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Control – 2026 Cabrillo Festival

Saturday, August 8, 2026 - 7:00 pm | Cost: $26*
*$26-$96
Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium | 307 Church St, Santa Cruz

Event Details

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

Conducted by Cristian Măcelaru

Clarice Assad: Kontrol (Philippe Quint, Violin) (Festival Commission & world premiere)

Jackson A. Waters: Defending Greenwood (West Coast premiere)

Hannah Ishizaki: Spin (West Coast premiere)

Dan Dediu: Concerto for Orchestra (U.S premiere)

A genre-expanding program examining power, agency, and the forces that shape contemporary life. 

Clarice Assad‘s Kontrol (Festival Commission, world premiere), featuring violinist Philippe Quint, is a genre-defying work for narrator, projections, violin, and orchestra that interrogates the role of technology in human autonomy. 

Defending Greenwood (Movement III: June 1, 1921) (West Coast premiere) by Jackson A. Waters—winner of the 2026 Cabrillo Emerging Black Composers Prize—bears witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre, countering historical erasure through musical testimony and remembrance. 

Merging the Viennese waltz with electronic dance music, Hannah Ishizaki’s Spin (West Coast premiere), evokes motion, disorientation, and suspended time. As elegant triple-meter gestures collide with pulsing, club-like rhythms, the piece blurs past and present, creating a dizzying soundscape that feels both nostalgic and uncannily immediate. 

Dan Dediu‘s Concerto for Orchestra (U.S. premiere) closes the program with a virtuosic and celebratory showcase of the ensemble, dedicated to Cristian Măcelaru in recognition of their long-standing artistic collaboration.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.


Cost: $26*
*$26-$96
Categories: Community, Fairs & Festivals, In Person
Venue: Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
Address: 307 Church St, Santa Cruz

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