Hand Injury Sidelines Cabrillo Festival Conductor

Weeks before the start of one of the most ambitious new classical music festivals in the country, conductor Marin Alsop has been pulled because of a minor hand injury, according to a press release.

Carolyn Kuan, Music Director for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and former Associate Conductor of the Cabrillo Festival will conduct the Festival's opening weekend, August 2-3, 2013, and composer and conductor Brad Lubman, former Assistant Conductor at Tanglewood Music Center, will conduct the Festival's closing weekend, August 10-11, 2013.

"While I am deeply disappointed that I can't conduct this year's Festival, the adventurous program that we've put together will delight and surprise in the way only Cabrillo can," said Alsop. "And I have the greatest confidence in Carolyn and Brad to bring this new music to life."

For this year's Cabrillo Festival Alsop has assembled nine composers in residence, including Mason Bates, Derek Bermel, Enrico Chapela, Anna Clyne, Sean Friar, Thomas Newman, Andrew Norman, Kevin Puts and Gregory Rians Smith. Among the artistic highlights are the world premiere of a new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Puts for star flutist Adam Walker and a world premiere by emerging composer Friar. 

The Festival will also feature a US premiere by renowned composer Philip Glass and West Coast premieres by Rouse and Walker. Cellist Johannes Moser makes his Festival debut in Chapela's MAGNETAR; and the Festival presents the American debut of Emil Jonason, a charismatic Swedish clarinetist who came to the world stage with his 2012 performance at the Nobel Prize ceremonies. The Festival also welcomes back the ultimate chamber music crusaders, Kronos Quartet, who celebrate their 40th Anniversary.

(Programming change: Brett Dean's Fire Music will not be performed August 3rd as initially announced. Mason Bates performs electronica with the orchestra in his celebrated work, Alternative Energy, an 'energy symphony' spanning four movements and hundreds of years, instead.)