2026 Program Guide | Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

CABRILLO MUSIC.ORG 39 SYMPHONY NO. 15, " LINCOLN" PHILIP GLASS (B. 1937) [West Coast Premiere] Composed between 2021-2023. It is an eight- movement work for baritone and orchestra which is, in a way, a portrait of Lincoln as the image of a man who has stayed in my consciousness these many years. Lincoln had made his way into other works of mine. This began in the early 1980s with the Civil Wars, a collaboration with Robert Wilson. Lincoln next appeared in The Perfect American (2013) about the death of Walt Disney in which Disney interacts with an animatronic Lincoln in The Hall of Presidents. Lincoln again appears in Appomattox (2015), an opera about the legacy of race in America. Opera is a species of theater, not a place for a history lesson. When writing a symphony, we are talking about a relationship made even more abstract. Unlike some of my operas centered on figures such as Gandhi, Akhnaten, and scientists like Einstein, Kepler, and Galileo, when I was invited to compose a new piece, a symphony, I thought of presenting an image of Lincoln and his legacy as it appeared to me. The figure of Lincoln, this self-taught man who seemingly came out of nowhere, who spoke in a very poetic style, and whose legacy of holding the country together in a period during which it was ripping itself apart–seemed an appropriate subject to consider on this, our country’s 250th birthday. Supertitles and calling score provided by Ruth E. DeSarno. — PHILIP GLASS PERSONALIZED REAL ESTATE Anina Van Alstine Broker Associate 831-818-0735 DRE#00585992 Julia Randall Realtor Associate 831-818-2730 DRE#02117818 A n i n a A n d J u l i a . c om LIQUIDLIT.COM Immersive visuals for concerts and special events a s m a l l , i n t e n s e o r c h e s t r a ESPRESS IVO espressorch.com “Gorgeous music and adventurous programming” – Good Times, Santa Cruz