Thank you to all who attended Deep Listening with 2025 Music Director and flutist Claire Chase on May 15, 2025, presented by The Listening Garden x Ojai Music Festival at Light & Space Yoga.
It was an unforgettable night, where our two vibrant communities came together. We loved connecting through music and mindfulness, listening and conversation, in such a beautiful way. We certainly hope to see the guests again, whether that’s around town, at The Listening Garden, or at the Ojai Music Festival, June 5 to 8.
A special thank you to Naomi’s Kitchen, whose bento-style food was delightful. Enjoy this gallery of photos by Eric Andersen, who captured this special evening beautifully.
VII) Helpful Links A few final tips to point you in the right direction
The Basics
Since 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has offered four days of innovative programming each spring, blending contemporary, classical, and experimental approaches to music-making. A new music director curates the Festival annually, bringing fresh perspectives and fostering collaboration among world-class artists. Core concerts take place at the historic Libbey Bowl, with additional free and off-site events—including intimate theatrical concerts, thoughtful symposiums, and family-friendly pop-ups—throughout Ojai.
The Festival’s Artistic and Executive Director, Ara Guzelimian, has set out to write a series of portraits of the artists who will light up our stages this June. These artist portraits offer a more contextualized look at select artists as we get closer to the Festival.
Written September, 24, 2025
We start with clarinetist Anthony McGill, who will be making his Festival debut, playing Esa-Pekka’s gorgeous clarinet concerto, titled kinema, in its West Coast premiere performance. I first encountered Anthony when he was Principal Clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra – the mesmerizing clarinet solos from the pit sent me scrambling for my program book to see who was playing! And I have frequently basked in Anthony’s playing in his current position as Principal Clarinet of the New York Philharmonic. He played kinema at the New York Philharmonic in 2023 with Esa-Pekka conducting, marking the U.S. premiere of the work – it made a deep impression on me and I have ever since wanted our Ojai audience to experience this beautiful work with these same artists.
By way of introduction, here is a wonderful video portrait of Anthony McGill:
Anthony has long been in demand as a soloist with major orchestras and at festivals around the world. His recordings of the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets with the Pacifica Quartet have become the standard bearer for a new generation of listeners and musicians. He has championed the work of both historical and contemporary Black composers, helping to create a broader understanding of and appreciation for the instrument and its repertoire.
One of the works which has become something of a signature for Anthony is Jessie Montgomery’s Peace, a deeply affecting work created in response to the composer’s isolation during the pandemic. Here is an introduction to the work, joined by pianist Gloria Chien.
And at a memorable concert which I attended at Summerfest in La Jolla, Anthony unforgettably paired the Montgomery Peace with the Abyss of the Birds, the profound solo clarinet movement from Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Here is a video of that performance, with Anthony joined by pianist Conrad Tao.
As a teaser for the programs to in June 2026, I can tell you that Anthony will be playing the complete Messiaen quartet at Ojai with a stellar group of colleagues: violinist Geneva Lewis, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist Conor Hanick.
Written February 5, 2026.
Pianist Conor Hanick, who last appeared as a member of the 2022 Festival with Music Director AMOC, rejoins us at the 2026 Festival (June 11 to 14). Hanick will be playing the first complete performance of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Six Piano Preludes, Messiaen’s masterpiece Quartet for the End of Time as the culmination of the Thursday night opening programs, as well as works by John Adams, Oliver Knussen, and Niccolo Castiglioni (one of the teachers of 2026 Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen).
Conor is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old whose “technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation benefit works by any master,” (The New York Times). He is the director of Solo Piano at the Music Academy of the West and serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Mannes College at The New School. If you appreciated his captivating rendition of Hans Otte’s The Book of Sounds performed at the 2022 Ojai Festival, Conor is in the process of releasing the piece in a new record. You can get a sneak peek listen here:
Since 2012, the Ojai Music Festival has expanded its global footprint, building a worldwide audience and deepening connections with patrons throughout the year with free live broadcasts. All Libbey Bowl concerts are streamed in real time. Open our website’s homepageat the start time of each concert to view!
Most concerts are available on our YouTube channel after the Festival takes place. Watch livestreams from previous years and stay updated on new Festival videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel below.
Wondering where to go, shop, and eat in between concerts? Use the links below to read what our staff recommends, a full list of our local favorites, and even more recommendations in the mobile app.
Get an inside look at the creative process with our free Virtual Ojai Talks, where we celebrate the intersection of music and ideas with the 2025 Festival artists, composers, innovators, and thinkers. Virtual Talks are free and open to the musically curious!
Marcos Balter and Susie Ibarra WED April 16
Join Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian with special guests Marcos Balter and Susie Ibarra, two of today’s innovative composers who continue to stretch musical limits in their approach to music, and fortunate for Ojai, this year’s composers-in-residence. Gain insight into their unique creative processes and discover what to expect at the Festival in June, led by their colleague and friend Claire Chase as music director.
PAST TALKS
Claire Chase and Annea Lockwood February 25, 2025
Renowned composer Annea Lockwood will join us for a special Ojai Talks session alongside Music Director Claire Chase. Together, with Ara Guzelimian, they will delve into their shared passion for the interplay of sound in nature and its integration into their musical creations of which will be featured at this year’s Ojai Festival.
Q&A with Tom Morris and special talk with Barbara Hannigan December 4, 2024
Always The Music is the fascinating story of former Ojai Music Festival Artistic Director Tom Morris’ personal metamorphosis through the highest levels of the world of classical music, his learning and insights into how storied musical institutions function, great artists create, and audiences engage. Join us for a participatory Q&A between Tom and Ara Guzelimian, plus a special conversation between Tom and 2019 Music Director Barbara Hannigan, recorded for this online session.
Meet the Music Director September 18
To kick off preparations for the 2025 Ojai Music Festival, June 5-8, join us for a conversation between Music Director Claire Chase and Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian.
His performances as a guitarist and conductor have been hailed as ‘sparkling…delivered superbly’ (San Francisco Chronicle), ‘ravishing’ (San Diego Union Tribune), and ‘an amazing tour de force’ (San Diego Story), and he has recorded on the MicroFest, Summit, Innova, Centaur, Naxos, Albany, Old King Cole, Vienna Modern Masters, Carrier, and Tzadik labels. His research interests include contemporary music performance and pedagogy, musical modernism, and the apocalyptic paradigm as manifested in varying phenomena—literature, music, and art.
