December 21, 2023
Baseball, football, or basketball? Bruckner, Mahler, or Brahms..? ‘Tis the season of reflection and list-making. We asked Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera to talk us through his top three most memorable sporting moments and California Symphony concerts. Did yours make Donato’s list?
December 7, 2023
Dedication. Practice. Training. The tireless pursuit of excellence, and a commitment to a collective goal… It turns out that professional musicians and athletes have a lot in common!
Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera takes us through his conducting play book.
January 19, 2023
Joseph Bologne was born in 1745 on the Caribbean island and French department, Guadeloupe.
January 5, 2023
Austrian-Romanian pianist Maria Radutu, soloist in February’s CHOPIN IN PARIS concerts, talks about moving from Romania to Vienna at age 14, and plotting a similar path to artistic freedom in later life. (And plot twist: A snoring dog disrupts an important performance.) Can you tell us a little about yourself? I was born in Bucharest, Romania, and…
December 4, 2022
Mozart’s true life story needs no Hollywood-style embellishments, says Music Director Donato Cabrera. Tom Hulce as Wolgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1984 hit movie “Amadeus”. By California Symphony Music Director Donato Cabrera. A murderously jealous rival. A mysterious commission from a “gray messenger.” Rumors of poisoning… If the circumstances of Mozart’s death at 35 read like…
October 5, 2022
The 2022/23 season celebrates a number of milestones, including Music Director Donato Cabrera’s tenth season with the California Symphony. He sat down with us to share his reflections on the journey so far. Congrats on your tenth season with California Symphony! We should have got you a cake or something but all we’ve prepared are these…
February 1, 2022
Against a background of programming modifications and cancellations by other Bay Area performing arts orgs, California Symphony staff and musicians worked together to give wings to January concerts, TAKE FLIGHT. When All Negatives Add Up to a Positive Over four days of rehearsals and performances and after many dozens of COVID tests, musicians, staff, and…
November 9, 2021
By California Symphony staff—Tuesday, November 9, 2021 You had so many great questions and comments! Here are a few things you may—or may not—have noticed as everything came together for FOUR SEASONS, the second concert set of the 2021-22 live and in-person California Symphony season. Your number one question was… What’s the thing that soloist…
October 28, 2021
—By Music Director Donato Cabrera The music of the Baroque is the music of the Age of Reason and The Enlightenment. It is ordered in that the instruments used are essentially always stringed instruments with occasional winds thrown in. It is balanced in that the soloists aren’t any more prominent or important than the group,…
May 6, 2021
Wonderful… Soul-refreshing…”—Kathryn Juneau, Viola This article was first published in May, 2021 When 30 California Symphony musicians came together last month to record the Poetry in Motion season finale series, it was the largest gathering of California Symphony musicians in one place since the February 2020 BRAHMS FEST concerts. We asked how it felt to…
