WHAT IS THE VIRTUE OF ARTISTIC FREEDOM?
In a Festival of Contemporary Music, the expectation that each new composition presented will be understood, embraced and appreciated by all is simply absurd.
The disruptors of the art-form were neither understood nor appreciated at first. Now we speak with great reverence of the riots which accompanied premieres of compositions by Stravinsky or Shostakovich. Who can forget the loud arguments against the ‘simplistic, repetitive tonal style’ of Philip Glass or Arvo Pärt? And yet today we appreciate the genius of all these composers ahead of their time.
As an avid consumer of contemporary music, I notice a trend – especially in younger composers – to meet certain expectations of their critics. We welcome, even expect composers today to write music fitting a stylistic mood of the post-modern world. But why should we limit our experiences to defined stylistic genres? Shouldn’t we embrace the stylistic multiverse the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music presents year after year? A Festival Orchestra capable of delivering a truly diverse array of musical styles with intensity, enthusiasm and commitment, surely represents the artistic integrity of our community.
So I ask again, what is the virtue of artistic freedom? If the core of everything we do at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is the creative process, then the diversity of our programming is our true strength. As described by a concert attendee just before opening night – ‘you will hear something you hate, and then you will hear something that changes your life, and it might even be in the same composition.’
This is the Cabrillo Festival’s vision for artistic freedom. It is an open minded, inclusive, collegial and supportive sandbox for creativity. It might lead to confrontational opinions, sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly. Yet if we approach it all with open hearts and open minds, it has the potential to change our lives. As one of the remaining bastions celebrating unadulterated artistic freedom, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music promises to keep all engaged, challenge the norm and break all expectations.
Cristian Măcelaru | Music Director and Conductor of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
POSITIVE FEEDBACK FOR NEGATIVE REVIEW
Christina Waters’ scathing online critique of the featured composition on the first Saturday night of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music was a breath of fresh air in local cultural criticism. Its description fit what sounded to me like an exercise in stupefaction whose droning monotony was an insult to the audience and the kind of pretentious nonsense that gives “new music” a bad name.
If it had been amateur night there would be no reason to come down so hard on a beginning composer, but Cabrillo’s prestige as a venue for first-rate contemporary concert music is a standard that invites critical scrutiny. Waters has proved over the last 40 years to be Santa Cruz journalism’s most enthusiastic, serious, sharp-witted champion, profiler and critic of the arts—a vital role in any cultural community—and the honesty and courage of her writing deserves to be saluted as a healthy contribution to our cultural discourse.
Santa Cruz and its artists in all forms and genres benefit from independent, intelligent, candid debate about the arts. Good Times deserves credit for publishing what was certain to be provocative. Bravo!
Stephen Kessler | Santa Cruz
AGING OUT IN SANTA CRUZ
Wow ,Bryanna Smith’s letter last week made me climb out of my easy chair, grab my cane and hobble to the computer to write this response! I’m 77 and moved here when I was 7 and my husband was born and raised here. She thinks we boomers killed downtown, killed the art scene and made it impossible for artists to live here, plus we killed the potential for families to live here?
We still attend Open Studios and from what I’ve seen, those artists live here. We raised our kids here and our kids raised our grandkids here. As did most of our friends. We support live music and we and our friends are probably the old geezers you see having fun at Moe’s Alley, Abbott’s Square, The Ugly Mug, The Rio, Kuumbwa etc. To think that the “older generation has seriously negatively impacted the city we grew up in” tells me that Bryanna has more growing up to do.
Juanita Nama | Santa Cruz