“There’s no place in the world like Ojai, and there is no gathering of musicians and ideas like the Ojai Festival….the Festival has taken on mythical dimensions for me. — Claire Chase, 2025 Music Director
This symbol indicates that this is a Beyond the Bowl event, not located at Libbey Bowl. Due to the intimate setting of these events, they are not automatically included in Libbey Bowl Passes and may require the purchase of an additional ticket.
This symbol indicates that this is a free event, no ticket or RSVP required.
Programs and artists are subject to change. Schedule as of April, 2025.
A festive opening night with Annea Lockwood’s Bayou-Borne, an affectionate tribute to Pauline Oliveros, then culminating in Marcos Balter’s Pan, an already iconic work from Claire Chase’s epic Density 2036 project. Pan is a deeply affecting work that explores the life and death of the mythical Greek goat-god Pan, written for flute, electronics, and a community of musicians, telling the tale of this weaver of melodies and a guardian of the wilderness – true to the Ojai spirit!
FRI 06|06
8:00AM OJAI DAWNS SOLD OUT Zalk Theater, Beasant Hill School
Alex Peh, harpsichord & keyboard | Cory Smythe and Craig Taborn, piano & keyboards Terry RILEY Pulsing Lifters (World premiere of new trio arrangement by Alex Peh) Anna THORVALDSDOTTIR Impressions John COLTRANE/Cory SMYTHECountdowns Craig TABORN + Cory SMYTHE Duo Improvisation for Ojai
A program of works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Cory Smythe, and Craig Taborn that celebrates the old made new in Thorvaldsdottir’s Impressions for harpsichord as well as a summit meeting between two dazzlingly inventive composer/pianists whose worlds encompass jazz, new music, and beyond.
In its West Coast premiere, Australian composer Liza Lim’s Density 2036 contribution Sex Magic for solo contrabass flute and electronics centers Friday afternoon. Inspired by Claire Chase’s towering contrabass flute (Bertha), Sex Magic evokes and celebrates women’s power across time and cultures, evoking the giant bass flutes of Papua New Guinea and the Australian didgeridoo in a work that ritually moves across three altars, creating a mystical, mesmerizing evocation of both the present and the timeless past.
Leilehua LANZILOTTIko’u inoa Sofia GUBAIDULINA Mirage: The Dancing Sun Julius EASTMAN The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc Terry RILEY The Holy Liftoff (Realization by Samuel Clay Birmaher)
Music for a “chorus of cellos” by Julius Eastman precede The Holy Liftoff, the most recent work by pioneering American composer Terry Riley, played in Ojai by Claire Chase and the JACK Quartet. Written as a series of musical sketches and brilliantly colored drawings, an exuberant and energized work represents a culmination for Riley, who says “I feel like this piece sums up a lot of things I’ve worked for.”
A program centered on the West Coast premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Ubique for flute, two cellos, piano and electronics, a work of enigmatic lyricism by a composer who is inspired by the “musical qualities of nature.”
1:00PM OJAI FILMS Ojai Playhouse
Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros Film by Daniel Weintraub
Annea Lockwood’s sound map of the Housatonic River, captured as a four-channel sound installation. Complete cycles of the work begin at 2pm and 3:30pm. Casual drop-ins welcome at any time.
Free and open to the public
3:30PM OJAI AFTERNOONS SOLD OUT Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School
A concert centered on the West Coast premiere of Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, and electronics by the endlessly inventive composer-pianist Craig Taborn. The work is inspired by a dream in which plants awake, blossom, grow and change as the dreamer walks through a garden.
JS BACH Chorale Prelude, Vor deinen Thron, BWV 668 Sofia GUBAIDULINA Meditation on the Bach chorale Vor deinen Thron, BWV 668 Tania LEÓNHechizos Liza LIMHow Forests Think
Music by Bach, Sofia Gubaidulina (inspired by Bach) and Tania León, precede the West Coast premiere of the large-scale How Forests Think by Liza Lim, a work inspired by the imagery of ancient forests as vibrant, symbiotic communities that, as the composer writes, “that nourish the old connections and keep a song going. One might think of a forest as a choir or certainly as an ensemble. Stories, dreams, and thoughts inhabit multiple forms in a living matrix.
Christopher OTTO Angelorum Psalat, after Rodericus Austin WULLIMAN Dave’s Hocket: For Guillaume and Arvo Susie IBARRANest Box (World premiere) Commissioned by Ojai Music Festival and Music Director Claire Chase in honor of Steven Schick’s 70th birthday Tania LEÓNRituál Susie IBARRASky Islands (West Coast premiere)
The JACK Quartet explores Modern/Medieval with music from the 14th to 17th centuries, renewed for contemporary performance by composers/JACK violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman. The program is followed by the West Coast premiere of Susie Ibarra’s Sky Islands, evoking a unique environment of the elevated rain forests in the Philippines with the interlocking rhythms and melodies of Philippine Northern-style bamboo, gong, and flute music, performed on new sound sculptures of gong metals.
12:00PM FAMILY CONCERT Libbey Park Gazebo
An interactive concert featuring Festival artists on flutes, saxophone, trombone, sheng, and an interactive bird call jam. Kids of all ages are welcome.
Annea Lockwood’s sound map of the Housatonic River, captured as a four-channel sound installation. Complete cycles of the work begin at 2pm and 3:30pm. Casual drop-ins welcome at any time.
Free and open to the public
2:30PM OJAI AFTERNOONS (repeat performance) Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School
A concert centered on the West Coast premiere of Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, and electronics by the endlessly inventive composer-pianist Craig Taborn. The work is inspired by a dream in which plants awake, blossom, grow and change as the dreamer walks through a garden.
Leilehua LANZILOTTIko’u inoa Pauline OLIVEROS The Witness Tania LEÓNSingsong (World premiere of solo version) Terry RILEY Pulsefield 3 (World premiere)
An exuberant all-company 2025 Festival finale includes music by Leilehua Lanzilotti, Pauline Oliveros’s The Witness, and the world premiere of a new version of Tania León’s Singsong adapted for solo flute. The Festival culminates in the world premiere of Terry Riley’s Pulsefield 3, in a joyous celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday.
