Ojai Music Festival, 80 Years
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Author: Gina Gutierrez

  • Join Us for Suppers in the Park

    Join Us for Suppers in the Park

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    Enjoy a family-style boxed dinner under the oaks in Libbey Park alongside other music enthusiasts prior to the Friday and Saturday evening concerts, 6:30pm. This gourmet boxed meal includes dinner, dessert, and wines from The Ojai Vineyard. $55/person – advance reservation required. Space is limited. Purchase Friday or Saturday online. Or call our box office at 805 646 2053.

    Friday Night September 17: Santa Barbara Catering Connection
    Boxed Dinner

    Cold Poached Salmon with Lime & Chili Aioli
    Red Quinoa and Roasted Vegetable Salad with Herb Vinaigrette
    Baba Ganoush and Grilled Flatbread
    Dessert: Flourless Chocolate Cake with fresh raspberries

    Vegetarian Option
    Grilled Vegetable and Marinated Tofu on Rosemary Skewer Skewer
    Couscous and Roasted Vegetable Salad with Lemon Aioli
    Baba Ganoush and Grilled Flatbread
    Dessert: Flourless Chocolate Cake with fresh raspberries

    Saturday Night September 18: Ojai Rotie
    Boxed Dinner 

    1/2 Rotie Chicken
    Cardamom Carrots, Quinoa, Chickpeas, Harissa
    Tater Salad
    Pickled Turnips & Toum
    Manouche (Lebanese Flatbread) –
    Baklava w/Lemon, Walnuts, Lavender

    Vegan Option
    Grilled Eggplant Napoleon – Vegan Buffalo Mozzarella, Baby Kale, Roasted Tomato, Chervil Pesto
    Cardamom Carrots, Quinoa, Chickpeas, Harissa
    Purslane Tabooli
    Manouche (Lebanese Flatbread)
    Baklava w/Lemon, Walnuts, Lavender

     

     

  • Julie Smith Phillips, harp

    Julie Smith Phillips, harp

    Julie Smith Phillips, principal harpist of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is one of the most prominent American harpists today, performing as both an orchestral musician and concert artist. She is a two-time medalist in the USA International Harp Competition having received the silver medal in 2004cand bronze in 2001. She made her National Symphony Orchestra debut in 2003 and has been honored in numerous other competitions throughout the country.

    A recitalist and soloist with orchestra, Ms. Phillips’s appearances include multiplecsolo performances with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the South Dakota Symphony, the West Los Angeles Symphony, the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, among others. She has been a featured soloist for American Harp Society National Conferences, thecUSA International Harp Competition, Lyon
    & Healy’s 150th Birthday Celebration & Harptacular Concert series, the International Harp Festival, Harp Oklahoma Workshop, and has served as guest artist at the Young Artist Harp Seminar.

    Equally experienced as a chamber and orchestral musician, Ms. Phillips collaborates with renowned musicians across the country. A founding member of The Myriad Trio, she regularly appears in chamber concerts across the country and has performed abroad as well. Her chamber and orchestral festival credits include the Piedmont & Kingston Chamber Music Festivals, Breckenridge Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Mainly Mozart, Mozaic Festival, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Tanglewood Music Festival, and numerous others.

    Prior to her post in San Diego, she servedcas acting principal harpist of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (2006–07) and principal harpist for the New World Symphony (2004–06). Ms. Phillips is an avid promoter and performer of new music. Numerous pieces have been written for and premiered by Ms. Phillips including Tree Suite for Harp by Hannah Lash; Cactus, a double concerto for harp and violin by Michael Torke; The Eye of Night by David Bruce; Variations on a Simple Theme by Avner Dorman; Petal by Petal Lei Liang; andSonata by Jeremy Cavaterra. She is also a recipient of the Mario Falcao Prize for Best Performance of Mischa Zupko’s Despedida (contemporary music selection at the
    2004 USA International Harp Competition). Formerly head of the Harp Department at Arizona State University (2013–17), Ms. Phillips is the founder and director of the Nebraska Harp Workshop and maintains a private studio out of her home working with harpists on skills and career guidance. She is a certified instructor in the Suzuki harp method and is president of the San Diego Harp Society. She has recorded two albums: The Rhapsodic Harp and The Eye of Night. Ms. Phillips received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in harp performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Yolanda Kondonassis. Julie Smith Phillips is a native of Hastings, NE, and now resides in San Diego with her husband and three children.

  • Ojai Farmers Riff on the Culture of Growing Things

    Ojai Farmers Riff on the Culture of Growing Things

    Ojai gets called the “verdant valley” a lot, for reasons made clear when you gaze down on it from the Highway 150 lookout or drive along its narrow roads lined with citrus orchards and avocado trees.

    Stop to chat with a farmer at one of Ojai’s two certified farmers’ markets about what goes into creating those Instagram-ready views, and you may hear more about agriculture than you bargained for. Growing food in this gorgeous valley, with its Pink Moment-making east-to-west orientation, is a challenge. Drought is one reason. Rising property values, plant-wilting heat waves, fruit-dropping freezes and increasing competition are others.

    And yet the region is home to dozens of farms, ranches and orchards. They vary in age, size and focus, tied together by their owners’ shared curiosity in answering: “What happens when we try this?”

    It’s the same spirit of experimentation that has drawn creatives of all types to this ripe-with-promise valley through the decades. Read on to meet some of them.

    Elizabeth Del Negro had ties to Ojai’s food scene long before she and husband John Fonteyn started Rio Gozo Farm, now located on eight acres at Besant Hill School in the Upper Ojai: Her father was once the chef at The Ranch House. Rio Gozo originally focused on direct-to-consumer sales through a CSA, or community-supported agriculture program. A decade later, most of its herbs, flowers and vegetables are instead destined for restaurants (Osteria Monte Grappa and Sage Ojai, among them) and for Besant Hill School when it’s in session.

    Farmer and the Cook in Meiners Oaks is a one-stop shop for anyone looking to meet a local farmer, grab a bite to eat and buy some organic veggies. Now in its 20th year, the combination café, bakery, smoothie bar and market is owned by the husband-and-wife team of farmer Steve Sprinkel and registered dietitian “cook” Olivia Chase. Their 10-acre plot at the former Honor Farm supplies not just the cafe and market but an in-house CSA, the new Thursday-afternoon Ojai Community Farmers’ Market(Sprinkel is on the board) and other restaurants in partnership with Rio Gozo Farm. The farm’s newest project involves growing specialty crops for Ojai-based Plant Good Seed Co., available online and at select retail locations.

    Veteran farmer Robert “BD” Dautch produces more than 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables (culinary herbs are a specialty) at his 12-acre Earthtrine Farm in Ojai’s Arbolada neighborhood. The results show up in dishes at the newly opened Meiners Heritage Table and other local restaurants. On Sundays, look for Dautch at the Ojai Certified Farmers’ Market. Saturday mornings find him at the Santa Barbara Downtown Market, where Dautch has been a vendor since its debut in 1979.

    A 400-acre ranch in the Ojai Valley is just one of several grazing spots used by Watkins Cattle for what it ultimately sells at farmers markets, select grocery stores and its own butcher shop in Meiners Oaks, where patrons can order fresh-off-the-grill sliders from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays. Pasture-fed beef from Watkins Cattle is also featured at Jim & Rob’s Fresh Grill and other Ojai restaurants.

    Avocado root rot swept through the region in the late 1970s, inspiring the roughly 15-acre Churchill Orchard to replant with Pixie tangerines and Kishu mandarins. (The latter are a personal favorite of chef José Andres, a repeat mail-order customer.) When the early days of the pandemic forced temporary closures for restaurants and some farmers markets, grower Jim Churchill and crew launched a Cyber Market for Locals, offering scheduled pickups at the orchard barn. Sign up now for email alerts about the 2022 harvest.

     

     

    • Lisa McKinnon is a former Ventura County Star journalist who continues to write about local food (and the people who grow, prepare and serve it) for 805 Living and Central Coast Farm & Ranch magazines. She’s on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok as 805foodie, and blogs at 805foodie.com. 
  • Joanne Pearce Martin, piano

    Joanne Pearce Martin, piano

     

    Pianist Joanne Pearce Martin was appointed to the Los Angeles Philharmonic by Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2001. She holds the Katharine Bixby Hotchkis Chair. A native of Allentown, PA, and a graduate of Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, she balances
    a busy career as soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist. Ms. Martin has been featured with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on multiple occasions at both the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall. In 2016 she was the piano soloist in a sold-
    out and critically acclaimed performance of Messaien’s epic 100-minute work Des canyons aux etoiles at London’s Barbican Centre with the LA Phil & Gustavo Dudamel.

    She has also performed at dozens of music series and festivals, collaborating with such artists as Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, James Galway, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Julius Baker, and Joseph Silverstein. She has been guest soloist with many other orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Florida West Coast Symphony, and England’s Huddersfield Philharmonic. Ms. Martin has played on Hollywood film soundtracks and made numerous television appearances, the more recent ones having been with violinist Joshua Bell at Las Vegas’s Smith Center and on PBS’s “Tavis Smiley Show.” In 2019 she was also featured on PBS television’s “Grammy Salute to Music Legends,” representing the Los Angeles Philharmonic, performing John Williams’s Air and Simple Gifts. Ms. Martin enjoys delving into new musical projects, such as playing the Theremin. She has performed and recorded a commissioned piece (Theremin’s Journey) by Gernot Wolfgang, in which she plays both the Theremin and piano. Another recent commissioned solo piano work is D’Nato, by composer and LA Phil Principal Timpanist Joseph Pereira.

