Ojai Festival’s tradition of inviting a different music director for each season is guaranteeing variety and vitality across festivals. After eighth blackbird’s commitment to young American composers last year, we return this year to a more European focus, albeit with plenty of surprise, adventure, and energy thrown in. I’ve wanted to get George Benjamin to Ojai for several years now, first as a composer/conductor in 2005 when his friend Oliver Knussen was music director, and again in 2007 when Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a great supporter of his music, was in charge. And George was eager to come, having talked about Ojai many times with his very close friend, Betty Freeman. Dates were the problem, so back in 2007, I invited him to be the 2010 Music Director.
Since then we’ve been hard at work planning what promises to be a splendid Festival in the best Ojai tradition with works by our own luminaries from Stravinsky and Messiaen to Boulez and Ligeti…with a few surprises thrown in!
Read about George on our web site or listen to Into the Little Hill which he will conduct in its West Coast premiere. We have also posted an archive article from The New York Times by Vivien Schweitzer who wrote about Little Hill's American premiere in 2007.
-- Tom Morris
[ 2 comments ] ( 27 views ) | permalink | related link |
( 3 / 517 )
Calendar
