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Category: 2023 Festival

  • 2023 Festival Schedule

    2023 Festival Schedule

    View the 2023 program book here

    FULL SCHEDULE

    THU, June 8

    2:30PM   OJAI TALKS – SOLD OUT
    Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School lower campus

    2:30-3:15pm Ara Guzelimian with Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels
    3:30-4:30pm WQXR’s New Sounds John Schaefer with Festival artists and composers 

    6:00PM   OJAI CHATS – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    In-depth conversation with composers Gabriela Ortiz and Aida Shirazi with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds. 

    6:30PM   MOON VIEWING MUSIC – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    Join Steven Schick in this solo performance of Peter Garland’s Moon Viewing Music (Inscrutable Stillness Studies #1) described as a quiet and introspective six-movement work for three large Thai-style gongs and large tam-tam.

    8:00PM   LIQUID BORDERS
    Libbey Bowl

    Rhiannon Giddens vocals | Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh | Attacca Quartet | red fish blue fish percussion ensemble with Steven Schick director

    Gabriela ORTIZ Liquid Borders
    Franz Joseph HAYDN String Quartet in F major, Op. 77 No. 2 Hob. III:82
    Zakir HUSSAIN Pallavi (arr. Reena Esmail)
    Philip GLASS First Movement from String Quartet No. 3 (“Mishima”)
    Colin JACOBSEN  Beloved do not let me be discouraged
    Geeshie WILEY  Last Kind Words (arr. Jacob Garchik)
    Rhiannon GIDDENS  Lullaby
    David CROSBY/Nathan SCHRAM  Where We Are Not (arr. Nathan Schram)
    Caroline SHAW  Stem and Root from The Evergreen
    John ADAMS  Judah to Ocean, Rag the Bone from John’s Book of Alleged Dances
    S    QUAREPUSHER   Xetaka 1

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    FRI, June 9

    8:00AM   OJAI DAWNS
    Zalk Theater, Besant Hill School

    Emi Ferguson flute | Ross Karre percussion | Niloufar Shiri kamancheh | Aida Shirazi electronics |Steven Schick percussion | red fish blue fish

    Golfam KHAYAM      Lost Wind
    Aida SHIRAZI  and Niloufar SHIRI  Yearning, Every Dawn  New Work   World Premiere
    Edgard VARÈSE  Density 21.5 
    CHOU Wen-Chung  Echoes From The Gorge

    The Ojai Dawns is a benefit for Festival Family Donor Circles.  Learn more here>
    Subscribers receive priority to purchase single tickets before going on sale to the general public beginning March 31.

    10:00AM   VIS-À-VIS
    Libbey Bowl

    Lara Downes piano | Michi Wiancko violin | Mario Gotoh viola | Karen Ouzounian cello |Emi Ferguson flute | Joshua Rubin clarinet | Gloria Cheng piano | Wu Man pipa | Steven Schick conductor/percussion

    Due to injury, pianist Leonard Hayes has had to reduce his playing commitments and has withdrawn from this concert. We are deeply grateful to Lara Downes for agreeing to step in on short notice. Please note the revised program:

    Shawn OKPEBHOLO  Amazing Grace 
    H.T. BURLEIGH On Bended Knees
    Margaret BONDS Troubled Water (Wade in the Water)  
    Michael ABELS  Iconoclasm 
    Jessie MONTGOMERY  Rhapsody No. 2 
    Nasim KHORASSANI  Growth 
    Nina BARZEGAR  Inexorable Passage 
    Lei LIANG  vis-à-vis 

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    11:30AM   OJAI CHATS – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    In-depth conversation with composers Nina Barzegar and Nasim Khorassani with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds

    3:30PM   GHOST OPERA – SOLD OUT
    Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School lower campus

    Wu Man pipa | Attacca Quartet
    PeiJu Chien-Pott dancer/choreographer | Jon Reimer director | Nicholas Houfek lighting designer 

    TAN Dun  Ghost Opera

    Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera evokes the spirits of Bach and Shakespeare, standing with the ancient folk traditions of traditional shamanistic Chinese music. A new production, created especially for the Ojai Music Festival, brings dance into the work and re-imagines it for a new generation. 

