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Ojai Music Festival alumnus Trimpin to create sound sculpture for Ojai’s rebuilt Libbey Bowl

Sound Arch to be unveiled during reopening day for the Bowl on June 5, 2011

February 26, 2010, OJAI CA -- Internationally acclaimed sound sculptor Trimpin will create Sound Arch, a 12-foot sound sculpture, as the permanent art piece for the new Libbey Bowl, Ojai’s outdoor performance venue. Trimpin’s Sound Arch will be unveiled on June 5, 2011 during a community Day of Music, a free event to celebrate the Bowl’s
re-opening. Trimpin was selected by the Ojai City Council from more than 30 artists Inspired by the curved shape of Libbey Bowl, the12-foot sound sculpture Sound Arch will consist of 24 re-claimed metal tubes of varying lengths with resonators and internal mallet mechanisms, which will produce melodic sounds similar to a xylophone or chiming instrument. Positioned in front of the new Libbey Bowl as the main entry point, Sound Arch will be activated by a motion sensor as visitors approach the sculpture, playing electronically pre-composed musical sequences. The permanent art piece which will be open year-round will also have the ability to be operated manually or as a stand-alone instrument.

Trimpin, who has been a featured and beloved Ojai Music Festival artist in 2006 and 2009, will begin construction on Sound Arch later this year. Additional information on the Libbey Bowl renovation is available on the web site, LibbeyBowl.org.

Trimpin is a MacArthur “genius grant” award-winning sound sculptor, composer, musician, and inventor who describes his work as “an ongoing exploration of the concepts of sound, vision, and movement, experimenting with combinations that will introduce our senses of perception to a totally new experience.” Although he uses the
latest technology available, he works with the “natural” elements of water, air, light and fire - and reconfigures them in new and unusual applications, pushing them to the limits—and beyond—of how they are traditionally viewed. Trimpin built his first sound sculpture at the age of 8 at home in Efringen-Kirchen, Germany. He apprenticed as an electro-mechanical engineer, which fed his passion for acoustic sound spatialization, and later moved to the United States because Americans throw out more of the hightech junk that he requires for his work. Trimpin’s sound sculptures, both whimsical and serious, have appeared all over the world. Trimpin, who is currently artist-in-residence at the California Arts Institute, returned to the Ojai Music Festival in 2009 with two sound sculptures: Sheng High, a 2005 fusion of seeing and hearing sound that is entirely unique, and his recent sound sculpture—Guiter-Toy— seen for the first time in Ojai. An Ojai Music Festival favorite, Trimpin exhibited his interactive Conloninpurple installation for the Festival’s 60th anniversary season in 2006.

Now in its sixth decade, the Ojai Music Festival continues its unmatched musical legacy and international reputation for artistic excellence, adventurous programs, and as a haven for creative artistic camaraderie. Each year, the Festival welcomes a new music director who creates his/her own artistic programming with an emphasis on contemporary music. The 2010 Festival features British composer/conductor George Benjamin. All concerts take place at the outdoor Libbey Bowl, on a site held sacred by the Chumash Indians. From its founding in 1947, a healthy spirit of eclecticism and musical daring flourished, and the Ojai Music Festival remains a world champion of contemporary programming that is enchanting and challenging. With the1954 appointment of Lawrence Morton as artistic director, Ojai embraced an enduring concept whereby the artistic director engages a different music director each year,
around whose musical ideas that year’s Festival is built. Among the Festival’s diverse music directors have been such renowned musical personalities as John Adams, Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, Ingolf Dahl, Peter Maxwell Davies, Lukas Foss, John Harbison, Oliver Knussen, Kent Nagano, Igor Stravinsky, Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mitsuko Uchida, Robert Spano, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, David Robertson, and eighth blackbird. Considered a highlight of the summer classical music season, the Ojai Music Festival is a four-day series of concerts, symposia, and auxiliary events set in the idyllic Ojai Valley, known as California’s Shangri-la.

The “Save Libbey Bowl” is a community-wide project of the Ojai Valley Service Foundation, partnering with the City of Ojai, Civic Association, Ojai Music Festival, and other arts organizations to rebuild the outdoor amphitheatre, the cultural hub of the Ojai Valley where over a dozen of performing arts events are held every year.

For more information on the Ojai Music Festival go online to OjaiFestival.org, or for more information on the Libbey Bowl campaign go to LibbeyBowl.org.