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  • Harassment, Discrimination and Retaliation Prevention Policy

    Ojai Music Festival (OMF) is committed to providing a workplace free of sexual harassment and discrimination (which includes harassment or discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions) as well as unlawful harassment and discrimination based on such factors as race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age for individuals over forty years of age, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, citizenship status, military and veteran status, denial or use of family and medical care leave, and any other factor made unlawful by federal, state, or local law.  OMF strongly disapproves of and will not tolerate unlawful harassment or discrimination against employees by supervisors or co-workers, as well as by third parties in the workplace or with whom the employee comes into contact in connection with their employment.  This policy applies to all OMF employees, paid or unpaid interns, volunteers, and any other persons providing services to OMF pursuant to a contract.

    Harassment includes verbal, physical, and visual conduct, as well as communication though electronic media of any type, that creates an intimidating, offensive or hostile working environment or interferes with work performance.  Such conduct constitutes harassment when (1) submission to the conduct is made either an explicit or implicit condition of employment; (2) submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as the basis for an employment decision; or (3) the harassment interferes with an employee’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.  Harassing conduct can take many forms and includes, but is not limited to, slurs, jokes, statements, gestures, pictures, or cartoons regarding an employee’s sex, race, color, national origin, religion, age, physical disability, medical condition, ancestry, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity veteran status, or other protected status.

    Sexually harassing conduct in particular includes all of these prohibited actions as well as other unwelcome conduct such as requests for sexual favors, unwelcome sexual advances, verbal conduct of a sexual nature (for example name calling, suggestive comments, or lewd talk) or physical conduct (including assault, unwanted touching, intentionally blocking normal movement or interfering with work because of sex or any other protected basis).  An employee who unlawfully harasses a co-worker may be personally liable for the harassment.

    If an employee believes he/she or a co-worker has been subjected to any form of unlawful discrimination or harassment, including sexual harassment, they should immediately contact their supervisor or Managing Director either orally or in writing.  A supervisor who learns of any misconduct which may be in violation of this policy or learns of an employee’s complaint or concern about a possible violation of this policy must immediately report the issue to the Managing Director.

    Upon receipt of any complaint, OMF will immediately undertake a prompt, impartial, and thorough investigation conducted by qualified personnel, preserving confidentiality to the extent possible.  The investigation will provide all parties appropriate due process and reach reasonable conclusions based on the evidence collected, as well as determine appropriate options for remedial action to resolve the situation.  If an employee has a complaint being investigated under this policy, he/she can find out about the progress of the investigation by contacting the Managing Director.

    Retaliation against OMF employees or any other person for the good faith reporting of possible acts or incidents of discrimination or harassment, as well as participation in any workplace investigation, will not be tolerated.  If an employee believes he/she or a co-worker have been subjected to any form of unlawful retaliation, he/she should immediately contact his/her supervisor or Managing Director, either orally or in writing.  Upon receipt of a retaliation complaint, OMF will undertake an investigation consistent with the provisions of this policy.  OMF employees shown to have engaged in such retaliation will be disciplined, up to and including termination.

    Sexual harassment and retaliation for opposing sexual harassment or participating in investigations of sexual harassment are illegal.  In addition to notifying the OMF about discrimination, harassment, or retaliation complaints, affected employees may also direct their complaints to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), which has the authority to conduct investigations of the facts.  The deadline for filing complaints with the DFEH is one (1) year from the date of the alleged unlawful conduct.  If the DFEH believes that a complaint is valid and settlement efforts fail, the DFEH may seek an administrative hearing before the California Fair Employment and Housing Council (FEHC) or file a lawsuit in court.  Both the FEHC and the courts have the authority to award monetary and non-monetary relief in meritorious cases.  Employees can contact the nearest DFEH office or the FEHC at the locations listed in OMF’s DFEH poster or by checking the state government listings on line or in the local telephone directory.

     

