‘Winter Morning Walks’ Nominated for Grammy Awards
Congratulations to Maria Schneider and Dawn Upshaw, who both received Grammy Award nominations for their recording of Winter Morning Walks with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Schneider is nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Upshaw for Best Classical Vocal Solo. The recording also received nominations for Best Engineered Album (classical).
Winter Morning Walks, which takes as its text poems by Ted Kooser, received its premiere at the 65th Ojai Music Festival in 2011, where Upshaw served as music director. The piece was a co-commission of the Festival, Cal Performances, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Listen to the track “Perfectly Still This Solstice Morning” from Winter Morning Walks and ArtistShare album released earlier this year.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/124403944″ params=”color=000000&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]We have our fingers crossed for both Maria and Dawn and wish them the best of luck with the final announcement! If you missed the 2011 performance, be sure to get your own copy using the link below.
“Ojai gave me the unique opportunity to bring my two worlds of jazz and classical together in my own personal way. I love that the Ojai audiences have come to expect absolutely anything. Their open mindedness is special and gives artists a rare feeling of freedom in whatever direction they personally wish to go.” – Maria Schneider
Click here to purchase Winter Morning Walks from ArtistShare >>
2014 Ojai Music Festival – Music About Music
2014 Ojai: Music About Music
Jeremy Denk is throwing a party, and he’s calling it the 2014 Ojai Music Festival. His guest list is broad and inclusive — from the Baroque to the music of today — but it’s a party with a theme, and that theme is music about music. So where to begin? Let’s begin with music that begins and then begins again: the canon, feeding on itself and spinning out into infinity. We’ll hear what Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Nancarrow, and Adès do with that canon, and what Uri Caine and Timo Andres do with the other canon as they reimagine music we thought we knew — Mahler, for instance, filtered through jazz and klezmer music, or Mozart’s Coronation Concerto re-composed as if through a time warp. Not for the purist or faint of heart, perhaps, but a telling reflection of what music has become in this age of eclectic listening. Now you see why Ives and Ligeti have been invited, and Janácek and Weill, as well — composers ri ffing on a layered counterpoint of styles and eras. Expect the same from a new work by Andrew Norman, whose wide-ranging interests and creative independence are part of his generational DNA. And from Jeremy Denk — a libretto inspired by Charles Rosen’s analytical survey of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven — The Classical Style. Hmm, the whiff of musicology…Party over? Not when Denk uses words like “irreverent,” “promiscuous,” and even “perverse” to describe this highspirited romp — abetted by composer Steven Stucky—through the crisp sparkle of the classical style, when music learned the art of conversation.
To Jeremy Denk, intelligent conversation, the give-and-take of ideas, is the whole point of music-making. It informs the depth and insight of his performances, the elegance and wit of his writing, and the quality of his musical friendships. For Ojai he has sought out colleagues who share his musical passions and love of fun, including pianist and conductor Uri Caine, the innovative orchestral collective, The Knights, conductors Robert Spano (2006 Ojai Music Director) and Eric Jacobsen (old friends from college days), as well as such vibrant solo performers as violinist Jennifer Frautschi and vocalist Storm Large. And where else do you throw this kind of party than in Ojai? No idle chatter here, no cocktail trivialities. In this environment, open to discovery with an audience ready to engage, every concert becomes a happening. Because in Ojai, it’s always all about the music.
– Christopher Hailey
Musicologist Christopher Hailey is Ojai’s program book editor and host of Ojai Concert Insights.
Information and Passes
2014 advance series subscriptions are now available; single tickets go on sale Spring 2014. For more information, please call 805 646 2053 or email [email protected].