    Ghost Opera is an add-on event, not included in the Libbey Bowl Series Pass. Purchase here >

    6:00PM   OJAI CHATS – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    In-depth conversation with Lei Liang and Wu Man with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds

    8:00PM   AN EVENING WITH RHIANNON GIDDENS AND FRANCESCO TURRISI – SOLD OUT
    Libbey Bowl

    An intimate concert with Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi with music ranging from the Baroque to Appalachian ballads and traditional Black American songs.

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    SAT, June 10

    8:00AM   MORNING MEDITATION – FREE
    Chaparral Auditorium

    Niloufar Shiri kamancheh | Mario Gotoh violin

    11:30AM   OJAI CHATS – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    In-depth conversation with composers Niloufar Nourbakhsh and Carlos Simon with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds.

    10:00AM   THE WILLOWS ARE NEW
    Libbey Bowl

    Karen Ouzounian cello | Wu Man pipa | Nathan Schram viola | Gloria Cheng piano | Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh 

    Niloufar NOURBAKHSH  Veiled 
    Lei LIANG  Mother’s Songs 
    GE Gan-Ru  Gong 
    CHOU Wen-Chung  The Willows are New 
    Kayhan KALHOR  Solo Improvisation

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    3:30PM   GHOST OPERA – SOLD OUT
    Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School lower campus

    Wu Man pipa | Attacca Quartet
    PeiJu Chien-Pott dancer/choreographer | Jon Reimer director | Nicholas Houfek lighting designer 

    TAN Dun  Ghost Opera

    Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera evokes the spirits of Bach and Shakespeare, standing with the ancient folk traditions of traditional shamanistic Chinese music. A new production, created especially for the Ojai Music Festival, brings dance into the work and re-imagines it for a new generation.

    This is a repeat performance. Ghost Opera is an add-on event, not included in the Libbey Bowl Series Pass. Purchase here >

    6:00PM   OJAI CHATS – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    In-depth conversation with composer Michael Abels with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds.

    8:00PM   OMAR’S JOURNEY – SOLD OUT
    Libbey Bowl

    Limmie Pulliam tenor (Omar) | Rhiannon Giddens soprano (Julie) | Cheryse McLeod Lewis mezzo-soprano (Fatima) | Michael Preacely bass-baritone (Abdul/Abe) | Andy Papas bass-baritone (Johnson/Owen)

    Emi Ferguson flute | Joshua Rubin clarinet | Mazz Swift, Michi Wiancko violins | Mario Gotoh viola Karen Ouzounian cello | Shawn Conley bass | Leonard Hayes piano | Francesco Turrisi, Ross Karre percussion

    Justin Robinson fiddle | Seckou Keita kora

    Music from Senegal and the Carolinas
    Music by Rhiannon GIDDENS/Michael ABELS  Omar’s Journey    World Premiere
    Libretto by Rhiannon Giddens

    An Ojai-commissioned work for voices and chamber ensemble drawn from the Pulitzer-Prize winning opera Omar, by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, framed by traditional music that traces the journey of the real-life Omar Ibn Said from Senegal to the Carolinas.

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    SUN, June 11

    8:00AM   MORNING MEDITATION – FREE
    Chaparral Auditorium

    Seckou Keita kora

    10:00AM   EARLY MUSIC
    Libbey Bowl

    Francesco Turrisi curator and keyboards | Rhiannon Giddens vocals | Wu Man pipa 
    Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh | Joshua Stauffer therobo | Attacca Quartet  

    A program imagined specifically for the magical atmosphere of Sunday morning in Libbey Bowl, playing on the two ideas of very old music and music for the first hours of the day. Francesco Turrisi curates and introduces music ranging from thousand-year-old works for solo pipa, to Renaissance consort music, from ancient Persian melodies to modal jazz improvisations. 

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    11:30AM   OJAI CHATS – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    In-depth conversation with Francesco Turrisi with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds.

    1:00PM    STONES AND STARS: LISTENING TO (AND BEYOND) THE WORLD – FREE
    Libbey Park

    Steven Schick percussion  

    Make music with us! Join in on this interactive community performance led by Steven Schick.  

