After Dixieland: Orchestra Concert

A music-filled Saturday night out-on-the-town with Cristian M?celaru and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra begins with Vivian Fung’s evocative Dust Devils, which the San Jose-based composer describes as “the journey of emotional swirls in my mind, sometimes calm, but more often than not, full of raw and intense energy.” Toronto Star wrote, “Dust Devils is like a good abstract painting, where one can appreciate the techniques used in its composition. Fung is a clever orchestrator, using all sorts of subtle layering to achieve her effects.” The Festival then commemorates the 80th birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom with a performance of his virtuosic Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra. Bolcom brilliantly interweaves multiple musical styles–both classical and popular–including a final movement influenced by the pioneer jazz violinist Joe Venuti. Making his Festival debut as soloist is Russian-American violinist Philippe Quint, a two-time Grammy Award-nominee who the Daily Standard (UK) praised for his “searingly poetic lyricism.” The celebration continues with two West Coast premieres by Bolcom protégées, Kristin Kuster and Gabriela Lena Frank. Kuster’s lush compositions take inspiration from architectural spaces, nature, and mythology. About Rain On It, Kuster wrote “I love rain. In this music, I freeze an instant of imagined rain, fully static, non-passing, and still. Yet I stretch and dwell within this moment to capture a mood, which celebrates the relentless intensity of time…After the rain, there is newness and joy.” Alternately, identity has always been at the center of Gabriela Lena Frank’s music. Born in Berkeley, California, to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Frank explores her multicultural heritage through her compositions. Her piece Walkabout: Concerto for Orchestra was inspired by her travels to her mother’s homeland, Peru. Frank asks, “What does it mean to be American born, yet with such a motley crew of forebears hailing from Lithuania, China, and Andean South America?” Walkabout is her latest quest for the answer.

MEETUP! Arrive downtown early to savor the sights, sounds and flavors of the Church Street Fair, including live music and dance performances, food and wine vendors and artisan booths.