Wesley Sumpter is one of the most in-demand percussionists in the United States. He has performed with some of the world’s leading orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco, National, and Atlanta Symphonies, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Cabrillo Festival, Lakes Area Music Festival and the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, UK. He has played under renown conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salonen, Zubin Mehta and many more. During his time with the LA Phil, he has shared the stage with some of the biggest stars in music like: Christina Aguilera, H.E.R., Katy Perry, Herbie Hancock, Barry Manilow, Wynton Marsalis, John Williams, and Snarky Puppy. He has also performed in some of world’s most iconic venues like: Walt Disney Concert Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Zankel Hall & Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, and more.
Wesley Sumpter is one of the most in-demand percussionists in the United States. He has performed with some of the world’s leading orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco, National, and Atlanta Symphonies, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Cabrillo Festival, Lakes Area Music Festival and the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, UK. He has played under renown conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salonen, Zubin Mehta and many more. During his time with the LA Phil, he has shared the stage with some of the biggest stars in music like: Christina Aguilera, H.E.R., Katy Perry, Herbie Hancock, Barry Manilow, Wynton Marsalis, John Williams, and Snarky Puppy. He has also performed in some of world’s most iconic venues like: Walt Disney Concert Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Zankel Hall & Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, and more.
Wesley Sumpter is one of the most in-demand percussionists in the United States. He has performed with some of the world’s leading orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco, National, and Atlanta Symphonies, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Cabrillo Festival, Lakes Area Music Festival and the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, UK. He has played under renown conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salonen, Zubin Mehta and many more. During his time with the LA Phil, he has shared the stage with some of the biggest stars in music like: Christina Aguilera, H.E.R., Katy Perry, Herbie Hancock, Barry Manilow, Wynton Marsalis, John Williams, and Snarky Puppy. He has also performed in some of world’s most iconic venues like: Walt Disney Concert Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Zankel Hall & Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, and more.
Wesley Sumpter is one of the most in-demand percussionists in the United States. He has performed with some of the world’s leading orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco, National, and Atlanta Symphonies, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Cabrillo Festival, Lakes Area Music Festival and the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, UK. He has played under renown conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salonen, Zubin Mehta and many more. During his time with the LA Phil, he has shared the stage with some of the biggest stars in music like: Christina Aguilera, H.E.R., Katy Perry, Herbie Hancock, Barry Manilow, Wynton Marsalis, John Williams, and Snarky Puppy. He has also performed in some of world’s most iconic venues like: Walt Disney Concert Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Zankel Hall & Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, and more.
Sumpter received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and started his master’s at the University of Southern California before beginning the inaugural Resident Fellows program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His teachers include Timothy Adams jr., Kimberly Toscano, James Babor, Joseph Pereira and Matthew Howard.
Pianist Alex Peh collaborates with musicians globally in search of shared resonances that emerge from friendship and connection. A 2021 Fulbright Global Scholar and 2019 Asian Cultural Council Fellow, he has worked with notable musicians and composers such as Claire Chase, Susie Ibarra, Anna Clyne, U Yee Nwe, Hafez Modirzadeh, Senem Pirler, and Phyllis Chen. Peh’s work has been presented internationally and throughout the United States.
Peh is a member of Talking Gong, an improvising trio with percussionist, Susie Ibarra and flutist, Claire Chase. They released their debut album in 2019, Talking Gong, on New Focus Recordings available on all major streaming platforms. The trio has performed at Carnegie Zankel Hall, Public Theater, Roulette Intermedium, and BRIC in New York City.
In 2021 Peh received a Fulbright Global Scholar fellowship that allowed him to connect with Greek pianist and musicologist Nikos Ordoulidis in Naoussa, Greece; Burmese pianist Ne Myo Aung in Bangkok, Thailand and Pooyan Azadeh in Halle, Germany. Together they created a new album of piano music, Attune, on Habitat Sounds, and a companion ethnographic film Intermittent Attunement in collaboration with Dr. Lauren Meeker, Alyson Hummer and Madelyn Colonna. Excerpts of the film and album were premiered at National Sawdust, Brooklyn NYC. Intermittent Attunement was selected for screening by the Ethnografilm festival in Paris, France at the Club D’Etoile.
Peh has received numerous grants to support his work such as Arts Midhudson, New York State Council of the Arts Grant, and New Music USA. Notably, he received a National Endowment for the Arts project grant that funded new compositions in afro/asian tuning systems for the piano by Ramin Zoufonoun and Hafez Modirzadeh.
Peh received his musical training from Indiana and Northwestern Universities where he worked with Arnaldo Cohen, Menahem Pressler, Sylvia Wang and Evelyne Brancart. He attended the Banff, Aspen and Tanglewood music festivals where he worked with Emanuel Ax, Pamela Frank, Claude Frank, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, and Peter Serkin. He performed Stravinsky’s Les Noces under the baton of Charles Dutoit and the Tanglewood Festival Choir. He is an associate professor of piano at SUNY New Paltz, and associate chair of the music department.
Michael Kento Matsuno is a flutist whose work traverses the classical canon, contemporary music, improvisation, music psychology, and 20th-century history. He can be heard performing throughout Southern California and holds positions as lecturer at Chapman University and flute studio instructor at CalArts and Pierce College.
Matsuno has appeared with a wide range of ensembles throughout the US, including the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, ECHOI, Red Fish Blue Fish, San Diego Symphony, Slee Sinfonietta, [Switch~ Ensemble], and Wild Up. He has been featured as a guest artist at the Center for 21st Century Music at SUNY Buffalo, Harvard University, Jacaranda Music, June in Buffalo, Monday Evening Concerts, and Neofonía Festival de Música Nueva Ensenada. Matsuno has also performed his own solo compositions, which explore long forms and emergent musical structures in physical decay, on experimental series such as Weirdo Night, High Desert Soundings, and La Rara Noche.
As a researcher, Matsuno is concerned with human relationships to music and their narratives. His dissertation is a biography of the California E.A.R. Unit (1981-2012), one of Los Angeles’ first standalone groups dedicated to avant-garde chamber music. It examines institutional developments in Los Angeles beginning in the 1980s, including the creation of a contemporary music curriculum at CalArts. Matsuno also published an original study in Psychology of Music exploring personalized music-listening strategies by autistic adults. His other writing has appeared in Naxos Musicology International and Now That’s What I Call Poetry. Most recently, Matsuno served as a co-editor for Letters to Home: Art and Writing by Nikkei LGBTQ+ and Allies, a volume of community reflections on acceptance and belonging, self-published by Okaeri.
