Composer Andrew Norman to join USC faculty
We are so excited that Andrew Norman will be returning to the west coast as a member of USC’s Thornton School of Music faculty and as Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s Composer in Residence.
The 2014 Festival (June 12-15) led by Music Director Jeremy Denk will include works by Norman.
Read the full LA Times article by Mark Swed here >>
“In recent years, Norman has worked with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as its composer in residence. He studied at USC and Yale University before embarking on his professional composing career.
Norman was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in music for his piece ‘The Companion Guide to Rome.'”
Timo Andres’ “Home Stretch” out on Nonesuch July 30th
Timo Andres’s Home Stretch out on Nonesuch July 30
Timo Andres, piano
Metropolis Ensemble
Andrew Cyr, conductor
ANDRES: Home Stretch
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 26 in D, “Coronation” (Completed by Andres)
ANDRES: Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno
NPR Music: “First Listen” streams Home Stretch in its entirety this week.
Click here for the stream.
On Timo Andres’s upcoming Nonesuch album, Home Stretch (July 30, 2013), he performs with Andrew Cyr and the Metropolis Ensemble, pairing the title work with two reinventions of works by musical heroes Mozart and Brian Eno: Mozart’s “Coronation” concerto andParaphrase on Themes of Brian Eno. Album pre-orders are available now at nonesuch.com and include an exclusive print of the first page of the Home Stretchscore, autographed by the composer. To celebrate the release, Andres, artist and book designer Peter Mendelsund and the New Yorker’s Leo Carey will host a conversation about artistic influence. The event will be held at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe on July 30 at 7:00 PM, and is free. Andres will perform music from the record, including his own work and pieces by Brian Eno and Mozart.
Tuesday, July 30
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby Street
New York, NY 10012
Free
Home Stretch was written for pianist David Kaplan and was conceived as a companion piece to Mozart’s Piano Concerto, No. 12, K. 414. Andres wanted the piece to reflect his friend Kaplan’s personality. Andres notes, “I knew I wanted Home Stretch to have something to do with fast cars, which David is obsessively interested in. The piece is in three large sections that gradually accelerate: beginning in almost total stasis, working up to an off-kilter dance with stabbing accents and ushering in a sturm-und-drang cadenza that riles itself up into a perpetual-motion race to the finish. However, there are always little ‘smudges’ of music from each section in the others, sometimes fitting into their new context, sometimes balefully interrupting.”
Also on the album is Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 26 in D, “Coronation,” completed by Andres. A virtuosic improviser, Mozart left much of the solo part unwritten as he expected to play the piece himself. In particular, the left hand is mostly absent from the original manuscript. Pianists generally play from a completed score that adds simple accompaniment patterns and harmonies for the left hand, but Andres’s treatment of the concerto takes a wholly different approach. He inserts his own voice into the left hand and ends the work with newly written cadenzas. He explains, “I approached the piece not from a scholarly or editorial perspective, but more as a sprawling playground for pianistic invention and virtuosity, taking cues from the composer-pianist tradition Mozart helped to crystallize.” The New Yorker’s Alex Ross wrote on his blog that the result is “mesmerizing.”
The recording ends with Andres’s Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno. Already an influential force in popular music history, Brian Eno is increasingly gaining recognition from classical composers. As Andres writes, Eno is a composer with “two quite distinct sides: as an innovator who works in ambient and collage music, and as a quirky and crafty pop songwriter. It’s all interesting, but the really amazing things happen when these musical personalities overlap and wear away each other’s surfaces.” In Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno, Andres focuses on Eno’s albums Before and After Science and Another Green World. He builds what he terms, “a nineteenth century style ‘orchestral paraphrase’ on the subject of Eno’s music.”
Home Stretch was recorded at Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood and was produced by David Frost. It is Andres’s second album with the Nonesuch label; his first, Shy and Mighty, was praised by the New York Times for its “inventiveness and originality,” and by the Guardian for the way it “glides across stylistic boundaries in a totally unselfconscious way.”
Timo Andres is a composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. His debut album, Shy and Mighty, which features 10 interrelated pieces for two pianos, performed by Andres and pianist David Kaplan, was released by Nonesuch Records in May 2010 to critical acclaim. Alex Ross wrote in the New Yorker that Shy and Mighty “achieves an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene… more mighty than shy, [Andres] sounds like himself.” In the current season, Andres plays a solo recital of his own works alongside those by Chopin, Thomas Adès and Schumann for Lincoln Center’s Great Performers; a solo recital for San Francisco Performances, and a duo program with Gabriel Kahane for the Library of Congress. Commissions include a new piano quintet written for Jonathan Biss and the Elias String Quartet, presented by Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and San Francisco Performances; a solo piano work for Kirill Gerstein commissioned by the Gilmore Foundation, and a new string quartet for the Library of Congress, to be premiered by The Attacca Quartet.
Leo Carey is a Senior Editor at the New Yorker magazine, where he has worked for 15 years. He was born in Oxford, England and studied English Literature at Oxford University. As an editor at the New Yorker, he has worked on a wide range of non-fiction. His own writings have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Times Literary Supplement. In his spare time he plays the piano and cello.
Peter Mendelsund is the Associate Art Director of Alfred A. Knopf Books, the Art Director of Pantheon Books and Art Director of Vertical Press (and a recovering classical pianist). His designs have been described by the Wall Street Journal as being “the most instantly recognizable and iconic book covers in contemporary fiction.” His writing on literature, design and other matters can be found on his blog: jacketmechanical.
