Hope as Our Banner – Grand Finale

The 2026 Cabrillo Festival season concludes with a luminous program looking toward collective possibility, resilience, and belonging. Eunike Tanzil's "Ascending Creatures" (West Coast premiere) explores individuality and unity through the flight of birds. Violinist Tessa Lark draws on her Appalachian roots in Lisa Bielawa's "Pulse" (West Coast premiere). Elena Kats-Chernin's "Rainbow Promise" (U.S. premiere) celebrates marriage equality with jubilant remembrance. Sean Shepherd's "Wanderlust" (West Coast premiere) brings the season to an audacious close.
POST SEASON REFLECTION (with support from Bookshop Santa Cruz, in honor of their 60th Anniversary): Former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove joins the Festival for a special closing event, performing her original poetry honoring the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. alongside Barber's "Adagio for Strings". The poetry receives its West Coast premiere, offering a profound coda to a season of remembering, reckoning, and imagining what comes next.
Stay after the show for our annual street party and celebration of the season with cake and bubbly!