Matsuno is a graduate of UC San Diego (MA, DMA) and the University of Southern California (BM). He gratefully received mentorship from Nadine Asin, Anthony Burr, John Fonville, Jann Pasler, and Jim Walker.
Praised for her “expressive and captivating performance” (GRAMMY.com), bassist Kathryn Schulmeister brings radiant energy to her creative musical practice ranging from classical to experimental. With a fearless curiosity for collaborative environments, Schulmeister’s enthusiasm for seeking opportunities to integrate improvisation, movement and theatre into her creative practice have led her to thrive as an active performer in festivals and venues around the world.
Schulmeister is a member of several contemporary music ensembles including the renowned Australian ELISION Ensemble, Fonema Consort (NYC), and the Echoi Ensemble (LA). She has performed as a guest artist with various adventurous international ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble MusikFabrik, Delirium Musicum, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Ensemble Vertixe Sonora.
Equally passionate and experienced as an orchestral musician, Schulmeister served as a core member of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra for three consecutive seasons from 2014-2017 and has performed with the Ojai Festival Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, New West Symphony, California Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Alumni Orchestra, Pacific Lyric Opera, Maui Chamber Orchestra, and Hawaii Opera Theater.
Schulmeister received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Contemporary Music Performance from the University of California San Diego, Master of Music degree from McGill University, and Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music.
In Fall 2023, Schulmeister joined the faculty of the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor of Practice in String Bass.
Born in Bucharest, Filipino-American Levy Marcel Ingles Lorenzo, Jr. works at the intersection of music, art, and technology. On an international scale, his body of work spans electronics design, sound engineering, instrument building, installation art, improvisation, and percussion performance. With a primary focus on inventing new instruments, he prototypes, composes, and performs new electronic music. As an art consultant, Levy designs interactive electronics ranging from small sculptures to large-scale public art installations with artists such as Alvin Lucier, Christine Sun Kim, Ligorano-Reese, Autumn Knight, and Leo Villareal. As a musician, he has worked with artists such as Peter Evans, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Ryuichi Sakamoto, George Lewis, Henry Threadgill, and Claire Chase. As a sound engineer, he is in demand as a specialist in the realization of complete electro-acoustic concerts with non-traditional configurations. A core member of the acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), he fulfills multiple roles as percussionist, electronics performer, and sound engineer. His work has been featured at STEIM, REWIRE, MIT Media Lab, Harvestworks, Banff Centre, Harvard University, G4TV, Grey Group, Bose, Amazon Studios, BBC, The New York Times, the Hermitage and Burning Man. He recently made his soloist debut with the NY Philharmonic for the reopening concerts of David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.
Lorenzo earned degrees as Master of Electrical & Computer Engineering from Cornell University, and Doctor of Musical Arts in Percussion Performance from Stony Brook University. He has presented numerous workshops and lectures on electronic musical instrument design and performance practice. Dr. Lorenzo holds a position as Professor of Creative Technologies at The New School, College of Performing Arts where he is director of the Nstrument Lab.
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As this year rapidly winds down, I wanted to take a moment to savor some favorite moments and glimpses of the 2024 Festival with the wondrous Mitsuko Uchida as Music Director. It was a particularly joyous and rewarding Festival, with the members of Mahler Chamber Orchestra turning up in every corner of Ojai, delighting in their California adventure. Who would have thought a European-based chamber orchestra would have a Johnny Cash cover band in their ranks! Before we let the year recede in memory, here are some personal snapshots of a few public and private moments that I cherish.
Behind the Scenes
photo by Ara Guzelimian.
Mitsuko Uchida, a musician of boundless curiosity and exuberance, getting an orientation on percussion instruments by Festival artist Sae Hashimoto.
photo by Ara Guzelimian.
Mitsuko is one of the most exacting of artists when it comes to pianos. We were very fortunate to have the superb piano technician Joel Bernache as our house piano “doctor” to look after the splendid concert Steinway. Here are both Mitsuko and Joel in action!
Joyful Moments
photo by Ara Guzelimian.
Violinist Alexandra Preucil (with bunny ears) with members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in their delightful children’s concert in Libbey Park. A few moments after the concert ended, the tiny daughter of friends spied the violinist walking through the park (without the ears!) – she pointed with delight and said, “there’s the bunny,” at which point the extraordinarily kind Alexandra Preucil came to visit with her.
photo by Ara Guzelimian.
One of my favorite new traditions at the Festival is the early morning free meditation concerts at Chapparal Auditorium on Ojai Avenue. Who knew that a hearty audience would turn up at 8 a.m. on a weekend morning to hear some quiet, reflective new music? Never underestimate the Ojai audience! Here’s cellist Jay Campbell with a rapt morning audience.
Photo by Timothy Teague.
I particularly love this photo as it captures the ebullient good spirits felt by all at the 2024 Ojai Festival. We are very lucky in the company we keep.
Looking Ahead
All of us here send you our wholehearted thanks for creating this very special community that is the Ojai Music Festival. I’m always fond of saying the miracle of Ojai is this improbable standard of artistic excellence and innovation that happens to take place in a lovely small town park, with perhaps the most open-eared and open-hearted audience to be found anywhere. The Festival depends to a very large degree – 75% – to contributed income. Please consider making a year-end contribution to help us start the new year with a solid foundation of support. We are grateful to each of you for your continued engagement and so look forward to seeing you in the coming year.
Think about surprising someone with a Libbey Bowl Pass for the Ojai Music Festival in 2025, scheduled for June 5-8 featuring Music Director Claire Chase. From Libbey Bowl passes to individual tickets, you can customize an unforgettable musical journey, perfect for your loved one’s musical tastes. This gift promises not just a fantastic event but also an immersive experience in the enchanting Ojai!
A cozy hoodie or blanket to stay warm. A baseball cap or t-shirt to add to your collection. Purchase your OMF merchandise as a gift for someone special or treat yourself!
