Even before the pandemic, many symphony orchestras were financially imperiled, struggling to find new audiences. But the Monterey Symphony, which opens its 75th concert season this weekend, is still going strong – testimony to how much this community values the arts.
The four concerts comprising this season mark the final steps in choosing a successor to former music director Max Bragado-Darman, who retired two years ago.
The job was posted in 2019 and received 175 responses. A panel made up of four musicians and five members of management was tasked with going through them. “The quality of the applicants was amazing,” Executive Director Nicola Reilly says. “Any one of those 175 would have made a great music director for us.”
Five rounds of vetting narrowed the field to four finalists, each of whom will conduct two full concerts over the next four months – a live-action job application, if you will.
“We really wanted to see each of them in action,” Reilly says.
This month’s candidate is Donato Cabrera, current music director of the California Symphony.
The Symphony will open with composer-in-residence John Wineglass’ two-movement work Alone Together (2021), the first movement of which paints a tense portrait of the pandemic.
“I didn’t want to leave any ambiguity as to the severity of what we were all going through,” Wineglass says. “That first movement is basically a lamentation to the 900,000-plus souls we have lost.”
The second movement, meanwhile, is an abrupt about-face – cinematic and melodic with sweeping pastoral phrases depicting the hope of better times ahead. “It’s perfect to open the season with a local composer’s work co-commissioned by the Symphony,” Cabrera says.
Next comes Dmitri Shostakovich’s technically demanding Cello Concerto No. 1 (1959) and then Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 (1888).
Concert-goers attending any of the four concerts will receive a survey at the door about their perceptions of the event; survey results will be included in the selection deliberations.
A new music director will be announced June 15.
MONTEREY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA with Donato Cabrera and Julian Schwarz performs at 7:30pm Sat., Feb. 19 and 3pm Sun., Feb.20. Sunset Center, San Carlos and 9th, Carmel. $41-$82. 646-8511, montereysymphony.org
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.