New York-based Metropolis Ensemble is a Grammy-nominated chamber orchestra dedicated to classical music in its most contemporary forms.
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe is one of downtown New York’s most vital cultural institutions, presenting an eclectic mix of events — from readings and concerts to comedy nights and storytelling competitions -– featuring many of today’s most exciting artists. The bookstore is staffed almost entirely by volunteers and 100 percent of its profits go to Housing Works, Inc., which provides housing, healthcare, job training, and advocacy for New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. As an independent cultural center, it offers patrons a unique opportunity to join the fight against AIDS and homelessness simply by buying or donating books; eating at the cafe; coming to concerts, readings, and special events; or volunteering on their staff.
A Second Summer as an OMF Intern
After having a great time interning for the 2012 Ojai Music Festival, I of course applied again to be a marketing intern for the 67th Ojai Music Festival with Mark Morris as the Music Director. I expected to do more or less of the same work as I did last year, since I was interning with the same department, under the same Marketing Director Gina Gutierrez. While 2012 was a great experience, I enjoyed my 2013 experience even more because of the even more diverse tasks I got to take on, as well as seeing old friends from the 2012 Festival.
One of the highlights of my Festival experience was working with Doug McLennan from ArtsJournal.com and Suzi Steffen, our Social Media Coordinator to work on the live stream concerts. OMF now provides live streams of every Libbey Bowl concert, with interviews during intermissions, so I helped Doug manage the live streams before, during and after concerts. It was great to be able to sit through every concert and watch insightful interviews between Doug and special guests. It’s also quite amazing to watch Suzi at work, live-tweeting every event she possibly can during the Festival. If you haven’t checked out our Twitter page, you definitely should.
Mark Morris was the Music Director this year, bringing a lot of energy and dance to the Festival. One very fun community event that happened this year because of him was “Get Fit! With MMDG,” a one-hour morning fitness class taught by two energetic,fun MMDG dancers. The marketing team was put in charge of producing this event, which essentially meant that we had to be there and make sure everything ran smoothly. It was very fun to see an extremely successful event take place (around 60 people came each morning!).
Aside from doing my job every day, it was fun and interesting to watch all of the other interns perform their duties. The production interns were constantly running around, driving artists, making name tags, and seemed to leave the Festival with a slightly frenetic but content disposition. The box office interns dealt with a very wide variety of people, and never failed to deliver some sort of crazy story about a patron at the end of the day. The special events intern was constantly moving to every special event the Festival had, making sure things were running smoothly and patrons were happy. Everybody had their own specific job, but worked together on some projects to ensure the success of the Festival.
It was very fun to come back to familiar faces and meet new ones this year. We have intern dinners and daily intern meetings to see where everyone is at, which adds to the sense of community. It was a wonderful three weeks of friendly faces, beautiful Ojai, and, of course, great music. Ojai Music Festival throws its interns into the storm of a music festival, while giving you all the support you need. It’s a great experience, and I hope to come back next year.
Want to learn more about the internship program? Check out our internship page, which includes links to the application and brochure.
Remembering A Festival Family Member: Betty Izant
The Ojai Music Festival is deeply saddened by the passing of one of its longest-serving staff members and volunteers, Betty Izant on July 4, 2013. Betty was a part of the Festival for more than 40 years, joining the office in 1969 as secretary. This soon became a full time position and led to her life-long involvement with the organization as secretary, manager, board member, box office manager, and historian.
Betty was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She lived in Corning, New York before moving to Los Angeles, graduating from Hollywood High School. She attended UCLA and Frank Wiggins Trade School, where she majored in dress making and design. She worked as a dress designer for Mable Morrow and as Executive Secretary for the Huntington Hartford Foundation, a residence for writers, artists and composers until 1965.
Upon the Foundation’s closure, Betty moved to Ojai, where she served as assistant to the director of Happy Valley School (now Besant Hill) for two years. She spent time as a freelance secretary before joining the Ojai Music Festival in 1969. She officially “retired” in 1984, but stayed on as a volunteer to assist with ticket sales until 2011.
Betty’s lifelong commitment to the Festival was an essential part of making the organization what it is today. From overseeing numerous transitions in the 1970s and 1980s to her keen memory for patrons (and their seats!), which made ticketbuying a uniquely personal experience that continues to this day, Betty’s devotion to the Festival and its mission imbued each task she undertook . Her indomitable spirit and steadfast dedication will be greatly missed by all of us here at the Festival, and by the Ojai community at large.
Photo taken by the Ventura County Star.
Read the Results of the 2013 Audience Survey
To assist the Ojai Music Festival in future planning, an audience survey is distributed after each Festival. This year, an email survey was sent out to patrons and below are key findings.
Response rate:
Survey invitations were e-mailed to Festival patrons the week following the event. Of a total of 493 delivered, 234 were returned for a response rate of 47%.
Patron Status:
Returning: 72.4%
New: 27.6%
Seating:
Reserved section: 88.4%
Lawn area: 18%
Geographic Area of Residence:
Southern California (not including Ventura County): 49%
Ojai: 20%
Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties: 18%
Northern California: 5%
Patron Age:
65-74: 26%
55-64: 36%
45-54: 10%
35-44: 4%
Younger than 35: 6%
How did you rate your Festival experience?