    For over three decades, Ms. Martin and her husband, Gavin, have performed in the U.S. and abroad as a two-piano team. She also collaborates periodically with pianist Jeffrey Kahane in performances of Mozart’s Double Concerto as well as the world premiere of Andrew Norman’s Frank’s House and the West Coast premiere of John Adams’s Roll Over Beethoven. When she’s not making music, you may find Ms. Martin up in the air: She is an instrument-rated airplane pilot and a master-rated skydiver. Joanne Pearce Martin is a Steinway Artist.

     

     

  • Countdown to the 75th Festival

    Countdown to the 75th Festival

     

     

    Over the summer, we happily presented Musical Pop-Ups for the Ojai community as our thanks for its 75 years of support.
    Enjoy a glimpse of music around the town as we wait in anticipation for the 75th Ojai Music Festival in September. 

     

     

    Video production by Two Fish Digital. 

     

     

  • Libbey Bowl Seat Map

    Click images to expand.

    If you have any questions on seating, please reach out to us!

    Box Office Hours

    Mon-Fri: 10am to 5pm

    805 646 2053
    boxoffice@ojaifestival.org

    For other helpful information on your Festival experience, visit our FAQ page 

  • Look-Back: Ojai’s Musical Pop-Ups

    Look-Back: Ojai’s Musical Pop-Ups

     

    Celebrating 75 Years of Music in Our Home Town!
     
    To mark the beginning of our 75th anniversary, the Festival shared free musical offerings as a thank you to the community, and welcome the return of live music in Ojai.
    This series of surprise Musical Pop-Ups featured Festival collaborators – harpist Shelley Burgon, percussionist Fiona Digney, violinist Helen Kim, Kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, and flutist Laura Walter. Special thanks to LoveSocial Cafe, Porch Gallery Ojai, the City of Ojai, and the Ojai Chamber of Commerce. 
    Photos by Stephen Adams. 
     

    Thursday, June 10
    Niloufar Shiri, kamâncheh (bowed fiddle of the Middle East and Central Asia)
    11:30am at the Fountain area at Libbey Park 
    5:00pm at the “Pocket Park” at the Arcade Plaza 

    Friday, June 11
    Shelley Burgon, harp
    11:30am at the Fountain area at Libbey Park 
    5:00pm at the “Pocket Park” at the Arcade Plaza 

    Saturday, June 12
    Helen Kim, violin
    10:00am at Love Social Cafe (205 No. Signal St)

    BRAVO event with Laura Walter, flute
    2:00pm at Libbey Park near the Fountain 

    Sunday, June 13
    Fiona Digney, percussion
    10:00am at Porch Gallery Ojai  (310 E Matilija Street)
    11:30am at Libbey Park Gazebo 

     

    The health and safety of our patrons is paramount to the Festival. We will be following current state and local health protocols during our events.

     

     

  • Vicki Ray, piano

    Vicki Ray, piano

    Described as “phenomenal and fearless,” Grammy-nominated pianist Vicki Ray is a leading interpreter of contemporary piano music. Known for thoughtful and innovative programming that seeks to redefine the piano recital in the 21st century, Ms. Ray’s concerts often include electronics, video, recitation, and improvisation. As a founding member of Piano Spheres, a series dedicated to exploring the less-familiar realms of the solo piano repertoire, her playing has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times for “displaying that kind of musical thoroughness and technical panache that puts a composer’s thoughts directly before the listener.

    As a pianist who excels in a wide range of styles, Ms. Ray’s numerous recordings cover everything from the premiere release of the Reich You Are Variations to the semi-improvised structures of Wadada Leo Smith, from the elegant serialism of Mel Powell to the austere beauty of Morton Feldman’s Crippled Symmetries. Recent releases include David Rosenboom’s Twilight Language on Tzadik Records and Feldman’s Piano and String Quartet with the Eclipse Quartet on Bridge Records. Her 2013 recording of Cage’s The Ten Thousand Things on the Microfest label was nominated for a Grammy.

    Ms. Ray’s work as a collaborative artist has been extremely diverse and colorful. She was the keyboardist in the California E.A.R. Unit and Xtet. Her chamber music contributions to the vibrant musical life in greater Los Angeles include frequent performances on the Dilijan, Jacaranda,
    and Green Umbrella series. She performs regularly on the Monday Evening Concert Series. Ms. Ray has been heard in major solo roles with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the German ensemble Compania, and the Blue Rider Ensemble of Toronto, with whom she made the first Canadian recording of Pierrot Lunaire.

    She is currently head of the piano department at the California Institute of the Arts, where she has been on the faculty since 1991. In 2010 she was awarded the first Hal Blaine Chair in Music Performance. For the past eight years she has served on the faculty at the Bang on a Can summer festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Vicki Ray is a Steinway Artist.

     

  • Music at Ojai Meadows Preserve

    Music at Ojai Meadows Preserve

     

    Dear Ojai Festival friends,

    I write this on the first day of summer at a welcome time of our world opening up. There is a warmth in the air and the promise of gathering with friends and family. 

    Music ultimately thrives in the moment of its sounding. When John Adams and I began talking about the 2021 Ojai Festival as long ago as fall 2019, we never imagined the resonance that our incipient plans would have nearly two years later. Neither of us wanted the 75th anniversary to be a retrospective of the Festival’s golden past and John specifically wanted to provide a forum for a new generation of composers that he admired. Coming out of a pandemic, this focus on younger composer now reads like a much-needed statement of faith in the present, and the promise of the future.

    John has been one of the most generous of composers throughout his career. As a conductor, he has led something in the vicinity of 100 premieres of new works with orchestras and ensembles across the world. His friendships and collaboration with such artists as Peter Sellars, Dawn Upshaw, Leila Josefowicz, Julia Bullock, Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, and Sanford Sylvan have been among the defining milestones of their careers. John and I met at a Cal Arts Festival in the 1980s, when his Grand Pianola Music was creating a stir for its unabashed exuberance and immediacy. His works then and in the intervening decades have helped create a unique American voice for our time – he seamlessly folds in multiple influences and experiences, from the Duke Ellington band playing on a summer platform at Lake Winnipesaukee in his New Hampshire childhood, to New England Transcendentalism, to the Schoenberg Chamber Symphony, to the California sensibilities of the Beat Generation, to  defining political events of our time as the material of opera, to the symphonies of Sibelius and much more.

    John recently made a visit to Ojai during the mid-June week which had been the period of the original scheduled Festival. We shared a series of free pop-up mini-concerts in outdoor settings throughout Ojai, as a gift to the community and in anticipation of the Festival to come in September. It was such a joy to hear music again in the summer air of Ojai, with those magical Topa Topa mountains framing the scene.

    Here is a small gift to you with our heartfelt thanks for all that you do and for your belief in the future of the Ojai Music Festival. While in Ojai earlier this month, we were graced by the company of Niloufar Shiri, a composer, improviser, and kamancheh player, who is currently working on her doctorate in composition at UC Irvine. The musical heritage of the kamancheh, a bowed lap fiddle, ranges from the Iran and the Middle East to Central Asia. Niloufar recorded this brief work in the magical setting of the Ojai Meadows Preserve, one of the numerous glorious natural areas preserved for all by the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy.

    We bring this to you in celebration of music made in Ojai and with deep gratitude for your continued support. Thank you and see you at Libbey Bowl in September!

    With thanks and warm regards from all of us at the Ojai Festival,

    Ara Guzelimian
    Artistic & Executive Director

    ABOUT Niloufar Shiri, Kamancheh
    Niloufar Shiri is a kamancheh player and composer from Tehran, Iran, trained in Iranian classical music. Niloufar is a graduate in kamâncheh performance of the Tehran Music Conservatory and received her bachelor degree with honors in composition from UC San Diego.

    She is an imaginative interpreter of Iranian music and uses story-telling and poetry as a source of inspiration for her deeply textural and often ghostly music. Her compositions use aspects of contemporary Iranian poetry to incorporate the enigmatic complexity of Iranian literature and culture.

    As a kamancheh player and composer, she has received commissions and collaborated with numerous ensembles and festivals inside and outside of the United States including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Long Beach Opera, Mostly Mozart, Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, Atlas Ensemble among others. In conjunction with her studies at UC San Diego, she has also been directly studying and researching Iranian classical music with the research team of maestro Hossein Omoumi at UC Irvine and in 2012, the research received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

    She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology at UC Irvine.

     

     

    The Ojai Valley Land Conservancy is a community supported nonprofit that protects and restores the open space, wildlife habitat, watersheds, and views of the Ojai Valley for current and future generations. In the Ojai Valley, the OVLC manages roughly 2,300 acres of open space. On these lands the OVLC maintains 27 miles of trail, guides hundreds of visitors, and hosts tens of thousands of school children, hikers, equestrians, and others each year.  For more information visit their website here.

