In Friday’s (5/1) Mercury News (San Jose, California), Richard Scheinin writes, “Oddly enough, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is growing fatter this summer. Meaning, more music than last year. Meaning, don’t believe everything that’s said about the economy and the inevitability of downsizing in the arts. … Festival music director Marin Alsop, whose arrival in Santa Cruz each summer causes something close to a rock star stir, will lead the festival orchestra in six concerts (as opposed to five in 2008) from Aug. 7 to 16. … Concerts, beginning Aug. 7, will include one world premiere (‘Rise From the Dark,’ by David Heath, a Brit), five U.S. premieres and three West Coast premieres. Also: The sensational young cellist Alisa Weilerstein is soloist for Golijov’s ‘Azul,’ a concerto, composed for Yo-Yo Ma and inspired by a Pablo Neruda poem. … How is Cabrillo managing to expand activities as the economy flounders? ‘We’re never not worried,’ [Executive Director Ellen] Primack says. ‘But the festival has been prudent and cautious, and we’ve accumulated a reserve’ of about $180,000. In the event of a shortfall in this year’s budget—Primack says a $25,000 shortage is conceivable—the reserve will cover it.”
Posted May 5, 2009
Photo: Marin Alsop
Credit: Grant Leighton