  • 2022 Ojai Festival Updates

    2022 Ojai Festival Updates

    2022 Music Director AMOC and Artistic Director Ara Guzelimian Share Updates for the 76th Ojai Music Festival: June 9 to 12, 2022
    Festival programming will include nine world premieres:
    • Family Dinner, a cycle of new mini-concertos by Matthew Aucoin, featuring the entire AMOC ensemble, including Davóne Tines, Emi Ferguson, Doug Balliett, and Jonny Allen 
    • the echoing of tenses, a newly commissioned song cycle by Anthony Cheung, setting poems by Asian-American poets including Arthur Sze, Monica Youn, Jenny Xie, and Ocean Vuong, and featuring Paul Appleby, Miranda Cuckson, and Cheung himself as pianist
    • A new production of Olivier Messiaen’s song cycle Harawi featuring soprano Julia Bullock and pianist Conor Hanick, choreographed and danced by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, and directed by Zack Winokur
    • Open Rehearsal, a new collaborative dance-theater work directed by Bobbi Jene Smith featuring AMOC artists and guests Vinson Fraley, Jonathan Fredrickson, Jesse Kovarsky, Yiannis Logothetis, and Mouna Soualem
    • How to Fall Apart, a music-dance piece newly commissioned by AMOC, composed by Carolyn Chen in collaboration with Jay Campbell, Julia Eichten, Keir GoGwilt, Or Schraiber and guests Yiannis Logothetis and Matilda Sakamoto
    • The Cello Player, a music-dance piece created by AMOC members Or Schraiber, Coleman Itzkoff, Bobbi Jene Smith, and guest collaborator Yiannis Logothetis
    • A musical-poetic meditation reflecting on displacement and belonging, A Passageway Between Shores, which weaves together a tapestry of original compositions by poet Divya Victor, composer Carolyn Chen and violinist Keir GoGwilt alongside Irish, Scottish and Tamil tunes
    • Free community offerings: Dance in the Park, featuring the dance duo Julia Eichten and Bret Easterling, which celebrates tenderness, togetherness, and fierce joy. On Sunday afternoon, Rome is Falling by composer Doug Balliett will present a high-energy new telling where song, spoken word, and driving music come together to contextualize the action, complete with audience engagement and the performance of members of a local children’s choir
    Additional concert performances will include EASTMAN, a multi-dimensional performance piece, reflecting on Julius Eastman’s art and the larger context of his life, creativity, and humanity. Other programs will range from works of Vivaldi and Bach to Cassandra Miller, Reiko Fueting, and Hans Otte in a special performance of The Book of Sounds. Musical guest artists will include the early-music ensemble Ruckus, cellist Seth Parker Woods, composer/pianist Anthony Cheung, clarinetist Gleb Kanasevich, violist Carrie Frey, and percussionist Mari Yoshinaga


    “We are thrilled for audiences to meet AMOC and our formidable guest collaborators as creators and performers. This Festival, with its numerous world premieres, including six new theatrical productions, is a loving portrait of this moment in time, full of work that is based on our artists’ own experiences. As we climb out of this pandemic and meet each other in a moment when many of us still feel a lingering fear of contact with others, we believe it’s more important now than ever to find intimacy again, to gather together through rituals of performance. And we can’t imagine a more transcendent place to do that than at Ojai.” — Zack Winokur, Artistic Director of AMOC, 2022 Music Director

    OJAI, California — UPDATED March 22, 2022 — The 76th Ojai Music Festival, June 9 to 12, 2022, welcomes as Music Director the discipline-colliding collective AMOC (American Modern Opera Company), which represents a new generation of artists working together in creation and performance. Ojai’s Music Director AMOC comprises 17 of the most adventurous singers, dancers, instrumentalists, choreographers, and composers at work today in music and dance.

    For the 2022 Festival, AMOC will serve as the first-ever multi-disciplinary collective to hold the position of Music Director in the Festival’s 75-year history. AMOC has been described by The Boston Globe as “a creative incubator par excellence” and Peter Sellars in The New Yorker as “not just the future of opera but the future of everything.”  An ensemble of some of the most creative, forward-thinking artists working between tradition and experimentation, AMOC was co-founded by composer/conductor Matthew Aucoin and director/choreographer Zack Winokur in 2017 and includes core 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/scholar), Conor Hanick (piano), Coleman Itzkoff (cello), Or Schraiber (dancer/choreographer), Bobbi Jene Smith (dancer/choreographer), and Davóne Tines (bass-baritone). AMOC personnel includes Jennifer Chen (managing director), Cath Brittan (producer), and Mary McGowan (company manager). Julia Bullock, Jay Campbell, Miranda Cuckson, Emi Ferguson, and Davóne Tines will all make welcome returns to Ojai, having participated in past Ojai Festivals.

    Ojai Festival’s Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian commented, “As we mark the 75th anniversary of the Festival’s founding in 1947, we celebrate the spirit of Ojai which has always led the way to new and unexpected horizons, a spirit embodied in the work of AMOC. This brilliant assembly is representative of a new generation of artists – in their fearless melding of disciplines, in their spirit of collaboration as a central artistic premise, and their collective commitment to creation as well as performance. Together, they have produced some of the most exciting work to emerge in recent years. Their music directorship at Ojai is the first curatorial project that involves every single member of AMOC, and it has been an exhilarating process to devise these programs together. I happily anticipate a Festival full of joyous discovery and adventure.”

    WORLD PREMIERES
    Programming for the 2022 Festival will include a premiere performance of AMOC’s staging of Olivier Messiaen’s deeply affecting song cycle Harawi for soprano and piano. In addition to Julia Bullock and Conor Hanick’s performance of this sweeping work, this semi-staged production breaks open Messiaen’s musical explorations of love and death into a newly physicalized and theatrical dimension through the choreographic work of Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, directed by Zack Winokur. Harawi, written in 1945, is based on an Andean love song genre of the same name, with texts by Messiaen and incorporating the Quechua language.

    The world premiere of Family Dinner, commissioned by the Ojai Festival, anchors the Saturday evening slot of the 2022 Festival. Family Dinner is a cycle of mini-concertos by Matthew Aucoin, each movement of which spotlights a different member of AMOC. The piece will also feature spoken “toasts” delivered both by AMOC artists and special guests.