     

    Video production by Two Fish Digital. 

     

     

  • Virtual Ojai Talks

    Virtual Ojai Talks

     


    Welcome to the Festival’s continuing series of Virtual Ojai Talks, where we celebrate the intersection of music, ideas, and the creative process with 2021 Festival artists, composers, innovators, and thinkers.     

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with Niloufar Shiri

    Musical Pop-Up with Niloufar Shiri

     

    Celebrating 75 Years of Music in Our Home Town!
     
    To mark the beginning of our 75th anniversary, the Festival will give free musical offerings as a thank you to the Ojai community.
    This series of surprise 20-minute Musical Pop-Ups will feature Festival collaborators – harpist Shelley Burgon, percussionist Fiona Digney, violinist Helen Kim, Kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, and flutist Laura Walter.
    Please join us as we embrace the return of live music and the beginning of our celebration leading to the September Festival. View the full Musical Pop-Up schedule >
     

    Thursday, June 10
    Niloufar Shiri, kamâncheh (bowed fiddle of the Middle East and Central Asia)

    11:30am at the Fountain area at Libbey Park 
    REPERTOIRE 
    Avaz-e Dashti
    Abolhassan Sabā   Zard-e Malijeh

     

    5:00pm at the “Pocket Park” at the Arcade Plaza
    REPERTOIRE
    Abolhassan Sabā   Kārehvān
    Avaz-e Dashti

    ABOUT THE ARTIST 
    Niloufar Shiri is a kamancheh player and composer from Tehran, Iran, trained in Iranian classical music. Niloufar is a graduate in kamâncheh performance of the Tehran Music Conservatory and received her bachelor degree with honors in composition from UC San Diego.

    She is an imaginative interpreter of Iranian music and uses story-telling and poetry as a source of inspiration for her deeply textural and often ghostly music. Her compositions use aspects of contemporary Iranian poetry to incorporate the enigmatic complexity of Iranian literature and culture.

    As a kamancheh player and composer, she has received commissions and collaborated with numerous ensembles and festivals inside and outside of the United States including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Long Beach Opera, Mostly Mozart, Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, Atlas Ensemble among others. In conjunction with her studies at UC San Diego, she has also been directly studying and researching Iranian classical music with the research team of maestro Hossein Omoumi at UC Irvine and in 2012, the research received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

    She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology at UC Irvine.

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

    The health and safety of our patrons is paramount to the Festival. We will be following current state and local health protocols during our events.

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with Shelley Burgon

    Musical Pop-Up with Shelley Burgon

     

    Celebrating 75 Years of Music in Our Home Town!
     
    To mark the beginning of our 75th anniversary, the Festival will give free musical offerings as a thank you to the Ojai community.
    This series of surprise 20-minute Musical Pop-Ups will feature Festival collaborators – harpist Shelley Burgon, percussionist Fiona Digney, violinist Helen Kim, Kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, and flutist Laura Walter.
    Please join us as we embrace the return of live music and the beginning of our celebration leading to the September Festival. View the full Musical Pop-Up schedule >
     

    Friday, June 11
    Shelley Burgon, harp 
    11:30am at the Fountain area at Libbey Park 
    5:00pm at the “Pocket Park” at the Arcade Plaza 

    REPERTOIRE
    CAGE   In a Landscape 
    Colorado 
    SHELLEY BURGON  Prospect

    ABOUT THE ARTIST 

    Shelley Burgon is a harpist, composer and sound artist who writes and performs ambient
    songs for harp, voice and electronics. She has an extensive history as an improvisor and
    interpreter of classical new music; performing the works of composers such as Pauline
    Oliveros, John Cage, Yoko Ono, James Tenney, Berio and Earle Brown. After many years
    of living in NYC where she had the pleasure to perform at renowned institutions such as the
    Whitney Museum, MoMA and Issue Project Room Shelley now resides in Ojai, CA. Shelley
    has recorded harp for, Bjork, Anthony Braxton, William Tyler, Roberto Lange, Miho Hatori
    and for her former band Stars Like Fleas.

    Her music has been commissioned by The Merce Cunningham Dance Company for the
    Hudson Valley Project at the Dia Museum, Ne(x)tworks, and multimedia artist Katherine
    Behar. Film credits include harpist on First Cow, Mission Blue and We Steal Secrets. She will
    be releasing her first full length record this year on Thin Wrist Recordings and is working on a
    harp meditation series. Visit her website at www.shelleyburgon.com

     

     

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

    The health and safety of our patrons is paramount to the Festival. We will be following current state and local health protocols during our events.

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with BRAVO & Laura Walter

     

    Celebrating 75 Years of Music in Our Home Town!
     
    To mark the beginning of our 75th anniversary, the Festival will give free musical offerings as a thank you to the Ojai community.
    This series of surprise 20-minute Musical Pop-Ups will feature Festival collaborators – harpist Shelley Burgon, percussionist Fiona Digney, violinist Helen Kim, Kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, and flutist Laura Walter.
    Please join us as we embrace the return of live music and the beginning of our celebration leading to the September Festival. View the full Musical Pop-Up schedule >
     

    Saturday, June 12
    Laura Walter, BRAVO education coordinator
    2:00pm at Libbey Park 

    REPERTOIRE
    DEBUSSY   Syrinx
    HU JIEXU  Here Comes the Cuckoo 
    MESSIAEN   Blackbird

     

    ABOUT THE ARTIST 

    Laura Walter received a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from the University of Kentucky. She studied flute with various members of the Cincinnati Symphony, New York Philharmonic and the London Symphony.  She serves on the faculty of Westmont College and also performs with the Santa Barbara Symphony, Opera Santa Barbara, as well as local choral societies. Laura has performed with several orchestras across the country, is active as a clinician and competition adjudicator, and has established and conducted flute choirs at colleges and festivals across the country.

    In her work with students and teachers she uses the experience of interactive play to develop motivation and promote community building and conflict resolution skills. This method, called “Education Through Music”, or ETM, builds the acquisition of language and movement to enhance the imagination and stabilization of the child.

    Children in ETM classes create beauty, which leads to empathy and hope, embracing the important contribution of arts education. Teachers often say, “ETM has taught these children to be kind and respectful by creating beautiful music with each other.”

      Learn more about the Festival’s BRAVO program >

     

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

    The health and safety of our patrons is paramount to the Festival. We will be following current state and local health protocols during our events.

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with Fiona Digney

    Musical Pop-Up with Fiona Digney

     

    Celebrating 75 Years of Music in Our Home Town!
     
    To mark the beginning of our 75th anniversary, the Festival will give free musical offerings as a thank you to the Ojai community.
    This series of surprise 20-minute Musical Pop-Ups will feature Festival collaborators – harpist Shelley Burgon, percussionist Fiona Digney, violinist Helen Kim, Kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, and flutist Laura Walter.
    Please join us as we embrace the return of live music and the beginning of our celebration leading to the September Festival. View the full Musical Pop-Up schedule >
     

    Sunday, June 13
    Fiona Digney, percussion 
    10am at Porch Gallery Ojai 
    11:30am at the Gazebo in Libbey Park 

    REPERTOIRE
    CAGE   I Ching 
    Michael GORDON   XY

    ABOUT THE ARTIST 

    Fiona Digney in an Australian-born percussionist, educator, and producer based in San Diego. Fiona has spent the last decade in the United States, The Netherlands, and London, becoming an internationally recognized percussionist with highly-profiled accomplishments across a wide range of percussive styles from experimental, improvisatory, and world music styles to orchestra, chamber, and theatrical contexts, Fiona’s thrilling performances have been described as “compelling and authoritative” by Christian Hertzog (San Diego Union-Tribune) and garnered praise from the premier music critic of the United States, Alex Ross (The New Yorker, 28th June 2018). Having recently received her doctorate in percussion performance at UCSD, exploring the decolonization of a personal performance praxis, Fiona now enjoys a wide-ranging freelance career in Southern California, where she engages in various percussive styles from experimental, improvisatory, and world music styles to orchestra, chamber, and theatrical contexts. In addition to her performance career, Fiona champions her fellow musicians through her artistic administrative roles as managing director & production manager of Art of Elan, and as producer & artistic administrator of the Ojai Music Festival.

     

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

    The health and safety of our patrons is paramount to the Festival. We will be following current state and local health protocols during our events.

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with Helen Kim

    Musical Pop-Up with Helen Kim

     

    Celebrating 75 Years of Music in Our Home Town!
     
    To mark the beginning of our 75th anniversary, the Festival will give free musical offerings as a thank you to the Ojai community.
    This series of surprise 20-minute Musical Pop-Ups will feature Festival collaborators – harpist Shelley Burgon, percussionist Fiona Digney, violinist Helen Kim, Kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, and flutist Laura Walter.
    Please join us as we embrace the return of live music and the beginning of our celebration leading to the September Festival. View the full Musical Pop-Up schedule >
     

    Saturday, June 12
    Helen Kim, violin 
    10am at Love Social Cafe (205 North Signal Street)

    Repertoire
    Carlos SIMON   Between Two Worlds 
    G.P. TELEMANN  Fantasia No. 10 
    PIAZZOLLA  Tango Etude No. 3

     

    ABOUT THE ARTIST 
    Violinist Helen Kim joined the San Francisco Symphony as Associate Principal Second Violin in 2016. A member of the Saint Louis Symphony from 2011 to 2016, she made solo appearances with that orchestra in both the 2013 and 2014 seasons. She has spent her summers teaching and performing at festivals including Aspen, Yellow Barn, Luzerne, and the Innsbrook Institute. Ms. Kim received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California, where she was Presidential Scholar, and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music. 

