2025 Program Guide | Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

There is a moment that happens just before the first sound is produced when the curious expectation of the listener is met with the quiet confidence of the performer, a moment of silent energy, full of trepidation and promise. I suspect for every composer, there is a similar moment of emptiness just before the tip of the pen meets the page. Is the experience this way because of the implied cautiousness of a beginning, timid perhaps, fragile and vulnerable as any start of a journey makes us wonder about the steep road ahead? I have had a few months to ponder and consider the vast courage demonstrated in the journey we are celebrating this year. An anniversary of fifty years of LGBTQ+ Pride in Santa Cruz, a memory of more than eighteen thousand single days of proclaiming the freedom to love, more than a billion individual moments, seconds in which to choose acceptance and generosity, kindness and TO MY HAPPY PLACE respect. This is truly a moment to recommit our values, embrace our mission, and take a deep breath as we stand in solidarity together. This is that silent energy just before daybreak, as the sun opens our eyes to see each other fully. As in years past I follow my road back to my happy place—the Cabrillo Festival. And just before the first ‘good morning’ is said, I take a deep breath and in quiet confidence, full of curious expectation still, I embark together with you on a journey of uplifting our combined experiences. Hope is to be discovered in the celebration of the fifty years of courageously standing for love and freedom, for kindness and respect. I truly wish each one of us will take from this year’s Festival a plentiful amount of colorful courage to carry us until we meet once more. WELCOME