Feb 1 & 2: California Symphony led by Donato Cabrera presents Mozart Serenity featuring Guitarist Meng Su - Music by Carlos Simon, Rodrigo, Mozart

Photo of Meng Su courtesy of the artist and of Donato Cabrera by Kristen Loken; high resolution photos available here.

California Symphony Continues its 2024-2025 Season with
MOZART SERENITY

Led by Donato Cabrera, Artistic & Music Director 

In Concert February 1 at 7:30pm & February 2 at 4:00pm
At Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts

Featuring Guitar Soloist Meng Su in Rodrigo's iconic Concierto de Aranjuez
Watch Meng Su in Performance

California Symphony’s 2024-2025 Season Showcases the Crowning Achievements of
Composers at the Peak of Their Powers: Watch Donato Cabrera’s Introduction

Tickets & Information: www.californiasymphony.org

WALNUT CREEK, CA – California Symphony and Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera continue the 2024-2025 season, showcasing the crowning achievements of composers at the peak of their powers, with MOZART SERENITY – two concerts combining a calming meditation by composer Carlos Simon, a world-famous Spanish guitar concerto by Joaquín Rodrigo, and Mozart’s classical grandeur on Saturday, February 1, 2025 at 7:30pm and Sunday, February 2, 2025 at 4:00pm at Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek).

Inspired by the words of theologian and former San Francisco resident Howard Thurman, Carlos Simons’ Breathe is a serene appeal to “stay put for a while.” For music lovers and guitar enthusiasts alike, Rodrigo's iconic Concierto de Aranjuez, performed with the stunningly virtuosic San Francisco-based guitarist Meng Su, features evocative melodies and distinctive Spanish guitar solos, designed to transport listeners to another time and place. A majestic, intricate, exuberant masterpiece, Mozart's final symphony, his Symphony No. 41, is one of his most celebrated and frequently performed works, showcasing a genius at the height of his powers. The work is commonly known as the “Jupiter” Symphony for the Roman god because of its grand scale.

“In choosing music to precede a great milestone such as Mozart’s final symphony, I decided that it was best to showcase music of a completely different and opposing style and aesthetic,” Donato Cabrera says. “Simon’s Breathe is contemplative and meditative, music that speaks softly but carries a big stick! Like the music of Arvo Pärt, Simon’s Breathe also has a natural forthrightness to it that is beguiling and gently invites one to just be present in the moment. With everyone in a heightened state of mind, the beginning of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez should be particularly magical and poignant. I know to many guitarist’s chagrin, this is the only guitar concerto that is typically asked of them, but it’s hard to pass up each movement’s iconic melodies, sentiment, and deep emotion, and I know that our soloist, Meng Su, is the ideal soloist. There are many reasons why Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 has been considered one of the greatest achievements of Western Classical Music, but most of these reasons are best left in the textbooks. For me, and I believe for the listener, the magic that this piece possesses is that it somehow contains a facet of every aspect of human existence and experience.” 

A deeply contemplative work, Carlos Simon's Breathe was inspired by Howard Thurman's Meditations of the Heart, a collection of meditations on the beauty of humility. Simon writes, “I was deeply inspired by one section entitled 'Still Dews of Quietness,' which urges one to 'stay put for a spell.' Through his words, I wanted to take the gesture further by writing a piece that encourages others to simply reflect and breathe.” The piece was commissioned by Bay Area-based Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music for the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. Simon, who is Composer-in-Residence at The Kennedy Center, was recently profiled in The New York Times, saying of his work, “If this music is done in the right way, if it’s being honest, it doesn’t matter whatever your language, whatever your background, whether you’re white, Black, whoever – it goes straight to you. And that’s what I always strive for, honesty, in my music.” 

Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez was inspired by the gardens at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, rebuilt in the 18th century. Rodrigo wrote that the concerto captures “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains.” The piece has been performed and recorded numerous times in many forms since its premiere in 1940 – including as part of Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain and by jazz pianist Chick Corea as part of his composition Spain. California Symphony’s featured guitar soloist, Meng Su, has performed in over 30 countries and is on the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Classical Guitar Magazine reports that she has the “star potential to serve as inspiration for new generations of guitarists to come.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 41 in C Major is his final symphony, and his longest and grandest. Mozart completed the monumental piece in a brief, two-month period over the summer of 1788, along with his Symphonies Nos. 39 and 40, creating a final trilogy of works that has puzzled scholars – we don't know for what occasion he wrote them, since they were not commissioned by any patron for any specific performance, an anomaly in Mozart’s career. Mozart and his Jupiter Symphony were praised in a German lexicon of music in 1814 as, “. . . overpoweringly great, fiery, artistic, pathetic, sublime, Symphony in C. . . we would already have to perceive him as one of the first[-ranked] geniuses of modern times and the century just past.”

Illustrating California Symphony’s signature approach to creating vibrant concert programs that span the breadth of orchestral repertoire, including works by American composers and by living composers, the 2024-2025 season features the iconic final symphonies of titans of classical music Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; the unfinished masterpieces of Anton Bruckner and Franz Schubert; a Grammy-winning Disney Fantasia-esque concerto for film and orchestra by Bay Area composer Mason Bates paired with Benjamin Britten’s lively introduction to the ensemble; a world premiere by the orchestra’s 2023-2026 Young American Composer-in-Residence Saad Haddad; a recent work by Grammy-nominated composer and Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon; Joaquín Rodrigo’s famous tour-de-force guitar concerto Concierto de Aranjuez; and rarely performed music by 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc and 20th-century Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz.

Founded in 1986, California Symphony has been led by Donato Cabrera since 2013. Its concert season at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California serves a growing number of music lovers from across the Bay Area. California Symphony believes that the concert experience should be fun and inviting, and its mission is to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment for the entire community. Through this commitment to community, imaginative programming, and its support of emerging composers, California Symphony is a leader among orchestras in California and a model for regional orchestras everywhere. 

Three-concert subscriptions start at $120 and are available now. Single tickets start at $50 and at $25 for students 25 and under. A 30-minute pre-concert talk by lecturer Scott Fogelsong will begin one hour before each performance. More information is available at CaliforniaSymphony.org.

FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:

WHAT: California Symphony presents Mozart Serenity

California Symphony’s first concerts of 2025, conducted by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera, combine a calming meditation by composer Carlos Simon, a world-famous Spanish guitar concerto by Joaquín Rodrigo, and Mozart’s classical grandeur. Inspired by the words of theologian and former San Francisco resident Howard Thurman, Simons’ Breathe is a serene appeal to “stay put for a while.” For music lovers and guitar enthusiasts alike, Rodrigo's iconic Concierto de Aranjuez, performed with the stunningly virtuosic San Francisco-based guitarist Meng Su, features evocative melodies and distinctive Spanish guitar solos, designed to transport listeners to another time and place. A majestic, intricate, exuberant masterpiece, Mozart's final symphony, his Symphony No. 41, is one of his most celebrated and frequently performed works, showcasing a genius at the height of his powers. The work is commonly known as the “Jupiter” Symphony for the Roman god because of its grand scale.

California Symphony takes the stuffiness out of the concert experience: Take selfies at the photo booth, order a signature cocktail, and sip at your seat. Tickets include a free 30-minute pre-concert talk by award-winning instructor Scott Foglesong, starting one hour before the show.

WHEN: Saturday, February 1, 2025 at 7:30pm   
Sunday, February 2, 2025 at 4:00pm

WHERE: Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek

CONCERT:

Mozart Serenity
7:30pm, Saturday, February 1
4:00pm, Sunday, February 2

Donato Cabrera, conductor
Meng Su, guitar soloist
California Symphony

PROGRAM:

Carlos Simon: Breathe

Joaquin Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
Meng Su, guitar

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No.41, K.551, C Major (“Jupiter”)

TICKETS: Three-concert subscriptions start at $120 and are available now. Single tickets start at $50 and at $25 for students 25 and under. 

INFO: For more information or to purchase tickets, the public may visit CaliforniaSymphony.org or call the Lesher Center Ticket Office at (925) 943-7469 (open Wed – Sun, noon to 6pm). 

