Mexican-American conductor Donato Cabrera is the Artistic and Music Director of the California Symphony. He 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. He is dedicated to adventurous programming, a leading advocate for living composers and digital innovation, and is keenly focused on outreach, engagement, and programming that reflects the communities he is serving.
In recent seasons, Cabrera has made impressive debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Grand Teton Music Festival, Louisville Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Staatstheater Cottbus, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Orquesta Sinfónica Concepción, Hartford Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Nevada Ballet Theatre, New West Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony, Monterey Symphony, and the Reno Philharmonic.
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. As part of its 2025 Best of the East Bay: Arts & Leisure list, Diablo Magazine named the California Symphony “Best Inclusive Classical Music Group.”
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 Composer-in-Residence program, Cabrera has commissioned and premiered over a dozen compositions, including works by Viet Cuong, Katherine Balch, and 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 explain music in an approachable, yet in-depth, way.
As Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, Cabrera worked closely with its then Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and frequently conducted the orchestra in a variety of concerts, including all of the education and family concerts, reaching over 70,000 children throughout the Bay Area every year. During his seven seasons as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, Cabrera upheld the orchestra’s reputation for outstanding artistry at home and abroad. He took the group on two European tours, winning an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming of American Music on Foreign Tours, and receiving critical acclaim for a live recording from the Berlin Philharmonie of Mahler's Symphony No. 1.
In 2020, Cabrera implemented many new digital initiatives, reflecting his vision of breaking down barriers between the audience and the performer and staying engaged with audiences during the pandemic. MusicWise - Conversations about Art and Culture is a series featuring interviews with engaging artists and civic leaders who influence and shape the cultural landscape. The Music Plays On is a series on Cabrera’s blog, featuring commentary and analysis on his favorite performances and recordings along with YouTube clips. In collaboration with Mason Bates and Mercury Soul, Cabrera and the California Symphony produced Poetry in Motion, a series of three virtual concerts inspired by poetry.
Cabrera is equally at home in the world of opera, frequently conducting productions in the United States and abroad. He was the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Opera from 2005-2008, working on over 18 productions and conducting multiple performances. Cabrera has also been an assistant conductor for productions at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Ravinia Festival, Festival di Spoleto, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West. He has frequently conducted productions ranging from Mozart to Puccini in Concepción, Chile. In 2021 he made his debut with Opera San José conducting Rimsky Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri in an innovative digital production. In spring 2023, Cabrera appeared with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music conducting a production of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul.
Donato Cabrera is a leading advocate for living composers. He made his Carnegie Hall debut leading the world premiere of Mark Grey’s Ătash Sorushan with soprano Jessica Rivera, and led members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Jonny Greenwood’s There Will Be Blood as part of the CSO’s MusicNOW series. He also led the San Francisco Symphony Chorus with organist Paul Jacobs in the world premiere of Mason Bates’ Mass Transmission, subsequently conducting it in Carnegie Hall. Cabrera co-founded the New York-based American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), which is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries. He conducted ACME in the world premiere of the all-live version of Steve Reich’s WTC 9/11 for three string quartets and tape at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City, and led performances of Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's Drone Mass with ACME and Theatre of Voices at Duke Performances and the Big Ears Festival.
Donato Cabrera’s awards and fellowships include an ASCAP award for adventurous programming, a Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship at the Salzburg Festival, and conducting the Nashville Symphony in the League of American Orchestra’s prestigious Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview. Cabrera was recognized by the Consulate-General of Mexico in San Francisco for his contributions to promoting and developing the presence of the Mexican community in the Bay Area.
Cabrera was music director of the Green Bay Symphony 2011-2014, New Hampshire Music Festival 2013-2016, and the Las Vegas Philharmonic 2014-2024.
For more information, visit www.donatocabrera.com.