    AMOC premieres a new program conceived by Keir GoGwilt, A Passageway Between Shores, a musical-poetic meditation reflecting on displacement and belonging, and featuring original work by poet Divya Victor, composer Carolyn Chen and GoGwilt.  Melding this original music with traditional songs and familiar refrains, A Passageway Between Shores includes Irish, Scottish and Tamil music.

    The Festival will present the premiere of LA-based composer Carolyn Chen’s How to Fall Apart, a newly-AMOC-commissioned one-hour work integrating text, gesture, and music. This will be a first-time collaboration between Chen and AMOC, and will feature AMOC members Jay Campbell, Julia Eichten, Keir GoGwilt, and guest collaborators Yiannis Logothetis and Matilda Sakamoto.

    A new full-length collaborative dance work created especially for the Ojai Festival by AMOC member and choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith, Open Rehearsal, evolves and adapts parts of Smith’s most recent film, Broken Theater, which was developed and shot at Mass MoCA and La MaMa. The piece explores themes of power, love, and trust through the theatrics of rehearsal and will feature music by Schubert, Bach, Connie Converse, and Pete Seeger.

    The Cello Player, another new collaborative piece, will receive its first performance at Ojai. Created by Or Schraiber, Yiannis Logothetis, Coleman Itzkoff, and Bobbi Jene Smith, The Cello Player is a dance-music piece excavating the complexity of ancient relationships: the tortured conception of friendship as a messy amalgam of love, hatred, insecurity, and neediness.

    Rounding out the world premieres in Ojai will be an Ojai Festival-commissioned song cycle, the echoing of tenses, by Anthony Cheung. The piece sets poems by Asian-American writers interconnected by the larger theme of memory, made complicated by the circumstances and tensions of cultural and personal identity, family, migration, loss, and reflection. The various poems by Arthur Sze, Monica Youn, Jenny Xie, Ocean Vuong, and others will be sung, spoken, and interwoven throughout. The work features Paul Appleby, Miranda Cuckson, and Cheung himself as pianist.

    FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
    In addition to a rich offering of AMOC’s newest productions, the 2022 Festival will include concert events in Libbey Bowl, with a kick-off concert on Thursday evening presenting an epic musical marathon that will feature AMOC’s core members. This wide-ranging program will include music by Kate Soper, Michael Hersch, Celeste Oram, Orlando Gibbons, Matthew Aucoin, Iannis Xenakis, Bob Dylan, Frederic Rzewski, and Eric Wubbels.

    Bookending the four-day event on Sunday evening, AMOC will bring the 2022 Festival to a close with a joyful, high-spirited program that brings together every one of the Festival’s artists, in every discipline, for a grand finale and communal catharsis. The program will feature a broad array of Baroque music featuring countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and Ruckus, and the Festival will conclude with the entire company performing Julius Eastman’s jubilant, mesmerizing Stay On It.

    Additional musical highlights of the four-day Festival will include EASTMAN, a multi-dimensional performance piece, reflecting the performers’ consideration of Julius Eastman’s art and the larger context of his life, creativity, and humanity; a rare performance of the complete epic solo piano work The Book of Sounds by pioneering German composer and pianist Hans Otte played by Conor Hanick; and a program titled About Bach, which pairs works of Bach with contemporary reflections on his music by Cassandra Miller and Reiko Fueting.

    The Festival offers its first performance of a work by one of Southern California’s most vital and distinctive musical voices, Andrew McIntosh. McIntosh’s Little Jimmy was inspired by a visit the composer made to a backpackers’ camp called Little Jimmy, located on Mt. Islip in the Angeles National Forest.  Little Jimmy, performed by pianists Conor Hanick and Matthew Aucoin and percussionists Jonny Allen and Mari Yoshinaga, is programmed alongside Messiaen’s Harawi.

    Making their Ojai Festival debuts will be Ruckus, a “shapeshifting” Baroque early music band comprising some of today’s leading soloists of Baroque repertoire; musicians Carrie Frey, Gleb Kanasevich, Seth Parker Woods, and Mari Yoshinaga; and artistic collaborators in the multi-disciplinary works including Bret Easterling, Vinson Fraley, Jonathan Fredrickson, Jesse Kovarsky, Yiannis Logothetis, Matilda Sakamoto, and Mouna Soualem.

    COMMUNITY OFFERINGS
    During the four days of the Festival, free community activities will occur in Libbey Park and throughout Ojai, as well as ongoing integration of the Festival’s year-round BRAVO music education program in the public schools.

    On Sunday, June 12, all are invited to two free events receiving their world premieres in Libbey Park.  The first, Dance in the Park, features the dance duo Julia Eichten and Bret Easterling, celebrating  tenderness, togetherness, and fierce joy. On Sunday afternoon, Rome is Falling is a high-energy new telling where song, spoken word, and driving music come together to contextualize the action with audience engagement and the performance of a local children’s choir. The new work by AMOC member Doug Balliett features the composer, Coleman Itzkoff, Davóne Tines, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Jonny Allen, Keir Gogwilt, Emi Ferguson, Julia Bullock, Paul Appleby, Matthew Aucoin, and Ruckus.

