Festival Executive Director Ellen Primack, poet-in-residence Farnaz Fatemi, and composer Kevin Puts join host Suki Wessling for a discussion of the return of the annual Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, a local gem with an international luster. This long-running festival puts Santa Cruz on the contemporary music map, with composers who range from young unknowns to the giants of contemporary classical music. Primack, who is retiring this year, explains that the festival nurtures young composers, musicians, and conductors, placing their work alongside the acknowledged greats in their fields. Kevin Puts talks about being a composer of what many think of as an esoteric art, trying to reach audiences by connecting with them and drawing them in. Fatemi, Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz, will encourage concert-goers to share the words inspired by the music they hear.
Click here to listen to part 2 of this series.
Incantation
by Farnaz Fatemi
My patch of dirt
is like the belly of the buddha
which I’d rub, if I could.
I weed it free of invasives.
Gloves keep the sting
of the leaves off my fingers.
Nettle, oxalis, bindweed.
Cultivate soil to change the future.
Here’s a seed to burst
from its hull and bring news.
Or, if not news, a daydream,
furtive, caught by chance
from the song-spattered sky.
For more information:
- Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
- Composer Kevin Puts
- Poet Farnaz Fatemi and her book, Sister Tongue
Ellen Primack (photo by Adriane White)
Kevin Puts (photo by David White)
Farnaz Fatemi
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