New compositions in the spirit of Gustav Mahler.
We strongly believe that commissioning new music is one of the best ways to ensure Gustav Mahler’s legacy as an innovator accompanies us throughout the 21st century. We have already achieved accolades with our commissions of The Mosaique of the Aire, by Sebastian Black, premiered by Orchestra of the Earth, and written for the Mahler Festival Amsterdam and Rick van Veldhuizen’s ‘mais le corps taché d’ombre’, commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mahler Foundation.
For the year 2023, Mahler Foundation is proud to announce its partnership with the prestigious Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music by co-funding the commission of a work by composer Xavier Foley to be premiered at the closing concert of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California on August 13th, 2023.
About Cabrillo Festival…
In the words of Jesse Rosen, President of the League of American Orchestras:
“Cabrillo Festival is like a crucible of creativity…and all of America’s orchestras look to what happens at Cabrillo because the Festival has really set the standard for fostering creativity and demonstrating an unbelievably genuine and rich relationship with its community.”
Jesse Rosen
The Cabrillo Festival was founded 60 years ago and has become one of the most prominent festivals dedicated to contemporary repertoire in the USA and worldwide.
In late July and early August each year, audiences are joined by both preeminent and emerging composers, spectacular guest artists, and an orchestra of dedicated professional musicians from across the globe to give voice to works that are rarely more than a year or two old, and sometimes still wet on the page.
The opportunity for composers to work with musicians skilled and enthusiastic about bringing these new works to life, in the beautiful, coastal college town of Santa Cruz, California, makes this an artistic paradise.
With a professional training workshop for early career conductors and composers, open rehearsals almost daily, educational programming, and much more, the Cabrillo Festival has dozens of opportunities for meaningful engagement.
In 2017 the Festival embarked on a new era of artistic leadership with the appointment of Music Director and Conductor Cristian Măcelaru. Past music directors include Marin Alsop (1992-2016, now Music Director Laureate), John Adams (1991), Dennis Russel Davies (1974-1990), Aaron Copland (1978), Carlos Chavez (1970-1973), Gerhard Samuel (1963-1968).
This project is being led by our CFO, Mark Kalow.