The 2012 Carlsbad Music Festival is thrilled to announce the full schedule of events, September 21-23. This year's Festival features everything from the Calder Quartet's thoroughly contemporary take on the string quartet to Sara Watkins' personal mix of bluegrass, singer-songwriter and pop; from Wu Man's international take on the traditional Chinese pipa to composer Michael Gordon’s epic and brilliant composition for 6 percussionists playing amplified and tuned 2x4s (yes, from the hardware store), Timber. Other performers include Sacra/Profana with the San Diego Children’s Choir, Mantra Percussion, Timothy Andres, Mattson2, and Matt McBane, featuring music by composers Michael Gordon and Andy Akiho. All events will take place in the charming Village of Carlsbad, within a short walking distance of the train, beach, hotels, and restaurants. In short, “adventurous music by the beach.” 

The Festival weekend will begin on Friday evening with the free Village Music Walk, where Festival and community musicians perform short concerts at intimate venues throughout the Village. The Festival will continue with indoor and outdoor concerts in locations throughout the Village on Saturday and Sunday with a grand finale free outdoor concert in Magee Park by Sara Watkins (of Nickel Creek) on Sunday afternoon. Click here to see the full schedule and click here to purchase tickets.

Join us in September 21-23 for a fun, fascinating weekend of "adventurous music by the beach."

The Carlsbad Music Festival, in partnership with ArtPower! at UC San Diego and the Calder Quartet, is thrilled to announce the selection of Andy Akiho as the winner of the 2012 Carlsbad Music Festival Composers Competition. He was selected amongst 203 applicant composers from 22 different countries, with representation from Europe, Asia and Latin America, including Mexico, Columbia, Denmark, Greece, South Korea and Japan.
 

Described as “mold-breaking” and “vital” by The New York Times, Andy Akiho is an eclectic composer and performer whose interests run from steel pan to traditional classical music. Akiho came to composition through the steel pan (an instrument which originated in Trinidad) and has since gone on to study composition at Manhattan School of Music, Yale School of Music and Princeton University where he is currently a doctoral fellow. Recent highlights include winning the Finale Eighth Blackbird Composers Competition in December 2011, a commission from the New York Philharmonic for a premiere on its December 2012 Contact! series concert, and the release of his debut CD "No One the Know One" on the Innova label in the spring of 2011. Akiho also frequently performs his own music on the steel pan as he will on May 8, 2012 on the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella concert at Disney Hall.
 

On Wednesday, December 14 at 7 AM PST through Thursday, December 15 at 7 PM PST, the Carlsbad Music Festival will be participating in giveBIG organized by the San Diego Foundation. During this period, all tax-deductible donations to the Fest will be match by the Foundation at 25%. So, if you donate $100, we get $125. The nature of this fundraiser is social, so please help us spread the word. We hope to get many small donations and hopefully a few large ones. All funds raised through this event will help make next year's Fest more exciting than ever, so please mark your calendars and consider making a donation. Click here to donate and for complete info:

"It was all like a dream, and I didn't want to wake up!*"

The 2011 Carlsbad Music Festival in September was a tremendous success! It began Friday night with the percussion of red fish blue fish at the Carlsbad Train Station and ended on Sunday with a haunting solo viola at the conclusion of the Calder Quartet's world premiere performance of bad black bottom kind, the commissioned string quartet by our Composers Competition winner Jacob Cooper.

In between, we experienced artists creating new worlds of musical possibility by mixing up sounds from European classical, African dance, and American indie music.  We heard new compositions by composers-in-residence Sarah Kirkland Snider, Florent Ghys and Matt McBane and Shara Worden, and heard performances by My Brightest Diamond, Build, Vicky Chow, Burkina Electric and Mando Basso, all while enjoying the beautiful Village of Carlsbad.

In addition to the raves of the Festival-goers, the Fest got great reviews in the press. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said the Fest "is making a significant statement. It reminds me of what the Ojai Festival was before it became famous." James Chute of the San Diego Union Tribune praised Jonathan Moerschel's solo viola performance: "you could go a lifetime and never hear a more expressive, certain account” of the works he played.

*a quote from one of our fans!

On Friday, November 18, two exciting new grants were announced: the NEA Artworks Grant and the American Music Center CAP Recording Grant.

The NEA Artworks grant is a prestigious national grant that we were thrilled to be awarded our first time applying. Funds from the grant will go towards expanding the Fest for 2012.

The Calder Quartet was awarded the AMC Recording Grant for 5 works by young composers commissioned by or premiered at the Fest: Honey Flyers by Christine Southworth, Glitch by Daniel Wohl, Interface by Tristan Perich, Skrzyp Skrzyn by Nathan Davis, and grip by Ryan Carter. 3 of these works were commissioned by the Fest through our annual Composers Competition whose deadline is approaching (see above). We are very excited to help bring these works birthed at the Fest to the wider world through recordings.

The Carlsbad Music Festival is made possible by the tax-deductible contributions of people like you who support adventurous music and want to see it thrive in Carlsbad. With the growth in the size and scope of the Festival this year (7 concerts versus 3 last year plus the Music Walk), our expenses have outpaced our contributions, so we need your support!

Please consider a tax-deductible donation of any size to help us continue to bring this amazing Festival to Carlsbad each year. Your donation is especially important now as we begin to plan for next year’s 9th Annual Carlsbad Music Festival – help us keep the Festival spirit alive throughout the year!

Donate Now!

The Carlsbad Music Festival, in partnership with its Founding Ensemble-in-Residence, the Calder Quartet, announces its seventh annual composition competition with a prize of $3,000. The Festival and Quartet seek to commission a new string quartet from a highly original, creative, and compelling composer age 35 or under at the time of application (born after 12/9/1975). The winning composition will be premiered at the 9th annual Carlsbad Music Festival in September 2012. Full information can be found on our Competition page

The Carlsbad Music Festival is launching a fundraising drive with twin goals:

1) to raise $10,000 and

2) to receive donations from 100 individuals

All by the beginning of the Festival on September 23rd ! Can you help us by donating and spreading the word?

The Carlsbad Music Festival is very excited to announce its 2011 Main Stage Concerts which will take place in the historic Carlsbad Village Theatre : Calder Quartet, My Brightest Diamond, Build, Penelope and pianist Vicky Chow. Read up on these fantastic artists on our ARTISTS page. Tickets are now on sale for these events. Individual tickets are just $15 for general admission or $5 for students and Festival Passes are just $60, or all 5 concerts for the price of 4. Get yours now!

This past winter, the Calder Quartet and Matt McBane went through the always fascinating and exciting journey of judging the annual Composers Competition. The panel whittled down the 134 applicants from all over the world and all over the stylistic spectrum to a handful of fantastic finalists and finally down to the winner: Jacob Cooper.