2025 Program Guide | Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

CABRILLO MUSIC.ORG 23 GUEST ARTISTS MICHELLE AREYZAGA SPONSORED BY NORA FRIMANN & DAN MCFADDEN, AND ANONYMOUS Praised as a “consummate vocal actress”, she is held in high regard throughout the United States and beyond for her “appealing, expressive soprano.” — New York Times . As an orchestral soloist, Michelle Areyzaga has performed with the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland, Minnesota, Colorado, Phoenix, Richmond, North Carolina, Wichita, Fort Wayne, South Dakota, Hartford, San Antonio, Toledo, and Rochester; and the Philharmonic orchestras of Buffalo, Rhode Island, and Chicago. Appearances also include Ravinia, Oregon Bach, Blossom, Tucson Desert Song, and Grant Park music festivals. Overseas, Ms. Areyzaga has performed with the Orquesta Sinfónica de México, Orquesta Filarmónica de Montevideo, and Uruguay’s Orquesta Sinfónica del Sodre. She sang in Costa Rica’s Bach B Minor Mass with the National Symphony Orchestra; has appeared as soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor at England’s York Minster Cathedral, and St. Mary’s Church in Oxford; and at Paris’s L’église de la Madeleine, where she was soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with London’s Royal Academy of Music. She has sung leading roles with New York City Opera and Chicago Opera Theater. Other roles have included Micaela, Cio-Cio-San, Susanna, Musetta, Pamina, and Cunegonde. An avid chamber musician and recitalist, she has been a repeat guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the New York Festival of Song, the Avalon String Quartet, and the Chicago Ensemble. On numerous occasions she has championed Leonard Bernstein’s music and was named Musical Ambassador of the Ravinia Festival’s Bernstein at 100 Centennial Celebration. She has recorded for Naxos, Proteus, 4Tay Records, and the Cedille labels. JUSTIN BRUNS SPONSORED BY JACK & SUSAN CARLSON For two decades, Justin Bruns has loved every moment of being a part of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra and has had the honor of serving as Concertmaster since 2012. He is Associate Concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Concertmaster of the Bellingham Music Festival, and an Artist Affiliate of Emory University. This past season, he made guest appearances as Concertmaster with the North Carolina Symphony and Tucson Symphony Orchestra, as well as Principal Second with the Houston Symphony. Earlier in the summer, Bruns was featured as a soloist with the ASO in works by John Williams, and performed chamber music with Anne-Marie McDermott at Bravo! Vail, and was a guest Concertmaster for Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico City and Vail.  An active chamber musician, Bruns appeared in the 24/25 season with the Atlanta Chamber Players, the Georgian Chamber Players, and at the Jackson Hole Chamber Music Winter Festival. Several of his performances from the ASO Chamber Music Series were featured on Performance Today. Previous highlights include a Carnegie Hall debut, and residences at the Savannah and San Miguel Chamber Music Festivals. As a teacher, Bruns has worked with students at National Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Music in the Mountains Festival, NTSO Festival (Taiwan), as an orchestra mentor at the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, and as advisor and faculty of the Talent Development Program. Bruns began his own violin lessons at age three, studied at the University of Michigan and Rice University, but hasn’t stopped learning yet. GABRIELLE BETEAG SPONSORED BY RICHARD & DIANE KLEIN, AND EARLEEN OVEREND & WAYNE PALMER A graduate of the Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera, American mezzo-soprano Gabrielle Beteag returned to the company this season to sing Offred’s Mother in The Handmaid’s Tale , and to cover Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera . On the concert stage, she joined the Santa Rosa Symphony for her first Mahler Symphony No. 2, Resurrection , followed by a performance with the National Orchestral Institute and conductor Marin Alsop. Gabrielle debuted with Music of Remembrance as Gertrude Stein in Tom Cipullo’s After Life, reprised her performance of Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with the Hilton Head Symphony, and sings Mère Marie in The Dialogues of the Carmelites with Wolf Trap Opera. Next season will include her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Schwertleite in Act 3 of Die Walküre , conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Ms. Beteag began the 2023-24 season appearing with the San Francisco Opera as Stimme von Oben in Die Frau ohne Schatten , an Image of Frida Kahlo in El último sueño de Frida y Diego , and the Teacher in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs . She also sang Mahler’s D as Lied von der Erde with the San Francisco Ballet, and, during the summer, she joined Wolf Trap Opera as a Filene Artist, appearing as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (National Symphony Orchestra), as well as Anna I in Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins . Inspired by contemporary repertoire, Beteag counts her role creation of Iras in John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra during San Francisco Opera’s Centennial Season (2022-2023) a career highlight.