It is that time of year again. Summer is screaming to a close and I find myself back at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music for more challenging and inspiring music and music making. For me, this festival is always a welcome end to my summer because it provides a much needed recharge of the artistic batteries that can tend to fade in sweltering Miami summers, especially when the rest of life creeps in and demand your attention. In fact, this summer I went into a bit of a self-imposed online exile (if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you may have noticed), but now I am back in Santa Cruz, the weather is cool, rehearsals are underway, and I find myself back at one of my favorite Santa Cruz spots — Lulu Carpenter’s — enjoying a fabulous latte; I’m already feeling more energized.

Rehearsals for the festival are underway, with the first full orchestra rehearsal last night. This festival is Marin Alsop’s 20th anniversary as music director here and the festival promises to be extraordinary. Last night we began rehearsing pieces for the performance on Saturday night (Aug. 6). The bulk of the rehearsal was taken up with a piece that Marin discovered while conducting in Japan. The piece is by Shuko Mizuno — a composer that was unknown to me prior to this festival (here is a page with some info on Mizuno — and is fittingly titled “Summer”. It is a fascinating piece that captivates with an aggressive Neo-Romanticism: moments of great beauty are followed by passages of clamorous intensity. This piece is probably the most physical piece of the whole festival for me, which means that the tradition of starting this festival with a chop busting first rehearsal is alive and well.

This afternoon we tackle music from Friday night’s performance, which features music by Christopher Rouse, Mason Bates, James MacMillan, and Margaret Brouwer. It promises to be another demanding rehearsal, but I am really looking forward to hearing the music. As for now, it’s time to finish this latte and go warm up, I have a feeling my face will appreciate that.

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Continuing with my series of lists covering the 2010 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary music, I have compiled this list of favorite photos that I took while at the festival.  There are certainly other photos (taken by others) that deserve to be in this list, but I don’t have the original files for those.  If  some of you CabFest musicians have photos to share with me, then I can make a separate list for those.

You will, no doubt, notice that many of the photos have nothing to do with music or the festival directly. IMHO, that is a defining characteristic of a successful festival: a setting that will attract the best musicians and give them a reprieve from their daily lives and whatever music they happen to be playing at the time. All the pics of the California Coast (below) were taken on our day off, and believe me — amidst the insanity of the music we play (and, as Daniel Barenboim used to say, “I mean that in the nicest possible way”) — we needed these peaceful surroundings to be able to recharge our batteries before tackling the programs for the second week of the festival. I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I enjoyed taking them.

10. Soif! -- One of THE places to be after a show. Great Wine. Great Food. What’s not to like? I think this is the only time I saw it during the day…

9. Santa Cruz Boardwalk – The Essence of Santa Cruz

8. California Coast – Where else would you find this scenery?

7. Up on a Rock — Taken from atop a lone rock, 30 meters in the air. Only in California…

6. The Cross at Mission San Juan Bautista — Sunset at the mission is stunning. Fantastic light.

5. Grey Day — Feeding my inner Ansel Adams.

4. San Juan Bautista Bells — The Bell Tower at the Beautiful Mission San Juan Bautista

3. John and Me — John Adams and me after the performance of City Noir at the Cabrillo Festival 8/14/2010

2. Jutting Rocks — Does it get any more dramatic than the California Coast?  Love my Leica D-Lux4

1. The soloists. The composer. — The true value of any festival comes in the people you work with. When I look at the quality of the musicians in this picture, I know that the value of the Cabrillo Festival is as high as they come. (L to R: Craig Morris [tpt], Ava Ordman[trb], John Adams, Tim Mcallister[sax])

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If you happen to have been following me on twitter lately, then you already know that I have been immersed in the world of new music via the portal that is the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. CabFest 2010 was an extraordinary affair: 12 visiting composers including John Adams, Philip Glass, Kevin Puts, Jennifer Higdon, and Mark Anthony Turnage. Not bad company for a new music festival! It was a privilege and a treat to collaborate with the composers, and it was extraordinary to have so many of them in attendance. The biggest treat of this festival, however, was, as always, getting to play with this great orchestra under the expert guidance of Marin Alsop; it is a very rare thing to find an orchestra that matches up to what you always hoped playing in an orchestra would be like.

