2013 Festival Highlights
Highlights of the 2013 Ojai Music Festival with Music Director Mark Morris
June 6-9, 2013
Download 2013 series ticket order form
Concerts, bonus events, films screenings and talks for the 67th Festival will celebrate collaborations with the Mark Morris Dance Group, The Bad Plus, Emanuel Ax, Yoko Nozaki, and the American String Quartet, and will feature music by Lou Harrison with additional performances of works by John Luther Adams, Samuel Barber, John Cage, Henry Cowell, Charles Ives, Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky, and Sir William Walton
The music director for the 2013 Ojai Music Festival is noted American choreographer Mark Morris, who will present a focus on American artistic colleagues and American music. Mr. Morris – the first dancer/choreographer to serve as Music Director of the Festival – has been the recipient of numerous awards in recognition of his contributions to the arts, including a MacArthur Fellowship and the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society. Celebrated as a dancer and choreographer, Mr. Morris’ extensive work in opera has included partnerships with The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, English National Opera, The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and Cal Performances.
Mark Morris shared thoughts on programming the 2013 Ojai Music Festival commenting, “What an honor to be Music Director (and what a good choice!). I am an American choreographer from the West; the artists and programs I’ve chosen for Ojai are primarily American. A lot of the music can be taken with a pioneer spirit: mostly surprising, inside and outside, combinations unusual and inevitable, chunks of music and some dance with few intermissions. Art to make and to share and to receive in the wide open Western way.”
Ojai programming in 2013 will be focused around the music of Lou Harrison, with additional emphasis on John Cage, Henry Cowell, Charles Ives, and John Luther Adams. One evening will feature the Mark Morris Dance Group. Joining Mr. Morris in Ojai will be long-time collaborators including pianists Emanuel Ax (who served as Ojai’s Music Director in 1997) and his wife Yoko Nozaki, jazz artist Ethan Iverson and his group The Bad Plus (recognized by Rolling Stone Magazine as “about as badass as highbrow can get”), pianist/organist Colin Fowler, and the American String Quartet.
In making the announcement, Thomas W. Morris said, “That Mark Morris is one of our greatest choreographers and dancers goes without saying, but what may not be known about him is his comprehensive knowledge of and passionate belief in music. He frankly knows more music than almost anyone I know. That strong belief forms a central basis for his choreography: dance creations emerge from the music Mark knows and loves; his dances are always performed with live music; and the breadth of music he has choreographed is amazing. In planning this Ojai Music Festival, we wanted to present Mark as a musical curator, creative artist and genuine spirit.”
The Festival, in keeping with the growing trends of recent years, will include major concerts, extra concerts, late night concerts, special events, films, and talks. Mr. Morris will present his extraordinary Mark Morris Dance Group in one two-part evening of dance to the music of Samuel Barber, Igor Stravinsky, Lou Harrison, Henry Cowell, and Charles Ives. Mr. Morris will lead an evening of social dancing, and will narrate Sir William Walton’s Façade, a highly entertaining series of musical settings to verses by Dame Edith Sitwell. There will be a late night concert of music by John Cage. Mr. Ax and Ms. Nozaki will perform a two piano recital featuring Olivier Messiaen’s haunting Visions de l’Amen. One program will feature Lou Harrison’s Suite for Symphonic Strings and John Luther Adams evocative For Lou Harrison. The trio, The Bad Plus, will perform its own highly original version of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The Festival will conclude with a two-part concert that features Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Organ and Percussion, Henry Cowell’s transfixing Atlantis and Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Piano and Gamelan.
Highlights as of May 2012. Programs and artists are subject to change. Updated program will be available in the Fall.