Cabrillo Festival Brings Together Emerging Composers and Conductors

By Eman Isadiar

SANTA CRUZ, CA – Nine promising conductors were selected from a pool of international applicants to lead the Cabrillo Festival orchestra in three short works by emerging composers. Serving as the festival’s music director for the past 18 years, renowned Baltimore Symphony conductor Marin Alsop headed the five-day workshop in collaboration with her own mentor and teacher Gustav Meier. The training culminated in a free public concert on August 5.

The composers featured in this year’s program were Eastman School of Music doctoral candidate Baljinder Sekhon, award-winning Columbian-born composer Federico Garcia, and recent ASCAP laureate Steven Rice.

Composers pictured left to right: Baljinder Singh Sekhon II, Federico Garcia, Steven Rice (Photos courtesy of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music)

The conductors were Pierre Simard from Quebec, Alejandra Urrutia-Borlando from Chile, Christopher Morris Whiting from Switzerland, Nicholas Leh Baker from Houston, Joshua David Gersen from Philadelphia, Jonathan A. Govias from Quebec, Ryan S. Haskins from Baltimore, Olivier F. Ochanine from Los Angeles and Benjamin Rouse from Phoenix.

Conductors pictured left to right, top to bottom: Benjamin Rous, Alejandra Urrutia-Borlando, Joshua David Gersen, Olivier F. Ochanine , Ryan S. Haskins, Nicholas Leh Baker, Jonathan A. Govias, Pierre Simard, Christopher Morris Whiting (Photos by R.R. Jones).

The first piece on the program was Sekhon’s Ancient Dust, conducted consecutively by Simard, Urrutia-Borlando and Whiting. The piece, as described by the composer, attempted to depict the traces of time left on objects of antiquity, which render them unique.

Sekhon’s work was in three distinct sections, opening with a still and mysterious segment containing faint melodic fragments, suggesting perhaps the subtle specks and blemishes of age. Then, followed a more animated passage with a persistent undercurrent leading to a dramatic crescendo. The final section was announced by a haunting double bass solo and ended in peaceful atmospheric sounds.

Simard’s conducting of Ancient Dust was especially fluid and delicate, while that of Urrutia-Borlando had sharper accents and syncopations. Whiting’s interpretation of the piece was rather multi-layered and brought out the counterpoint in the interplay between the parts.

Though each of the remaining conductors brought a similar measure of individuality to the music, the composers’ active participation in the workshop likely prevented extreme artistic variances from one conductor to the next. This rare partnership between composer and conductor is a distinguishing feature of Alsop’s workshop.

The second piece on the program was Inter Alia by Federico Garcia, possibly named for the ensemble he co-founded, “Alia Musica Pittsburgh.” Garcia noted that the piece was loosely composed in two sections with multiple phrases in each section, followed by an ending passage or coda. He added that the two prevalent ideas in the piece are ambient music and a more rhythmic dance-like pattern.

Inter Alia opened with a recurring motif of a descending minor second, which was interwoven throughout the piece and brought a sense of organic cohesion. Another memorable aspect of the music was the rich, lyrical violin solo, which added a touch of romanticism.

While conductors Baker and Gersen each gave a solid and masterful rendition of Garcia’s work, Govias stepped up the tempo ever so slightly, which gave the music a boost of energy.

The final piece on the program was titled The Henry Ford Old Time Orchestra Plays Real American Tunes by Steven Rice. In a surreal introduction from the stage, Rice recounted how Henry Ford – despite being dead for more than 60 years – commissioned the piece for his own orchestra, which factually never existed.

The fibbed description indicated that the composition might include non-musical elements, such as the spoken introduction itself, and perhaps even the audience’s reaction to it, which was a mix of nervous chuckles and coughs.

The piece featured a trio consisting of a masked violinist, a tuba player and a pianist with a remarkably worn-down, public school-issue upright piano. They were accompanied by the orchestra in a kind of deliberately discordant triple concerto, in the style of honky-tonk, ragtime and ice-cream truck music, all rolled into one.

The music ended with a monologue by the masked violinist, who knocked over a table with various items of cookware, which were then picked up and rearranged on the table.

Although the majority of the audience perceived the theatrics of Rice’s music as humorous, conductors Haskins, Ochanine and Rous each managed to draw out the deeper aspect of the music, which was clearly intended to bewilder, amuse and provoke.

Known as the father of the assembly line, the reference to Henry Ford may have been a statement on mass-production and consumerism in the arts, and the allusion to out-of-tune old American music was perhaps a reminder of our nation’s humble cultural origins.

Be that as it may, it is the composer’s prerogative to infuse a precise or vague meaning into the music, while it is the conductor’s job to act as the trusted emissary and interpreter. This is exactly the symbiotic relationship fostered by this prestigious Santa Cruz workshop.

The Composers/Conductors Workshop is a joint project of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and the Conductors Guild, a Virginia-based international organization dedicated to promoting the art of conducting.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.