To describe the legendary David Grisman as a mandolin player who advocates for acoustic string music makes him sound vaguely academic. Not so the company he has kept: Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, Stéphane Grappelli, John Hartford, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor, to name just some. A multiple Grammy nominee, Grisman is also a composer, arranger, bandleader and producer whose pioneering synthesis of jazz and bluegrass inspired Garcia to name it “Dawg” music. Grisman headlines the New Music Works spring concert, Whirled on a String, at Cabrillo College this Saturday.
Articles by Scott MacClelland
Van Cliburn Winner in Santa Cruz
Back in the 14th century, poet/composer Guillume de Machaut is said to have described the pipe organ as “the king of instruments.” He had no idea that in two short centuries his descendent composers would begin to replace Pythagorean tuning with the early forms of the equal-tempered scale. He likewise would have had no way of imagining the rise of modern harmony that resulted, much less the explosion of instrumental music that would launch the Baroque era and dominate Western European music for centuries to come. If he had, Guillaume would be forced to concede that the concert grand piano is the true king of instruments.
Dazzle And Clang at CabMuFest Opening Weekend
Three cheers for Jennifer Higdon! The 2010 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for music upstaged her colleagues—with all of them present—during the two orchestral programs of the Cabrillo Music Festival last Friday and Saturday in Santa Cruz. And the competition was not slight. Englishman Mark Anthony Turnage is enjoying a heavyweight international reputation, promoted forcefully by—among others—Cabrillo music director Marin Alsop through her performances made on his home turf (and previously in Santa Cruz) and recordings. Alsop and her crack orchestra played three of Turnage’s works: Scherzoid (completed in 2004), Chicago Remains (2007) and Drowned Out (completed 1993).
Pyrotechnics by Santa Cruz Symphony
Just 20, violinist Tessa Lark strode onto the stage at Watsonville’s Mello Center Sunday afternoon in a strapless gown of something between emerald, teal and aquamarine. The 2008 Klein International String Competition winner’s glamorous entrance matched her performance of Tchaikovsky’s flamboyant Violin Concerto in D. John Larry Granger’s Santa Cruz Symphony provided a snappy and responsive accompaniment.
Impressive Opening for Cabrillo Festival
For even brand new music, the traditional expectation for personal artistic expression holds. Whatever else is afoot, the composer is expected to have something to say. So says Marin Alsop, music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, in defending her choices of orchestral music.
The Cabrillo Music Festival Bursts into Santa Cruz
The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music doesn’t just offer the best of today’s leading American composers, to say nothing of their genius counterparts from other countries. It also proves, summer after summer, that there is a great hunger for excellent new music and, just as important, one that spans many generations.
