Music at the Mission/Cabrillo Festival/Maestra Alsop August 10, 2008

Four composers new to the Festival, each with voices rooted in cultures far from our own, will be honored in the storied setting of the Old Mission sanctuary on a program aptly titled To the New World.

Born in Taiwan, Chiayu will join audiences first for the World Premiere of Feng Nian Ji (Harvest Festival), which she has written expressly for the Festival. Based on the traditional harvest festival of Taiwan's largest aboriginal tribe, her music follows the progression of this dramatic ceremonial occasion.

Born in Belarus and now a U.S. citizen, Alla Borzova is well suited to articulate the immigrant experience. In To the New World which receives its U.S. Premiere today, Borzova tells of an imaginary ship that brings immigrants to the shores of America during the waves of immigration that began in the mid-19th-century.

MacArthur Fellow and Grammy Award-winning composer Osvaldo Golijov grew up in an Eastern European Jewish household in Argentina, surrounded by classical chamber music, Jewish liturgical and klezmer music, and the new tango of Astor Piazzolla. Last Round for string orchestra was written in memory of Piazzolla after a stroke killed him in 1992 at the peak of his creativity. With its white-hot passion and crisscrossed choreography of bows, Last Round is a sublimated tango dance.

Avner Dorman has quickly risen to become one of Israel's most successful and renowned composers. His Variations Without a Theme is described as "sophisticated music that cleverly explores both Eastern and Western sonic worlds" and "calls to mind the bustle of an Arab bazaar." The composer joins audiences for its West Coast Premiere.

Maestra Marin Alsop, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Chiayu, Borzova, and Dorman, bring the 2008 Festival season to a resounding close in the splendor of Mission San Juan Bautista.

$35.

Official Website: http://www.cabrillomusic.org