    2:30PM   BETWEEN WORLDS
    Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School lower campus

    Mazz Swift violin   Mario Gotoh viola | Karen Ouzounian cello | Shawn Conley bass
    Ross Karre projection designer 

    Carlos SIMON  Between Worlds  

    A complete performance of Carlos Simon’s cycle Between Worlds, four solo string works placed in visual context by their source of inspiration: the remarkable paintings of Bill Traylor (ca. 1853-1949), chronicling nearly a century of Black American life.

    Text related to Bill Traylor and the project title “Between Worlds” are borrowed from, and organized in relation to, Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor, by Leslie Umberger for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, (book and exhibition),     2018.

    Festival Family Donor Circle Members receive first priority seats. Learn more here>
    Subscribers receive priority to purchase single tickets before going on sale to the general public beginning March 31.

    4:00PM   BUILD A HOUSE – FREE FAMILY EVENT
    Libbey Park

    A special free family event – Rhiannon Giddens does a reading and special musical performance based on her new children’s book, Build A House. 

    5:30PM   FINALE: STRINGS ATTACHED
    Libbey Bowl

    Amy Schroeder violin | Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh | Seckou Keita kora | Rhiannon Giddens singer/instrumentalist | Wu Man pipa | Justin Robinson fiddle | Francesco Turrisi multi-instrumentalist | Members of Silkroad Ensemble

    Michael ABELS   Isolation Variation
    Duo Improvisation with Kayhan Kalhor and Seckou Keita
    Nassim KHORASSANI  Lullaby 
    Followed by a selection of music announced from the stage — an exuberant finale celebrating the many musical stories featured at this year’s Festival!

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    THU, June 8

    2:30PM   OJAI TALKS – SOLD OUT
    Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School lower campus

    2:30-3:15pm Ara Guzelimian with Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels
    3:30-4:30pm WQXR’s New Sounds John Schaefer with Festival artists and composers

    6:00PM   OJAI CHATS – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    In-depth conversation with composers Gabriela Ortiz and Aida Shirazi with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds.

    6:30PM   MOON VIEWING MUSIC – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    Join Steven Schick in this solo performance of Peter Garland’s Moon Viewing Music (Inscrutable Stillness Studies #1) described as a quiet and introspective six-movement work for three large Thai-style gongs and large tam-tam.

    8:00PM   LIQUID BORDERS
    Libbey Bowl

    Rhiannon Giddens vocals | Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh | Attacca Quartet | red fish blue fish percussion ensemble | Steven Schick director 

    Gabriela ORTIZ Liquid Borders
    Franz Joseph HAYDN String Quartet in F major, Op. 77 No. 2 Hob. III:82
    Zakir HUSSAIN Pallavi (arr. Reena Esmail)
    Philip GLASS First Movement from String Quartet No. 3 (“Mishima”)
    Colin JACOBSEN  Beloved do not let me be discouraged
    Geeshie WILEY  Last Kind Words (arr. Jacob Garchik)
    Rhiannon GIDDENS  Lullaby
    David CROSBY/Nathan SCHRAM  Where We Are Not (arr. Nathan Schram)
    Caroline SHAW  Stem and Root from The Evergreen
    John ADAMS  Judah to Ocean, Rag the Bone from John’s Book of Alleged Dances
    S    QUAREPUSHER   Xetaka 1

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    FRI, June 9

    8:00AM   OJAI DAWNS
    Zalk Theater, Besant Hill School

    Emi Ferguson flute
    Ross Karre     percussion
    Niloufar Shiri kamancheh
    Aida Shirazi electronics
    Steven Schick percussion
    red fish blue fish

    Golfam KHAYAM  Lost Wind
    Aida SHIRAZI and Nioufar SHIRI   Yearning, Every Dawn   New Work   World Premiere
    Edgard VARÈSE  Density 21.5 
    CHOU Wen-Chung  Echoes From The Gorge

    The Ojai Dawns is a benefit for Festival Family Donor Circles. Learn more here>

    10:00AM   VIS-À-VIS
    Libbey Bowl

    Lara Downes piano | Michi Wiancko violin | Mario Gotoh viola | Karen Ouzounian cello |Emi Ferguson flute | Joshua Rubin clarinet | Gloria Cheng piano |Wu Man pipa | Steven Schick conductor/percussion 