Order online here >>
Download an order form here >>
Further Reading
Read Jeremy Denk’s bio >>
Visit Jeremy Denk’s website and blog >>
Read more about the Festival’s history >>
Tom Morris Gives Details on Jeremy Denk and The Classical Style
At our recent Annual Meeting, Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris shared details of Jeremy Denk’s planned programming for the 2014 Festival. Joining Jeremy in Ojai next June will be jazz pianist/composer Uri Caine, orchestra collective The Knights, violinist Jennifer Frautschi, composer Timo Andres, vocalist Storm Large, conductor Robert Spano, and more. Watch a video of the highlights below and read the latest, up-to-date schedule here >>
Meeting attendees also learned more about The Classical Style opera project and were introduced to the Festival’s new Executive Director, Janneke Straub. In addition, the organization thanked members of the Board and welcomed arts leaders Scott Reed and Nancybell Coe to the Board of Directors. The meeting concluded with a surprise Education Through Music (ETM) flashmob, featuring BRAVO! students and artists-in-residence.
Further details, including schedules for Ojai Extra events will be released early next year.
Series passes are on sale now for the June 12-15 Festival.
Learn more about pricing and how to purchase here >>
View photos from the Annual Meeting and ETM presentation here >>
Become A Festival Member – Make Your Year-End Gift Today
Become an Ojai Member and support the areas of the Festival you feel most passionate about. From education programs to the Jeremy Denk opera commission, there are membership opportunities and giving levels to fit every capacity. Benefits start at just $25 – join us and make your year-end gift today!
Click here to donate online >>
Other options for donating:
Mail: Send a check to PO Box 185, Ojai, CA 93024
Phone: Call 805 646 2094 ext. 105
Stock Gifts: Northern Trust, Attn: Joan McKenzie – 1 800 257 0901 (Acct #: 23-87079, DTC#: 2669)
We thank you again for your steadfast support of and enthusiasm for the Festival.
Have questions about your giving? Contact Anna Wagner at 805 646 2094 ext. 105 or [email protected].
Annual Meeting Photos
On November 9, the Festival held its Annual Meeting in Libbey Bowl. Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris shared programming details for the 2014 Festival with Jeremy Denk and the organization announced the appointment of its new Executive Director, Janneke Straub.
View photos from the meeting and the surprise ETM flashmob with BRAVO! students at its conclusion below:
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Thank you to all the BRAVO! students who volunteered their time for the Annual Meeting and to all the attendees for their steadfast support of the Festival.
Ojai Music Festival Adds Two Arts Leaders to Board of Directors
Scott Reed and NancyBell Coe have been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Ojai Music Festival for three-year terms, announced Ojai’s board president Stephen (Mike) J.M. Morris at the recent Festival annual meeting held in Ojai. Both Mr. Reed and Ms. Coe are Santa Barbara residents with significant experience in the performing arts field. Mr. Reed is the president of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and Ms. Coe retired from that same position in 2010.
At the meeting, Mr. Mike Morris also recognized outgoing board members Jet Doye, Ron Phillips, Alan Rains, Esther Wachtell, and Stuart Meiklejohn, who served as board president between 2012-2013. He also welcomed the Festival’s new executive director Janneke Straub, who will begin her tenure in January 2014. Ms. Straub is currently the executive director at the American Youth Symphony in Los Angeles.
NancyBell Coe
NancyBell Coe retired as President of Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West in August 2010. She came to the Music Academy in 2004, after several years as artistic administrator at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Her long career in the performing arts industry includes the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Spokane Symphony in Washington. She was on the Ojai Music Festival Board of Directors from 2004-2010. NancyBell is active in the Santa Barbara community, where she serves as one of three co-trustees of iCAN, the Incredible Children’s Art Network and as a board member for the Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara, Inc. (CAMA). Additionally, she is a member of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras and New Music USA (New York). She further serves on the Board of Overseers at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. She earned her bachelor’s degree in music from Wellesley College, Phi Beta Kappa.
Scott Reed
Having begun his career at the Music Academy of the West as an unpaid intern in 1997, Scott Reed became only the fourth president in the history of the renowned classical music institution in August 2010. Immediately prior to his appointment, Mr. Reed served as vice president for institutional advancement at the Music Academy for five years. He came to the latter position via the San Francisco Opera, where he worked as associate director of development for nearly two years. While in San Francisco, he also served as a consultant for the St. Luke’s Hospital Foundation.
