Conductor Donato Cabrera appreciates ‘Las Vegas’ of Las Vegas Philharmonic

By John Katsilometes

Thursday, March 26, 2015 | 2:47 p.m.

Las Vegas Philharmonic Music Director Donato Cabrera was in the audience at the most recent Composers Showcase of Las Vegas at Cabaret Jazz on March 4, and he loved the performance.

The news here isn’t that Cabrera was blown away by the show but that the music director of the Las Vegas Philharmonic actually made it to a late-night, midweek performance of Las Vegas entertainers.

“I was truly blown away, and I’m not being hyperbolic,” Cabrera says of the Composers Showcase, a monthly rollout of Las Vegas-based composers and musicians hosted by “Jersey Boys” Music Director Keith Thompson that has become one of the city’s artistic treasures.

“It was one of the most inspiring, revealing and surprising concerts I’ve been to — and I’ve been to a lot of concerts around the world. It was heartwarming. It brought a smile to my face, and as one act after another came to the stage, my smile was getting bigger and bigger.”

Such talk brings smiles to the faces of Las Vegas Phil officials, musicians and supporters, too, as the Phil has just announced its ambitions schedule for the 2015-’16 season at Reynolds Hall.

The series opens with “Beethoven & Brahms” featuring piano great Andrew Tyson as soloist for Beethoven’s piano concerto No. 3 (for the entire season schedule and ticket information, go to LVPhil.org). Cabrera also is in the spotlight for “Cabrera Celebrates Sibelius” on Nov. 21.

The upcoming season is very much a celebration of what is universally deemed, among Phil supporters, an ideal relationship between symphony and conductor. The position of music director and conductor of the civically supported symphony, whether in this city or any other, requires the individual wielding the baton to embrace his or her community.

In the late summer of 2012, Las Vegas Philharmonic President and Chief Executive Officer Jeri Crawford and her board of directors embarked on a search — which was about a year earlier than expected — to replace departing MD David Itkin. Seventeen conductors, some of whom had never visited Las Vegas, took a turn leading the city’s symphony.

For Crawford and her board, near the top of the list of criteria was that the new conductor serve not only as the artistic head of the symphony, but also as a spokesman and face of the orchestra in the city.

Cabrera is such a person. He grew up in Las Vegas until age 10, when his family moved to Reno. He remembers the Smith Center site being a big dirt lot at Union Park in the days he was growing up in the city.

Now …

“My wife and are looking for a place to live here,” he says. “Until we find a place, my priority is to be here as much as possible. I think it’s a must for any artistic leader, or someone in my position, to be part of the community and be available and integrated to the society and culture that I represent.

“I have a familial tie to the community, as well. To be there, aside from the weeks that I have rehearsal, is really important.”

Cabrera says he was especially moved by Reynolds Hall when he first conducted there during his audition period in the 2013-2014 season. He was named as the new conductor last April and debuted onstage as the Phil’s MD for the symphony’s holiday performances in December. Of the Phil’s relationship with the Smith Center, he says, “I couldn’t believe my eyes. It speaks to the potential of what the arts mean in Las Vegas.”

As is the case with most conductors of high-level orchestras, Cabrera divides his time among a few symphonies. He is still resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and MD of the California Symphony. He also conducts for Symphony New Hampshire and California Symphony in Walnut Creek.

He is a busy conductor, but when he was hired by the L.V. Phil, Crawford began asking about his schedule, and Cabrera said that he would build his performance calendar around the needs of the L.V. Phil. Cabrera is currently in the first full year of a three-year contract with the orchestra, but all indications are he wants to be with the Phil for a longer term than his current contract allows.

In a broader sense, Crawford is leading an expansion of programming at the Phil that invokes the Spotlight Series at Troesh Studio Theater, highlighting individual players in a cozy environment on select Tuesday nights.

The Phil also has built a bridge between Las Vegas retirement communities Las Ventanas and Siena. And for the first time in the four-year relationship between the Phil and Smith Center, Sunday matinees are being offered on four weekends. It’s something of a risk, as symphony matinees are not always an easy ticket, but Crawford says, “We think there is now a market in Las Vegas for matinees, and we’re giving it a shot.”

The Phil is feeling the effects of a renaissance of live music in Las Vegas, particularly in the Strip production shows “Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers” at Wynn Las Vegas and “Frank: The Man, The Music” at Palazzo. Those shows have hooked more than 60 top musicians, combined, to their respective stages. Many of those players are L.V. Phil veterans, forcing the Las Vegas symphony to seek outside players to fill its own dates.

“We have been looking outside Las Vegas for musicians, places like L.A., Salt Lake City, San Francisco,” Crawford says. “It’s not our first choice, and there is some room in the schedule for our musicians in Las Vegas to sub out and make our performances. But it’s a message about all the talent in this city. We’re coming in at the 50,000-foot level, a very high standard, and we think that it’s great that canned music is leaving this city.”

The man who directs those musicians adds, “There is a great versatility among the musicians in Las Vegas. They can play jazz, Beethoven, a production show. … For them to have so much work available is a wonderful dilemma for all of us.”

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