Every year in August, an entire orchestra of dedicated musicians gathers in Santa Cruz, California to play nothing but contemporary orchestral music for two weeks. On the last day of this period, they travel south about thirty miles to the town of San Juan Bautista to play their final concerts at the old Spanish mission there.

For more than twenty-five years, Howard Hansen (no relation to the composer who spelled his name “Hanson) has not only avidly attended the Cabrillo Festival of Contemp...