Education and Early Career
Cabrera grew up in Reno, Nevada and graduated from Reed High School where he played French horn in the school band. He then studied at the University of Nevada, receiving his Bachelor of Music in 1996, and the University of Illinois, receiving his Master of Music degree in conducting in 1998. He made his professional debut with the Reno Chamber Orchestra in 1997 at the age of 24 and in 1998 made his European debut conducting the Zwei Groschen Oper Summer Festival productions of The Barber of Seville and Rigoletto. As a post-graduate, he also studied conducting at Indiana University under Imre Pallo and David Effron and at the Manhattan School of Music under Zdenek Macal. In 2002 he received a Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship from the Vienna Philharmonic.
While based in New York, Cabrera served as the Music Director for the Manhattan School of Music's Opera Scenes program (2001/2002) and conducted their community outreach performances. He also conducted their Philharmonia and the Juilliard School orchestra as well as serving as an assistant conductor to Zdenek Macal at the New Jersey Symphony where Cabrera went on to work as cover conductor for the symphony's subscription series and Guest Conductor for its education and outreach Concerts until 2006. He concurrently had various guest conducting engagements including concerts for the Music Academy of the West in 2003 and the Norwalk Youth Symphony Orchestra and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 2004.
Cabrera co-founded ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) with cellist Clarice Jensen and publicist Christina Jensen in 2004 and was the ensemble's Music Director for its inaugural season, conducting works by John Adams, Jacob Druckman, Donald Martino, Frederic Rzewski, and Elliott Carter. He also worked as an assistant to James Conlon at the 2004 Spoleto Festival and the 2005 Ravinia Festival. He made his house debut at Portland Opera in December 2005 conducting The Rape of Lucretia.
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