At the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, where Marin Alsop is in her 16th year as music director, “(p)art of the happiness for the participants clearly comes from being in an environment so different from the regular classical world. Here, contemporary music is the norm, and audiences pour out to hear it. ‘In a regular season, orchestras have to be so careful to dole it out and sandwich it between works by the masters,’ [concertmaster Yumi] Hwang-Williams says. ‘Cabrillo is an oasis, a haven. And that’s why we keep coming back for more.'”