    BEYOND OJAI: DIGITAL OFFERINGS
    The Ojai Music Festival lives beyond the flagship four-day festival in June, allowing further engagement with audiences worldwide. Free offerings include the Festival’s state-of-the-art live streaming and archived library of concerts, Virtual Ojai Talks with featured 2022 Festival artists, and OjaiCast, the podcast series that provides insights on upcoming programming. The Festival’s digital projects are available at OjaiFestival.org.

    Click Here to View Festival Schedule 

    AMOC, 2022 MUSIC DIRECTOR
    Founded in 2017 by Matthew Aucoin and Zack Winokur, the mission of AMOC (American Modern Opera Company) is to build and share a body of collaborative work. As a group of dancers, singers, musicians, writers, directors, composers, choreographers, and producers united by a core set of values, AMOC artists pool their resources to create new pathways that connect creators and audiences in surprising and visceral ways. AMOC recently received a $750,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation “to support visionary artists in collaborative processes that re-envision a long-enduring art form in an artist-centric and contemporary manner.”

    Current and past projects include The No One’s Rose, a devised music-theater-dance piece featuring new music by Matthew Aucoin, directed by Zack Winokur with choreography by Bobbi Jene Smith; EASTMAN, a multi-dimensional performance piece contending with the life and work of Julius Eastman; Winokur’s production of Hans Werner Henze’s El Cimarrón, which has been performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Repertory Theater; a new arrangement of John Adams’s El Niño, premiered at The Met Cloisters as part of Julia Bullock’s season-long residency at the Met Museum; Davóne Tines’s and Winokur’s Were You There, a meditation on black lives lost in recent years to police violence; and Bobbi Jene Smith and Keir GoGwilt’s dance/music works With Care and A Study on Effort, which have been produced at San Francisco’s ODC Theater, Toronto’s Luminato Festival, and elsewhere. Conor Hanick’s performance of CAGE, Zack Winokur’s production of John Cage’s music for prepared piano, was cited as the best recital of the year by The New York Times in 2018 and The Boston Globe in 2019. Additionally, AMOC will serve as the Ojai Music Festival’s 2022 Music Director, only the second ensemble, and first explicitly interdisciplinary company, to hold the position in the Festival’s 75-year history.

    CO-FOUNDERS

    MATTHEW AUCOIN, composer, conductor, pianist
    ZACK WINOKUR, director, choreographer, dancer

    ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
    ZACK WINOKUR

    MANAGING DIRECTOR
    JENNIFER CHEN

    PRODUCER
    CATH BRITTAN

    COMPANY MANAGER
    MARY MCGOWAN

    CORE ENSEMBLE
    JONNY ALLEN, percussionist
    PAUL APPLEBY, tenor
    DOUG BALLIETT, double bassist, composer
    JULIA BULLOCK, soprano
    JAY CAMPBELL, cellist
    ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO, countertenor
    MIRANDA CUCKSON, violinist, violist
    JULIA EICHTEN, dancer, choreographer
    EMI FERGUSON, flutist
    KEIR GOGWILT, violinist, scholar
    CONOR HANICK, pianist
    COLEMAN ITZKOFF, cellist
    OR SCHRAIBER, dancer, choreographer
    BOBBI JENE SMITH, dancer, choreographer
    DAVÓNE TINES, bass-baritone

    ARA GUZELIMIAN, ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
    Ara Guzelimian is Artistic and Executive Director of the Ojai Music Festival, having begun in that position in July 2020. The appointment culminates many years of association with the Festival, including tenures as director of the Ojai Talks and as Artistic Director 1992–97. 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 its 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. Guzelimian 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, 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, Guzelimian was awarded the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his contributions to French music and culture.

    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 shape 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 Ojai, a breathtaking valley 75 miles from Los Angeles, which is a perennial 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. During the intimate Festival weekend, considered a highlight of the international music summer season, Ojai welcomes up to 7,000 patrons 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 a different  Music Director each year, Ojai has presented a “who’s who” of music including Vijay Iyer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Barbara Hannigan in recent years; 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, Matthias Pintscher, and Peter Sellars.

    COVID-19 HEALTH AND SAFETY PLANNING
    The Ojai Music Festival is committed to the health and safety of the Festival and greater Ojai communities. Given changing conditions, we continue to consult with county and state public health officials to determine the best practices (which may include masking and vaccination requirements) to put into effect for the June Festival. We will communicate our policy and any required protocols as we approach the June Festival. Please check our website for updated health and safety information to plan your visit.

    SINGLE TICKET FOR 2022 OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL
    2022 Ojai Festival single tickets are on sale and range from $50 to $150 in the reserved section of Libbey Bowl. Lawn tickets available at $20. Tickets may be purchased online at OjaiFestival.org or by calling (805) 646-2053.