The promo code MERRY automatically adds an additional 15% discount. Order soon to ensure it arrives before the holidays.
Mitsuko Uchida and Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the 2024 Festival Finale Concert | Photo by Timothy Teague
It begins with your commitment.
Because of your curiosity and adventurous spirit, Ojai becomes a gathering place where the world’s most innovative musicians connect with an inspired community. You make it possible for us to create transformational experiences year after year.
Your gift today can help sustain this extraordinary tradition.
Alexi Kenney at SOUND+WALK, free member event in Ojai, spring 2024 | Photo by Elizabeth Herring
It begins with your generosity.
Because of you, the Festival’s impact reaches far beyond its four unforgettable days.
In 2025, nearly 3,000 students and seniors in the Ojai Valley will experience the joy of music through our BRAVO Education and Community Programs. Year-round events will foster deeper connections locally, while free livestreams will bring Ojai’s magic to thousands worldwide.
Your gift today ensures that this impact will grow even further.
Claire Chase, 2025 Ojai Festival Music Director
It begins with your adventurous spirit.
Because of you, Claire Chase will present a bold, inventive program inspired by Ojai’s natural beauty and sonic landscapes. Together, we will welcome a vibrant, multigenerational collective of composers, performers, and improvisers to create an unforgettable experience.
Your support makes all this possible. Please join us in creating another extraordinary Festival season by making your year-end gift.
BRAVO Music Van | Photo by Cindy BurtonBRAVO Music Van | Photo by Cindy Burton2024 Festival Finale Concert | Photo by Timothy Teague
A Small Expense with a Great Impact
Throughout the year, the Ojai Music Festival prioritizes community, artistic curiosity, and innovative programs, culminating with our treasured Festival in June. The Festival’s year-round programs are made possible by donations from our loyal audience members, like you!
Recurring gifts allow you to give at the level and timing that works best with both your budget and schedule. They simultaneously allow the Festival to rely on a consistent, year-round revenue stream.
I hope this Thanksgiving week finds you well, with time to reflect and savor the joys of life. This is one of my favorite times of the year – the mornings are suddenly chillier, the sweaters come out of the drawers, the afternoon light is longer and lower on the horizon, we are perhaps more keenly aware of the passing of the year.
It is also a moment to pause and express gratitude. Among life’s many joys, I am deeply grateful for my life in music, keeping company with the most inspiring of musicians and fellow listeners. I started coming to the Ojai Festival when I was barely out of my teens and the lovely community that is created each year in Libbey Park is high on my list of treasurable experiences, an annual tradition that renews and surprises at every turn.
Much of life lately has been at a high decibel level, what with a singularly contentious election year, war and devastation of loss in so many parts of the world, and more locally, the sirens signaling an unusual wildfire season from Camarillo to New York (!). Faced with so much troubling noise, my response has always been to turn to music. So, in that spirit, I offer what I call a “quiet playlist of thanksgiving,” featuring a cross-section of wondrous Ojai artists from the last ten years.
This very personal selection reminds me of beauty, a deep inner life, and the things that we cherish, and which endure apart from all the noise. The tone is set from the start by our 2025 Music Director Claire Chase with Felipe Lara’s Meditation and Calligraphy and includes such treasured Ojai artists as Víkingur Olafsson, the Attacca Quartet (playing John Adams), Julia Bullock, Vijay Iyer, Steven Schick, Mitsuko Uchida, and the JACK Quartet. I want to single out one particular track – Rainy Day from the Silk Road Ensemble’s just-released album American Railroad. One of my fondest memories of the 2023 Festival was the magical duet between Rhiannon Giddens and Wu Man at the closing concert. This is that very piece, a souvenir of a magical Ojai pairing.
I offer this music as our gift, with much gratitude to each of you for all you do to create and nurture this Festival community.
The 79th Ojai Music Festival, June 5 to 8, 2025, welcomes as Music Director one of today’s most vital artists flutist Claire Chase. Reflecting on Ojai’s natural and sonic environment, 2025 Festival programming offers responses to landscape, as caretakers and participants, and welcomes a multi-generational collective of composers, performers, composer-performers, and improvisers, as well as multimedia artists whose works defy categorization.
The 79th Ojai Music Festival, June 5 to 8, 2025, welcomes as Music Director one of today’s most vital artists flutist Claire Chase. Reflecting on Ojai’s natural and sonic environment, 2025 Festival programming offers responses to landscape, as caretakers and participants, and welcomes a multi-generational collective of composers, performers, composer-performers, and improvisers, as well as multimedia artists whose works defy categorization.
West Coast Premieres of Liza Lim’s Sex Magic, Craig Taborn’s Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Ubique, Susie Ibarra’s Sky Islands, and Terry Riley’s Pulsefield
The Festival celebrates multiple generations of composers, including residencies by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Tania León, Annea Lockwood, Liza Lim, and Marcos Balter; composer-performers include Craig Taborn (piano), Leilehua Lanzilotti (viola), and Susie Ibarra (percussion)
An all-star “meta-ensemble” of Festival musicians including Seth Parker Woods, cello; Wu Wei, sheng; Steven Schick, conductor and percussion; the JACK Quartet (violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell); Katinka Kleijn, cello; Cory Smythe and Alex Peh, piano and keyboards; Ross Karre, percussion; Joshua Rubin, clarinet; M.A. Tiesenga, saxophone and electronic hurdy-gurdy; and members of Australia’s ELISION Ensemble
The Ojai Music Festival welcomes as Music Director one of today’s most vital artists, Claire Chase. Reflecting on Ojai’s natural and sonic environment, the 2025 Festival programming offers responses to landscape as caretakers and participants and welcomes a multi-generational collective of composers, performers, composer-performers, and improvisers. Read 2025 highlights and join us for another music adventure.
Types of Libbey Bowl Series Passes
NUMBER OF DAYS
What’s Included
4-Day Libbey Bowl Pass
Libbey Bowl Concerts on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (7 in total), plus Ojai Talks
3-Day Libbey Bowl Pass
Libbey Bowl Concerts on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (6 in total)
2-Day Libbey Bowl Pass
Libbey Bowl Concerts on Saturday and Sunday (4 in total)
This symbol indicates that this is a Beyond the Bowl event, not located at Libbey Bowl. Due to the intimate setting of these events, they are not automatically included in Libbey Bowl Passes and may require the purchase of an additional ticket.