PHOTOS: Available here.

About the California Symphony:

Founded in 1986, California Symphony has been led by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera since 2013. It is distinguished by its vibrant concert programs that span the breadth of orchestral repertoire, including works by American composers and by living composers. Its concert season at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California serves a growing number of music lovers from across the Bay Area.

California Symphony believes that the concert experience should be fun and inviting, and its mission is to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment for the entire community. Through this commitment to community, imaginative programming, and its support of emerging composers, California Symphony is a leader among orchestras in California and a model for regional orchestras everywhere.

Since 1991, California Symphony's three-year Young American Composer-in-Residence program has provided a composer with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate with the orchestra over three consecutive years to create, rehearse, premiere, and record three major orchestra compositions, one each season. Every Composer-in-Residence has gone on to win top honors and accolades in the field, including the Rome Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Grammy Awards, and more.

The orchestra's nationally recognized educational initiative Sound Minds impacts students' trajectories by providing instruction for violin or cello and musicianship skills. Sound Minds has proven to contribute directly to improved reading and math proficiencies and character development, as students set and achieve goals, learn communication and problem-solving skills, and gain self-confidence. Inspired by the El Sistema program of Venezuela, the program is offered completely free of charge to the students and families of Downer Elementary School in San Pablo, California.

Through its innovative adult education program Fresh Look: The Symphony Exposed, California Symphony provides lifelong learners a fun-filled introduction to the orchestra and classical music. Led by celebrated educator and California Symphony program annotator Scott Foglesong, these live classes are held over four weeks in the summer annually and are available to stream online year-round.

In 2017, California Symphony became the first orchestra with a public statement of a commitment to diversity. Its website is available in both Spanish and English. 

Reaching far beyond the performance hall, since 2020 the orchestra's concerts have been broadcast nationally on multiple radio series through Classical California (KUSC/KDFC) and the WFMT Radio Network, reaching over 1.5 million listeners across the country.

For more information, visit CaliforniaSymphony.org.

California Symphony’s 2024-25 season is sponsored by the Lesher Foundation.

Nov 2-3: California Symphony Led by Artistic & Music Director Donato Cabrera Continues 2024-2025 Season with BRAHMS ODYSSEY

Photo of Donato Cabrera by Stefan Cohen; high resolution photos available here.

California Symphony Continues its 2024-2025 Season with BRAHMS ODYSSEY

Led by Donato Cabrera, Artistic & Music Director

In Concert November 2 at 7:30pm & November 3 at 4:00pm
At Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts 

Featuring Mason Bates’s GRAMMY Award-Winning Concerto for Orchestra & Animated Film Philharmonia Fantastique
Watch a Preview 

California Symphony’s 2024-2025 Season Showcases the Crowning Achievements of Composers at the Peak of Their Powers 
Watch Donato Cabrera’s Introduction

Tickets & Information: www.californiasymphony.org

WALNUT CREEK, CA – California Symphony and Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera continue the 2024-2025 season, showcasing the crowning achievements of composers at the peak of their powers, with BRAHMS ODYSSEY – two thrilling concerts that will take audience members on an odyssey through the orchestra on Saturday, November 2, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 4:00pm at Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek).

The concerts open with Benjamin Britten’s lively Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, which uses a memorable theme to introduce different instruments in the orchestra, taking listeners on a journey through the strings, woodwinds, percussion, brass, and more. Next, former California Symphony Resident Composer Mason Bates invokes the spirit of Disney’s classic Fantasia in his GRAMMY-winning concerto for orchestra and animated film, Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra, guided by a mischievous sprite. The performances close with Johannes Brahms's Symphony No. 4 – a deeply emotional, poignant masterpiece which was the eminent composer’s last symphony. Even though Brahms lived for more than a decade after its premiere, it was the final symphony he wrote, with many considering it to be the pinnacle of his career.

Following these concerts, on Monday, November 4, the California Symphony launches its first Education Concerts held during the school day, welcoming 1500 fourth grade students from local Title I schools in Contra Costa County to two performances at the Lesher Center. In advance of the performances, California Symphony Teaching Artists will visit classrooms to provide pre-concert music education, and the in-classroom learning will give students a deeper understanding and appreciation of music and lay the groundwork for a fun, productive, and memorable field trip.