Acclaim
“Under the leadership of the irrepressible Mexican-American maestro Donato Cabrera since 2013, California Symphony takes its music seriously—note the emphasis on horizon-expanding pre-concert talks and out-of-the-way repertoire bonuses—like the swashbuckling Overture No. 2 of the underappreciated Frenchwoman Louise Farrenc, played at this concert as a curtain-raiser for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which was written only 10 years before. But the educational agenda is no excuse for discounting the pleasure principle.” – Air Mail
“Kudos to Cabrera and his ensemble [The California Symphony] for resurrecting [Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue] and making it hella fun to come to a concert hall.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
“Tall and energetic, he's a passionate, heart-on-the-sleeve conductor, with eclectic musical tastes and a wealth of experience.” – The Mercury News
“Donato Cabrera is a leading light in the [Bay Area] cultural scene.” – Diablo Magazine
“With precise direction, conductor Donato Cabrera drew a taut, highly responsive performance eliciting rich, luminous tone from the ensemble.” – Chicago Classical Review
“The orchestra, meanwhile, whispers sweet enchantments into the audience’s ear, from little ticktock insinuations to gently smeared tonal harmonies. It’s a short but breathtakingly beautiful stretch, which Cabrera and the orchestra rendered superbly.” [Katherine Balch’s Artifacts] – San Francisco Chronicle
“Music director Donato Cabrera continues to energize the Walnut Creek-based orchestra [California Symphony] with new works and dynamic guest artists.” – The Mercury News
“Quickly a rising star, Cabrera clearly has a lot of passion for what he does…” – Local Happenings Magazine
“Still, much of an orchestra’s success depends on the music it plays, and Cabrera has proven an especially adept programmer. His [California Symphony] concerts have attracted new audiences and kept established ones faithful. Last season saw record-breaking attendance.” – The Mercury News
“sure-footed pacing … Cabrera drove the symphony toward [Sibelius’ Third Symphony’s] blazing final pages.” – San Francisco Chronicle
“This is vividly imagined music, and Cabrera and the orchestra gave [Katherine Balch’s Like a Broken Clock] a terse, evocative reading.” – San Francisco Chronicle
“Cabrera’s conducting – beautiful, accurate and attentive – steers this wonderful mechanism with authority.”
– instArt
“the orchestra under Music Director Donato Cabrera surged through the concert with astonishing assurance and intricacy” – San Francisco Classical Voice
“Cabrera delivered thunderous energy.” – Bachtrack
“Cabrera cuts a commanding figure on the podium but his conducting style is not overbearing. It’s apparent the players like him.” – Las Vegas Review Journal
“His fluid, energetic podium style continues to yield forceful results… [bringing] the orchestra together with strength and cohesion.” – The Mercury News
"Cabrera and the orchestra showed once again the unanimity and dramatic cogency that they’re capable of in works of the standard repertoire.... Cabrera got big, buoyant playing from his forces in the opening movement [of Bruckner's Symphony No. 6], and the expansive slow movement — with its stately urgency and upholstered string playing — has rarely sounded so affecting." – San Francisco Chronicle
"A mere two hours on the podium Friday ... proved how deeply [Cabrera] had bonded during rehearsals with Lubbock's musicians." – Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
“MusicWise, on Facebook Live, finds him in conversation with musicians, artists, and innovators every Tuesday afternoon, and his daily blog, The Music Plays On, is an engaging mix of music history, insights into the lives of composers, and the pleasures of discovering works we seldom get to experience. The topics aren’t relegated to classical composers — he also ruminates on jazz icons like Chet Baker and Joe Pass and even favorite rock-concert films.” – The Mercury News
“Cabrera is drawing on his wide tastes and music education to write an ongoing blog at medium.com/donatocabrera as the Philharmonic is silent during the coronavirus outbreak. … He’s delved into the music of Kurt Weill, Gregorio Allegri’s ‘Miserere,’ John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, and Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 30.” – Las Vegas Review-Journal
Download long, medium, and short biography. Updated September 2026.