Excellent: 71%
Good: 23%
Fair: 5%
Sources for Performing Arts News:
Los Angeles Times: 65%
New York Times: 52%
New Yorker: 34%
KUSC: 31%
Tell us about your favorite Festival moment?
- A wonderful evening in an exquisite setting amongst the beautiful people of Ojai. We are visitors from England and we loved every minute of the concert. Thanks so much!
- The focus on events in the bowl and in other locations was especially good.
- Just having the opportunity to attend a relaxing concert under the stars, in an intimate bowl.
- Enjoyed the music and, really not musically related, where I was sitting, the sun just went past the sun screen above when the concert ended.
Click here to read the complete document >>
Photo Credit: Ojai Visitors Bureau / Kathy Hartley
Music Director Jeremy Denk Frames Programming for 2014 Festival
Ojai enthusiastically welcomes back versatile pianist Jeremy Denk, who made his Ojai Music Festival debut in 2009 performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Ives’ First Sonata plus numerous chamber music works. With his wide-ranging repertoire, Mr. Denk regularly collaborates with leading orchestras and festivals, and is an active writer through feature articles in The New Yorker and his blog, “Think Denk,” which delves into both musical and extramusical observations.
In Jeremy Denk’s Own Words:
“The idea of Ojai 2014 emerged from a couple of immediate enthusiasms. One was an album that I had always loved by the jazz pianist and musical thinker Uri Caine, “Primal Light,” in which he takes Mahler and explodes him, or implodes him, I can’t exactly decide which. He takes things that are already in Mahler–a sense of dislocation, of frenetic collage, of all the anxiety of the 20th century and modernism and yet some tenderness vying against it all–and does collages on that cluster of techniques, in a way turning Mahler inside out. Tom Morris and I agreed we loved Uri Caine, and he will be the first night of the Festival.
The other was a dream I had of doing an opera. An opera in which principles of music–harmony, structure–and the big three composers (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven), not to mention various disgruntled young musicians, would find themselves in conversation, immersed or enmeshed or mired in an opera buffa, with all its implausibility and silliness and artifice. Although those of us who perform and love this music like to cultivate an air of seriousness, at times we have to realize there is something ridiculous about the level to which we’ve subjected this music to consideration, analysis, thought. The opera buffa genre is simply a way of exposing this absurdity, turning music inside out to reflect on itself, with hopefully hilarious and intriguing results. The self-awareness of music.
The common thread between these two enthusiasms is essentially screwing (to use the polite word) with the canon. To that end, a lot of the other pieces in the Festival are canonical in peculiar ways, or have a very uneasy relationship with the canon. The Ligeti Etudes (favorite works of mine) are what you might call “new classics,” and they take up the Chopin, Schumann, Scarlatti, and merge them with the remorseless logic of the machine, the complexity of fractals. Uri Caine is going to create a “realization” of the 14 Canons that Bach wrote on the first eight bass notes of the Goldberg Variation ground, pieces which begin as simple lessons in counterpoint and then gradually become ever more intense, chromatic, and you might even say delightfully perverse. Leading to these canons will be scatological canons of Mozart, elaborate canons by Josquin and Thomas Ades and Nancarrow–from the sublime to the ridiculous.
A generation of young Brooklyn composers will be heard, confronting the problems of style in a time when there is no style to speak of. And of course, my perennial favorite iconoclast, Charles Ives, will be represented by the four violin sonatas, ranging from the polite and poetic (“weak stepsister” I believe Ives called his own more lyrical work) to the deranged and confrontational.
2014 Overview
For the 68th Ojai Music Festival (June 12-15, 2014), Mr. Denk and Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris are shaping a program that fully reflects both the ideals of the Ojai Music Festival and the unique and inventive musical mind of Jeremy Denk. The Festival features the world premiere of a commissioned opera, described by Mr. Denk as “at once a love letter to Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn, and a satire of classical pomp.” With libretto by Mr. Denk, music by Steven Stucky, and conducted by Robert Spano, the opera is co-commissioned by the Ojai Music Festival, Cal Performances in Berkeley, the Aspen Music Festival and School and Carnegie Hall. The Ojai premiere is supported through a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Among Mr. Denk’s collaborators, American composer and jazz pianist, Uri Caine, will perform music from his The Mahler Project, which was a sensation when released on the recording “Primal Light” in 1998, and violinist Stefan Jackiw will join Mr. Denk in a performance of Ives Violin Sonatas (complete). With music by Beethoven, Janacek, Ives, Ligeti, Mozart, Schoenberg, the Festival will also offer works by cutting-edge Brooklyn-based composers. Additional programming details for the 2014 Ojai Music Festival will be announced in the fall.
Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris said, “It is only right that Jeremy Denk returns to Ojai as Music Director, after his sensational debut in 2009. He is one of the most inventive minds in music today, both as a programmer, performer, writer and thinker. I am delighted that the 2014 Ojai Music Festival will showcase all of these myriad talents of Jeremy. It promises to be an adventure that is provocative, stimulating, engaging and fun – all of which represent Jeremy Denk.”