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  • Mary McGowan, company manager

    Mary McGowan, company manager

    Mary McGowan is a freelance producer, director, actor, and arts administrator based in Brooklyn, NY. Mary is currently the Ticketing Manager for the Tony Awards, Company Manager for the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), and Line Producer for the Broadway Podcast Network (BPN). Between February-August 2021, Mary worked as Artistic Coordinator for NY PopsUp, an expansive festival consisting of 300+ pop-up performances intended to revitalize live performance across New York state. Previously, Mary served as Special Assistant to the Artistic Director (Diane Paulus) and Executive Team at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) from 2018-2021, during which time she served as Assistant Director for ExtraOrdinary, as well as the developmental readings + workshops of 1776. Other Directing/Associate work: Chautauqua Theatre Company, Little Island, New York City Center, MasterVoices. B.F.A. from Syracuse University.

  • Cath Brittan, producer

    Cath Brittan, producer

    Cath Brittan is originally from Manchester, England. She lived in Vienna for many years and was a producer for the Vienna Festival. She has worked as production manager and producer in theaters and opera houses around the world including English National Opera, London; The Bolshoi, Moscow; Teatro Real, Madrid; The National Theater of Finland, Opera de Comique, Paris; The Staatsoper, Vienna; Grand Théâtre de Genève, Geneva, and many more. Recent and up-coming productions include Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (dir. Christopher Alden) and Glass Handel (2018 & 2019), Comet Poppea (dir. Yuval Sharon), Bandwagon (New York Philharmonic) all with Anthony Roth Costanzo; Das Paradies und die Peri, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Peter Sellars; 2018/19 and 19/20 Soundbox Season, San Francisco Symphony; Orphic Moments (dir. Zack Winokur) with The Master Voices; Abraham In Flames (composer Aleksandra Vrebalov); Perle Noir (Tyshawn Sorey & Julia Bullock at The Met Museum); Arkhipov (composer Peter Knell); Birds in the Moon (composer Mark Grey); Ihpigenia (Wayne Shorter & Esperanza Spalding); and In a Grove (Composer Christopher Cerrone). Cath is also Producer for AMOC (American Modern Opera Company).

  • Doug Balliett, double bassist, composer

    Doug Balliett, double bassist, composer

    Doug Balliett is a composer, instrumentalist and poet based in New York City. The New York Times has described his poetry as “brilliant and witty,” his bass playing as “elegant,” and his compositions as “vivid, emotive, with contemporary twists.” He is a tireless performer of new music, and is professor of historic basses at the Juilliard School. With a constant stream of commissions, a weekly show on New York Public Radio, and nearly 200 performances per year, Balliett has been identified as an emerging voice for his generation.

    (more…)

  • Emi Ferguson, flutist

    Emi Ferguson, flutist

    English-American performer and composer Emi Ferguson stretches the boundaries of what is expected of modern-day musicians. Trained at Juilliard as a flutist, Emi can be heard live in concerts and festivals around the world as well as at home in New York City where she is a member of the New York New Music Ensemble, NYBI, Argento Ensemble, and New Vintage Baroque. She has spoken and performed at several TEDX events and has been featured on media outlets including the Discovery Channel and TouchPress apps talking about how music relates to our world today. Her debut album, Amour Cruel, an indie-pop song cycle inspired by the music of the 17th century French court was released by Arezzo Music in September 2017, spending 4 weeks on the Classical, Classical Crossover, and World Music Billboard Charts. Her 2019 album Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, a collaboration with continuo band Ruckus debuted at #1 on the iTunes classical charts and #2 on the Billboard classical charts, mining the depths of possibility in continuo and flute performance.

    (more…)

  • Davóne Tines, bass-baritone

    Davóne Tines, bass-baritone

    Heralded as “a singer of immense power and fervor” by The Los Angeles Times, Davóne Tines came to international attention during the 2015-16 in breakout performances at the Dutch National Opera premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains directed by Peter Sellars and at the Ojai Music Festival presenting works by Caroline Shaw and Kaija Saariaho with the Calder Quartet and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Recent highlights include the European premiere of David Lang’s prisoner of the state with Ilan Volkov conducting the BBC Symphony, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony, John Adams’s El Niño with David Robertson and the Houston Symphony, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Stéphane Denève and the Saint Louis Symphony.

    (more…)

  • Jay Campbell, cellist

    Jay Campbell, cellist

    Armed with a diverse spectrum of repertoire and eclectic musical interests, cellist Jay Campbell has been recognized for approaching both old and new works with the same probing curiosity and emotional commitment. His performances have been called “electrifying” by The New York Times, “gentle, poignant, and deeply moving” by the Washington Post, and on WQXR by Krzysztof Penderecki for “the greatest performance yet of Capriccio per Sigfried Palm”. A 2016 recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Jay made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 2013 and worked with Alan Gilbert in 2016 as the artistic director for Ligeti Forward for the New York Philharmonic Biennale. (more…)

  • Coleman Itzkoff, cellist

    Coleman Itzkoff, cellist

    Hailed by Alex Ross in The New Yorker for his “flawless technique and keen musicality,” cellist Coleman Itzkoff enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. A prize winner at the 2019 Houston Symphony’s Ima Hogg Competition, Itzkoff made his professional debut at the age of 15 with Ohio’s Dayton Philharmonic and has since appeared as soloist with orchestras and in chamber music series countrywide.