Following his stint as a college intern, Mr. Reed worked for the Music Academy from 1997 to 2004 as coordinator of alumni and student affairs, major gifts officer, and executive manager of the long-range facility upgrade campaign and permit entitlement process. During this time he was instrumental in the development of several initiatives, including the Academy’s innovative Compeer Program, which pairs fellows with donors and other Santa Barbara community members for informal social events throughout the summer season.
Mr. Reed earned his bachelor’s degree in vocal performance at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Ojai Music Directors Awarded Accolades by ‘Musical America’
2014 Music Director Jeremy Denk (right) performs during the 63rd Ojai Music Festival
Musical America announced their 2014 award recipients today, and among them were two Ojai music directors: conductor/composer George Benjamin and pianist Jeremy Denk.
George Benjamin, music director of the 2010 Festival, was awarded Composer of the Year. Benjamin brought his opera Into the Little Hill to Ojai audiences in 2010 and Musical America highlighted his 2012 opera, Written on Skin, as “at once exquisitely wrought and devastatingly raw.” Written on Skin has received almost 40 performances internationally to date and had its US premiere in August at Tanglewood – a music stream of the performances is available from New York’s WQXR Q2.
Jeremy Denk, who will serve as music director of the 2014 Festival, received the Instrumentalist of the Year award. As Musical America wrote, “His flourishing concert schedule, the second release in his Nonesuch recording contract (Bach’s Goldberg Variations), his widely read blog called “Think Denk,” and articles for the New Yorker, which led to a Random House book commission, attest to his multi-faceted artistry.” Denk is in the process of creating an opera of his own, The Classical Style, based on Charles Rosen’s work of musical analysis, which will feature music by Steven Stucky.
The Musical America awards rank among classical music’s highest honors, and will be presented by the performing arts resource at its annual ceremony on December 17 at Lincoln Center.
The Ojai Music Festival congratulates both George and Benjamin on their achievements – and hopes that this will be another in a line of many for both!
Read more on the Musical America website >>
Timo Andres, pianist/composer
Timo Andres (b. 1985, Palo Alto, CA) is a composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. His début album, Shy and Mighty, which features ten interrelated pieces for two pianos performed by himself and pianist David Kaplan, was released by Nonesuch Records in May 2010 to immediate critical acclaim. Of the disc, Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that Shy and Mighty “achieves an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene… more mighty than shy, [Andres] sounds like himself.”
Uri Caine, pianist/composer
Uri Caine was born in Philadelphia and began studying piano with Bernard Peiffer. He played in bands led by Philly Joe Jones, Hank Mobley,Johnny Coles, Mickey Roker, Odean Pope, Jymmie Merritt, Bootsie Barnes and Grover Washington. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and studied music composition with George Rochberg and George Crumb. Caine has recorded 22 cds as a leader. His most recent cd is a jazz trio, Siren, (Winter and Winter 2011) with John Hebert on bass and Ben Perowsky on drums.
Andrew Norman, composer
Andrew Norman (b. 1979) is a composer of chamber and orchestral music. A native Midwesterner raised in central California, Andrew studied the piano and viola before attending the University of Southern California and Yale. His teachers and mentors include Martha Ashleigh, Donald Crockett, Stephen Hartke, Stewart Gordon, Aaron Kernis, Ingram Marshall, and Martin Bresnick.A lifelong enthusiast for all things architectural, Andrew writes music that is often inspired by forms and textures he encounters in the visual world.
Mark Morris, 2013 Music Director
MARK MORRIS was born on August 29, 1956, in Seattle, Washington, where he studied with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson. In the early years of his career, he performed with the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble, and later the dance companies of Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, and Eliot Feld. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980, and has since created more than 130 works for the company.
Mark Morris Dance Group
The MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP was formed in 1980 and gave its first concert that year in New York City. The company’s touring schedule steadily expanded to include cities in the U.S. and around the world, and in 1986 it made its first national television program for the PBS series Dance in America. In 1988, MMDG was invited to become the national dance company of Belgium, and spent three years in residence at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. The company returned to the United States in 1991 as one of the world’s leading dance companies, performing across the U.S. and at major international festivals.
