2026 Program Guide | Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

CABRILLO MUSIC.ORG 19 FEATURED COMPOSERS LEILEHUA LANZILOTTI SPONSORED BY AVIVA GARRETT, DAVID DOSHAY, & SAGE DOSHAY Leilehua Lanzilotti is a Kanaka Maoli composer and multimedia artist whose works often explore dramatic expanses of color and timbre. World-building through multimedia installation works and nontraditional concert experiences/musical interventions, Lanzilotti activates imagination around new paths forward in language sovereignty, water sovereignty, land stewardship, and respect. Lanzilotti was honored to be a 2022 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Music for with eyes the color of time (string orchestra), which the Pulitzer committee called, “a vibrant composition . . . that distinctly combines experimental string textures and episodes of melting lyricism.” Other prestigious honors Lanzilotti has received include a Creative Capital Award, a Native Arts & Cultures Foundation’s SHIFT–Transformative Change and Indigenous Arts Award, and recognition as a 2025 USA Fellow. Lanzilotti has received additional distinguished fellowships & residencies through The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Casa Wabi, the Merwin Conservancy, the McKnight Visiting Composer Residency Program, Copland House, and the MacGeorge Fellowship at the University of Melbourne among others. ROBERT HUGHES ELENA KATS-CHERNIN JAMES LEE III HANNAH ISHIZAKI LEILEHUA LANZILOTTI As a composer, Lanzilotti’s works have been presented at international festivals such as Ars Electronica (Austria), Sonic Arts Biennial (The Netherlands), and Thailand International Composition Festival; and in halls such as the Philharmonie de Paris and Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. Lanzilotti’s work has also been championed in frequent performances by Roomful of Teeth, Sō Percussion, Extended Music Collective (Belgium), Ensemble Three (Australia), and others worldwide. JAMES LEE III SPONSORED BY CLAIRE SCHNEEBERGER & JOSHUA SALESIN AND MARK KALOW & MARLENE PITKOW James Lee III is acclaimed for his “bright, pure music” (The Washington Post) , with compositions described as “atmospheric and endlessly inventive” (Cincinnati Business Courier). During 2024-2025 he was composer-in-residence with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Among his career honors, Lee has been recognized with a Charles Ives Scholarship and the Wladimir Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Lee’s compositions have been performed by major orchestras and artists across the United States, Europe, and Latin America. During the 2024-2025 season, Lee’s new Clarinet Concerto was performed by Anthony McGill and the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. The season also brought the premiere of a concerto for two pianos and orchestra, by Christina andMichelle Naughton and the Rochester Philharmonic. Renewed Mind , a cello concerto, will be premiered by Joshua Roman and the Baltimore Symphony; and an additional concerto for orchestra, also to be premiered by the Baltimore Symphony with conductor Jonathon Heyward. During his career, Lee’s orchestral works have been commissioned and premiered by the National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and Atlanta Symphony, amongmany others. Born in St. Joseph, Michigan, Lee earned a doctoral degree in composition, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.