Automatically included in 4-Day Libbey Bowl Passes, available for purchase as an add-on.
PAN 8:00PM | Libbey Bowl
A festive opening night with Annea Lockwood’s bayou-borne, an affectionate tribute to Pauline Oliveros, then culminating in Marcos Balter’s Pan, an already iconic work from Claire Chase’s epic Density 2036 project. Pan is a deeply affecting work that explores the life and death of the mythical Greek goat-god Pan, written for flute, electronics, and a community of musicians, telling the tale of this weaver of melodies and a guardian of the wilderness – true to the Ojai spirit!
FRI 06|06
OJAI DAWNS 8:00AM | Zalk Theater, Beasant Hill School
Early morning program featuring JACK Quartet with works by Tania León, Liza Lim, and two exciting emerging composers, Vicente Atria and Eduardo Aguilar.
A program of works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Cory Smythe and Craig Taborn that celebrates the old made new in Thorvaldsdottir’s Impressions for harpsichord as well as a summit meeting between two dazzlingly inventive composer/pianists whose worlds encompass jazz, new music and beyond.
SEX MAGIC 3:30PM | Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School
A program devoted to Sex Magic by the Australian composer Liza Lim for solo contrabass flute and electronics, celebrating the sacred erotic in women’s history. Inspired by Claire Chase’s towering contrabass flute (Bertha), Sex Magic evokes the giant bass flutes of Papua New Guinea and the Australian Didjeridoo in a work that ritually moves across three altars, creating a mystical, mesmerizing evocation of both the present and the timeless past.
Music for a “chorus of cellos” by Julius Eastman precede The Holy Liftoff, the most recent work by pioneering American composer Terry Riley, played in Ojai by Claire Chase and the JACK Quartet. Written as a series of musical sketches and brilliantly colored drawings, an exuberant and energized work represents a culmination for Riley, who says “I feel like this piece sums up a lot of things I’ve worked for.”
SAT 06|07
MORNING MEDITATION 8:00 AM | Ojai Meadows Preserve
Program TBA.
Free and open to the public
CHAMBERS 10:30AM | Libbey Bowl
A program centered on the West Coast premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Ubique for flute, two cellos, piano and electronics, a work of enigmatic lyricism by a composer who is inspired by the “musical qualities of nature.”
ENDANGERED CHARMS 3:30PM | Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School
A concert centered on the West Coast premiere of Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms for flute, clarinet, cello, piano and electronics by the endlessly inventive composer-pianist Craig Taborn. The work is inspired by a dream in which plants awake, blossom, grow and change as the dreamer walks through a garden.
Subscribers have first access to ticket sales. Purchase this event as an add-on when you subscribe.
HOW FORESTS THINK 8:00PM | Libbey Bowl
Music by Bach, Sofia Gubaidulina (inspired by Bach) and Tania León, precede the West Coast premiere of the large-scale How Forests Think by Liza Lim, a work inspired by the imagery of ancient forests as vibrant, symbiotic communities that, as the composer writes, “that nourish the old connections and keep a song going. One might think of a forest as a choir or certainly as an ensemble. Stories, dreams and thoughts inhabit multiple forms in a living matrix.”
SUN 06|08
MORNING MEDITATION 8:00AM
Program TBA.
Free and open to the public
RITUALS 10:30AM | Libbey Bowl
The JACK Quartet explores Modern/Medieval with music from the 14th to 17th centuries, renewed for contemporary performance by composers/JACK violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman. The program is followed by the West Coast premiere of Susie Ibarra’s Sky Islands, evoking a unique environment of the elevated rain forests in the Philippines with the interlocking rhythms and melodies of Philippine Northern-style bamboo, gong, and flute music, performed on new sound sculptures of gong metals.
ENDANGERED CHARMS (repeat performance) 2:30PM | Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School
A concert centered on the West Coast premiere of Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms for flute, clarinet, cello, piano and electronics by the endlessly inventive composer-pianist Craig Taborn. The work is inspired by a dream in which plants awake, blossom, grow and change as the dreamer walks through a garden.
Subscribers have first access to ticket sales. Purchase this event as an add-on when you subscribe.
PULSEFIELDS 5:30PM | Libbey Bowl
An exuberant all-company finale with music by Hawaiian composer Leilehua Lanzilotti, Pauline Oliveros’ The Witness and the West Coast premiere of Terry Riley’s Pulsefield as the joyous ending.
Programs and artists are subject to change. Schedule as of October 8, 2024.
The artistry of internationally, renowned Sheng virtuoso Wu Wei reaches far beyond the traditional boundaries of his more than 3000-year-old Chinese instrument and brings it well into the 21st century.
The Sheng, a mouth organ, formed out of a bundle of bamboo reeds and cased in a metal bowl, sounds as the singing phoenix from a Chinese legend: silvery and fleeting as the wind.
Wu Wei’s radiant and transparent tone as well as the infinite possibilities offered by his instrument in terms of melody, harmony, rhythm, polyphony have led him to collaborating with many artists and ensembles in traditional, chamber or orchestral settings, improvising in solo concerts or with jazz big Bands, playing electronic music as well as taking part to minimal, baroque music performances.
Wu Wei’s desire to experiment with new sound and types of musical expression and his extraordinary capacity to create an individual world out of each performance are reflected in his collaborations with distinguished composers writing concertos for Sheng and orchestra especially for him: Huang Ruo (The color of yellow – 2007), Guus Janssen (Four Songs – 2008), Unsuk Chin (Su – 2009), Jukka Tiensuu (Teoton – 2015), Bernd Richard Deutsch (Phaenomena – 2019), Ondrej Adamek (Lost Prayer Book – 2019), Donghong Shin (Anecdote – 2019), Enjott Schneider (change – 2003 and several other concerti).
In the last decade, Wu Wei has performed with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic under Kent Nagano, the Seoul Philharmonic under Myung Whun Chung, the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, BBC Symphony under Ilan Volkov, the Cabrillo Festival and Sao Paulo Symphony under Marin Alsop, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden and Edo de Waart, Helsinki Philharmonic under Matthias Pintscher, ensembles such as the Holland Baroque, the Ensemble intercontemporain, the Atlas Ensemble and the NDR Big Band, and soloists like Guus Jansen (organ), Wang Li (Jew’s harp) or Pascal Contet (accordion).