    Recent season highlights include performances with the Houston Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, American Youth Symphony at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Mason Home Concerts, The Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Caramoor, Texas’s Sarafim Music, and Virginia’s Moss Art Center. (more…)

  • Zack Winokur, co-founder and artistic director

    Zack Winokur, co-founder and artistic director

    With his work described as “pure poetry” (Boston Globe), stage director, choreographer, and dancer Zack Winokur is recognized as one of the most innovative and exciting talents working in opera today.

    Recent highlights include his “rich, seamless” (New York Times) production of The Black Clown, an adaptation of the Langston Hughes poem starring Davóne Tines with music by Michael Schachter, at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center and the American Repertory Theater; his “darkly captivating” (New York Times) production of Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine, with music by Tyshawn Sorey, text by Claudia Rankine, and starring Julia Bullock on the grand staircase of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Sondheim’s A Little Night Music with the Nederlandse Reisopera in collaboration with design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero and visual artist Cynthia Talmadge; a new production of Hans Werner Henze’s El Cimarrón starring Davóne Tines, also at the Met Museum; and a new piece for the Los Angeles Dance Project at the Luma Foundation in Arles, France. (more…)

  • Bobbi Jene Smith, dancer, choreographer

    Bobbi Jene Smith, dancer, choreographer

    Bobbi Jene Smith is an alumnus of The Juilliard School, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. Her choreography has been presented by The Batsheva Dance Company, CORPUS of The Royal Danish Ballet, LADP, VAIL Dance Festival, LaMama Experimental Theater, and The Martha Graham Dance Company. In 2019 she was awarded The Harkness Promise Award and was The Martha Duffy Resident Artist at Baryshnikov Art Center.

    Smith’s film and video work include “Annihilation,” directed by Alex Garland starring Natalie Portman; “MA,” directed by Celia Rowlson-Hall; and “Yossi,” directed by Eytan Fox. The documentary “Bobbi Jene,” which follows Smith’s trajectory of leaving a dance company to create her own work, swept the Tribeca Film Festival, winning Best Documentary, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing in 2017. In 2018, Bobbi starred in and choreographed the feature films “Mari,” directed by Georgia Parris and choreographed by Maxine Doyle, which premiered at BFI; and “Aviva,” directed by Boaz Yakin, which was a SXSW selection.

    (more…)

  • Or Schraiber, dancer, choreographer

    Or Schraiber, dancer, choreographer

    Or Schraiber studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. In 2010, Schraiber joined the Batsheva Dance Company, in which he danced for seven years. In parallel to his time in the company, he served at the IDF for three years. In 2017, Schraiber moved to New York City to study acting at the Stella Adler Studio. In 2019, he starred in and co-choreographed Boaz Yakin’s feature film “Aviva.” Later that year, he starred as Thaddeus and choreographed scenes in Terrence Malick’s The Way of the Wind and appeared in the national Broadway tour of The Band’s Visit.

    (more…)

  • Conor Hanick, pianist

    Conor Hanick, pianist

    A pianist that “defies human description” for some (Concerto Net) and recalls “a young Peter Serkin” for others (New York Times), Conor Hanick is one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music old and new.

    He has performed internationally to wide acclaim in repertoire ranging from the early Baroque to the recently written, and collaborated with conductors Alan Gilbert, James Levine, David Robertson, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Anne Manson, Carlos Izcaray, Jeffrey Milarsky, and others. In addition to the Kennedy Center, Mondavi Performing Arts Center, the Kultur und Kongresszentrum Luzern, Kyoto Concert Hall, the Dewan Pilharmonik Peronas in Malaysia, Hanick has performed in virtually every prominent arts venue in New York City, ranging from (le) Poisson Rouge and The Kitchen to Alice Tully Hall and all three halls of Carnegie Hall.

    (more…)

  • Keir GoGwilt, violinist, writer

    Keir GoGwilt, violinist, writer

    Keir GoGwilt is a violinist, writer, and musicologist, whose work spans a range of critical and creative disciplines. As a violinist he has been described as a “formidable performer” (New York Times) noted for his “evocative sound” (London Jazz News) and “finger-busting virtuosity” (San Diego Union Tribune). He is a core member of AMOC, and he co-composes, improvises, and performs music with bassist Kyle Motl as part of their duo, Treesearch.

    He has soloed with groups including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Chinese National Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago, the Bowdoin International Music Festival Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia, and the La Jolla Symphony. He works closely with composers Matthew Aucoin, Celeste Oram, and Carolyn Chen, choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith, bassist Mark Dresser (as part of the Dresser Quintet/Septet), taonga puoro musician Rob Thorne, and percussionist/conductor Steven Schick.