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

    The health and safety of our patrons is paramount to the Festival. We will be following current state and local health protocols during our events.

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with Niloufar Shiri

    Musical Pop-Up with Niloufar Shiri

     

    Celebrating 75 Years of Music in Our Home Town!
     
    To mark the beginning of our 75th anniversary, the Festival will give free musical offerings as a thank you to the Ojai community.
    This series of surprise 20-minute Musical Pop-Ups will feature Festival collaborators – harpist Shelley Burgon, percussionist Fiona Digney, violinist Helen Kim, Kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, and flutist Laura Walter.
    Please join us as we embrace the return of live music and the beginning of our celebration leading to the September Festival. View the full Musical Pop-Up schedule >
     

    Thursday, June 10
    Niloufar Shiri, kamâncheh (bowed fiddle of the Middle East and Central Asia)
    11:30am at the Fountain area at Libbey Park 
    5:00pm at the “Pocket Park” at the Arcade Plaza 

    REPERTOIRE
    Abolhassan Sabā   Zard-e Malijeh   
    Avaz-e Dashti

    ABOUT THE ARTIST 
    Niloufar Shiri is a kamancheh player and composer from Tehran, Iran, trained in Iranian classical music. Niloufar is a graduate in kamâncheh performance of the Tehran Music Conservatory and received her bachelor degree with honors in composition from UC San Diego.

    She is an imaginative interpreter of Iranian music and uses story-telling and poetry as a source of inspiration for her deeply textural and often ghostly music. Her compositions use aspects of contemporary Iranian poetry to incorporate the enigmatic complexity of Iranian literature and culture.

    As a kamancheh player and composer, she has received commissions and collaborated with numerous ensembles and festivals inside and outside of the United States including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Long Beach Opera, Mostly Mozart, Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, Atlas Ensemble among others. In conjunction with her studies at UC San Diego, she has also been directly studying and researching Iranian classical music with the research team of maestro Hossein Omoumi at UC Irvine and in 2012, the research received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

    She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology at UC Irvine.

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

    The health and safety of our patrons is paramount to the Festival. We will be following current state and local health protocols during our events.

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Ups Around Town

    Musical Pop-Ups Around Town

     

    Celebrating 75 Years of Music in Our Home Town!
     
    To mark the beginning of our 75th anniversary, the Festival will give free musical offerings as a thank you to the Ojai community.
    This series of surprise 20-minute Musical Pop-Ups will feature Festival collaborators – harpist Shelley Burgon, percussionist Fiona Digney, violinist Helen Kim, Kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, and flutist Laura Walter.
    Please join us as we embrace the return of live music and the beginning of our celebration leading to the September Festival. 
     

    Thursday, June 10
    Niloufar Shiri, kamâncheh (bowed fiddle of the Middle East and Central Asia)
    11:30am at the Fountain area at Libbey Park 
    5:00pm at the “Pocket Park” at the Arcade Plaza 

    Friday, June 11
    Shelley Burgon, harp
    11:30am at the Fountain area at Libbey Park 
    5:00pm at the “Pocket Park” at the Arcade Plaza 

    Saturday, June 12
    Helen Kim, violin
    10:00am at Love Social Cafe (205 No. Signal St)

    BRAVO event with Laura Walter, flute
    2:00pm at Libbey Park near the Fountain 

    Sunday, June 13
    Fiona Digney, percussion
    10:00am at Porch Gallery Ojai  (310 E Matilija Street)
    11:30am at Libbey Park Gazebo 

     

    The health and safety of our patrons is paramount to the Festival. We will be following current state and local health protocols during our events.

     

     

  • Dylan Mattingly & Emily Levin

    Dylan Mattingly & Emily Levin

    Press Play; Click Box Above to Go Full Screen [  ]


    Welcome to the Festival’s continuing series of the virtual Ojai Talks, where we celebrate the intersection of music, ideas, and the creative process with Ojai Festival artists, innovators, and thinkers.

     

    Festival composer Dylan Mattingly and harpist Emily Levin discuss Dylan’s new work Sunt Lacrimae Rerum (these are the tears of things), which will receive its world premiere with the LA Phil New Music Group in Ojai this coming September 19, 2021 as part of the 75th Ojai Music Festival. 

    Dylan has a unique voice that draws as much from innovative, often microtonal sonic language as it does from his deep absorption in the classics of ancient Greece and Rome. The piece takes inspiration (and its title)  from Virgil’s Aeneid – Aeneas, fleeing the destruction of war, finds a vision of salvation in a work of art. We will also watch a performance of Dylan’s La Vita Nuova for guitar and harp by Festival artist Emily Levin and guitarist Colin Davin.

     

    About Dylan Mattingly

     

    Dylan Mattingly’s work is fundamentally ecstatic, committed to transformative experience. His music has been described as “gorgeous” by the San Francisco Chronicle, “transcendent” and “the most poignantly entrancing passages of beautiful music in recent memory” by LA Weekly, and “in the pantheon of contemporary American composers” (Prufrock’s Dilemma) and is often informed by his scholarship on Ancient Greek music and poetry.

    Dylan is the executive and co-artistic director of the NY-based new-music ensemble Contemporaneous. Among the ensembles and performers who have commissioned his music are the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Berkeley Symphony, John Adams, Marin Alsop, and many others. Mattingly’s in-development 6-hour multimedia opera, Stranger Love, has recently been presented on the PROTOTYPE Festival and the Bang on a Can Marathon. Mattingly was the Musical America “New Artist of the Month” for February 2013 and was awarded the Charles Ives Scholarship by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2016. 

    About Emily Levin

    Emily Levin is the Principal Harpist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Bronze Medal Winner of the 9th USA International Harp Competition. Her playing has been praised for its “communicative, emotionally intense expression” (Jerusalem Post) and the Herald Times commended her “technical wizardry and artistic intuition.” As a soloist, orchestral musician, and chamber collaborator, Levin brings the harp to the forefront of a diverse musical spectrum, using her instrument to connect with all audiences.

    Now in her third season with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Emily has also performed as Guest Principal Harp with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony, and regularly appears with the New York Philharmonic. As a soloist, she has performed throughout North America and Europe, in venues including Carnegie Hall (New York), the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia) and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Rugen, Germany). At the request of conductors Jaap van Zweden and John Adams, she appeared as soloist with the DSO in 2018 and 2019; other concerto performances include the Jerusalem, Colorado and West Virginia Symphony Orchestras, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Lakes Area Music Festival, and the Indiana University Festival Orchestra, among others. Her debut album, Something Borrowed, explores the art of musical borrowing with works inspired by language, literature, and culture. For the album, the Classical Recording Foundation named her their 2017 Young Artist of the Year. 

    Emily is a top prize winner at the two most prestigious harp competitions—the 2013 USA International Harp Competition, where she won the Bronze Medal, and the 2009 International Harp Contest in Israel, where at age 18 she was a Finalist and recipient of the Renie Prize.  She is a 2016 Winner of the Astral Artists national auditions.

    In 2019, Emily was appointed Artistic Director of the Fine Arts Chamber Players, a concert chamber music series presented at the Dallas Museum of Art. Her artistic vision will be presented in the 2019-2020 FACP concert series, with seven chamber concerts presented free of charge to the general public. Other notable chamber music performances include the BRAVO! Vail Music Festival, the Lyric Chamber Music Society, the Colorado Chamber Players. Most recently, she recorded a live concert in New York City with her duo partner, guitarist Colin Davin, for video release in spring 2020. 

    A strong believer in music’s powerful impact, Levin organized a concert series in early 2017 with her fellow Dallas musicians, with all profits benefiting the International Rescue Committee and the Refugee Services of Texas. As Artistic Director of FACP, she presents chamber music concerts to the community that are free of charge and open to all. She is passionate about sharing music in schools, and is currently working with the Dallas Symphony to offer free harp lessons as part of their South Dallas Education Initiative.

    Emily works extensively with established and emerging composers alike, which led to commendation from the New York Times for “singing well and playing beautifully,” She is a core member of the New York-based new music group Ensemble Échappé and is the harpist for the Dallas new music group Voices of Change. In 2012, The Indiana University Composition Department recognized her for her collaboration and performance of new music.

    Emily was named Adjunct Associate Professor of Harp at Southern Methodist University in 2019, and is also on Faculty at the Young Artist’s Harp Seminar. She received her Master of Music degree in 2015 at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Nancy Allen, where she was a teaching fellow for both the Ear Training and Educational Outreach departments. A self-described bookworm, she completed undergraduate degrees in Music and History at Indiana University with Susann McDonald. Her honors history thesis discussed the impact of war songs on the French Revolution.