American String Quartet
Peter Winograd, violin
Laurie Carney, violin
Daniel Avshalomov, viola
Wolfram Koessel, cello
Internationally recognized as one of the world’s foremost quartets, the American String Quartet celebrated its 36th season in 2011–2012. Critics and colleagues hold the Quartet in high esteem and many of today’s leading artists and composers seek out the Quartet for collaborations.
The Bad Plus
For the past ten years The Bad Plus Reid Anderson, Ethan Iverson and David King have broken down the walls of jazz convention and created an uncompromising body of work. Few jazz groups in recent memory have amassed such acclaim, and few have inspired such controversy.
Colin Fowler, piano/organ
Colin Fowler hails from Kansas City, Kansas and began studying piano at the age of five. After attending Interlochen Arts Academy, he received his Bachelors and Masters degrees at The Julliard School, where he studied organ with Gerre Hancock and piano with Abbey Simon. He has played and directed music across the country, at venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and The Library of Congress.
Gamelan Sari Raras
Gamelan Sari Raras, founded and co-directed by Midiyanto and Ben Brinner, is an ensemble in the Department of Music at U.C. Berkeley. Widely recognized as one of the leading Javanese music ensembles outside Indonesia, Sari Raras has performed concerts, shadow plays, and performances of Javanese dance and music throughout Northern California over the past twenty-five years.
Joshua Gersen, conductor
Joshua David (J.D.) Gersen, winner of the prestigious 2011 Aspen Conducting Prize, as well as the 2010 Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize from the Aspen Music Festival, made his conducting debut at age 11 with the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestra in Bridgeport, CT, and his professional conducting debut 5 years later, when he led the Greater Bridgeport Symphony in a performance of his own composition, A Symphonic Movement.
Ethan Iverson
Ethan Iverson is best known as one-third of The Bad Plus (TBP), a game-changing collective with Reid Anderson and David King. The New York Times has said that TBP is “…Better than anyone at melding the sensibilities of post-60’s jazz and indie rock.” TBP performs in venues as diverse as the Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall, and Bonnaroo; collaborators include Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. They have released ten CD’s of mostly original material.
Music Director Jeremy Denk Joins Class of 2013 MacArthur Foundation Fellows
We received news late last night that Ojai’s 2014 Music Director, Jeremy Denk, has been named one of 24 recipients of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Jeremy on this well-deserved accolade and can’t wait to see what the next five years bring!
24 Extraordinarily Creative People Who Inspire Us All: Meet the 2013 MacArthur Fellows –
“MacArthur named its 2013 class of MacArthur Fellows, recognizing 24 exceptionally creative individuals with a track record of achievement and the potential for even more significant contributions in the future.
Fellows will each receive a no-strings-attached stipend of $625,000 (increased from $500,000) paid out over five years. Without stipulations or reporting requirements, the Fellowship provides maximum freedom for recipients to follow their own creative vision.
“This year’s class of MacArthur Fellows is an extraordinary group of individuals who collectively reflect the breadth and depth of American creativity,” said Cecilia Conrad, Vice President, MacArthur Fellows Program. “They are artists, social innovators, scientists, and humanists who are working to improve the human condition and to preserve and sustain our natural and cultural heritage. Their stories should inspire each of us to consider our own potential to contribute our talents for the betterment of humankind.”
Click here for complete article >>
Click here for the complete roster of recipients including Jeremy Denk >>
“Thinking Denk” in Milwaukee
We love to hear when our patrons run into Festival artists outside of Ojai – it’s always thrilling finding out how large (and, at times, far-flung) our Festival family has grown. Rusti and Steve Moffic from Minnesota first attended the Festival in 2008 and have been returning ever since. They attended the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s opening last weekend, which featured none other than 2014 Music Director Jeremy Denk. Steve emailed the office yesterday to share his experience meeting Jeremy…and showcasing his Ojai “Think Denk” pin:
We did get to meet Jeremy and Rusti took a couple of pictures. Let us know if these work for you. You may notice in the first one, when I am talking to him, that I was wearing the”Think Denk” pin. Jeremy got a big laugh out of this, but it also became an item that others noticed, so we had a chance to inform them about Ojai!