The festival lasts just two weeks, but reflecting on it now (as I “767-it” back to Miami) it seems that it runs for much longer; it’s like a Cabrillo time warp that makes the beginning of the festival seem even more distant than the days and weeks leading up to the festival. It’s a strange sensation. It definitely seems like long ago that Jennifer Higdon and Mark Anthony Turnage first turned up at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium for the first rehearsals of their pieces.

Given that distance in time (and the fact that a long-winded prose about the festival would read like the equivalent to “My Summer Vacation” and would be just as gripping now as it was when you were in 2nd grade) I have decided to go classic-blog-style and make a series of lists outlining the various peaks and valleys of our “Festival in the Fog”. Here goes:

Since this website is centered around trumpet, why not have the first lists feature things relevant to Gabriel’s instrument. If you are not a trumpet player then… well… Sorry.

Top Chop-Burner Pieces of CabFest 2010

1. Drowned Out by Mark Anthony Turnage
2. Symphony No. 3 by Michael Hersch
3. Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Philip Glass

Summary: Starting with the trumpet-pig-head-list, this list shows the pieces that make you rub your cheeks, blow raspberries, and doubt the very reason you ever picked up this blasted mess of tubes (not to mention cursing under your breath at the composer). Turnage’s Drowned Out was one of the most physically intimidating pieces I’ve ever seen. I think I spent a whole concert’s worth of chops on one small section of the 1st movement alone. Proceed with care (i.e. run like hell) If you see this piece show up on your stand. Actually, that isn’t quite true. I really did enjoy this playing this piece when all was said and done. It was a bit daunting in the practice room however.

I’m not sure if the Michael Hersch was harder on the face, or more demanding technically. Either way, it was the hands down hardest trumpet part of the festival. Bravo to Micah Wilkinson for a fantastic job on the 2nd trumpet part. As for the Philip Glass: it’s like the Caruso 6 notes, only much longer, higher, and more interesting rhythmically. This piece will want to make you pack along a face-masseuse if you take it on tour; and to make matters worse, the rest of the orchestra will stare at you in confusion if you tell them it is physically demanding.

Favorite Trumpet Solos/Moments of CabFest 2010

1. City Noir by John Adams (solo)
2. Having Mark Inouye down from the San Francisco Symphony to play second trumpet on City Noir.
3. Chicago Remains by Mark Anthony Turnage (off-stage solo)
4. On A Wire by Jennifer Higdon (trumpet “trios”)
5. Symphony No.3 by Michael Hersch (impossible trumpet writing)

Summary: John Adams has now, IMHO, written the top two trumpet solos in the entire literature. My favorite remains the stunningly beautiful and moving solo in Doctor Atomic, but the City Noir solo is a close second. Now all that remains is to get him to write us a trumpet concerto. I mentioned this to him after the concert last Saturday and he seemed to have his interest piqued a bit. Hopefully there will be some way to get this great composer to write a piece for our instrument. The trumpet deserves it, it really does.

Having Mark Inouye (Principal Trumpet in the San Francisco Symphony) down to play second trumpet on City Noir was a real treat. It was like old home week for us, playing in a section together again. I think we managed to rock the house pretty well, if I do say so myself.

The solo in the Turnage Chicago Remains is truly haunting and is surprisingly written in the 3rd trumpet part. This solo is not really a solo per se, as it is played in a unison trio with soprano sax and clarinet. Whether you call it a trio or a solo, it’s still very demanding, with wide leaps in all directions and soaring up to a high D (concert) at the end. But it really is a beautiful line and it is a joy to play in spite of its difficulty. The only other entry on the list that needs explaining is the Hersch. I included it here because it is simply very rewarding to pull off something that you were pretty sure was impossible when you were learning it. Also, in spite of its fast and rangy flourishes that are nearly impossible to play (much less sing) excerpts from this part kept spinning around in my head, making me look like a total idiot walking around Santa Cruz trying to hum them.

Okay, hopefully making lists about the top trumpet moments of the festival will pacify my inner geek for the moment. I will keep assimilating ideas for further lists that aren’t focused on the trumpet, so there is more to come. If you were at the festival and want to suggest a list, or entries on a list, please send me an email or simply comment below.

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Here I am — once again blogging from the airplane, thumbing my way across my tiny virtual keyboard, able now to reflect on what was an unpredictable, edgy, adventurous, and successful music festival, a festival that defies conventional classical music world logic, that challenges its audience and orchestra in unimaginable ways, and in so doing, rewards them in an equally fascinating and unpredictable manner. Cabrillo. Marin Alsop. Santa Cruz. This is where it’s at if you want to know what is actually happening in art music today (or the so-called and woefully named “classical music” if you prefer). For two short weeks in Santa Cruz, some of the best musicians in the world convene for a musical exploration that is unparalleled and truly out of this world, and the 2009 edition certainly did not disappoint.