     

     

    La Vita Nuova (and other consequences of Spring)

    La Vita Nuova (and other consequences of Spring), written for Colin Davin and Emily Levin, is music of superbloom, the wave of Spring crashing upon our lives, which does not differentiate the flowering of the Marin headlands from falling in love. The piece is in three paradises, with a reprise of the first at the end — each a part of my imagination of Spring the ideal, a moment of first warmth, first love, first life. Each of these instants is spread out to become an entire world removed from time, into which one might walk, explore, listen for the strange details of a particular gravity.

    The title is taken from Dante’s La Vita Nuova, which I found and read one morning midway on my journey through a used-bookstore. For many years, La Vita Nuova had seemed peripherally a part of my future, due perhaps to the thousands of times I’d heard it referenced in Bob Dylan’s Tangled Up in Blue (“then she opened up a book of poems / and handed it to me / written by an Italian poet from the thirteenth century. / And every one of them words rang true / and glowed like burnin’ coal / pouring’ off of every page / like it was written in my soul from me to you…”). And so I found myself particularly receptive to its strange beauty and delightful earnestness, which both emphasize and evaporate the vast space and time between Dante’s life and the one we’re in.

    The piece is an imagination of ourselves not separate from the world, its seasons, the gravitational pull of time, entropy, and generation, but as individual strands of an endless superabundance of its consequences. These are the sounds of my Spring, the collapse of memory and experience at winter’s thawing, the feeling of grass on bare feet — made to be seen in as vivid a color as I could write, so that we might surround ourselves as much as possible with the force which Spring enacts upon us.

    • Dylan Mattingly, composer 

     

  • 2021 Festival Moves to September

    2021 Festival Moves to September

    Dear Ojai Festival friends,

    We are absolutely delighted to let you know that this year’s Ojai Music Festival will take place in person on September 16 – 19, 2021. We shall once again gather together in the magical setting of Libbey Bowl and the Ojai Valley to create a festival community joined in the spirit of musical discovery and celebration. In addition, we are planning a summer-long celebration of the Ojai Festival in June with events throughout Southern California as well as newly produced online programs, all culminating with the September Festival in Ojai.  

    This, of course, is a change from our long-held tradition of a June festival but we felt strongly that we wanted to hold the Ojai Festival at a time when we could do so under the best possible conditions of health and safety for all. The Board of Directors and staff came to this decision after extensive consultation with public health professionals and government agencies, determining best practices in conversations with fellow arts organizations nationwide, and importantly, in discussions with the artists themselves. Remarkably, every single artist originally engaged for the June period has been able to make themselves available for the September dates! 

    There is such joy in the prospect of being together again and anticipating the rewards of what will be a milestone 75th Festival! And we have such a rich company assembled by our Music Director John Adams, bringing together an array of wondrous artists and composers who embody the true Ojai spirit: 

    • Featured composers include Samuel Carl Adams, Timo Andres, Rhiannon Giddens, Dylan Mattingly, Gabriela Ortiz, Carlos Simon, and Gabriella Smith. 
    • Making their Ojai debuts are the extraordinary Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi who are creating music that crosses traditions, genres, and cultures; Giddens will collaborate in her own works with the Attacca Quartet and as soloist in music of John Adams, conducted by the composer; Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson in a solo recital of works by Philip Glass, Bach, John Adams, Debussy, and Rameau; Chumash Elder Julie Tumamait will lead a series of events exploring the music, culture and cosmology of the original indigenous peoples of the Ojai Valley; and violinist Miranda Cuckson performing works by Kaija Saariaho, Anthony Cheung, Bach, and Dai Fujikura; recorder player Anna Margules will share a solo concert of new music for recorder and electronics from Mexico; and the Grammy-Award winning Attacca Quartet in a concert of music by John Adams, Rhiannon Giddens, Jessie Montgomery, Caroline Shaw, Gabriella Smith, and Paul Wiancko. 
    • John will conduct two chamber orchestra concerts that will include works by Debussy, Bach, Gabriella Smith, and Carlos Simon, alongside the west coast premiere of Samuel Carl Adams’ Chamber Concerto, featuring violinist Miranda Cuckson. 
    • The Festival will honor long-standing ties with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with a concert by members of the LA Phil New Music Group featuring the world premiere of the jointly commissioned work Sunt Lacrimae Rerum (these are the tears of things) by Dylan Mattingly.  
    • The return of Timo Andres performing I Still Play, a series of 11 works by such composers as Laurie Anderson, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Pat Metheny, Nico Muhly, and Randy Newman. This Ojai recital will mark the first live public performance of the complete cycle, which was commissioned as a tribute to legendary Nonesuch Records President Bob Hurwitz.   
    • The 75th Festival will integrate elements of its year-round BRAVO education program. During the Festival, Ojai students will perform alongside Festival artists in a free community concert. In addition, featured artists and composers will hold free workshops for Ojai public school children leading up to the Festival.  

    All series passes for the June dates will be honored in September. Series passes are now on sale and we encourage you to purchase now as we anticipate that demand will be high as we approach September. 

    I am writing this just on the cusp of the first day of spring and the air is full of hope. We all hugely look forward to seeing you in Ojai, throughout Southern California, and online in the coming months. And best of all, at Libbey Bowl in September! 

    With thanks and good wishes, 

     
    Artistic & Executive Director 

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  • The 2021 Festival Schedule Announcement

    The 2021 Festival Schedule Announcement

     

     

     

    Ojai Music Festival and Music Director John Adams 
    Announce Schedule for the 75th Festival — September 16 to 19, 2021

    • Music Director John Adams devises a wide-ranging composer-focused festival with Samuel Adams, Timo Andres, Laurie Anderson, Anthony Cheung, Donnacha Dennehy, inti figgis-vizueta, Arturo Fuentes, Dai Fujikura, Rhiannon Giddens, Philip Glass, Alejandra Hernández, Mario Lavista, Ingram Marshall, Dylan Mattingly, Brad Mehldau, Jessie Montgomery, Nico Muhly, Gabriela Ortiz, Manuel Rocha, Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Caroline Shaw, Carlos Simon, Gabriella Smith, and Paul Wiancko, alongside works by Bach, Debussy, Mozart, Rameau, and Stravinsky
    • Artists making their Ojai debuts include Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, Attacca Quartet, violinist Miranda Cuckson, Chumash Elder and storyteller Julie Tumamait, and recorder player Anna Margules; Ojai welcomes the return of pianist/composer Timo Andres, the LA Phil New Music Group, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO)
    • 2021 Program features the World Premieres of Sunt Lacrimae Rerum (these are the tears of things) by Dylan Mattingly and the revised version of Gabriela Ortiz’s La Calaca, along with the West Coast Premiere of Samuel Adams’ Chamber Concerto and the first concert performance of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Objets Trouvés
    • The Festival will offer a free family concert for the community by Festival artists Julie Tumamait and Anna Margules in conjunction with its BRAVO education program

      “The Ojai Music Festival has always done things differently with its special mix of casual manner and provocative programming. Ever since its inception in the days of Stravinsky and Copland it has stood out among music festivals for its celebration of the new.  I am honored to return as Music Director, and I am eager to introduce to our audiences a new generation of composers and performers who give a glimpse of what the future of creativity in music will be. Rhiannon Giddens, Víkingur Ólafsson, Carlos Simon, Gabriella Smith, Gabriella Ortiz, and Samuel Adams are just a few among many who will give this year’s Festival a jolt of energy that will resound in the magnificent setting of the Ojai Valley. It will be a treat not to be missed.” – John Adams, 2021 Music Director

      Download PDF version

      (May 26, 2021 – Ojai, California) – Ojai Music Festival 2021 Music Director John Adams and Artistic & Executive Director Ara Guzelimian today announced scheduling details for the 75th Festival, September 16 to 19, 2021. (The Festival moved this year from its traditional June time period because of the pandemic.) The Festival’s 75th anniversary year will conclude next June (June 9 to 12, 2022) with American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) serving as Music Director for the 76th Festival.

      Ara Guzelimian commented, “I am overjoyed that we will gather once again to hear music in the magical setting of Libbey Bowl. As this 75th milestone year is marked, we look toward Ojai’s future by honoring the Festival’s role as a champion of a new generation of composers and artists. We respond to these immensely challenging times by placing our faith, now more than ever, in this next generation to show us the way forward. John Adams has been unwavering in his desire to focus the 75th Festival as a forward-facing exploration and adventure for artists and audiences alike. On behalf of the Festival family, I am so grateful for the support and understanding of our world-wide community through this challenging time. I cannot wait for all of us to gather in Ojai in September for the 75th Festival. It will be a most joyous reunion.” 

      John Adams, who is both curator and conductor for the 2021 Festival, focuses on composers of today whose music will be threaded throughout the Festival. Featured composers include Samuel Adams, Timo Andres, Laurie Anderson, Donnacha Dennehy, inti figgis-vizueta, Rhiannon Giddens, Philip Glass, Ingram Marshall, Dylan Mattingly, Brad Mehldau, Jessie Montgomery, Nico Muhly, Gabriela Ortiz, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Caroline Shaw, Carlos Simon, Gabriella Smith, and Paul Wiancko, many of whom plan to be in residence during the Festival. Mr. Adams will conduct two concerts that will include works by Debussy, Mozart, Carlos Simon, Gabriela Ortiz, Timo Andres, Gabriella Smith, Ingram Marshall, Esa-Pekka Salonen, the West Coast Premiere of Samuel Adams’ Chamber Concerto, featuring violinist Miranda Cuckson, and two of his own works featuring Rhiannon Giddens as soloist.

