The California Symphony and Music Director Donato Cabrera. Photo by Kristen Loken.
In last Monday’s (2/26) San Francisco Classical Voice, Janos Gereben writes, “Ever since its founding in 1986 by percussionist/conductor Barry Jekowsky, California Symphony Orchestra has gone way beyond the usual limits … The Walnut Creek-based orchestra has created the Young American Composers-in-Residence, Sound Minds educational initiative, and other pioneering programs and has consistently advocated diversity and American composers. Now, for the orchestra’s next season—from Sept. 21 of this year to May 4, 2025—Donato Cabrera, artistic and music director for the past decade, is programming concerts as ambitious and grand as those coming from much larger orchestras…. The season highlights final symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Anton Bruckner’s unfinished Symphony No. 9 with Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony on the same program. Paired with these works, CSO also offers its new and unusual music selections, such as the Grammy-winning Philharmonia Fantastique concerto for film and orchestra by Mason Bates; a world premiere by the orchestra’s 2023-2026 Young American Composer-in-Residence Saad Haddad; a recent work by Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon; Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez; and rarely performed music by 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc and 20th-century Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz.”