    (more…)

  • Julia Eichten, dancer, choreographer

    Julia Eichten, dancer, choreographer

    Julia Eichten grew up dancing in Minnesota. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she received the Hector Zaraspe Award in recognition of her choreography. Her work has appeared at venues ranging from Le Poisson Rouge to the Dumbo Dance Festival and Dance Theater of Harlem, and was choreographer-in-residence at The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard in 2011. In 2015, Eichten had the world premiere of her piece, O’de, in collaboration with Los Angeles Dance Project and Lil Buck at the Palace of Versailles. With ‘Kids Dance,’ at the Joyce Theater, she showed her work, Monsieur, which The New York Times dubbed “an elegantly clumsy solo.” She has danced with Camille A. Brown & Dancers and Aszure Barton & Artists and was a founding member of Los Angeles Dance Project, internationally performing works by Merce Cunningham, Justin Peck, Martha Graham, Danielle Agami, Emanuel Gat, Sidi Larbi, Ohad Naharin, and William Forsythe. Eichten continues to work with Gerard & Kelly as a performer and collaborator in works including Solange’s collaboration with Uniqlo, Metratronia, as well as a month of performances at Pioneer Works (NY) in Clockwork.

    (more…)

  • Miranda Cuckson, violinist, violist

    Miranda Cuckson, violinist, violist

    Violinist and violist Miranda Cuckson is a favorite of audiences for her performances of a great range of repertoire and styles, from music of older eras to the most current creations. From a strong grounding in the classical repertoire, she has become one of the most active and acclaimed performers of contemporary music. Downbeat magazine recently stated that she “reaffirms her standing as one of the most sensitive and electric interpreters of new music.”

    Called “a prodigiously talented player who [can] make even the thorniest contemporary scores sing” (New York Times), she appears as soloist and chamber musician in concert halls large and small, schools and universities, galleries and informal spaces. (more…)

  • Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor

    Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor

    Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo began performing professionally at the age of 11 and has since appeared in opera, concert, recital, film, and on Broadway. His debut album, ARC, on Decca Gold, was nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY Award, and he is Musical America’s 2019 Vocalist of the Year.

    Costanzo has appeared with many of the world’s leading opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Los Angeles Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Dallas Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Spoleto Festival USA, Glimmerglass Festival and Finnish National Opera. In concert he has sung with the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has performed at a wide-ranging variety of venues including Carnegie Hall, Versailles, The Kennedy Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Sawdust, Minamiza Kyoto, Joe’s Pub, The Guggenheim, The Park Avenue Armory, and Madison Square Garden.

    (more…)

  • Jennifer Chen, managing director

    Jennifer Chen, managing director

    Jennifer Chen completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard University (History of Art and Architecture cum laude) and is a 2017 MBA graduate of the Yale University School of Management. Her career has brought her from producing operas in dining halls at Harvard to working with institutions including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet, Peabody Essex Museum, Celebrity Series of Boston, and Villa I Tatti in Florence, Italy.

  • Julia Bullock, soprano

    Julia Bullock, soprano

    American classical singer Julia Bullock is “a musician who delights in making her own rules” (New Yorker). Combining versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence, she has headlined productions and concerts at some of the preeminent arts institutions worldwide. An innovative programmer whose artistic curation is in high demand, her curatorial positions include collaborative partner of Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2020-21, his inaugural season as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony; 2019-20 Artist-in-Residence of the same orchestra; Artist-in-Residence of London’s Guildhall School for the 2020-22 seasons; opera-programming host of new broadcast channel All Arts; and 2018-19 Artist-in-Residence of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Chosen as a 2021 “Artist of the Year” by Musical America, which hailed her as an “agent of change,” Bullock is also a prominent voice of social consciousness.

    (more…)

  • Matthew Aucoin, co-founder

    Matthew Aucoin, co-founder

    Matthew Aucoin is an American composer, conductor, writer, and pianist. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2018, and is both Artist-in-Residence at Los Angeles Opera and co-founder of the American Modern Opera Company. Aucoin’s newest opera, Eurydice, a collaboration with the playwright Sarah Ruhl, had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Opera in February 2019, and will travel to the Metropolitan Opera in the 2021-22 season.

    The role of Artist-in-Residence at Los Angeles Opera, created for Aucoin, fuses his work as composer and conductor. Aucoin has conducted LA Opera mainstage productions ranging from Verdi’s Rigoletto to Philip Glass’s Akhnaten; he has also conducted his own works, including the opera Crossing, and founded a new late-night concert series, AfterHours. In addition, Aucoin coaches the singers in LA Opera’s Young Artist program, and advises the company on new music.

    (more…)

  • Paul Appleby, tenor

    Paul Appleby, tenor

    Admired for his interpretive depth, vocal strength, and range of expressivity, tenor Paul Appleby is one of the most sought-after voices of his generation. Appleby continues to grace the stages of the world’s most distinguished concert halls and opera houses while collaborating with leading orchestras, instrumentalists, and conductors. Opera News claims, “[Paul’s] tenor is limpid and focused, but with a range of color unusual in an instrument so essentially lyric… His singing is scrupulous and musical; the voice moves fluidly and accurately.” Recent appearances include performances of John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and productions of Candide at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Die Zauberflöte at the Glyndebourne Festival.

