Cabrillo - First Night
By Mark Flegg
My sixth season with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music starts off with an exciting concert at Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. From the Cabrillo Festival Website: Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium Tickets: $26-$41
Stephen McNeff: Sinfonia Conciso (U.S. Premiere) Eric Lindsay: Darkness Made Visible (World Premiere) David W. Sanford: Scherzo Grosso (Matt Haimovitz , cello) Christopher Rouse: Concerto for Orchestra (World Premiere/Cabrillo Festival Commission)
This very First Night is itself full of firsts. Composer Stephen McNeff of the U.K. will join you for the U.S. Premiere of Sinfonia Conciso, a fast-paced concert opener commissioned and premiered by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Marin Alsop. Twenty-eight year old composer Eric Lindsay hails from a bit closer to home—born in Santa Cruz and raised on Whidbey Island, Washington—his music is described by Other Minds’ Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian as “lush, evocative, with unusual lines…completely inventive." Tonight Lindsay is with you for the World Premiere performance of his newly revised Darkness Made Visible, a work described as a collision of two opposing musical forces: one angular, aggressive and disjointed; the other conservative, harkening back to a “Lisztian bravura.â€?
** **“[Matt Haimovitz]… is one of the most adventurous classical musicians out there.� —Boston Globe
Renowned cellist Matt Haimovitz has become a legend in the music world for pushing beyond conventions—be it performances in surprising venues or collaborations with unexpected partners around unpredicted genres. Tonight he makes his Festival debut with composer David Sanford’s Scherzo Grosso, a “classical-funk-jazz-bebop-hip-hopping� work originally composed for cello and big band, and then rescored for full orchestra. The evening ends with a Festival milestone: the World Premiere performance of the third in a series of recent Festival commissions. Pulitzer-prize winner Christopher Rouse is among the most respected composers of his generation, and among Marin Alsop’s favorites. His Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned by a group of Cabrillo Festival patrons in honor of the Festival’s longtime staff members. Four composers in the house, a Festival commission, World and U.S. Premieres, and a stellar soloist make this a First Night to remember!