He is regularly invited by international festivals such as the BBC Prom’s in London, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Edinburgh International Festival, Suntory Hall Summer Festival Tokyo, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Festival Achtbrücken Cologne, Grafenegg Festival, Lincoln Center Festival New York.
Upcoming events include Wu Wei’s debuts with the New York Philharmonic and Sao Paulo Symphony orchestra in 2019, the Chinese premiere in Beijing of Bernd Richard Deutsch’s Sheng concerto Phaenomena with the China NCPA Orchestra under Jia Lü, the world premiere of a new Sheng concerto by Enjott Schneider with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra and a tour to America and Canada with the Chinese NCPA Orchestra in 2020.
As a composer, Wu Wei has received commissions from the Fondation Royaumont, Musica Viva in Munich, the Hanse Culture Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony and several other institutions.
With Martin Stegner (viola) und Matthew McDonald (double bass), both members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, he founded the Wu Wei Trio which appears each season in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie. As a founder of the Berlin based Ensemble Asianart, he likes to share transcultural programs with instrumentalists from all around the world. He is an ideal partner for interdisciplinary projects involving literature, dance, theatre, architecture.
Wu Wei has recorded for Deutsche Gramophon, Sony Classical, Harmonia Mundi, Wergo, Pentatone and several of his CDs and DVDs have been distinguished by international Awards: International Classical Music Award 2015 and BBC Music Magazine Award 2015 for the Unsuk Chin concertos CD with Deutsche Gramophon, the German Critic Award in 2012 for the “AsianArt Ensemble” CD to note a few.
He also received the Best Sheng Soloist Award China in 2017, the Herald Angels Award 2011 at the International Festival Edinburgh, the Global Root German World Music Prize 2004 in Rudolstadt (Germany).
Wu Wei was born in 1970 in Gaoyou (China). He studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and started his career in 1993 as a Sheng soloist in China where he performed among others with the Chinese Music Orchestra Shanghaï. In 1995, he was selected by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and FNS (Friedrich Naumann Foundation) to take part in a four-year scholarship which brought him to Berlin, where he is still currently living. Since 2013, Wu Wei has been a Professor teaching the Sheng at the Shanghaï Conservatory of Music.
M.A. Tiesenga is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice delves into the intricate interplay of procedure and enaction within collaborative performance contexts, deftly shaping these dynamics through various idioms. Inspired by an affinity for the outdoors, Tiesenga draws analogies between these concepts and the art of cartography, illuminating the parallels between a map and a musical score. This exploration opens doors to musically navigate, inhabit, and realize theoretical terrains.
As a composer, visual artist, sound artist, multi-instrumentalist, and improviser, Tiesenga merges these creative identities by embracing the potential of expanded notation systems as an inquisition into new sonic possibilities. Their lifelong passion for collage, maps, puzzles, and asemic languages fuels an enchantment with encoding and decoding musical territories, allowing lexical approaches to transform into palpable expressions. Within their artistic vision, Tiesenga seeks to convey inner worlds where protocols and rules converge with intuition and mystique.
Tiesenga approaches sound-making as a collaborative exchange – central to Tiesenga’s artistic inspiration is the creation of works that cultivate connection and reciprocity in contemporary music. Their understanding of the musical score as both an art object and a notated intention for performance/action facilitates the construction of modular, living landscapes that reflect the people and spaces present. Graphic scores, for Tiesenga, serve as intermediaries bridging Karreideas and actions, visual and aural experiences, and the externalization of internal processes. As an ardent experimentalist, they find inspiration and excitement in exploring improvisation and indeterminacy, elevating and weaving performers’ agency by inviting personal interpretation into the fabric of a composition. Informed by their own extensive performance practice, Tiesenga is committed to crafting works that engage both performers and audiences alike to see their environment a little differently.
Tiesenga’s compositional collaborations include work with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Wild Up, Théâtre Musical Tokyo, Long Beach Opera, Kunsthalle for Music, SPEAK Percussion, Dog Star Orchestra, Ensemble Supermusique, and ensembles at the Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, California Institute for the Arts, Yale University, and Darmstädter Ferienkurse.
M.A. Tiesenga holds an MFA in Composition – Experimental Sound Practices and an MFA in Experimental Animation with a Concentration in Integrated Media from California Institute of the Arts, where they studied with Michael Pisaro, Sara Roberts, Eyvind Kang, Alexander Stewart, Pia Borg, and Tom Leeser. Previously, Tiesenga earned a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music in saxophone performance under the guidance of Dr. Chien-Kwan Lin.
Joshua Nathan Rubin served as the Program Director and then Artistic Director of the International Contemporary Ensemble from 2011-2018, where he oversaw the creative direction of more than one hundred concerts per season in the United States and abroad. As a clarinetist, the New York Times has praised him as, “incapable of playing an inexpressive note.”
Joshua has worked closely with many of the prominent composers and performers of our time, including George Crumb, Matana Roberts, Alvin Lucier, David Lang, Chaya Czernowin, Du Yun, Christian Wolff, Cory Smythe, George Lewis, Steven Schick, Kaija Saariaho, Craig Taborn, Pauline Oliveros, Okkyung Lee, Nathan Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, John Zorn, and Mario Davidovsky. Joshua can be heard on recordings from the Nonesuch, Kairos, New Focus, Mode, Cedille, Naxos, Bridge, New Amsterdam, and Tzadik labels. His album There Never is No Light, available on the Tundra label, highlights music that uses technology to capture the human engagement of the performer and the listener.
This season he will perform on modern and historical clarinets in New York with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Teatro Nuovo, the American Composers Orchestra, at Harvard University, in Los Angeles with Wild Up, Monday Evening Concerts, Tesserae Baroque, at the Ojai Music Festival with Rhiannon Giddens, and in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Berlin, Miami, Boston, Houston, Kansas City, San Diego, and Chicago.
His clarinet studies were mentored by Lawrence McDonald, Mark Nuccio, and Steven Cohen. He served on the faculty of the Banff Music Centre’s Ensemble Evolution summer program from 2016-2019. Rubin is on the faculty of soundSCAPE Festival and Ensemble Evolution. He serves on the faculty of the College of the Performing Arts at The New School and is Artist-in-Residence at University of California Santa Cruz in 2024.
