together leading faculty, the award-winning Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and early career conductors and composers for a professional training program that focuses on the creation and performance of new music.

Each summer for the last twenty-four years, twenty conductors and three young composers have been selected to participate in this internationally recognized professional development program. Held in downtown Santa Cruz, California, in the context of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music’s annual rehearsal and performance season, the Workshop gives participating conductors and composers five full days of intensive training with some of the world’s most respected contemporary music professionals. In 2025, conducting faculty members will include Cabrillo Festival Music Director Cristian Măcelaru and Octavio Más-Arocas. The composition faculty member will be Festival Composer-in-Residence Stacy Garrop.

This unique workshop experience was designed by founding faculty members, Cabrillo Festival Music Director Laureate Marin Alsop and Maestro Gustav Meier. Activities include a schedule of seminars and critiqued conducting sessions, first with string quintet and piano, then with chamber orchestra, and finally podium time with the full Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. Under the guidance of a composition faculty member, participating composers work with the Festival’s resident composers and with the conductors on subjects including modern score analysis and practical guides for the rehearsal, interpretation and performance of contemporary works. The program is highlighted by an inspirational concert titled In the Works, when the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra is led by six conductors performing short symphonic works by each of the three selected composers.

2025 CONDUCTORS WORKSHOP: DEADLINE march 1

If you are a CONDUCTOR, you are invited to submit an application to be considered for the 2025 Conductors Workshop to be held in Santa Cruz, California, Saturday, July 26 through Wednesday, July 30. All application materials must be submitted online, as specified below. After reviewing the Workshop information and application requirements, please direct any further questions to Audrey Kwong, Conductors Workshop Director. Please note: If you have attended the festival in 2024 as a FELLOW, we are unable to offer a repeat fellowship.

DATES AND LOCATION:

The Conductors Workshop begins the morning of Saturday, July 26 and runs through the early evening of Wednesday, July 30, 2025. All Workshop activities take place at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in Santa Cruz, California.

2025 FACULTY:

Cristian Măcelaru (Music Director, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music; Artistic Director, George Enescu Festival and Competition; Music Director, Orchestre National de France in Paris; Chief Conductor, WDR Sinfonieorchester; Artistic Director and Principal Conductor, Interlochen Center for the Arts’ World Youth Symphony Orchestra; Music Director Designate, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra)

Octavio Más-Arocas (Director of Orchestras and Professor of Orchestral Conducting, Michigan State University College of Music, and Music Director and Conductor, Mansfield Symphony Orchestra)

Stacy Garrop (2025: Cabrillo Festival Composer-in-Residence; Dr. Garrop is an award-winning, internationally recognized freelance composer and lecturer.)

John Corigliano (2025: Cabrillo Festival Composer-in-Residence and guest faculty; Pulitzer Prize, Grawemeyer Award, Grammy Award, and Academy Award winning composer.)

REPERTOIRE:

Selections from:
DVORAK: Symphony No. 7
MOZART: Symphony No. 41
DEBUSSY: Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faun
Lili BOULANGER: D’un matin de Printemps

Three contemporary works by selected Composers Workshop fellows (conducted by FELLOWS only)

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW:

Five 2.5-hour sessions with the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra and faculty are dedicated to standard repertoire training and guidance. An additional two 2.5-hour rehearsal services are dedicated to the preparation of Composer Workshop Fellows’ compositions for the In the Works concert. Additionally, all conductors participate in a variety of seminars, discussions, video review sessions and Q&A with faculty, and are welcome to observe four Festival Orchestra open rehearsals that take place during the Workshop.

• The workshop is divided into three participatory tiers with varied amounts of podium time granted
  Six conducting FELLOWS will be selected and will receive approximately 70 minutes of total podium time conducting standard repertoire. This time is divided between sessions with a string quintet and piano, a 22-piece chamber orchestra, and a full orchestra. Additionally, FELLOWS conduct a 40-piece chamber orchestra for 40 minutes of rehearsal in preparation for the In the Works concert.
• Six conducting ASSOCIATES will be selected and will receive approximately 20 minutes of podium time divided between sessions with octet, and a 22-piece chamber orchestra.
• Eight conducting AUDITORS will be selected and will receive 8 minutes of podium time with string quintet and piano.

Fellows, Associates and Auditors will be provided with a video recording of their individual podium sessions.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:

• Applications and supporting materials will be accepted in digital format only, via Slideroom: cabrillofestival.slideroom.com. Late, incomplete, mailed, or emailed applications will not be considered. All of the following materials must be uploaded by March 1, 2025 to complete an application:
  A CV or resume no more than two pages in length. In addition to detailing any conducting experience, the CV/resume should indicate your primary instrument and any training and orchestral experience on this instrument.
• A letter of recommendation from an artist or teacher who can speak to your musicianship.
• A personal statement (300 words or less) indicating why you are studying conducting and how you hope to benefit from a workshop with a focus on new music.
• Video representative of your conducting. You may include up to three separate video files or links, or combine your application materials into a single video. We would prefer to see you conducting at least two contrasting works, either in performance or rehearsal. All videos should be front-facing, from the vantage point of the orchestra. You may upload up to three files, YouTube, or Vimeo links via Slideroom. DVDs will not be accepted.
• A document detailing information about the video/s submitted as part of your application. For each video file or link submitted, please indicate the repertoire included, the date and location of the performance or rehearsal, and the orchestra/ensemble. If a variety of repertoire or excerpts are submitted within a single file or link, please detail the specific timing for each excerpt.
• Payment of the $90 application fee.

FEES & TUITION:

TRAVEL & HOUSING:

Participants are responsible for arranging travel to and accommodations in Santa Cruz and the expenses associated with these arrangements. Nearby airports are Mineta San Jose International (SJC; 35 miles from Santa Cruz) and San Francisco International (SFO; 70 miles from Santa Cruz). Information on suggested ground transportation and accommodations will be provided to selected conductors. An attendee list will be made available to all participating conductors in the event that conductors wish to arrange shared ground transportation or housing.

NOTIFICATION & ACCEPTANCE:

Invitations for the workshop will be distributed on a rolling basis and by April 15.
Accepted FELLOWS, ASSOCIATES and AUDITORS will be asked to confirm their participation in writing and by submitting the $300 deposit by the deadline indicated in the workshop invitation.

Accepted ASSOCIATES will be asked to confirm their participation in writing by submitting the full tuition payment by the deadline indicated in the workshop invitation.

Accepted AUDITORS will be invited by group, and will be asked to confirm their participation in writing and by submitting the full tuition by the deadline indicated in the workshop invitation on a first come first served basis.

Payment of the deposit or tuition will reserve the conductor’s place in the Workshop. In the event of an attendee’s cancellation, the deposit or tuition will only be refunded after the Workshop (in August)  if the Festival is able to fill the withdrawing conductor’s place with another individual. Application fees are non-refundable.