An evening with Gabriella Smith & yMusic
Sat, Nov 8, 2025, 7:30 pm
Walker Art Center
Copresented by Liquid Music, the Walker Art Center, and Schubert Club
“Smith evokes the beauty, terror, and joy of the natural world.” —New York Times
Gabriella Smith is an environmentalist as well as a composer. Channeling both the awe-inspiring beauty of nature and the effect of the climate crisis in sound, Smith makes a moving plea for the planet we call home in Aquatic Ecology. Acclaimed chamber ensemble yMusic presents the Twin Cities premiere of the major new work, which was written for the sextet. The 40-minute piece brings to life hidden ecosystems, featuring raw and processed field recordings from sources including California tide pools and Polynesian coral reefs. The evening opens with the composer herself performing as a duo alongside her long time creative partner and yMusic cellist, Gabriel Cabezas, playing music from their acclaimed album Lost Coast and more.
Featuring:
yMusic:
Alex Sopp (flutes), Mark Dover (clarinets), CJ Camerieri (trumpet), Rob Moose (violin), Nadia Sirota (viola), Gabriel Cabezas (cello)
Gabriella Smith + Gabriel Cabezas Duo:
Gabriella Smith (voice, violin, electronics) & Gabriel Cabezas (cello, electronics)
Commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Liquid Music, and Schubert Club.
About the artists
Bay Area native Gabriella Smith is a composer whose work invites listeners to find joy in climate action. Her music comes from a love of play, exploring new instrumental sounds, and creating musical arcs that transport audiences into sonic landscapes inspired by the natural world. An “outright sensation” (LA Times), her music "exudes inventiveness with a welcoming personality, rousing energy and torrents of joy” (NY Times). Lost Coast, a concerto for cello and orchestra, written for her longtime collaborator Gabriel Cabezas, received its world premiere in May 2023 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. This work joins her organ concerto, Breathing Forests, written for James McVinnie also premiered by the LA Phil, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Other current projects include Keep Going, a large-scale work for Kronos Quartet, commissioned in celebration of their 50th anniversary season, and Aquatic Ecology, an album-length work for yMusic featuring underwater field recordings. In December 2023, her work Tumblebird Contrails was performed on the Nobel Prize Concert by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Gabriella grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area playing and writing music, hiking, backpacking, and volunteering on a songbird research project.
yMusic is a genre-leading American chamber ensemble. Now in its 16th season, the group is renowned for its innovative and collaborative spirit. Since their inception, yMusic has had a unique mission: to work on both sides of the classical/popular music divide, without sacrificing rigor, virtuosity, charisma or style. They were recently praised by NPR Music as “deeply, profoundly skilled. They’ve formed a language all their own.” Named for "Generation Y”, yMusic and their cohort of composer-collaborators, who include Andrew Norman, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Marcos Balter and Caroline Shaw, have come to represent the vanguard of American Contemporary Music. Simultaneously, yMusic has been tapped to lend their orchestral sound and instantly-recognizable style to recordings and concert projects by a dizzying array of popular artists from ANOHNI to John Legend to Paul Simon.
Cellist Gabriel Cabezas is a true 21st century musician. Named one of “23 Composers and Performers to Watch in ’23” by the Washington Post, he is a prolific soloist and collaborator, and co-founded the string group Owls. Gabriel has appeared with America’s finest symphony orchestras and has premiered dozens of new works. In 2016, Gabriel received the Sphinx Medal of Excellence.