Cabrillo Festival in Santa Cruz called off
The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, one of the nation’s leading celebrations of new music for orchestra, has canceled its 2020 season because of concerns over the coronavirus.
This is the first season cancellation in the 58year history of the Santa Cruz summer festival.
The 2020 season, scheduled for July 25Aug. 9 under Music Director Cristian Macelaru, was to have included world premieres by Stacy Garrop, Jake Heggie and Sean Shepherd, as well as a memorial tribute to the late composer Christopher Rouse.
Cabrillo’s cancellation marks the first change to the Bay Area’s summer classical music calendar caused by the pandemic. Music@Menlo, the chamber music series scheduled for July 17Aug. 8, is still on the books, as is the summer season of West Edge Opera, July 25Aug. 9. The Merola Opera Program, the San Francisco Opera Center’s summer training program, is also currently on track for performances.
Cabrillo’s executive director, Ellen M. Primack, and board president, Liza Culick, wrote in a joint statement on the festival’s website, “Because all our artists travel from across the country and the globe to stay in homes with members of our community, we are especially vulnerable; and, in turn, we feel a special sense of responsibility to safeguard those we hold most dear.”
A video message from Macelaru promises that the festival will add content drawn from previous seasons on its website.
“I wanted to reassure you that while things will be different this summer in Santa Cruz without Cabrillo Festival in 2020,” he says, “it ensures and allows us to be able to return back in 2021 stronger, more powerful and better than ever.”