He got rave reviews for his playing the Liszt’s First Piano Concerto. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, our daily paper, by a critic, Elaine Schmidt, who can be tough at times:
“Denk took the stage with Franz Liszt’s dramatic ‘Concerto No. 1’. Although Denk captured the power and drama of the piece, his performance was about far more than the piece’s biggest moments. . . Taking just a pinch of rubato at the top of a phrase or a quick, light release of the end of a passage, he drew his audience into the details of the piece. He moved from soulful, lyrical playing to a jaunty playfulness in this articulate, yet workless, explanation of the piece.”
Before the concert, I got a chance to listen to the CD you sent. I had always been struck by how the transition in Beethoven’s last piano sonata seemed to foreshadow boogie-woogie jazz 200 years later. It was therefore so gratifying that Jeremy made that same point in his liner notes.
In the post concert talk, he mentioned his love of jazz. When I told him that I had noticed that he invited the great jazz pianist Uri Caine, he remarked that “he’s a genius”. I, a lover of jazz more than classical music, couldn’t help but agree. It promises to be a great festival next summer if this is also a harbinger of things to come.
Best to you and the festival staff,
Steve
Thanks Steve, for letting us share your email – we can’t wait to see you again in June! Steve also recently wrote a blog on music and its effect on health in those who are older:
Read “Music for the Aging Mind” here >>
Festival Annual Meeting Moved to the late Fall
The Ojai Music Festival will welcome back patrons at our annual gathering, which will be scheduled later in the fall.
The plans will include a sneak peek of the upcoming 68th Festival (June 12-15, 2014) plus share updates on the BRAVO! education program.
Back To School at the Festival
The month of September means many things here at the Festival – planning for the next year is starting to get underway, staff have returned from their vacations, summer interns are back to school, and, of course, the BRAVO! music education program is beginning to get underway.
Each year, BRAVO! provides free, integrated music instruction to Ojai’s public school students and those in two nearby Ventura County schools. Students are led in a series of workshops by BRAVO!’s artists-in-residence (local professional musicians). These range from lessons in world music, to k-1 music eduction, to opera. To see a complete list of BRAVO!’s offerings, click here. Education Through Music (ETM) workshops will start shortly in K-1 classrooms throughout the district…stay tuned for photos and updates!
We’re excited to expand BRAVO!’s community percussion workshops this year to include Ojai’s older citizens. We’re bringing percussion instruments and special group activities to Ojai’s assisted living and continuing care facilities so that Ojai residents of all ages can benefit from participating in music making. We would like to recognize the City of Ojai Arts Commission and the Ojai Rotary Club for their generous support of the community percussion workshops.
If you’re here in Ojai, you’ll know that Ojai Day is just around the corner. Come by our Instrument Petting Zoo on October 19th and try out a new instrument – or reconnect with an old one!
‘Inuksuit’ in Your Living Room? Not as Far-fetched as You Think
If you were at the 2012 Ojai Music Festival, chances are you caught the West Coast premiere of John Luther Adams‘ all-embracing piece Inuksuit. The LA Times’ Mark Swed called the Ojai performance a “ritual hour of enthralling rumble and shimmer”.
We had several patrons ask us afterwards if there was a recording of Inuksuit available. Many thought it might be impossible – how could a recording capture the sheer physical sense of the piece? But now, the wait is over. Inuksuit’s first recording, produced by percussionist/composer Doug Perkins, will be released on October 29. Recorded in the forests of Guilford Sound, Vermont, the recoding uses a surround mix to better capture the full range the piece – and it sounds pretty good. Click here to listen to a preview >>
“Doug really created an ideal set of circumstances for us to make this the ‘official’ recording of Inuksuit,” Adams says. “It’s a beautiful sounding of the strong sense of community that has grown up around the piece. That’s something I wasn’t prepared for, and I’m glad to be able to give some of that back.”
We can’t wait for the final release. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Inuksuit, it’s a different journey each time you hear it. So here’s to one more.
Click here to pre-order Inuksuit >>