“Over the course of my tenure with the California Symphony, the music of Johannes Brahms has figured prominently in our concerts. So, not only does performing his final symphony fit within the theme of our season, it brings to a close our survey of his symphonic output,” says Donato Cabrera. “When it came to pairing works with Brahms’s fourth symphony, I was reminded of the old phrase, ‘The Three B’s of classical music: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms,’ and thought that it would be fun (and high time) to update it! In choosing Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and Mason Bates’s Philharmonia Fantastique, a piece that Mason describes as a ‘concerto for orchestra and animated film,’ we will be performing two works that belong to a long tradition of works composed to showcase and introduce the incredibly powerful and unique sounds that only the instruments of the orchestra can produce.”

Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra was commissioned in 1945 for a British documentary film, Instruments of the Orchestra, featuring the London Symphony Orchestra. “Britten’s Guide is meticulously structured, exquisitely paced, and magnificently orchestrated,” writes California Symphony program annotator Scott Foglesong. “After a grand statement of the theme in full orchestra, Britten takes us through 13 variations, each highlighting specific instruments.”

Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra is a 25-minute multi-media concerto from former California Symphony Resident Composer Mason Bates and award-winning filmmakers Gary Rydstrom (Jurassic Park, Titanic, Saving Private Ryan) and Jim Capobianco (The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Inside Out). Philharmonia Fantastique, like Britten’s Guide, is also a tour through the orchestra – this time paired with an animated film guided by a magical character, Sprite. The imaginative piece won a GRAMMY in 2023. “With uncanny synchronicity, [Philharmonia Fantastique] transposes the composer’s sweeping score into a charming chronicle of a wide-eyed young listener – a ‘Sprite’ – whose curiosity leads to a vibrantly colorful dive into not just the makings of an orchestra, but also the inner workings of its instruments,” reports The Washington Post.

Johannes Brahms’s final symphony, Symphony No. 4, was premiered in 1885 and declared to be, “New and original and yet authentic Brahms from A to Z,” by the composer Richard Strauss. Brahms wrote the piece over the summers of 1884 and 1885 in the Austrian Alps, while reading a translation of Sophocles. While the symphony is lyrical and immediately captivating, it is also poignantly tragic. Scott Foglesong describes the Symphony as, “incomparably rich, sweeping and majestic,” while Brahms’s contemporary, Austrian music critic Eduard Hanslick wrote that it is, “like a dark well; the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back.”

Illustrating California Symphony’s signature approach to creating vibrant concert programs that span the breadth of orchestral repertoire, including works by American composers and by living composers, the 2024-2025 season features the iconic final symphonies of titans of classical music Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; the unfinished masterpieces of Anton Bruckner and Franz Schubert; a Grammy-winning Disney Fantasia-esque concerto for film and orchestra by Bay Area composer Mason Bates paired with Benjamin Britten’s lively introduction to the ensemble; a world premiere by the orchestra’s 2023-2026 Young American Composer-in-Residence Saad Haddad; a recent work by Grammy-nominated composer and Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon; Joaquin Rodrigo’s famous tour-de-force guitar concerto Concierto de Aranjuez; and rarely performed music by 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc and 20th-century Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz.

Founded in 1986, California Symphony has been led by Donato Cabrera since 2013. Its concert season at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California serves a growing number of music lovers from across the Bay Area. California Symphony believes that the concert experience should be fun and inviting, and its mission is to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment for the entire community. Through this commitment to community, imaginative programming, and its support of emerging composers, California Symphony is a leader among orchestras in California and a model for regional orchestras everywhere.

Three-concert subscriptions start at $120 and are available now. Single tickets start at $50 and at $25 for students 25 and under. A 30-minute pre-concert talk by lecturer Scott Foglesong will begin one hour before each performance. More information is available at CaliforniaSymphony.org.

FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:

WHAT: California Symphony presents Brahms Odyssey

This November, California Symphony, conducted by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera, takes audience members on an odyssey through the orchestra. Benjamin Britten’s lively Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra uses a memorable theme to introduce different instruments in the orchestra, making it a great way to learn about the symphony. Former California Symphony Resident Composer Mason Bates invokes the spirit of Disney’s classic Fantasia in his Grammy-winning concerto for orchestra and animated film guided by a mischievous sprite, Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra. We wrap up the performance with Brahms's Symphony No. 4. His final symphony is a deeply emotional, poignant masterpiece. Even though Brahms lived for more than a decade after its premiere, it was the last symphony he wrote, with many considering it to be the pinnacle of his career. 

California Symphony takes the stuffiness out of the concert experience: Take selfies at the photo booth, order a signature cocktail, and sip at your seat. Tickets include a free 30-minute pre-concert talk by award-winning instructor Scott Foglesong, starting one hour before the show.

WHEN: Saturday, November 2, 2024 at 7:30pm   
Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 4:00pm

WHERE: Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek

CONCERT:

BRAHMS ODYSSEY
7:30pm, Saturday, November 2
4:00pm, Sunday, November 3

Donato Cabrera, conductor
California Symphony

PROGRAM:

Benjamin Britten: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
Mason Bates: Philharmonia Fantastique – The Making of the Orchestra
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.4, Op. 98, E minor

TICKETS: Three-concert subscriptions start at $120 and are available now. Single tickets start at $50 and at $25 for students 25 and under.

INFO: For more information or to purchase tickets, the public may visit CaliforniaSymphony.org or call the Lesher Center Ticket Office at (925) 943-7469 (open Wed – Sun, noon to 6pm).

PHOTOS: Available here.

About the California Symphony:

Founded in 1986, California Symphony has been led by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera since 2013. It is distinguished by its vibrant concert programs that span the breadth of orchestral repertoire, including works by American composers and by living composers. Its concert season at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California serves a growing number of music lovers from across the Bay Area.

California Symphony believes that the concert experience should be fun and inviting, and its mission is to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment for the entire community. Through this commitment to community, imaginative programming, and its support of emerging composers, California Symphony is a leader among orchestras in California and a model for regional orchestras everywhere.

Since 1991, California Symphony's three-year Young American Composer-in-Residence program has provided a composer with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate with the orchestra over three consecutive years to create, rehearse, premiere, and record three major orchestra compositions, one each season. Every Composer-in-Residence has gone on to win top honors and accolades in the field, including the Rome Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Grammy Awards, and more.

The orchestra's nationally recognized educational initiative Sound Minds impacts students' trajectories by providing instruction for violin or cello and musicianship skills. Sound Minds has proven to contribute directly to improved reading and math proficiencies and character development, as students set and achieve goals, learn communication and problem-solving skills, and gain self-confidence. Inspired by the El Sistema program of Venezuela, the program is offered completely free of charge to the students and families of Downer Elementary School in San Pablo, California.

Through its innovative adult education program Fresh Look: The Symphony Exposed, California Symphony provides lifelong learners a fun-filled introduction to the orchestra and classical music. Led by celebrated educator and California Symphony program annotator Scott Foglesong, these live classes are held over four weeks in the summer annually and are available to stream online year-round.

In 2017, California Symphony became the first orchestra with a public statement of a commitment to diversity. Its website is available in both Spanish and English.

Reaching far beyond the performance hall, since 2020 the orchestra's concerts have been broadcast nationally on multiple radio series through Classical California (KUSC/KDFC) and the WFMT Radio Network, reaching over 1.5 million listeners across the country.

For more information, visit CaliforniaSymphony.org.

California Symphony’s 2024-25 season is sponsored by the Lesher Foundation.

Donato Cabrera Conducts the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra on November 18, 2023

Photo by Stefan Cohen available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/donato-cabrera

Donato Cabrera Guest Conducts the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra

Saturday November 18, 2023 at 8pm
Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts
300 N. Elm Street | Greensboro, NC

Tickets and information: www.greensborosymphony.org/event/donato-cabrera-maestro-candidate-2/

“Donato Cabrera naturally embraces both his musicians and his audiences as if they’re part of a multigenerational extended family”

– San Francisco Classical Voice

www.greensborosymphony.org | www.donatocabrera.com 

Greensboro, NC – Conductor Donato Cabrera will conduct the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (GSO) as a Music Director finalist in an upcoming concert on Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 8pm at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts (300 N. Elm Street).

