Quick Take:
The annual Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music will present some of the world’s leading performers of orchestral and chamber music over the next two weeks at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.
In case you’re vibing on a certain ethereal creative energy in the air in downtown Santa Cruz these days — I mean, of course, beyond the normal ethereal creative energy in downtown Santa Cruz — that spidey sense is telling you that the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is back.
Every mid-summer, for a period of two weeks, many of the world’s most creative minds in orchestral and chamber music meet up in Santa Cruz for a bracing reminder that classical music isn’t always “classical” (from long-dead white European men) and that contemporary music can be something beyond Taylor Swift and K-pop.
The Cabrillo Festival, under musical director Cristian Măcelaru, kicks off with its first public concert on Friday at the Santa Cruz Civic. Măcelaru returns to Santa Cruz fresh from the Olympic Games in Paris, where he conducted the Orchestre National de France in its performance during the games’ opening ceremony.
“Cristi,” as he’s known around the festival, had little time to shake off the jet lag before he was leading the Cabrillo Festival orchestra in its ongoing open rehearsals, which you can watch in person at the Civic, or stream online.
This year’s festival — now in its 62nd year — is presenting four world-premiere pieces and 15 composers-in-residence.
Among the highlights are the debut of the festival’s “Creative Lab” program, which allows composers the power to re-imagine the performance experience by positioning players in the orchestra in different places throughout the arena, as well as to rethink technological and design elements. Korean-American composer and sound artist Bora Yoon will try out the program in her show called “Parhelion,” in which she promises to work with the distinctive architecture of the Civic to enhance the audience experience. That happens Saturday, Aug. 10, along with a West Coast premiere of a Wynton Marsalis concerto.
Another highly anticipated moment comes Sunday, Aug. 4, when star violinist Phillipe Quint performs in a recital concert titled “The Muse,” featuring the work of many of the country’s finest contemporary female composers, and includes a performance as actor/narrator by Jewel Theater artistic director Julie James.
The festival finishes Sunday, Aug. 11, with a concert titled “Passage,” which includes, among other goodies, a culminating piece from Mexican composer Juan Pablo Contreras, which melds Western classical tradition with Mexican folklórico music.
Tickets are on sale now for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music’s 2024 season.