    Due to injury, pianist Leonard Hayes has had to reduce his playing commitments and has withdrawn from this concert. We are deeply grateful to Lara Downes for agreeing to step in on short notice. Please note the revised program:

    Shawn OKPEBHOLO  Amazing Grace
    H.T. BURLEIGH  On Bended Knees
    Margaret BONDS  Troubled Water (Wade in the Water)  
    Michael ABELS  Iconoclasm 
    Jessie MONTGOMERY  Rhapsody No. 2 
    Nasim KHORASSANI  Growth 
    Nina BARZEGAR  Inexorable Passage 
    Lei LIANG  vis-à-vis 

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    11:30AM   OJAI CHATS – FREE
    LIBBEY PARK GAZEBO

    In-depth conversation with composers Nina Barzegar and Nasim Khorassani with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds.
    FREE. Open to the public. 

    3:30PM   GHOST OPERA – SOLD OUT
    Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School lower campus

    Wu Man pipa
    Attacca Quartet
    PeiJu Chien-Pott dancer/choreographer
    Jon Reimer director 
    Nicholas Houfek lighting designer 

    TAN Dun  Ghost Opera

    Tan Dun’s     Ghost Opera evokes the spirits of Bach and Shakespeare, standing with the ancient folk traditions of traditional shamanistic Chinese music. A new production, created especially for the Ojai Music Festival, brings dance into the work and re-imagines it for a new generation. 

    Ghost Opera is an add-on event, not included in the Libbey Bowl Series Pass. Purchase here >

    8:00PM   AN EVENING WITH RHIANNON GIDDENS AND FRANCESCO TURRISI – SOLD OUT
    Libbey Bowl

    An intimate concert with Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi with music ranging from the Baroque to Appalachian ballads and traditional Black American songs as well as excerpts from Songs of Flight by Shawn Okpebholo.

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    SAT, June 10

    8:00AM   MORNING MEDITATION – FREE
    Chaparral Auditorium

    Niloufar Shiri kamancheh
    Mario Gotoh violin

    10:00AM   MORNING CONCERT
    Libbey Bowl

    Karen Ouzounian cello
    Wu Man pipa
    Nathan Schram viola
    Gloria Cheng piano
    Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh


    Niloufar NOURBAKHSH Veiled
    Lei LIANG  Mother’s Songs
    GE Gan-Ru  Gong
    CHOU Wen-Chung  The Willows are New
    Kayhan KALHOR  Solo Improvisation

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    11:30AM  OJAI CHATS – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    In-depth conversation with composers Niloufar Nourbakhsh and Carlos Simon with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds.

    3:30PM   GHOST OPERA – SOLD OUT
    Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School lower campus

    Wu Man pipa
    Attacca Quartet
    PeiJu Chien-Pott dancer/choreographer
    Jon Reimer director
    Nicholas Houfek lighting designer

    TAN Dun  Ghost Opera

    Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera evokes the spirits of Bach and Shakespeare, standing with the ancient folk traditions of traditional shamanistic Chinese music. This new production, created especially for Ojai, introduces dance into the work and re-imagines this landmark piece for a new generation. 

    Repeat performance. Ghost Opera is an add-on event, not included in the Libbey Bowl Series Pass. Purchase here >

    6:00PM   OJAI CHATS – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    In-depth conversation with composer Michael Abels with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds.

    8:00PM   OMAR’S JOURNEY – SOLD OUT
    Libbey Bowl

    Seckou Keita kora 
    Justin Robinson fiddle
    Rhiannon Giddens soprano
    Cheryse McLeod Lewis mezzo-soprano 
    Limmie Pulliam tenor
    Michael Preacely bass-baritone
    Ojai Festival Ensemble

    Music from Senegal and the Carolinas
    Rhiannon GIDDENS/Michael ABELS  Omar’s Journey   World Premiere

    An Ojai-commissioned work for voices and chamber ensemble drawn from the opera Omar, by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, framed by traditional music that traces the journey of the real-life Omar Ibn Said from Senegal to the Carolinas.