You may wonder about the basis on which I stake these grandiose claims. If so, pull up a google window and check these names out.

Composers in attendance in 2009: Osvaldo Golijov, Avner Dorman, Brett Dean, David Heath, Enrico Chapela, Joby Talbot, Kevin Puts, Ingram Marshall.

Other notable composers who had pieces featured in 2009: Aaron Jay Kernis, James MacMillan, Magnus Lindberg.

Throw in a fantastic orchestra, an incredibly efficient management team, and an out-of-this-world music director in Marin Alsop — one of the foremost champions of new music, a leader with artistic vision, musical integrity of the highest caliber, and a work ethic that would make Paul Bunyan weep — and the result is a sort of musical perfect storm: a two week Santa Cruzian Nirvana for music and musicians.

In case you can’t tell, I had a pretty good time at Cabrillo. I had intended to write regularly during the festival, but as it continued to unfold before me, it became more and more difficult to find time to even reflect on what was going on, much less write about it. On top of that, my second week of the festival featured a major concerto performance combined with an untimely and completely unexpected lip infection. Got your attention now? I thought maybe. No need to worry though, the concerto performance came off beautifully and received a rousing reception, all thanks to the miracle of antibiotics. Well, that and literally countless hours of preparation, but you probably guessed that part already.

As the festival approaches each year, and as I prepare the unrelenting music, I wonder how we will ever live through it this time. But each year as the festival closes, I am left wondering how we will live without it.

In the next few days I’ll recount some of my experiences from the last two weeks, the same experiences I had planned on communicating while they happened, but which sucked me in to such a degree that they left me unable to write about them as they unfolded.

Perhaps through these writings you will see why I think the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is such an extraordinary event, and why I think it deserves even more attention than it already gets. But for right now, I’m going to raise my tray table, close my eyes, and rest — the sounds from yesterday’s concert in the Mission San Juan Bautista still soaring through my mind.

CabMuFest 09 has come and gone. I for one, am sad to see it go, but with the 2009 version disappearing in the rear-view mirror, I am already looking forward to the next one emerging on the horizon, curious about all the wonders it may have in store. Bring it on.

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After writing about the spinning tubes used in Brett Dean’s Moments of Bliss and being unable to secure the actual name for the tube, I posted the question to my friends on Facebook. One of them wrote back with a link to a page about the “Bloogle Resonator”, so I visited this page and found that it described pretty accurately what I was talking about. There was also a picture, but this picture seemed to be on about the same level as one my 5 year old would take with his PlaySchool camera, so I was not totally convinced it was the same instrument that I mentioned in We’re Off….

Later that day, I happened upon Ellen Primack, the Executive Director of the Cabrillo Festival. She walked up to me, and with little warning quickly beamed, “Whirly Tubes!”. This caught me off guard at first, but I quickly realized that she had read my previous post and was informing me that those little spinning tubes are in fact called “Whirly Tubes”.

Now to me, this name makes a lot more sense than “Bloogle Resonator”, and a quick Google search reveals plenty of results for Whirly Tubes, but almost nothing for Bloogle Resonator. Certainly, the name “Whirly Tube” much better fits my childhood memories — five years old, standing in front of my grandmother’s house, whirling and twirling the tube as fast as I could, trying to make the highest possible pitch emerge from the spinning blur in front of me…

But in the end, I think the best argument for this name was the instant recognition by David Heath and Avner Dorman (composers featured at this year’s festival) at Ellen’s mention of the name, “Whirly Tubes”. All three of them knew of other pieces that called for them and quickly began discussing the merits of including Whirly Tubes in a piece. As I sat and watched this discussion — two of the world’s most respected living composers discussing the role and musical merits, or lack thereof, of a little plastic toy called a “Whirly Tube” — I couldn’t help but think of what a surreal scene it was, and that really, this conversation simply could not happen anywhere else.

Santa Cruz and Cabrillo. For two jam-packed weeks in August it truly is the place to be for anyone interested in the beautiful but somewhat wacky world of contemporary music. Now, if only they let me play the Whirly Tubes!

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