In October 2010, after 24 years with the California Symphony, Jekowsky left the orchestra and the search for a new music director began.
[10] After multiple appearances as a guest conductor for the California Symphony and succeeding in the audition process, Donato Cabrera was appointed the position of Music Director in 2013.
[12] The orchestra, which had been contemplating closure before Bergauer came aboard, experienced a positive turn of fortunes during her tenure.
She, along with partners Music Director Donato Cabrera and Symphony Board President Bill Armstrong, were credited with "saving the orchestra" from near-imminent financial collapse in 2014.
[14] In August 2016 the California Symphony launched an audience research project called "Orchestra X" in which volunteers attended two of the orchestra's concerts and then attended a discussion about the experience over pizza and beers during which they were encouraged to express what they felt worked and didn't work for them about the performances.
[16] Two years after the project ran, "Orchestra X: Chapter 2" was published on Bergauer's blog, listing the changes the California Symphony staff had made since the program's results were released.
[22] In fall 2020, with the Lesher Center shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the orchestra broadcast a series of online concerts, Second Saturdays @ California Symphony, with featured soloists performing and in conversation with Music Director Donato Cabrera.
SFGate reported that "[t]he idea for the program came out of [Barry] Jekowsky's long-standing advocacy of both young musicians and American composers.
"[28] The program allows young American composers, selected through an application process, to workshop their music with the full orchestra.
The ensemble then performs the world premiere of the new pieces composed, and on occasion the Symphony has commissioned works from previous participants after their terms have ended.
"[33] Sound Minds provides music instruction to elementary school pupils in addition to other academic work, three days a week.
Downer Elementary is in a low-income neighborhood and, according to NPR, "serves mainly struggling Latino families, many of them immigrants from Mexico.
[34] In 2017, the California Symphony secured a collaboration with the East Bay Center for Performing Arts, allowing Sound Minds graduates to pursue the competitive Young Artist Diploma Program.
[37][38] The Symphony announced a new education concert series to begin in the fall of 2024, to include music by former Young Composer in Residence Mason Bates.