Explore the Festival
Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
America’s foremost festival dedicated to new music for orchestra, Cabrillo Festival has been reimaging the orchestral experience and building an enthusiastic community of artists and audiences for more than 60 years.
*Programming and artists subject to change, please refer to the participating organization’s calendar listing for the most up-to-date program.
Events
On Being a Creative Catalyst: Connecting New Music, Composers, and
Community
Cristi Macelaru moderates a lively online discussion with 2023 Cabrillo Festival season composers, sharing video excerpts from recent rehearsals and performances. Participating composers include Dan Caputo, Anna Clyne, Sebastian Currier, Jennifer Higdon, Gabriela Ortiz, Andrea Reinkemeyer, Peter Shin, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Carlos Simon, Bora Yoon, and more to be announced. The forum includes Q&As from the viewing audience. Free registration required for link.
Piece(s)/Composer(s)
Online forum: "On Being a Creative Catalyst: Connecting New Music, Composers, and Community"
Program Notes
In the past 15 years alone, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music has commissioned and premiered more than 50 new works for orchestra and has performed hundreds of world, U.S. and regional premieres. During two intensive weeks each summer, Cabrillo Festival gathers the creators of new symphonic works, both preeminent and emerging, with renowned soloists, a full complement of professional orchestral players from across this nation, and the public, to explore the beauty and challenges of the creative process.
Winner of the League of American Orchestras’ John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music and the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music for 32 consecutive years (the duration of the award), Cabrillo was acknowledged by New York’s WQXR radio as one of the top five incubators of new music in the world.
In 2023 Cabrillo Festival celebrates Music Director and Conductor Cristian Măcelaru’s seventh anniversary. Grammy-winning conductor Cristian Măcelaru is also music director of the Orchestre National de France, chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, artistic director and principal conductor of the Interlochen Center for the Arts’ World Youth Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, and music director and conductor of the Cabrillo Festival. He first came to public attention in 2012 when he conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a replacement for Pierre Boulez and won critical acclaim. Măcelaru served as Conductor in-Residence of the Philadelphia Orchestra for three years.
Media