Donato Cabrera - 2006 To The Present

2006 To The Present

Cabrera joined San Francisco Opera in the 2005/2006 season as an Associate Conductor preparing the casts and conducting the initial rehearsals of several productions including the world premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic and remained there until 2008. He made his conducting debut at SFO in May 2006 for the company's Opera in the Gardens concert and went on to conduct performances of Die Fledermaus (October 2006), Don Giovanni (June 2007), Die Zauberflöte (October 2007), and Tannhäuser (October 2007). In March 2008, he made his debut with Berkeley Opera conducting a production of L'elisir d'amore. The following autumn, he was enaged by the Metropolitan Opera as an assistant and cover conductor for a new production of Doctor Atomic.

Cabrera's symphonic conducting career continued in parallel with his work as an opera conductor. In the spring of 2008, he conducted a workshop of Brahms's Symphony No. 1 with the San Francisco Conservatory and was reengaged in the 2008/2009 season to lead further workshops of the core orchestral repertoire. 2008 also saw his South American debut when he conducted Madama Butterfly with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción in Chile. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in April 2009 when he conducted the orchestra with 24 hours notice, in a program of Mozart's Symphony No. 38 and Overture to Le nozze di Figaro and Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

In September 2009 he joined the San Francisco Symphony staff as the Resident Conductor and Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. In December of that year he also made his debut with the San Francisco Ballet, conducting The Nutcracker and became one of few conductors who have conducted performances for all three of San Francisco's major musical institutions. During the 2010-2011 season he conducted the San Francisco Symphony in the Dia de los Muertos Family Concert as well as selected Concerts for Kids, Adventures in Music and Music for Families concerts. In May 2011, Cabrera was appointed Music Director of the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, a post he holds concurrently with his work for the San Francicsco Symphony.