      Making their Ojai debuts are Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, who will perform works from their latest album, They’re Calling Me Home; Ms. Giddens will collaborate in her own works with the Attacca Quartet and as vocal soloist in music of John Adams, conducted by the composer; violinist

      Miranda Cuckson (who will return with AMOC as the 2022 Music Director) performing works by Kaija Saariaho, Anthony Cheung, Bach, and Dai Fujikura; recorder player Anna Margules will share a solo concert of new music for recorder and electronics from Mexico featuring composers Arturo Fuentes, Alejandra Hernández, Mario Lavista, Manuel Rocha, and Gabriela Ortiz; Chumash Elder Julie Tumamait will lead a series of events exploring the music, culture, and cosmology of the indigenous peoples of the Ojai Valley; Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson in a solo recital of works by Philip Glass, Bach, Debussy, and Rameau; and the Grammy-Award winning Attacca Quartet in a concert of music by John Adams, Rhiannon Giddens, Jessie Montgomery, Caroline Shaw, Gabriella Smith, and Paul Wiancko.

      Ojai welcomes the return of Timo Andres, an Ojai alum from the 2014 Festival, performing I Still Play, a series of works by such composers as Laurie Anderson, John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, and Nico Muhly. The series of solo piano works were commissioned as a tribute to legendary Nonesuch Records President Bob Hurwitz.  The recital will also include recent works by Samuel Adams and Gabriella Smith.

      The Festival will honor long-standing ties with the Los Angeles Philharmonic with a concert by members of the LA Phil New Music Group featuring the world premiere of the work Sunt Lacrimae Rerum (these are the tears of things) by Dylan Mattingly. Co-commissioned by the Ojai Music Festival and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Sunt Lacrimae Rerum is scored for two harps and two de-tuned pianos. Mattingly, who composed the piece during the current pandemic, shares “…the music that I felt, the music that exists in the following pages, was ecstatic — music for dancing, the barbaric yawp, a scream of joy.”

      The 2021 Ojai Festival Orchestra will be drawn from freelance artists and ensembles from Southern California and from around the US. Ojai is pleased to rely on this incredibly talented group of musicians, especially at this time when so many in this community are experiencing significant professional disruption caused by the pandemic. The 2021 Festival is also pleased to welcome back the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), last appearing in 1993 with Music Director John Adams. The combination of the 2021 Ojai Festival Orchestra, the LA Phil New Music Group, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra represents an important homecoming during this anniversary festival, celebrating the musicians and ensembles who have created the vibrant musical life of Southern California.

      The 75th Festival, and future Festivals, will incorporate elements of its year-round BRAVO education program into the life of the Festival itself. This year, Ojai school children will perform alongside Festival artists in a free family concert. Julie Tumamait, the Tribal Chair of the Barbareño/Ventureńo Band of Mission Indians, will share stories, songs, and dances from the Chumash people. BRAVO education coordinator Laura Walter curates the nature-centered program, which also features a performance by Festival artist Anna Margules playing Gabriela Ortiz’ Huitzitl(the Nahuatl word for hummingbird) for solo recorder. 

      As Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival, composer/conductor John Adams follows violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja (2018), soprano/conductor Barbara Hannigan (2019), and Matthias Pintscher (2020). Prior to this 2021 collaboration, Mr. Adams served as Ojai’s Music Director in 1993. The 2022 Festival which bookends the Ojai Music Festival’s 75th anniversary will welcome the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) as Music Director.

      For more than seven decades, the Ojai Music Festival has flourished as a creative laboratory by combining a boundless sense of adventure, an expansive musical curiosity, and an atmosphere of relaxed but focused informality. Each year a different Music Director is given the freedom and the resources to imagine four days of musical brainstorming. Ojai’s signature blend of an enchanted setting and an audience voracious in its appetite for challenge and discovery has inspired a distinguished series of musical innovators – from Boulez, Copland, and Stravinsky in its formative years to Dawn Upshaw, Vijay Iyer, and Peter Sellars in recent times – to push artistic boundaries. In announcing the appointments of John Adams and AMOC, the Festival now charts a course for its next chapters under the leadership of Artistic & Executive Director Ara Guzelimian.

      Launching the Festival’s 75th Anniversary Celebration
      To mark the beginning of its 75th anniversary, the Festival will offer musical activities, in accordance with state guidelines, from June to September. As a thank you to the Ojai community, the Festival will present a series of surprise musical pop-ups throughout the town of Ojai featuring Festival collaborators harpist Shelley Burgon, percussionist Fiona Digney, violinist Helen Kim, Kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri, and flutist Laura Walter. Ojai will continue to connect with its global community through newly produced videos throughout the summer.

      Virtual Offerings  
      The Festival continues to offer online content with its ongoing series of virtual Ojai Talks that have featured 2021 Festival artists and composers, including Gabriela Ortiz, Carlos Simon, Miranda Cuckson, Timo Andres, and Samuel Adams. These free offerings and “What’s on your Bookshelf” videos with past Festival artists are available at OjaiFestival.org.

      Ojai Talks
      The immersive in-person Festival experience in September will include Ojai Talks featuring Music       Director John Adams, resident composers as well as a special morning talk with Chumash Elder Julie Tumamait looking at the Ojai Valley landscape in through Chumash cosmology. 

      Remote Access to the Ojai Music Festival 
      The Ojai Music Festival allows the world beyond Ojai’s Libbey Bowl to experience the music and ideas expressed at the Festival through state-of-the art live streaming access during the four-day Festival and later archived at OjaiFestival.org.  

      COVID-19 Health and Safety Planning 
      The health and safety of the Festival’s family of artists, audiences and community partners is paramount.  To that end, the Ojai Music Festival is working closely with a COVID-safety advisory team of medical advisors, local, regional, and state officials, and public health authorities, to adhere to the highest standards of health and safety. Safety-related plans will be released and updated as details are confirmed.

      Religious Observance
      For those observing Yom Kippur, please note that the first Festival event, an Ojai Mix – Prelude to a Festival – will begin at 9pm, two hours after sundown on September 16.

      Series Passes for 2021 Ojai Music Festival 
      2021 series subscriptions are available for purchase at OjaiFestival.org, or by reaching the box office at 805 646 2053. All current 2021 subscriptions will be honored during the September dates. Availability and venues for the Ojai Talks and Dawn and Dusk Concerts will be announced in the coming months, based on appropriate capacity guidelines issued by state and county public officials.

       

    BIOS

    John Adams, 2021 Music Director
    Composer, conductor, and creative thinker – John Adams occupies a unique position in the world of music. His works stand out among contemporary classical compositions for their depth of expression, brilliance of sound, and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes; his stage compositions, many in collaboration with director Peter Sellars, have transformed the genre of contemporary music theatre. Spanning more than three decades, works such as Harmonielehre, Shaker Loops, El Niño and Nixon in China are among the most performed of all contemporary classical music.

    As a conductor he has led the world’s major orchestras, programming his own works with a wide variety of repertoire ranging from Beethoven, Mozart and Debussy to Ives, Carter and Ellington. Among his honorary doctorates are those from Yale, Harvard, Northwestern and Cambridge universities and from The Juilliard School. A provocative writer, he is author of the highly acclaimed autobiography Hallelujah Junction and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review. Since 2009 Mr. Adams has been Creative Chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

    Born and raised in New England, Mr. Adams learned the clarinet from his father and played in marching bands and community orchestras during his formative years. He began composing age ten and his first orchestral pieces were performed while he was still a teenager. In 2017, he celebrated his 70th birthday with festivals of his music in Europe and the US, including special retrospectives at London’s Barbican, Cité de la Musique in Paris, and in Amsterdam, New York and Geneva, among other cities. In 2019 he was the recipient of both Spain’s BBVA ‘Frontiers of Knowledge’ award and Holland’s Erasmus Prize “for notable contributions to European culture, society and social science.”

    Conducting highlights in 2019/20 included performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Adams made his first appearance with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in February 2020, giving the European premiere of his latest piano concerto Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? together with  Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson.

    Recent recordings include Grammy-nominated albums Doctor Atomic (featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers conducted by Mr. Adams, with Gerald Finley and Julia Bullock) and Scheherazade.2, a dramatic symphony for violin and orchestra written for Leila Josefowicz, as well as Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? (written for and performed by Yuja Wang, together with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel) and the Berliner Philharmoniker’s ‘John Adams Edition’, a box set comprising seven of his works, conducted by Rattle, Dudamel, Petrenko, Gilbert and Adams. The official John Adams website is www.earbox.com. 