    (more…)

  • Jonny Allen, percussionist

    Jonny Allen, percussionist

     

    Described by the Washington Post as “revitalizing the world of contemporary music” with “jaw-dropping virtuosity,” Jonny Allen is a Brooklyn-based percussionist whose passion for music is contagious. He has won prizes at both the International Chamber Music Competition and the International Marimba Competition in Salzburg, giving respective performances at Carnegie Hall and Schloss Hoch in Flachau, Austria. Allen has also performed as a drum set soloist with Ghana’s National Symphony Orchestra at the National Theatre in Accra. He performs across the United States and internationally with his percussion quartet, Sandbox, and his jazz trio, Triplepoint, and is the percussion director at Choate Rosemary Hall. (more…)

  • 2021 Live Stream Archive

    2021 Live Stream Archive

    The Ojai Music Festival offers the world beyond Ojai’s Libbey Bowl to experience the music and conversations through its free live streaming.

    Viewers can enjoy interviews with artists before each performance with Live Stream hosts Thomas Kotcheff and Sarah Gibson. Also check out the 2021 Program Book and Full Festival Schedule.

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    2021 Stream Archive

    To watch in full-screen mode, click in the bottom right of the player.

    Full Concerts

    Ojai Mix: Prelude to a Festival
    THU 9.16 @ 9:00pm

    Attacca Quartet with Rhiannon…
    FRI 9.17 @ 11:00am

    John Adams conducts the Ojai…
    FRI 9.17 @ 8:00pm

    I Still Play with pianist Timo Andres
    SUN 9.19 @ 8:00am

    LA Phil New Music Group
    SUN 9.19 @ 11:00am

    Festival Finale
    SUN 9.19 @ 5:30pm

    Interviews

    Interview with Dustin Donahue

    Interview with Carlos Simon

    Interview with Gabriela Ortiz

    Interview with Ara Guzelimian

    Interview with Miranda Cuckson

    Interview with John Adams

    Selected Pieces from Concerts

    Élégie by Igor Stravinsky

    Huitzitl by Gabriela Ortiz

    Between Worlds by Carlos Simon

    Early to Rise by Timo Andres

    Magnolia by Dylan Mattingly

    Violin Diptych by S. Adams

    Maré by Gabriela Smith

    Toot Nipple by John Adams

    Alligator Escalator by John Adams

    Stubble Crotchet by John Adams

    Benkei’s Standing Death by Paul Wiancko

    Plan and Elevation by Caroline Shaw

    Strum by Jessie Montgomery

    Factory Girl (traditional) by Rhiannon Giddens

    Koromanti Tune # 2 / Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens

    At the Purchaser’s Option by
    Rhiannon Giddens

    Carrot Revolution by Gabriella Smith

    Danse sacrée et danse profane by Claude Debussy

    Partita No. 3 Preludio by J.S. Bach | Fog by Salonen

    Flow by Ingram Marshall

    Running Theme by Timo Andres

    Río de las Mariposas by Gabriela Ortiz

    To Give You Form And Breath by inti figgis-vizueta

    Hallelujah Junction by John Adams

    Objets Trouvés by Esa-Pekka Salonen

    Sunt Lacrime Rerum by Dylan Mattingly

     

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    2021 Live Stream Schedule

    To view the live stream, visit our homepage at concert-time. The live stream video will appear at the top of the page. If it’s concert-time and the live stream still hasn’t appeared, click at the top left of your browser to reload the page. To watch in full-screen mode, click in the bottom right of the player.

    More live stream questions? Please call or text (805) 317-4184.

    THU Sept 16, 2021 – Stream begins 8:45pm

    • 8:45pm – Welcome
    • 9:00pm – Ojai Mix: Prelude to a Festival

    FRI Sept 17, 2021Stream begins 10:45am

    • 10:45am – Interview with Dustin Donahue
    • 11:00am – Attacca Quartet with Rhiannon Giddens

    FRI Sept 17, 2021 – Stream begins 7:45pm

    • 7:45pm – Interview with Carlos Simon
    • 8:00pm – John Adams conducts the Ojai Festival Orchestra

    SAT Sept 18, 2021 – Stream begins 10:15am

    • 10:15am – Interview with John Adams
    • 10:30am – Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson in recital

    SAT Sept 18, 2021 – Stream begins 7:45pm

    • 7:45pm – Interview with Miranda Cuckson
    • 8:00pm – They’re Calling Me Home (Rhiannon Giddens and friends)

    SUN Sept 19, 2021 – Stream begins 7:45am

    • Welcome
    • 8:00am – I Still Play (Timo Andres, piano)

    SUN Sept 19, 2021 – Stream begins 10:45am

    • 10:45am – Interview with Gabriela Ortiz
    • 11:00am – LA Phil New Music Group

    SUN Sept 19, 2021 – Stream begins 5:15pm

    • 5:15pm – Interview with Ara Guzelimian
    • 5:30pm – Festival Finale with John Adams, Víkingur Ólafsson, Rhiannon Giddens, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO)

  • Press Releases

  • Press Images

     

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