The second weekend of the Cabrillo Festival kicks off with the debut of the Cabrillo Festival’s Creative Lab featuring a world premiere by Bora Yoon and a powerful work by Gabriella Smith. Gabriella Smith’s music is described as “high-voltage and wildly imaginative” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “the coolest, most exciting, most inventive new voice I’ve heard in ages” (Musical America). She returns to the Cabrillo Festival to present Lost Coast, a cello concerto featuring the dynamic Gabriel Cabezas on amplified cello. This work immerses audiences in a performance inspired by the rugged beauty of California’s northern coastline while also expressing the grief, loss, rage, and fear experienced in the loss and displacement of those habitats from climate change. The Cabrillo Festival unveils the Creative Lab, a new project that gives curatorial control to the composer, empowering them to rethink the orchestral experience. In its inaugural year Măcelaru leads the Festival Orchestra in a world premiere by Korean-American composer, vocalist, and sound artist Bora Yoon. The composer will realize this creative freedom through spatial placement of the orchestra, technology, and production design. Entitled PARHELION, this immersive sonic experience will unfold within the distinctive architecture of Santa Cruz’s Civic Auditorium. Collaborating with Joshue Ott of Interval Studios and Visual Endeavors for multimedia and design, Yoon’s composition defies conventional boundaries, immersing listeners in a captivating fusion of sound and light. Drawing inspiration from time, seasons, and the concept of cycles, Yoon’s innovative structure incorporates movements by orchestral players to generate dynamic projections and interactive graphics.