For this special performance, Cabrera conducts the GSO in a concert program featuring Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, and Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G major. Soprano Maria Valdes will join Cabrera and the GSO as a featured vocalist in the GSO’s performances of Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.

“I’m very excited about the music I’ve chosen for my concert with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, as well as being able to introduce the wonderful soprano, Maria Valdes, to the Greensboro community,” says Cabrera. “These three pieces by John Adams, Samuel Barber, and Gustav Mahler deal with memories that are formed during one’s youth. Indeed, with Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, the entire symphony is meant to be heard as if through children’s ears! In hearing these works by three completely different composers performed together, we will not only have the opportunity to experience the impact these memories had in the creation of these pieces, but will give us the opportunity to reflect upon the memories and experiences that continue to shape our lives.”

“I am eagerly looking forward to sharing the stage again with Maestro Cabrera, reprising two works which we performed together several years ago,” says Valdes. “Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 was the first piece I ever performed with orchestra at the age of 19, so it is incredibly dear to my heart. And there is absolutely nothing that compares to being part of a Mahler Symphony. I can't wait to join Donato and the Greensboro Symphony to share such beautiful pieces once again!”

Mexican-American conductor Donato Cabrera is the Artistic and Music Director of the California Symphony and the Music Director of the Las Vegas Philharmonic. He served as the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and the Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2009-2016. Cabrera is one of only a handful of conductors in history who has conducted performances with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, and the San Francisco Ballet. He is dedicated to adventurous programming, a leading advocate for living composers and digital innovation, and is keenly focused on outreach, engagement, and programming that reflects the communities he is serving. Cabrera co-founded the New York-based American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), which is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Cabrera has made debuts with the Chicago, London, National, and New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Staatstheater Cottbus, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Orquesta Sinfónica Concepción, Hartford Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Nevada Ballet Theatre, New West Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony, Monterey Symphony, and the Reno Philharmonic. In his Carnegie Hall debut, Cabrera led the world premiere of Mark Grey’s Ătash Sorushan with soprano Jessica Rivera.

Deeply committed to diversity and education through the arts, Cabrera evaluates the scope, breadth, and content of the California Symphony’s music education programs, including its nationally recognized Sound Minds program and adult-education oriented Fresh Look: The Symphony Exposed weekly summer lecture series. As Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, Cabrera worked closely with its then Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, and frequently conducted the orchestra in a variety of concerts, including all of the education and family concerts, reaching over 70,000 children throughout the Bay Area every year.

Cabrera is equally at home in the world of opera, frequently conducting productions in the United States and abroad. He was the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Opera from 2005-2008 and has also been an assistant conductor for productions at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Ravinia Festival, Festival di Spoleto, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West. Since 2008, he has frequently conducted productions in Concepción, Chile. In 2021 he made his debut with Opera San José and in spring 2023, Cabrera appeared with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music conducting Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul.

Awards and fellowships include a Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship at the Salzburg Festival and conducting the Nashville Symphony in the League of American Orchestra’s prestigious Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview. Cabrera was recognized by the Consulate-General of Mexico in San Francisco for his contributions to promoting and developing the presence of the Mexican community in the Bay Area.

About Maria Valdes: American soprano Maria Valdes was recently described as a "first-rate singing actress and a perfectly charming Gilda" (The New York Times). The upcoming 2023-2024 is filled with multitudes of thrilling symphonic and recital debuts. On the symphonic stage, Ms. Valdes joins the Greensboro Symphony to sing Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, is featured as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with both the Atlanta Symphony and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and she returns to the Phoenix Symphony for Strauss’s Four Last Songs. In recital, she is featured with Il Cenacolo Italian Club, the Cathedral of St. Paul, the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, Spanish River Concerts, and OperAloha. Additionally, Ms. Valdes makes her return to Houston Grand Opera covering Maria in The Sound of Music.