    American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), 2022 Music Director
    Culminating the Festival’s 75th anniversary year, Ojai’s 2022 Music Director will be American Modern Opera Company (AMOC). As described by The Boston Globe, AMOC is “a creative incubator par excellence . . . where the boundaries between disciplines go to die.” A collective of some of the most creative, forward-thinking artists, AMOC is led by its Artistic Directors composer/conductor Matthew Aucoin and director/choreographer Zack Winokur collaborating with Core Ensemble members Jonny Allen (percussion), Paul Appleby (tenor), Doug Balliett (double bass/composer), Julia Bullock (soprano), Jay Campbell (cello), Anthony Roth Costanzo (countertenor), Miranda Cuckson (violin/viola), Julia Eichten (dancer/choreographer), Emi Ferguson (flute), Keir GoGwilt (violin/writer), Conor Hanick (piano), Coleman Itzkoff (cello), Or Schraiber (dancer/choreographer), Bobbi Jene Smith (dancer/choreographer), and Davóne Tines (bass-baritone).

    In addition to 2021 Festival artist Miranda Cuckson, Julia Bullock, Davóne Tines, and Jay Campbell will make a welcome return to Ojai, having participated memorably in past Festivals. Prior to AMOC, Ojai has welcomed only two ensembles as Music Director: Emerson String Quartet in 2002 and Eighth Blackbird in 2009. Initial details of AMOC’s 2022 Festival will be announced in the coming months. 

    Ara Guzelimian, Artistic & Executive Director
    Ara Guzelimian is Artistic & Executive Director of the Ojai Music Festival, beginning in that position in July 2020. The appointment culminates many years of association with the Festival, including tenures as director of the Ojai Talks at the Festival and as Artistic Director 1992-97. Ara Guzelimian stepped down as Provost and Dean of the Juilliard School in New York City in June 2020, having served in that position since 2007. At Juilliard, he worked closely with the President in overseeing the faculty, curriculum and artistic planning of the distinguished performing arts conservatory in all three of it divisions – dance, drama and music. He continues at Juilliard as Special Advisor, Office of the President.

    Prior to the Juilliard appointment, he was Senior Director and Artistic Advisor of Carnegie Hall from 1998 to 2006. Mr. Guzelimian currently serves as Artistic Consultant for the Marlboro Music Festival and School in Vermont. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Music Awards, the Artistic Committee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust in London, and a Board member of the Amphion and Pacific Harmony Foundations. He is also a member of the Music Visiting Committee of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. 

    Previously, Ara Guzelimian held the position of Artistic Administrator of the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado and he was long associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the beginning of his career, first as producer for the Orchestra’s national radio broadcasts and, subsequently, as Artistic Administrator. Mr. Guzelimian is editor of Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (Pantheon Books, 2002), a collection of dialogues between Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said. In September 2003, Mr. Guzelimian was awarded the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his contributions to French music and culture.

    The Ojai Music Festival
    The Ojai Music Festival represents an ideal of adventurous, open-minded and open-hearted programming in the most beautiful and welcoming of settings, with audiences and artists to match its aspirations. As its 75th anniversary approaches, the Festival remains a haven for thought-provoking musical experiences, bringing together innovative artists and curious audiences in an intimate, idyllic outdoor setting. Each Festival’s narrative is guided by a different music director, whose distinctive perspectives shapes programming ensuring energized festivals year after year.  

    Throughout each year, the Ojai Music Festival contributes to Southern California’s cultural landscape with in-person and online Festival related programming as well as robust educational offerings that serve thousands of public-school students and seniors.  The organization’s apex is the world renowned four-day Festival which takes place in early June in Ojai, a breathtaking valley only 75 miles from Los Angeles, that transforms into a platform for the fresh and unexpected. During the immersive experience, a mingling of the most curious take part in concerts, symposia, free community events, and social gatherings. Considered a highlight of the international music summer season, Ojai welcomes 7,000 patrons during the intimate Festival weekend and reaches 35 times more audiences worldwide through live and on-demand streaming of concerts and discussions.

    Since its founding in 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has presented broad-ranging programs in unusual ways with an eclectic mix of new and rarely performed music, as well as refreshing juxtapositions of musical styles. Through its signature structure of the Artistic Director appointing an annual Music Director, Ojai has presented a “who’s who” of music including Vijay Iyer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Barbara Hannigan in recent years and, throughout its history, featured artists have included Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, 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, Jeremy Denk, Steven Schick, and Peter Sellars.  Following the cancelled 74th Festival (June 11–14, 2020) with conductor and composer Matthias Pintscher, the Festival’s future with Artistic Director Ara Guzelimian begins in partnership with Ojai’s next music directors: composer/conductor John Adams as Music Director for the 75th Festival (June 10 to 13, 2021) and AMOC (American Modern Opera Company) as Music Director for the 76th Festival (June 9 to 12, 2022).

    ###

    75th OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
    September 16 – 19, 2021

    Thurs, Sept 09.16.21
    9pm, Libbey Bowl
    Ojai Mix – Prelude to a Festival

    Miranda Cuckson, violin
    Amy Schroeder, violin
    Nathan Schram, viola
    Anna Margules, recorder
    Attacca Quartet

    STRAVINSKY   Elegie 
    Gabriela ORTIZ   Huitzitl
    Carlos SIMON   Between Worlds
    Timo ANDRES    Early to Rise
    Dylan MATTINGLY   Magnolia
    Samuel ADAMS   Violin Diptych
    Gabriella SMITH   Maré

    Fri, Sept 09.17.21
    8am, location TBD
    Ojai Talks

    Chumash stories with Chumash Elder Julie Tumamait 

    Fri, Sept 09.17.21
    11am, Libbey Bowl
    Attacca Quartet with Rhiannon Giddens

    Rhiannon Giddens, vocalist
    Attacca Quartet

    John ADAMS   Selections from Book of Alleged Dances
    Paul WIANCKO   Benkei’s Standing Death
    Caroline SHAW   Plan and Elevation
    Jessie MONTGOMERY Strum
    Rhiannon GIDDENS  Factory Girl
    Rhiannon GIDDENS   Build a House
    Rhiannon GIDDENS   At the Purchaser’s Option
    Gabriella SMITH   Carrot Revolution

     

    Fri, Sept 09.17.21
    3pm-4:30pm, location TBD
    OJAI TALKS
    Sessions will include conversations with Music Director John Adams and Festival composers along with brief
    performances

    Fri, Sept 09.17.21
    8pm, Libbey Bowl
    John Adams conducts the Ojai Festival Orchestra

    Julie Tumamait, Chumash Elder
    Miranda Cuckson, violin
    Timo Andres, piano
    Emily Levin, harp 
    John Adams, conductor
    Ojai Festival Orchestra

    Chumash Welcome
    DEBUSSY   Danse sacrée et danse profane
    Samuel ADAMS   Chamber Concerto   West Coast Premiere
    Esa-Pekka SALONEN   FOG
    Ingram MARSHALL   Flow
    Timo ANDRES  Running Theme

     

    Sat, Sept 09.18.21
    8am, location TBD
    Ojai Dawns 

    Anna Margules, recorder

    Mario LAVISTA  Ofrenda
    Gabriela ORTIZ   Huitzitl
    Manuel ROCHA    Trama de tramas
    Arturo FUENTES   Toro Mariposa
    Gabriela ORTIZ   Canto en Soledad
    Alejandra HERNÁNDEZ   Veulos
    Gabriela ORTIZ   Canto a hanna

    Sat, Sept 09.18.21
    11am. Libbey Bowl
    Víkingur Ólafsson in recital

    Víkingur Ólafsson, piano 

    Music by Philip Glass, Bach, Debussy, and Rameau 

    Sat, Sept 09.18.21
    4:30pm, location TBD
    Dusk Concert

    Miranda Cuckson, violin

    Anthony CHEUNG   Character Studies Mvnt one – Dramatis Personnae, Mvnt two – [untitled]
    Dai FUJIKURA   Prism Spectra
    J.S. BACH    D Minor Partita No.2. Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, & Gigue
    Kaija SAARIAHO  Frises

     

    Sat, Sept 09.18.21 
    8pm, Libbey Bowl
    They’re Calling Me Home

    Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi

    Having spent the past year away from in-person concerts, Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi found themselves drawn to the music of their native and adoptive countries of America, Italy, and Ireland. The result is their latest album, They’re Calling Me Home, which speaks of the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical “call home” of death, which has been a tragic reality for so many throughout the past year.

    Sun, Sept 09.19.21
    8am, Libbey Bowl
    I Still Play

    Timo Andres, piano 

    Philip GLASS  Evening Song No. 2
    Nico MUHLY  Move
    Timo ANDRES    Wise Words
    Steve REICH    For Bob
    Louis ANDRIESSON   Rimsky or La Monte Young
    Laurie ANDERSON   Song for Bob
    Donnacha DENNEHY   Her Wits (About Him)
    Brad MEHLDAU  LA Pastorale
    John ADAMS   I Still Play
    Samuel ADAMS  Impromptus 
    Gabriella SMITH  Imaginary Pancake 

    Sun, Sept 09.19.21 
    11am, Libbey Bowl
    LA Phil New Music Group

    LA Phil New Music Group

    Gabriela ORTIZ   Rió de las Mariposas
    inti figgis-vizueta   To give you form and breath
    John ADAMS  Hallelujah Junction
    Esa-Pekka SALONEN   Objets Trouvés   First concert performance
    Dylan MATTINGLY  Sunt Lacrimae Rerum (these are the tears of things) World Premiere

     

    Sun, Sept 09.19.21
    5:30pm, Libbey Bowl
    Festival Finale

    Rhiannon Giddens, vocalist
    Víkingur Ólafsson, piano
    John Adams, conductor  
    Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO)

    Carlos SIMON   Fate Now Conquers
    MOZART  Piano Concerto in C minor, K491
    John ADAMS    Am I in Your Light (from Dr Atomic)
    John ADAMS    Consuelo’s Dream (from I was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I saw the sky)
    Gabriela ORTIZ   La Calaca   World Premiere of revised version

     

    Programs and artists are subject to change. As of May 26, 2021

    Press contacts:
    Ojai Music Festival: Gina Gutierrez, ggutierrez@ojaifestival.org, 805 646 2181
    National/International: Nikki Scandalios, nikki@scandaliospr.com, 704 340 4094

     

     

  • Francesco Turrisi, multi-instrumentalist

    Francesco Turrisi, multi-instrumentalist

    Grammy nominated multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi has been defined a “musical alchemist” and a “musical polyglot” by the press.

