Director prepares to bid adieu to Cabrillo Fest
Marin Alsop has won raves leading the new music series 25 years
As she prepares for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Marin Alsop is feeling upbeat — and a little bittersweet.
The 2016 installment of the Santa Cruz new music festival marks Alsop’s 25th year as music director. It’s also her last.
For Alsop, who announced last fall that she would step down at the end of this year’s festival, it’s hard to say goodbye. But she says it’s time.
“Cabrillo has been a wonderful oasis,” she explained in a call from her home in Baltimore. “At the same time, there are other things I’d like to pursue. I feel that I’ve gotten the festival to a place where I’m extremely proud of what I’ve done. But it’s time for a new vision. I think it’s a perfect moment for me to move on at a peak that ensures the festival’s longevity.”
Alsop, who is also music director of the Baltimore and Sao Paulo orchestras, as well as a frequent podium presence at the BBC Proms, will be missed in Santa Cruz. She leaves an impressive legacy of premieres by living composers.
This year’s festival continues that legacy with four mainstage concerts, including the world premieres of John Adams’ “Lola Montez Does the Spider Dance” and a new symphonic ballet by Anna Clyne. New and recent works by Jennifer Higdon, Christopher Rouse, Kevin Puts, James MacMillan, Mason Bates and Osvaldo Golijov are also featured; chamber performances and family concerts complete the lineup.
“It’s sort of the same approach I’ve always taken,” said Alsop, “bringing together composers who have some kind of relationship with the orchestra and the audience, along with young, up-and-coming composers.”
This year, though, Alsop has decided to do something she’s never done before. She’ll cap the festival with John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1, which she conducted in her early days at Cabrillo. It’s a fond look back — and the first time she’s repeated a work here.
Now in its 54th year, Cabrillo is unique on the new music scene. With its funky seaside vibe and embrace of the experimental, Northern California’s oldest contemporary music festival is a place where composers and performers come together to create and launch new works. The festival gained renown under previous leaders, including Lou Harrison and Dennis Russell Davies. Alsop has raised its profile, and the annual event now attracts music lovers from around the world.
Asked about highlights during her tenure, Alsop says there are just too many.
“It’s always a little like going on a spectacular vacation — people say ‘where’s your favorite place?’ You almost can’t pick, because each one was so unique, so filled with different experiences.
“For me, the special thing is the sense that Cabrillo has become a destination for people wanting to explore the creative process. The biggest highlight is that sense of shared creativity.”
Alsop wasn’t always a fan of new music. The conductor, who began her musical studies at age 3 — her parents were both professional musicians, and Leonard Bernstein was one of her early mentors — recalls a moment when she called it “garbage.”
“I hated it,” she says. “I remember my parents were rehearsing Beethoven’s ‘Grosse Fuge.’ I was maybe 12 or 13, and I came stomping downstairs thinking it was a contemporary work. My father said ‘this is Beethoven,’ and I thought ‘you can’t pull that wool over my eyes!’ When I looked at the score, I couldn’t believe it.”
A turning point came when Alsop discovered Bartok. From there, she became immersed in the music of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and other groundbreaking composers. “I just got sucked into the new music vortex,” she says. “It was a connection with the music of my time that felt more vital even than my deep connection to the standard repertoire.”
Alsop admits she’ll miss her summers at Cabrillo. But her love for new music finds other paths. In addition to her work in Baltimore and Sao Paulo, she’s now director of the Graduate Conducting Program at the Peabody Institute. She’s passionate about mentoring young artists, particularly women conductors. “It’s a big commitment for me,” she says. “There are some incredibly talented women being appointed to great positions now. I’m starting to see a little bit of a sea change there, and I’m very proud of that.”