Jeremy Denk, Music Director
“A pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs,” (New York Times) Jeremy Denk has established himself as one of America’s most thought-provoking, multi-faceted, and compelling artists. Distinguished as both a soloist and a chamber musician, he has appeared with numerous orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and London. He regularly gives recitals in New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, and throughout the United States. This season he makes solo appearances in venues including Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and London’s Wigmore Hall. Mr. Denk is known for his witty and insightful writings about music, much of which can be found on his blog entitled “Think Denk” – recently chosen for inclusion in the Library of Congress web archives. In addition to features for The New Yorker, he has written articles for the New York Times Book Review, Newsweek, New Republic and the website of NPR Music. Alex Ross of the New Yorker calls him “a superb musician who writes with arresting sensitivity … sophisticated on the one hand, informal on the other, immediate in impact.”
In 2012, Mr. Denk released an album under Nonesuch featuring Ligeti’s famously complex Etudes and Beethoven’s last Piano Sonata. Its success earned it a feature on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, while BBC Music hailed it as nothing short of “a marvel.” He lives in New York City.
Thomas W. Morris, Artistic Director
Thomas W. Morris was appointed artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival starting with the 2004 Festival, a relationship that extends through 2017. Mr. Morris is recognized as one of the most innovative leaders in the orchestra industry and served as the long-time chief executive leader of both The Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Morris is currently active nationally and internationally as a consultant, lecturer, teacher, and writer.
As artistic director of the 67-year old Ojai Festival, Mr. Morris is responsible for artistic planning, and each year appoints a music director with whom Mr. Morris collaborates on shaping the festival’s programming. During his decade-long tenure, audiences have increased, and the scope of the festival has expanded, most recently to include an innovative partnership with Cal Performances in Berkeley, Ojai North!
Mr. Morris is a founding director of Spring for Music, and serves as the project’s artistic director. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Curtis Institute of Music and as chair of its Board of Overseers, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He is also an accomplished percussionist.
About the Ojai Music Festival
From its founding in 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has created a place for groundbreaking musical experiences, bringing together innovative artists and curious audiences in an intimate, idyllic setting 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The Festival presents broad-ranging programs that embrace the music of our time and provides intellectual context and education around Festival programming, creating an immersion experience of adventurous inspiration and vibrant collaboration. Considered a highlight of the summer classical music season, Ojai has remained a leader in the classical music landscape, provoking thought during the Festival and long after about why music matters.
The Ojai Music Festival attracts the world’s greatest musical artists. Through its unique structure of appointing an annual Music Director by the Artistic Director, Ojai has presented a “who’s who” of music including: Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kent Nagano, Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, David Robertson, eighth blackbird, George Benjamin, Dawn Upshaw, Leif Ove Andsnes, Mark Morris, and Jeremy Denk.
Following the 2013 Festival in Ojai, Ojai North! takes place from June 12-15 in Berkeley, CA. The Ojai Music Festival’s multi-year partnership with Cal Performances makes possible annual reprises of Ojai concerts in Berkeley, as well as co-commissions and co-productions. More than a sharing of resources, Ojai North! represents a joining of artistic ideals and aspirations. The combined efforts of Ojai’s legacy of artistic innovation and Cal Performances’ tradition of groundbreaking productions creates a joint force that allows artists to achieve more than could even be imagined by each organization separately.
Information and Passes
2014 advance series subscriptions will be available in the summer. Program details will be released in the fall. Please call 805 646 2053 or download the order form here >>
Directions to Ojai, as well as information about lodging, concierge services for visitors, and other Ojai activities, are also available on the Ojai web site. Follow Festival updates on the web at OjaiFestival.org, Facebook and Twitter.
Visit Jeremy Denk’s website and blog >>
Read 2013 Festival Reviews
WALL STREET JOURNAL
“The annual Ojai Music Festival, whose 67th season ran June 6 to 9, does many things well. But what it does best is reinvent itself, which it accomplishes by recalling its past while broadening its horizons. This year, that dichotomy was particularly pronounced, with the festival welcoming as its music director the choreographer Mark Morris…”
“Mr. [Mark] Morris programmed only a limited number of dances, all on Friday night—just enough for a bold experiment without fundamentally altering the character of the enterprise. His selections proved apt musically, and his compact and fresh-scrubbed dancers, all from the Mark Morris Dance Group based in Brooklyn, N.Y., seemed incapable of insincere gestures. But his engaging dances—with their signature wit and concentration on the body’s extremities.”
Click here to read the complete review of the Wall Street Journal June 12, 2013
LOS ANGELES TIMES
“But however untraditional a “Rite” for piano, bass and percussion may be, Ojai has a long tradition for being its own Stravinskyan rite of spring. The composer’s close association with the festival in the ’50s made the town musically famous.”
“Reputed to court mavericks, the Ojai Music Festival doesn’t always extend a very large welcome mat. But this offbeat weekend, the mat was massive.Attention was drawn to supposedly kooky and bizarrely neglected West Coast composers who happen to be essential contributors to American music and our national identity.”
Click here to read the complete review of the Los Angeles Times June 7, 2013 >>
Click here to read the complete review of the Los Angeles Times June 11, 2013 >>
SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT
“Every year at this time, one of the world’s best music festivals is reborn, and this phoenix rises right in our backyard. With acclaimed choreographer Mark Morris at the helm, the 67th edition of the venerable Ojai Music Festival could hardly have been more fresh or up to date.”
“Terry Riley’s In C got the full Ojai treatment from a large ensemble on Saturday. Shimmering, pulsing, syncopating, shuffling, and shifting sounds came together and drifted apart as easily and as naturally as the sun filtered through the canopy of trees.”
