Tuesday, December 2, 10am, Fireside Room.
Donato Cabrera,
Artistic Director of the California Symphony
What does a Conductor do?
Get ready for a treat! Mexican American conductor Donato Cabrera, Artistic Director of California Symphony, is renowned for adventurous programming, championing living composers, and dynamic community engagement. And he is coming to Rossmoor’s History & Culture Club on December 2, 2025! A leading advocate for living composers and digital innovation, he is keenly focused on outreach, engagement, and programming that reflects the communities he is serving. Don’t miss this dynamic presentation!
Maestro Cabrera served as the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and the Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2009-2016. Cabrera is one of only a handful of conductors in history who has conducted performances with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, and the San Francisco Ballet.
Since Donato Cabrera's 2013 appointment as Music Director of the California Symphony, the organization has redefined what it means to be an orchestra in the 21st Century. In 2017, the California Symphony became the first orchestra in the country to make a public commitment to diversity. The statement underscores the orchestra’s commitment to creating an equitable, diverse, and inclusive artistic space and work environment both on and off stage. Furthermore, the California Symphony was one of the first orchestras to provide a bilingual Spanish and English website, allowing underrepresented segments of the Bay Area community to interact and engage with the orchestra. Under Cabrera’s baton, the California Symphony has reached new artistic heights by building on its reputation for innovative programming and championing music by living composers, while also committing to programming music by women and people of color. Through California Symphony’s celebrated Young American Composer-in-Residence program, Cabrera has commissioned and premiered over a dozen compositions, including works by Viet Cuong, Katherine Balch, and the current Composer-in-Residence, Saad Haddad. The California Symphony's concerts are regularly broadcast on KUSC in Los Angeles, KDFC in San Francisco, and across the country via the WFMT Radio Network, through the orchestra's radio series.
Deeply committed to diversity and education through the arts, Cabrera evaluates the scope, breadth, and content of the California Symphony’s Sound Minds program, which has achieved national attention for its El Sistema-inspired approach and has a proven track record in impacting the lives and improving the test scores of hundreds of K-6 children in San Pablo’s Downer Elementary School. Also an advocate for adult education, Cabrera helped create and shape the California Symphony’s program Fresh Look: The Symphony Exposed, a summer weekly lecture series that helps to explain the music and composers in an approachable, yet in-depth, way.