Cabrillo Festival answers the New York Times question “Has America delivered on its classical music promise?
By Bill Richter, Member-at-Large, Cabrillo Festival Board of Directors, and guest contributor
Has America delivered on its classical music promise? Joseph Horowitz, assessing classical music in the United States for The New York Times, is not persuaded. In his view, “an ample American concert canon never materialized. Instead, ‘a culture of performance’ presided, privileging celebrity conductors, instrumentalists and singers over composers.”
Cabrillo says “yes!” We’ve been not only witnesses to, but crucial catalysts for American composers’ prolific inventiveness for over six decades. If you read nothing else, and want to see Cabrillo’s contribution to the canon of American music, you need go no further than our program database (spoiler alert: there are 2,100 entries)! Promise kept.
Certainly, there are structural, paradigm-level issues within our field as a legacy “Eurocentric” artform, and we push against those trends. Our unofficial moniker as a “composers festival” expresses that our focus is on the creators. And if a small but mighty Festival in a small beach town has been able to present over 400 living composers, the vast majority American, that speaks to great promise for the American musical legacy. And while the American “canon” may be broad, fractured, freer from European tradition, and generally just hard to define; that IS the American legacy, one that is multi-cultural, stylistically varied, and vibrant.
We realize the path of a composer is extraordinarily difficult; the structural realities of our field do not always incentivize creative risks. The orchestral field is an artform with onerous commercial realities, little government support, an increasingly challenged grants landscape, and too often a focus on the past and “greatest hits” rather than innovation. Yet, despite these challenges, and through commissions we fund, American composers consistently and resiliently create an abundance of extraordinary new work, and our mission is to support them in their creative trajectories!
For 64 of the U.S.’ 250 years, this Festival has accompanied America on its quest to form a more perfect union by commissioning, workshopping, performing, and discussing new music, a canon of contemporary classical music for America’s future. Just as American democracy has evolved in the last half century, Cabrillo has been at the forefront of evolving an American classical legacy, thereby enfranchising and inspiring composers, musicians and audiences for whom the “classical” canon was not sufficiently expressive or open. This has not been easy or free from controversy, but our community propelled and supported us.
As America strives for a more perfect union, we strive for a more inclusive canon, one that speaks to all and in which all can find an entry point. Indeed, Cabrillo’s mission is nothing less than transforming the orchestral experience for artists and audiences by building a vibrant community dedicated to the creation and performance of profound, relevant, and innovative music. I believe the Cabrillo community, consisting of current and past music directors, musicians, staff, donors, and volunteers—should take a bow for enabling America to deliver its classical music promise. If there is any doubt that an American contemporary classical music canon legitimately, permanently, and joyfully exists, Americans should look no further than to the Festival’s 188 world premieres, 80 U.S. premieres and countless West Coast premieres. Paraphrasing our Vision Statement, we believe contemporary classical music serves as a powerful manifestation of the human experience, moving us all, composers, conductors, musicians and audience members to a greater understanding of the world and compassion for each other.
We urge you to join us for our “We the Dreamers” season July 26 through August 9th. If you are unable to come to Santa Cruz, join us online for our livestreamed open rehearsals! Whether you’ve attended for decades or next week is your very first concert, we think you’ll agree: the musical promise delivered, yet evolving each year.
P.S. If you want to contribute to the creation of contemporary canon, please consider donating to the Festival and commissioning new work!