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    SUN, June 11

    8:00AM   MORNING MEDITATION – FREE
    Chaparral Auditorium

    Seckou Keita kora  

    10:00AM   EARLY MUSIC
    Libbey Bowl

    Francesco Turrisi curator and keyboards | Rhiannon Giddens vocals | Wu Man pipa 
    Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh | Joshua Stauffer therobo | Attacca Quartet  

    A program imagined specifically for the magical atmosphere of Sunday morning in Libbey Bowl, playing on the two ideas of very old music and music for the first hours of the day. Francesco Turrisi curates and introduces music ranging from thousand-year-old works for solo pipa, to Renaissance consort music, from ancient Persian melodies to modal jazz improvisations. 

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

    11:30AM   OJAI CHATS – FREE
    Libbey Park Gazebo

    In-depth conversation with Francesco Turrisi with host John Schaefer of WQXR’s New Sounds.

    1:00PM   STONES AND STARS: LISTENING TO (AND BEYOND) THE WORLD – FREE
    Libbey Park

    Steven Schick percussion  

    Make music with us! Join in on this interactive community performance led by Steven Schick.  

    2:30PM   BETWEEN WORLDS
    Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School lower campus

    Mazz Swift violin 
    Mario Gotoh viola
    Karen Ouzounian cello
    Shawn Conley bass
    Ross Karre projection designer  

    Carlos SIMON  Between Worlds  

    A complete performance of Carlos Simon’s cycle Between Worlds, four solo string works placed in visual context by their source of inspiration: the remarkable paintings of Bill Traylor (ca. 1853-1949), chronicling nearly a century of Black American life.

    Text related to Bill Traylor and the project title “Between Worlds” are borrowed from, and organized in relation to, Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor, by Leslie Umberger for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, (book and exhibition), 2018.

    Festival Family Donor Circle Members receive first priority seats. Learn more here>

    4:00PM   BUILD A HOUSE – FREE FAMILY EVENT
    Libbey Park

    Rhiannon Giddens does a reading and special musical performance based on her new children’s book, Build A House.  

    5:30PM   FINALE: STRINGS ATTACHED
    Libbey Bowl

    Amy Schroeder violin | Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh | Seckou Keita kora | Rhiannon Giddens singer/instrumentalist | Wu Man pipa | Justin Robinson fiddle | Francesco Turrisi multi-instrumentalist | Members of Silkroad Ensemble

    Michael ABELS   Isolation Variation
    Duo Improvisation with Kayhan Kalhor and Seckou Keita
    Nassim KHORASSANI  Lullaby 
    Followed by a selection of music announced from the stage — an exuberant finale celebrating the many musical stories featured at this year’s Festival! 

    Free live stream of this concert will be available.

  • 2023 Virtual Ojai Talks

    2023 Virtual Ojai Talks

     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 2023 Festival artists, composers, innovators, and thinkers. Virtual Talks are free and open to the musically curious!

    Free and Open to the Public
    Virtual Ojai Talks with Michael Abels
    May 3, 2023, 5:30-6:30pm
    Zoom

    Enjoy a conversation between Ara Guzelimian and featured Festival composer Michael Abels as they talk about creating the world premiere of Omar’s Journey, an Ojai-commissioned work for voices and chamber ensemble drawn from the opera Omar by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, and his continuing work as both a film and concert composer.

    RSVP here >
    Watch Virtual Ojai Talks with Steven Schick and Lei Liang

    Ara Guzelimian and percussionist/conductor Steven Schick are joined by composer Lei Liang, whose works are featured at this year’s 77th Ojai Music Festival – including vis-à-vis, written specifically for Steven Schick and Wu Man. In addition. they consider the legacy of Chou Wen-chung, the composer and legendary mentor to both, whose centennial is celebrated this year.

    About Steven Schick, conductor and percussionist

    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 by commissioning or premiering more than one hundred-fifty new works. The most important of these have become core repertory for solo percussion. Schick was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2014.

    Steven Schick is artistic director of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. As a conductor, he has appeared with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony, Ensemble Modern, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble.