Click here to read the complete review of the SB Independent June 11, 2013 >>
SANTA BARBARA NEWS PRESS
“Mr. Ives loomed large over the weekend. That old Ives-ian charm and rebel spirit was powerfully moving, from the powerful String Trio (once you closed your eyes to block out the intrusive, uninvited dance component) and gutsy and quote-happy String Quartet No. 2, masterfully delivered by the American String Quartet on Sunday morning, this coming after several beauteous Ives songs on the concert’s first half (wonderfully sung by soprano Yulia Van Doren, mezzo-soprano Jamie Van Eyck, and bass-baritone Douglas Williams).”
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
“[Mark] Morris’ organizing principle was really quite simple. Taking Harrison as his focal point, he added music by Harrison’s teacher Henry Cowell, his confrere Cage and his followers Riley and Adams. The list constitutes a line of American composers, mavericks, innovators and tinkerers one and all, oriented to the West Coast, and strongly influenced by the music of Asia. The music of the father of all American mavericks, Charles Ives, became a natural addition.”
VENTURA COUNTY STAR
“In an Ojai Music Festival that revels in revelations, choosing the multi-talented choreographer Mark Morris as this year’s music director brought multiple bonuses to the alert sensibilities of the traditional festival audience.”
DANCE TABS
“As always, Morris’s ability to shape the sounds coming from the pit through a combined language of gesture and seemingly simple movement is a constant source of surprise and almost primal satisfaction.”
Click here to read the complete review of Dance Tabs June 9, 2013 >>
THE MISREAD CITY
“There are not many ideas we like better than a classical music festival, dedicated mostly to contemporary work, and held almost entirely outside in a verdant valley. This year, the existing Ojai template was sweetened further by a concentration on West Coast composers…”
Click here to read the complete review of The MisRead City June 11, 2013 >>
SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE
“This year’s music director, Mark Morris, one of the greatest choreographers of his generation and certainly the most musical (he’s also conducted), proved an ideal advocate for the triumph of song, dance, and American music at this year’s Ojai Festival.”
LA OPUS and HUFFINGTON POST
“Although bursting at the seams with 37 events — Libbey Bowl and off-site concerts, in-town movies, distant seminars and closer pre-concert talks and much more — the thematic focus remained sharp. Building on a festival trend in recent years, the fullness would make it nearly impossible for any single patron to attend all events in the non-stop schedule that revved up each day at dawn’s early light and wound down in the night’s wee hours.”
Click here to read the complete review of LA Opus June 20, 2013 >>
ALL IS YAR
“if you should know anything about Ojai, it is to expect and embrace the unlikely.”
Click here to read the complete review of All Is Yar June 6, 2013 >>
Read complete reviews posted as of June 21, 2013 >>
2013 Festival Photo Album
In just four days we experienced 37 events from music, dance and discussions to fitness classes, singing and marching band appearances! Relive the memories by viewing our photos on our Flickr page.
Please feel free to share your memories with us or any video you may have captured! Email us at [email protected]
Click here for the photo link >>
Donkey’s jaws and oxygen tanks: red fish blue fish’s percussive arsenal
Percussionists can play trees, hit sticks together, make music with bones or buildings or bricks – and they do.
The 2013 Ojai Music Festival celebrates percussion in a wide variety of ways, and Steve Schick‘s University of California San Diego grad student ensemble, red fish blue fish, is central to almost every performance.
red fish blue fish performs often this weekend, including at two “sunrise” concerts Saturday and Sunday morning, at Saturday night’s Late Night concert, and during both Sunday evening concerts.
What with rehearsals, late night and talk and early morning and pretty much anytime performances this year, the members of red fish blue fish can be hard to track down. But doctoral student Dustin Donahue, who’s the lead for the ensemble at OMF2013, sat down for an in-depth chat about cool percussion instruments, the (short) history of the percussion ensemble, and his own percussion goals.
Dustin, tell me about your involvement in red fish blue fish.
I joined four years ago. The group consists basically of Steve Schick‘s students [at UCSD], so it’s a rotating roster.
How did you get started in percussion?
I played piano for most of my life …
Do you think of the piano as percussion?
I do consider it a percussion instrument. You see that with Lou Harrison specifically and with this festival. Every now and then I do end up playing the piano still, but at some point I switched to being a rock ‘n’ roll drummer as a youngster.
In high school I got tired of playing in band – it’s always transcriptions and stuff you’re playing along with the band. I got interested in the birth of the percussion ensemble in the ’30s and ’40s. I found John Cage’s Credo in Us, and a few friends of us put it on. Then the door opened, and I fell in.
Updates on Free Events: Sunrise Concert Parking, Gamelan Performances and More!
This year, the Ojai Music Festival will present 37 events in just four days! This includes main Libbey Bowl concerts, Ojai Talks, Ojai Films, Concert Insights, and an abundance of free community events. Here are some new updates on some of these free events to help better prepare you:
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Sat June 8: The parking lot at Besant Hill will open at 7:00am. Please bring a chair or blanket for the concert, or feel free to wander as you enjoy John Luther Adams’ Strange and Sacred Noise. We highly recommend wearing flat comfortable shoes. Besant Hill School’s address is 8585 Santa Paula Ojai Road.