Also an accomplished recitalist, Ms. Valdes has appeared in concert with Martin Katz, and made her New York recital debut with NYFOS performing with Steven Blier and Michael Barrett in Compositora, a recital of female Latin American composers. She also attended the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival which included several concert appearances and Ms. Valdes can be heard singing Mendelssohn’s “Hear my prayer” on the album Evening Hymn released by Gothic Records and acclaimed in the American Record Guide. An award-winner in the regional Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, Ms. Valdes is also the winner of the top prize at the Corbett Opera Scholarship Competition at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and is the recipient of a Shoshana Foundation Grant.

About the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra: The mission of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (GSO) is to enrich the cultural life of Greensboro and surrounding areas through the development, promotion, and maintenance of a program of quality music and music education. Its primary vehicle for the conduct of these activities is the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, which presents concerts, special events, educational opportunities, and related activities.

Engaged in its 64th season, the GSO has a long history of support within the Triad community, bringing a diverse range of internationally renowned guest artists to perform in the new Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts. With one of the largest suites of music education programs in the southeast, the GSO serves approximately 50,000 students across four NC counties in a given season. To learn more about the GSO, visit greensborosymphony.org

Donato Cabrera Guest Conducts the Houston Symphony in Fiesta Sinfónica on October 13, 2023

Photo by Kristen Loken available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/donato-cabrera

Donato Cabrera Guest Conducts the Houston Symphony in Fiesta Sinfónica on October 13, 2023

Friday, October 13, 2023
Jones Hall for the Performing Arts | 615 Louisiana Street | Houston, TX
Free, Reservations Required: www.houstonsymphony.org/tickets/concerts/fiesta-sinfonica

“He's a passionate, heart-on-the-sleeve conductor, with eclectic musical tastes and a wealth of experience.”
– The Mercury News

www.houstonsymphony.org • www.donatocabrera.com 

Houston, TX – Mexican-American conductor Donato Cabrera will guest conduct the Houston Symphony on Friday October 13, 2023 at 7:30pm at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts (615 Louisiana Street). Cabrera joins the Houston Symphony for its annual Fiesta Sinfónica, a free performance that dates back to 1992, celebrating the musical contributions of Latin American and Hispanic composers. The program for this special performance includes Márquez’s Conga del Fuego Nuevo, Rosas’ Sobre las Olas (Over the Waves), Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Contreras’ MeChicano (Texas premiere), the third movement from Orbón’s Tres versiones, and Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story. Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez is the soloist for Rhapsody in Blue, which will celebrate its centennial anniversary in 2024.

Cabrera says of this vibrant program and having Gabriela Martinez take part in the performance:

“With iconic works by Arturo Marquez and Juventino Rosas, as well as the Texas premiere of Juan Pablo Contreras’s MeChicano, this concert celebrates the music of Latin America composers. But we’ll also be performing Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which sheds light on the enormous influence Latin American music has had on native born composers like Leonard Bernstein. Latin American soloists have always had an important presence on concert stages throughout the world and what better vehicle to showcase the talents of Venezuelan pianist, Gabriela Martinez, than George Gershwin’s timeless classic, Rhapsody in Blue?”

Fiesta Sinfónica features the Texas premiere of Juan Pablo Contreras’ inspiring MeChicano, which Cabrera performed with the California Symphony and gave the world premiere of with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, two co-commissioners of the piece through New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices Program. Contreras became the youngest Mexican classical composer nominated for a Latin Grammy Award in 2019. MeChicano, the first work he wrote after becoming a U.S. citizen, celebrates the Mexican-American communities that have flourished across the nation. The Arizona Daily Star hailed MeChicano as, “A sonic cross-culture kaleidoscope that borrowed equally from Mexican music styles – toe-tapping cumbias, flashes of mariachi, and Tejana polka – and quintessential American – jazz and rock.”