Joshua holds degrees in Biology and Clarinet from Oberlin College and Conservatory, and a Master’s degree from the Mannes School of Music.
His passion for technology in arts led Joshua to develop LUIGI, management software that is available to ensembles and other arts organizations who value transparency and collective management, as well as his ongoing work to make electronic music technologies easier to use for performers and composers. He maintains an artistic presence in New York and Los Angeles.
Ross Karre (he/him b. 1983 in Michigan) is a percussionist, filmmaker, and producer based in Oberlin, OH and New York City. He is the associate professor of percussion at Oberlin Conservatory. After completing his Doctorate in Music at UCSD with Steven Schick, Ross formalized his visual studies with a Master of Fine Arts. He is a percussionist for the International Contemporary Ensemble where he was artistic director from 2016 to 2022. He has performed regularly with red fish blue fish, Third Coast Percussion (Chicago), and Yarn/Wire (NYC). He has performed at major festivals all over the world, including the Mostly Mozart Festival (NYC), the Holland Festival (Netherlands), Ojai Festival (CA), LA Phil Noon to Midnight, Lucerne Festival, Taipei International Percussion Festival, Big Ears (TN), MONA FOMA (Tasmania), Diskotek (Greenland), and Music Today Biennial (Brazil). 10.67 Cycles, Karre’s solo album featuring the music of Ash Fure and Pauline Oliveros, is available on Bandcamp. His video design work has been presented all over the world in prestigious venues such as the Kulturkirche Liebfrauen Duisburg, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, BBC Scotland, Western Front, MCA Chicago, the Park Avenue Armory, the Kennedy Center, The Kitchen, Roulette Intermedium, Miller Theatre at Columbia University, and the National Gallery of Art. Karre’s archival documentary and documentation work preserves unique moments in the creative processes of Claire Chase, Pauline Oliveros, Vijay Iyer, Steven Schick, Matthias Kaul, Fritz Hauser, and creative collaborations of Third Coast Percussion, Yarn/Wire, ICEensemble, Mount Tremper Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and the Oberlin Percussion Group.
Two-time GRAMMY®-nominated cellist Seth Parker Woods has established his reputation as a versatile artist and innovator across multiple genres, prompting The New York Times to write, “Woods is an artist rooted in classical music, but whose cello is a vehicle that takes him, and his concertgoers, on wide-ranging journeys.” Woods has served on the faculty of the Thornton School of Music at The University of Southern California since 2022 and was appointed to the Robert Mann Chair in Strings and Chamber Music in 2024.
Among the highlights of his 2024-2025 season, Woods performs in the world premiere of Nathalie Joachim’s new cello concerto, Had to Be, at Spoleto Festival USA, later performing its New York premiere in his debut with the New York Philharmonic. He makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in the world premiere of a new cello concerto by Julia Adolphe. A core member of the music collective Wild Up, Woods is featured as soloist in the group’s Eastman Vol. 4: The Holy Presence, released June 2024 on New Amsterdam Records, and was nominated alongside the group for a 2023 GRAMMY® Award.
During the 2023-2024 season, Woods brought his GRAMMY®-nominated, autobiographical tour-de-force Difficult Grace to San Diego and Philadelphia, following the world premiere at 92NY and performances at UCLA and Chicago’s Harris Theater. Difficult Grace was released as an album on Cedille Records in 2023 and nominated for the 2024 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. Highlights of last season include performances with Hilary Hahn at Konzerthaus Dortmund in Germany and touring a new version of John Adams’ El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered with American Modern Opera Company (AMOC).
In addition to his post at The University of Southern California, Woods serves on the artist faculty of the Music Academy of the West each summer. He holds degrees from Brooklyn College and Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel, as well as a PhD from the University of Huddersfield.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Craig Taborn has been performing piano and electronic music in the jazz, improvisational, and creative music scene for over 25 years. He has experience composing for and performing in a wide variety of situations including jazz, new music, electronic, rock, noise and avant-garde contexts.
Taborn has played and recorded with many luminaries in the fields of jazz, improvised, new music and electronic music including Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Lester Bowie, Dave Holland, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Evan Parker, Steve Coleman, David Torn, Chris Potter, William Parker, Vijay Iyer, Kris Davis, Nicole Mitchell, Susie Ibarra, Ikue Mori, Carl Craig, Dave Douglas, Meat Beat Manifesto, Dan Weiss, Chris Lightcap, Gerald Cleaver, and Rudresh Manhathappa.
Taborn is currently occupied creating and performing music for solo piano performance (Avenging Angel), piano trio (Craig Taborn Trio), an electronic project (Junk Magic), the Daylight Ghosts Quartet, a piano/drums/electronics duo with Dave King (Heroic Enthusiasts) and a new trio with Tomeka Reid and Ches Smith as well as piano duo collaborations with Vijay Iyer (The Transitory Poems), Kris Davis (Octopus) and Cory Smythe. He is also a member of the instrumental electronic art-pop group Golden Valley is Now and performs frequently on solo electronics. Taborn lives in Brooklyn.
Percussionist, conductor, and author Steven Schick was born in Iowa and raised in a farming family. Hailed by Alex Ross in the New Yorker as, “one of our supreme living virtuosos, not just of percussion but of any instrument,” he has championed contemporary percussion music for nearly 50 years, and in 2014 was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.
Steven Schick is music director emeritus of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, serving as its music director from 2006–22, and the artistic director of the Breckenridge Music Festival. He has guest conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Ensemble Modern, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble. He was artistic director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (2010–18) and directed programs at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity from 2009–19, the last three as co-artistic director, with Claire Chase, of the Summer Classical Music program. He was the music director of the 2015 Ojai Music Festival.
In 2020, Schick won the Ditson Conductor’s Award, given by Columbia University for commitment to the performance of American music. Schick’s publications include a book, The Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams; and numerous recordings including the 2010 Percussion Works of Iannis Xenakis and its companion The Complete Early Percussion Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen in 2014 (Mode). The latter received Germany’s award for the best new music release of 2015.
Steven Schick is distinguished professor of music and the inaugural holder of the Reed Family Presidential Chair at the University of California, San Diego.