Sun June 9: Due to the high volume of ticket requests for the Sunday Sunrise Concert featuring John Luther Adams’ songbirdsongs, we are providing a free bus shuttle to take ticketed patrons to Meditation Mount. The shuttle and all concert parking will be located at Boccali’s Restaurant and the first shuttle will begin loading at 7:00am. Please plan to arrive well before the concert starts to guarantee parking. Only authorized vehicles will be allowed at Meditation Mount. Boccali’s address 3277 Ojai Santa Paula Road (located at Ojai Avenue and Reeves Road).
While you wait for the concert to begin at 8:00am, you can participate in bird watching with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy at 7:15am. Please bring your own binoculars. RSVP at [email protected].
Maps and directions will be available at the Festival box office. If you have any questions, please call our box office at 805 646 2053.
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Gamelan Performances: Fri, June 7 and Sat, June 8
These two free concerts performed by the acclaimed Gamelan Sari Raras at the Libbey Park Gazebo will be special treats for the community! Limited seating will be provided; we encourage you to bring your own chairs or blankets.
Fitness Classes: Fri, June 7; Sat, June 8; Sun, June 9
Dance with MMDG: Sat, June 8
Festival patrons and the Ojai community have a rare opportunity to join dancers from the acclaimed Mark Morris Dance Group, who will help jump-start the day with basic stretching. The fitness classes will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning, 9:00-10:00am, at the Libbey Park Flagpole Lawn. We recommend wearing comfortable shoes or sneakers.
And there’s more — learn dance moves from dancers of the Mark Morris Dance Group who will teach a few moves from one of the works featured at the Friday evening concert. This free event will be at the Ojai Art Center. We recommend wearing flat shoes (you will also have the option to dance barefoot).
Both events are free and open to the public.
View complete schedule here >>
Festival Preview Podcast Now Available on KUSC
Listen to Classical KUSC’s 67th Ojai Music Festival Preview podcast >>
Classical KUSC’s Gail Eichenthal interviews Festival Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris, exploring Music Director Mark Morris’ thinking behind this year’s programming and giving a tantalizing glimpse of what audiences can expect for June.
Click here to listen to/download the episode on the KUSC website >>
Meet the American String Quartet
Earlier in the year, we asked several of our artists to respond to a Q&A about music, the Ojai experience and Mark Morris. Here is an introduction to the celebrated American String Quartet who will make their Ojai Music Festival debut on Friday, June 7.
What do you most look forward to about the 2013 Ojai Music Festival?
We are most looking forward to participating in the coherent and interconnected programming. So often summer festival programming is geared towards easy listening, and while there’s nothing wrong with fun, serious fun should be even more rewarding.
The Festival is concentrated, but if you can make the time, what would you most like to explore in the Ojai Valley?
In addition to interacting with our fellow performers, we’re looking forward to exploring the coastline, ocean views, mountain trails – and we understand that there are some winemakers in California as well.
Ojai is famous for its engaged and adventurous audiences, is there something you’d like to share with your Ojai family prior to the 2013 Festival?
Only something they doubtless already know: that audiences who meet us half-way not only make our work easier – they get more fulfilling performances. Rather than having to be convinced of anything (merits of the music, bona fides of the performers), the listeners can join in an exploration shared on both sides of the footlights.
Please share some highlights of your past professional experience working with Mark Morris.
From Wolfram Koessel (cellist in the ASQ): Mark Morris is the most musical artist I have ever met. I have worked extensively with the MMDG for the last thirteen years and many of these collaborations have been highlights of my career. Mark continues to amaze me with his deep love and knowledge of music, his wit, and unending energy. Watching his choreographies deepens my understanding of music.
Make the Most of Your Lawn Experience
The Libbey Bowl lawn is a special experience for Festival patrons – it’s the place to enjoy a picnic before the concert; meet with a group of friends or family; and lie down to stargaze while enjoying the Festival’s music.
To help you enjoy the lawn, here are some important things to know:
- The right side of the lawn is designated for taller chairs and the left side for low-rise chairs. (A low-rise, beach-style chair is defined as a chair with legs of 10 inches or shorter and an overall height limit of 28 inches.) Patrons with higher-rise chairs, such as camping or deck chairs, will be asked to move to the right side or rear of the lawn so as not to hinder the views of others.
- Line up early! Lawn lines start as early as two hours before a concert begins. There are two lines for lawn patrons – the left is designated for lawn series subscribers with an access pass and the right for single pass holders.
- Save your place! Lawn series pass subscribers have the opportunity to save their spot on the lawn between the morning and evening concerts; please use the “Save My Spot” card mailed with your passes.
- Store it! If you are attending two concerts in one day, you can also place your lawn chairs and blankets near the lawn entrance gate between concerts. Please do not leave personal belongings as Festival staff cannot be responsible for items left unattended.
- The Libbey Bowl and Park is a no-smoking and alcohol-free zone designated by the City of Ojai.
- Ojai weather can be quite unpredictable! During the evening concerts we highly recommend bringing a warm blanket and for the day bringing sunscreen and wearing a hat in case it gets too hot.
- At the Festival there is a food vendor who will have a variety of light food options and beverages. For a greater variety, you can head to the various eateries within walking distance from the Bowl.
- We’re happy to have children enjoy concerts; however, we know they can become restless! If your child needs to stretch their legs, please take them outside the Bowl so as not to disrupt the concert experience for other lawn patrons.