    He left his native Italy in 1997 to study jazz piano and early music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where he obtained a Bachelor and a Master’s degree. Since 2004 he has been working successfully as a freelance musician.

    He has released five critically acclaimed albums as a leader and two as co-leader (“Tarab” a cross boundary innovative ensemble that blends Irish and Mediterranean traditional music, and “Zahr” a project that looks at connections between southern Italian traditional music and Arabic music).

    (more…)

  • Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, Chumash Elder

    Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, Chumash Elder

    Julie Tumamait-Stenslie has traced her family lineage from her father, Vincent Tumamait, to at least 11 known Chumash villages and as far back as the mid-18th century. Ms. Tumamait-Stenslie has worked as a cultural resource consultant from Malibu to Santa Barbara to the Channel Islands, providing guidance for private groups and state, county, and city regulatory agencies, including the Ventura and Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s offices. She is well known throughout Ventura County and beyond for her Chumash cultural education programs and also performs ceremonies according to her native ways, such as weddings, burials, naming ceremonies, and blessings. Ms. Tumamait-Stenslie is a commissioner on the California Native American Heritage Commission and on the board of the Santa Clara River Conservancy. She serves on the accessions committee for the Museum of Ventura County.

    Ms. Tumamait-Stenslie has lived in the Ojai area nearly her entire life and owns a home in the Meiners Oaks neighborhood, very near the birthplace of her great-great- grandmother, Maria Ricarda Alulalmeque, who was raised in the Chumash village of Matilija. Her husband, Bruce Stenslie, is president of the Economic Development Collaborative in Ventura County. They share their home with Ms. Tumamait-Stenslie’s three children—Paula Pugh, Rane Tumamait- Stenslie, and Aren Tumamait-Stenslie—and an assortment of well-loved animals.

  • Festival Timeline: 8 decades of adventurous music-making

    Festival Timeline: 8 decades of adventurous music-making

    Since 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has been a creative laboratory for the special chemistry that results from combining insatiable curiosity with unbounded imagination. The formula is simple: Each year a music director is given the freedom and resources to imagine four days of musical brainstorming. More often this unique blend of enchanted setting and an audience voracious in its appetite for challenge and discovery has inspired a distinguished series of conductors, performers, composers to push at boundaries and stretch limits.

    1940s

    1950s

    1960s

    1970s

    1980s

    1990s

    2000s

    2010s

    2020s

    *photos by Timothy Teague

  • Playing Changes

    Playing Changes

    Press Play; Click Box Above to Go Full Screen [  ]


    Welcome to the Festival’s continuing series of the virtual Ojai Talks, where we celebrate the intersection of music, ideas, and the creative process with Ojai Festival artists, innovators, and thinkers.     

    San Francisco Symphony hosted the online premiere of Playing Changes, a new collective project by violinist Helen Kim, choreographer Robert Dekkers, the movement artists of Post:Ballet, and Yak Films photographer Benjamin Tarquin. Playing Changes is an exploration of collaborative art during a time of isolation and confinement features music by Samuel Adams, Philip Glass, Daniel Bernard Roumain, LJ White, as well as newly commissioned works by Ambrose Akinmusire, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Elizabeth Ogonek.

    Enjoy our conversation with Helen Kim and 2021 Ojai Festival composer Samuel Adams, as they introduce the project and Sam’s recent violin work, titled Playing Changes from his Violin Diptych, as featured in the collaborative project.

    Watch the complete project: Playing Changes – SFSymphony+ (sfsymphonyplus.org)

    About Samuel Adams

     

    Recently named a Guggenheim Fellow, Samuel Adams (b. 1985, San Francisco, CA) is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. His work has been hailed as “mesmerizing” and “music of a composer with a personal voice and keen imagination” by The New York Times, “canny and assured” by The Chicago Tribune and “wondrously alluring” by The San Francisco Chronicle.

    Highlights of the 2019/20 season include a new work for the Australian Chamber Orchestra, which will be toured in both Australia and the United States, and the premiere performances of his Second String Quartet for Chicago-based Spektral Quartet in New York, Seattle, and Berkeley. Adams is also building an evening-length work for dance entitled Lyra, which will premiere this coming July in San Francisco.

    Last season, Adams’s Movements (for us and them) was toured both in Australia and the US to critical acclaim. The Sydney Morning Herald called the work music of “subtle emotional power” that “stole the show.” Adams’s orchestral work many words of love was toured nationally by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Muti and received another performance by New World Symphony in Miami. In May 2018, Adams’s new Chamber Concerto was premiered by violinist Karen Gomyo with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen to mark the 20th anniversary of the CSO’s contemporary series MusicNOW. The piece was hailed as “hypnotic, endlessly varied and natural” by Classical Voice America and music of “allusive subtlety and ingenuity” by the Chicago Tribune. The work will receive additional performances in 2019 and 2020 and will be recorded in 2021.

    Adams served as the curator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series from 2015-2018, a period that saw the commissioning of nine new works, including Amy Beth Kirsten’s SAVIOR and a new work by Manual Cinema, as well as the development of an audiovisual collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago. He has also curated for the San Francisco Symphony as part of their experimental SoundBox series.

    Adams has held residencies at Civitella Ranieri (Umbria, IT), Visby International Centre for Composers (Visby, SE), Avaloch Farm (Boscawen, NH), Ucross (Ucross, WY), and Djerassi Resident Artists Program (La Honda, CA).

    A committed educator, Adams frequently engages in projects with young musicians. In 2015, he worked with the Negaunee Institute of Music to establish the Civic Orchestra New Music Workshop, a program for emerging composers. In 2014, he was in residence with The National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, for which he composed a work that was premiered under the baton of David Robertson. Adams also regularly works with the students of The Crowden Music Center (Berkeley, CA) and maintains a private teaching studio.

    Adams grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area where he attended Berkeley’s Crowden School. He went on to study at Stanford University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in composition and electroacoustic music while also working as a bassist in the San Francisco improvised music community. He received a master’s degree in composition from The Yale School of Music.

    Visit Sam’s website here>

     

    About Helen Kim

    Violinist Helen Kim joined the San Francisco Symphony as Associate Principal Second Violin in 2016. A member of the Saint Louis Symphony from 2011 to 2016, she made solo appearances with that orchestra in both the 2013 and 2014 seasons. She has spent her summers teaching and performing at festivals including Aspen, Yellow Barn, Luzerne, and the Innsbrook Institute. Ms. Kim received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California, where she was Presidential Scholar, and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music. 

  • ARTS MANAGEMENT INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

    ARTS MANAGEMENT INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

    THE 75th OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL, SEPTEMBER 16-19, 2021  
    Application deadline: JUNE 15, 2021 

    click here for application 

     

     

    As an intern for the Ojai Music Festival, you become a messenger for the organization’s purpose: to dare the audience to be innovative listeners of new music. – Emily Persinko, intern alum

    The Ojai Music Festival’s arts management internship program is now accepting applications for the Ojai Music Festival slated for September 16 to 19, 2021 with composer and conductor John Adams as music director.  

    The Festival’s sought-after program provides hands-on experiences to college students as they are immersed in areas of production, administration, operations, special events, merchandising, live streaming, marketing, public relations, and patron services.  
     
    Students from varying fields and walks of life enjoy access to different opportunities which give them new skill sets and experiences that they take with them throughout their careers. The internship program also provides them to interact with leaders in the music industry and create lasting friendships with other students.   

    Applicants must be 18 or over and enrolled in a two or four year accredited college. The Festival provides housing for the duration of the internship as well as a stipend.  Applications are due by June 1, 2021. The 75th Ojai Music Festival, September 16 to 19, will be led by composer/conductor John Adams as Music Director with a program that will honor the Festival’s role as a champion of a new generation of composers and artists. Joining John Adams will be Attacca Quartet, singer Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, violinist Miranda Cuckson, and recorder player Anna Margules, pianist/composer Timo Andres, and members of the LA Phil New Music Group. 2021 Festival composers include Samuel Adams, Timo Andres, Dylan Mattingly, Gabriela Ortiz, Rhiannon Giddens, Carlos Simon, and Gabriella Smith   

    For more information regarding the internship program for the Ojai Music Festival, please call the main office at 805 646 2094 or email info@ojaifestival.org.