Rose of the Winds August 11, 2012

The world premiere of Dylan Mattingly's I Was a Stranger will be guest conducted by Carolyn Kuan, Festival Associate Conductor and recently appointed Music Director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Mattingly's music draws from a diverse range of styles and musicians-including Olivier Messiaen, Magnus Lindberg, Joni Mitchell and old American blues and folk recordings.

Maestra Alsop then leads the Orchestra in Andrew Norman's Gran Turismo, a work for eight violins described by The Boston Globe as an "exhilarating exercise in perpetual motion constantly threatened by modern collisions en route." Norman conceived this work while researching the art of Italian futurist Giacomo Balla, watching his roommates play a video game called Gran Turismo, and considering the legacy of Baroque string virtuosity. He writes, "... it was out of their unexpected convergence that this piece was born."

Featured in the West Coast premiere of Golijov's Rose of the Winds will be Cristina Pato on Galician bagpipes, Kayhan Kalhor on kemancheh, David Krakauer on Klezmer clarinet, and Michael Ward-Bergeman on hyper-accordion. The work's title refers to the symbol of the compass that points not just to the four corners of the earth, but in all directions, and, in Golijov's words, "provides contrast without explanation." The Chicago Tribune praised Rose of the Winds for its "bold yet seamless melding of musical resonances from Christian, Arabic and Jewish traditions and ear-catching instrumental sounds and colors," promising another unforgettable musical journey.

The final work for the evening is an anniversary tribute to beloved composer Lou Harrison, one of the Festival's founders and an ongoing inspiration. His beautiful Third Symphony was commissioned in 1982 for the twentieth anniversary of the Cabrillo Festival.

Official Website: http://cabrillomusic.org/2012-season/performances/rose-of-the-winds.html