**For the Friday Evening Concert with the Mark Morris Dance Group: the incline of the lawn is fairly low in relation to the Libbey Bowl stage. For this concert, we will have a small area on the left side for better viewing. Please see the head usher that evening.**
If you have any questions please call our box office at 805 646 2053 or email [email protected]
John Luther Adams on ‘for Lou Harrison’
In honor of Lou Harrison’s birthday (May 14), we’d like to share a few pieces of writing kindly sent to us by composer John Luther Adams, for whom Harrison was a long-time mentor and friend. Adams wrote the work ‘for Lou Harrison,’ to be performed at this year’s Festival on Saturday Evening, in 2003-2004. Below are Adams’ notes for the piece, as well as an essay on the work by Peter Garland:
“Lou Harrison was a generous friend and wise mentor to me for almost 30 years. His faith in and support of my music was a decisive influence in my life. I learned more from my time with Lou than from any of my institutional studies. And he was an inspiring model of how to live, without regret or bitterness, as an uncompromising independent composer.
Composed in 2003-2004, for Lou Harrison completes a trilogy of large-scale memorial works that also includes Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (1991-95) and In the White Silence (1998).
for Lou Harrison encompasses the most lush textures in my music to date, moving in four tempo layers (in the proportions 4/5/6/7) throughout. Rising arpeggios over sustained harmonic clouds alternate with long solo lines over “procession-like” material in nine continuous sections –each grounded in a different five-, six- or seven-tone harmony. The formal structures of the composition recur throughout the score, but the sound of the music is always changing.
for Lou Harrison was not commissioned. I composed this work because I was compelled to do so in response to the passing of one of the most important figures in my life. Amid the daunting realities of today’s world, Lou Harrison and his joyful ecumenical life and music seem more vital and more pertinent than ever.”
– John Luther Adams
Read Peter Garland’s essay on for Lou Harrison >>
Read John Luther Adams’ blog post, “Remembering Lou” >>
Further Reading:
“My Memories of Lou Harrison” – by Festival friend Jain Fletcher >>
Lou Harrison: A World of Music documentary film project by director Eva Soltes >>
OjaiU Launched in May with Great Success
The Ojai Music Festival was pleased to share that OjaiU, a free three-week online course centered on the 2013 Festival, launched on Wednesday, May 15 with more than 200 registrants and almost 5,000 views since the last week.
These courses were designed to help audiences “listen smarter” and enabled them to gain deeper insight into music. Far from being simply “program notes,” OjaiU is built around the ideas that animate the thinking behind a Festival like Ojai, featuring observations by performers, critics and experts.
Check out the three classes:
Class # 1: Ideas and the Power of Music
Class # 2: Music in its Place
Class #3: Music and Dance
Watch the introduction video below:
The OjaiU courses are led by Douglas McLennan, editor and founder of ArtsJournal.com and feature guest instructors including Festival Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris and 2013 Music Director Mark Morris. Other instructors are composer John Luther Adams, pianist Jeremy Denk, provost and dean of The Juilliard School Ara Guzelimian, music and dance critic John Rockwell, filmmaker Eva Soltes, and Los Angeles Times classical music critic Mark Swed.
[reveal heading=”%image%View descriptions of the three OjaiU courses”]- Ideas and the Power of Music: Great art says something about the culture around it. Just how that happens is easy to see in visual art or theatre or dance. But music is largely an abstract art form. So how does music engage ideas? Does music have important things to say about our contemporary culture?
- Music in its Place: Music is an evocative art. A few bars can set you in the Old West, a busy city or a faraway country. Music can also express identity. But how? Certainly by quoting cultural references we all know. But the relationships between composers, their music, and the places they want to evoke can be much more complicated. The music of composers such as John Cage, Lou Harrison, Charles Ives and John Luther Adams not only works to evoke place and identity, but also to interact and adapt to the places, context and circumstances in which the music is being performed and heard.
- Dance and Music, a Love Story (It’s a little more complicated than that): For many, it’s tough to imagine dance without music; the two are inextricably linked. So does dance come out of music? And if so, is dance a subordinate art? Or is it MORE subtle than that—a collaboration, a partnership or dialogue? We’ll explore the relationship.
Festival Pass Mailing Update
With June right around the corner, we’re getting ready to put together the pass packages to send out to this year’s Festival attendees. Passes are due to be mailed out starting May 13 and should be arriving by May 25. When you receive your package, please review its contents to make sure that it is complete and accurate. If you have any questions or need additional tickets, please contact the box office at 805 646 2053 or email [email protected] so we can assist you before you arrive in June.
Ojai as a Creative Laboratory
by Tom Morris, Artistic Director
After last June’s Festival with Leif Ove Andsnes, and as plans were developing for 2013 with Mark Morris, and for 2014 with Jeremy Denk, I realized that Ojai is increasingly about being a laboratory for great artists to experiment – to reinvent themselves. It is not a place where artists come to trot out the programs they do elsewhere. In many ways, the very essence of Ojai stems powerfully from the fact that artists are part of the experiment themselves so audience and performers join at the hip in the mutual experience.