Donato Cabrera is the Artistic and Music Director of the California Symphony and the Music Director of the Las Vegas Philharmonic. He served as the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and the Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2009-2016. Cabrera is one of only a handful of conductors in history who has conducted performances with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, and the San Francisco Ballet. He is dedicated to adventurous programming, a leading advocate for living composers and digital innovation, and is keenly focused on outreach, engagement, and programming that reflects the communities he is serving. Cabrera co-founded the New York-based American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), which is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Cabrera has made debuts with the Chicago, London, National, and New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Staatstheater Cottbus, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Orquesta Sinfónica Concepción, Hartford Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Nevada Ballet Theatre, New West Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony, Monterey Symphony, and the Reno Philharmonic. In his Carnegie Hall debut, Cabrera led the world premiere of Mark Grey’s Ătash Sorushan with soprano Jessica Rivera.  

Deeply committed to diversity and education through the arts, Cabrera evaluates the scope, breadth, and content of the California Symphony’s music education programs, including its nationally recognized Sound Minds program and adult-education oriented Fresh Look: The Symphony Exposed weekly summer lecture series. As Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, Cabrera worked closely with its then Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, and frequently conducted the orchestra in a variety of concerts, including all of the education and family concerts, reaching over 70,000 children throughout the Bay Area every year. 

Cabrera is equally at home in the world of opera, frequently conducting productions in the United States and abroad. He was the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Opera from 2005-2008 and has also been an assistant conductor for productions at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Ravinia Festival, Festival di Spoleto, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West. Since 2008, he has frequently conducted productions in Concepción, Chile. In 2021 he made his debut with Opera San José and in spring 2023, Cabrera appeared with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music conducting Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul.

Awards and fellowships include a Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship at the Salzburg Festival and conducting the Nashville Symphony in the League of American Orchestra’s prestigious Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview. Cabrera was recognized by the Consulate-General of Mexico in San Francisco for his contributions to promoting and developing the presence of the Mexican community in the Bay Area. 

About Gabriela Martinez: Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez has a reputation for the lyricism of her playing, her compelling interpretations, and her elegant stage presence. Her playing has been described as, “magical… a remarkable pianist, with a cool determination, a tone full of glowing color and a seemingly effortless technique” (Los Angeles Times) and, “compelling …versatile, daring and insightful” (The New York Times). Martinez made her orchestral debut at age six, and has performed with over 100 orchestras since including the San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, San Diego, Grand Rapids, New Jersey, Tucson, Pacific and Fort Worth symphonies, Buffalo Philharmonic; Germany’s Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nurnberger Philharmoniker; Canada’s Victoria Symphony Orchestra; the Costa Rica National Symphony, and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela. She has performed with Gustavo Dudamel, James Gaffigan, James Conlon, JoAnn Falleta, Michael Francis, Marcelo Lehninger and Guillermo Figueroa, among many others.

Martinez is passionate about new music, and has commissioned and premiered works by many composers including Mason Bates, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Paola Prestini, Jessica Meyer, and Dan Visconti. Her debut album, Amplified Soul, was released on the Delos label, and was recognized with a GRAMMY Award for Producer of the Year David Frost.

About the Houston Symphony Orchestra: Under Music Director Juraj Vacua, the Houston Symphony continues its second century as one of America's leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring, and recording activities. One of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, the Symphony held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Today, with an operating budget of $37.8 million, the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents more than 130 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Traditionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony's two Community-Embedded Musicians also offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching more than 200,000 people in Greater Houston annually.

After suspending concert activities in March 2020, the Symphony successfully completed a full 2020-21 season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so, while the Symphony's Education and Community Engagement team continued to fulfill its mission through creative and virtual means throughout the COVID pandemic. The Houston Symphony remains committed to livestreaming all of its 2023-24 season to a broad audience in over forty-five countries and all fifty states, one of few American orchestras dedicated to transmitting live performances to a size-able audience outside its home city through this technology.

The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics, Naxos, RCA Red Seal, Telare, Virgin Classics, and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg's Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60 annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category. The Symphony's most recent recordings include a Pentatone release in January 2022 of its world premiere performances of Jimmy Lopez Bellido's Aurora and Ad Astra, and a Naxos release in July 2023 of its world premiere performance of Jennifer Higdon's Duo Duel.