All the final touches are now in place for 2013 and we will have, indeed, a seamless and continuous party of music, dance and conversation. Get your rest ahead of time! With Mark Morris as our irrepressible guide, we have a festival that will look and feel different with more than 30 distinct events over 4 days:
• We start with 8 major concerts – more than in the past as we cut some previous 2-hour concerts into 2 1-hour concerts: 1 concert Thursday night, 2 Friday night, 1 Saturday morning, 1 Saturday evening, 1 Sunday morning, and 2 Sunday evening.
• We will have 2 Ojai Talks, each with 2 sessions, on Thursday and Friday.
• We will have 7 free extra events, subject only to getting an advance reservation: 3 film screenings at the Ojai Playhouse, 1 on Thursday and 2 on Saturday; 2 Ojai Late Night concerts in the Libbey Bowl on Friday and Saturday nights; Ojai Sunrise concerts on Saturday and Sunday mornings at Meditation Mount and at Two Tree Hill on the Besant Hill School in Upper Ojai
• We will have 7 community events – free and open to the public: 2 gamelan concerts in the Libbey Park Gazebo on Friday and Saturday; a 30-minute concert of music for toy piano to be performed on the Libbey Park playground Friday between the 2 evening concerts; public fitness classes led by dancers from the MMDG Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings in the Libbey Park; a “Dance with the MMDG” Saturday afternoon at the Ojai Arts Center where members of the MMDG will teach you a movement of Lou Harrison’s Grand Duo which is being performed on Friday night
• We will have 3 special events for donors: Social Dancing with Mark Morris at the opening night party Thursday night at the Ojai Arts Center; Open-mic karaoke with Mark Morris and The Bad Plus at Agave Maria’s late Friday night; a special performance by American String quartet on Sunday afternoon at the Ojai Arts Center
• The Legacy Lunch Saturday afternoon at the Lavender Inn when Chris Hailey will interview several veteran members of the MMDG
• 6 Concert Insights with Christopher Hailey, 4 of which will be with Mark Morris
• A Reception for 2014 subscribers.
• And there just might be a few other surprises!!!
This will be a festival that truly reflects what Mark Morris stands for in all of his work. It will be infused with his infectious energy, his extraordinary artistry, his supreme ability to delight, and his playful sense of fun. As he has said:
“….thrilling, raucous, serene, contemplative, serendipitous, and surprising. As Lou Harrison put it: ‘music is a song & a dance.’”
Choose your own Festival Experience: Buy Series Tickets
There are many benefits to purchasing series ticket packages:
- The same best seats for all concerts – and the ability to make special seating requests
- Substantial savings over single ticket prices
- One-stop shopping: the convenience of getting concerts, talks, and late night tickets at the same time
- Advance program notes and an invitation to the Festival Preview event in the spring
- AND, best of all, you get the satisfaction of being a part of the complete celebration during the entire four days
Listen to Excerpts From The 2013 Festival Programming
The 67th Festival will feature the work of Lou Harrison, John Luther Adams, Terry Riley, and much more. Click here to listen to excerpts from the 2013 program >>
Mark Morris Branches Out: Read the Recent Symphony Article
Taking risks and gettng outside of your comfort zone are qualities that are reflected in many of our past Festival music directors – from soprano Dawn Upshaw, composer/conductor George Benjamin, ensemble eighth blackbird to choreographer Mark Morris, who leads the upcoming 67th Festival in June 2013. Symphony Magazine recently interviewed Mark Morris on another venture he has successfully embarked on – conducting. Click here for article >>
An Open Invitation to Explore: Highlights of Ojai 2013
AN OPEN INVITATION TO EXPLORE
by Christopher Hailey
Walk right in, sit right down/Daddy, let your mind roll on. Not that we’ll be hearing Gus Cannon’s 1929 country blues classic at the 2013 Ojai Music Festival, but his lyrics are a perfect fit for what Mark Morris has in store for us. It’s an informal, open-ended invitation to explore some of the most mind-expanding music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. American voices mostly, mostly West Coast, and very in the box: Lou Harrison, his teacher Henry Cowell, his friend and colleague John Cage, their patron saint, Charles Ives, and a couple of latter-day disciples in Terry Riley and John Luther Adams. Names we know, music we don’t. These are composers who have all challenged conventional High/Low, East/West, Music/Noise dichotomies and embraced what Morris calls a more inclusive idea of “Culture”.
Accordingly we’ll hear unusual mixtures of styles and instruments as in Harrison’s Concerto for Piano and Gamelan, Cowell’s Atlantis for voices, percussion and strings, and John Luther Adams’ songbirdsongs for percussion, piccolos and celesta (performed by red fish blue fish, the MMDG Music Ensemble, and UC Berkeley Gamelan Sari Raras). In the same spirit, we’ll see the Mark Morris Dance Group performs to string quartets by Cowell (played by the legendary American String Quartet), hear little-known songs by Cage, Cowell, Harrison, and Ruggles, and experience Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in an arrangement by the amazing The Bad Plus jazz trio. Morris has even re-imagined the concert experience itself by separating shorter, discrete musical segments with generous intervals that encourage the audience to discuss and explore. And there will be lots to explore because Morris aims to make year’s Ojai Festival a “valley-wide” experience with scheduled and spontaneous events scattered about town – extra concerts, films, talks, social dancing, toy pianos, and possibly even a marching band down Ojai Avenue. People on the move, taking notice, getting involved: Everybody’s talkin’’bout a new way of walkin’. And listening – thanks to Lou, Henry, John, and Charles.
Download web version of the series ticket brochure >>
View Program Schedule >