    Schick’s publications include a book, “The Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams,” and many articles. He has released numerous recordings including the 2010 “Percussion Works of Iannis Xenakis,” and its companion, “The Complete Early Percussion Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen” in 2014 (both on Mode). He received the “Diapason d’Or” as conductor (Xenakis Ensemble Music with ICE) and the Deutscheschallplattenkritikpreis, as percussionist (Stockhausen), each for the best new music release of 2015.

    Steven Schick is Distinguished Professor of Music and holds the Reed Family Presidential Chair at the University of California, San Diego. He was music director of the 2015 Ojai Festival, and starting in 2017, will be co-artistic director, with Claire Chase, of the Summer Music Program at the Banff Centre.

    About Lei Liang, composer 

    Chinese-born American composer Lei Liang is the winner of the Rome Prize, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Koussevitzky Foundation Commission, a Creative Capital Award, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His concerto for saxophone and orchestra, Xiaoxiang, was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2015. His orchestral work, A Thousand Mountains, A Million Streams, won the prestigious 2021 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

    Lei Liang was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert for the inaugural concert of the CONTACT! new music series. His ten portrait discs are released on Naxos, New World, Mode, BMOP/sound, Encounter, Albany and Bridge Records. As a scholar and conservationist of cultural traditions, he has edited and co-edited five books and editions, and published more than forty articles.

    From 2013-2016, Lei Liang served as Composer-in-Residence at the Qualcomm Institute/Calit2 where his multimedia works preserve and reimagine cultural heritage through combining scientific research and advanced technology. He returned to the Institute as its first Research Artist-in-Residence in 2018.

    Lei Liang’s recent works address issues of sex trafficking across the US-Mexican border (Cuatro Corridos), America’s complex relationship with gun and violence (Inheritance), and environmental awareness through the sonification of coral reefs.

    Lei Liang is Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego where he served as chair of the composition area, acting chair of the Music Department, as well as chair of campus-wide committee on committees. His catalogue of more than a hundred works is published exclusively by Schott Music Corporation (New York).

    Watch Virtual Ojai Talks with Wu Man

    Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian was joined by Wu Man to talk about her career as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and a leading ambassador of Chinese music. She has carved out a distinguished career as a soloist, educator, and composer giving her instrument—which has a history of over 2,000 years in China—a new role in both traditional and contemporary music.

    About Wu Man, pipa player and 2023 Festival artist 

    Recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Wu Man has carved out a career as a soloist, educator, and composer giving her lute-like instrument—which has a history of over 2,000 years in China—a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Through numerous concert tours she has premiered hundreds of new works for the pipa, while spearheading multimedia projects to both preserve and create awareness of China’s ancient musical traditions. Her adventurous spirit and virtuosity have led to collaborations across artistic disciplines, allowing her to reach wider audiences as she works to cross cultural and musical borders. Her efforts were recognized when she was named Musical America’s 2013 “Instrumentalist of the Year,” marking the first time this prestigious award has been bestowed on a player of a non-Western instrument, and in 2021 when she received an honorary Doctorate of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music.

    Having been brought up in the Pudong School of pipa playing, one of the most prestigious classical styles of Imperial China, Ms. Wu is now recognized as an outstanding exponent of the traditional repertoire as well as a leading interpreter of contemporary pipa music by today’s most prominent composers such as Tan Dun, Philip Glass, the late Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Bright Sheng, Chen Yi, and many others. She was the recipient of The Bunting Fellowship at Harvard University in 1998, and was the first Chinese traditional musician to receive The United States Artist Fellowship in 2008. She is also the first artist from China to perform at the White House. Wu Man is a Visiting Professor at her alma mater the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and a Distinguished Professor at the Zhejiang and the Xi’an Conservatories. She has also served as Artistic Director of the Xi’an Silk Road Music Festival at the Xi’an Conservatory. Read Wu Man full bio here

    Watch Virtual Ojai Talks with Francesco Turrisi

    About Francesco Turrisi, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and 2023 Festival artist

    Grammy award winning multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi has been defined a “musical alchemist” and a “musical polyglot” by the press. He left his native Italy in 1997 to study jazz piano and early music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where he obtained a Bachelor and a Master’s degree. Since 2004 he has been working successfully as a freelance musician.

    He has released five critically acclaimed albums as a leader and two as co-leader (“Tarab” a cross boundary innovative ensemble that blends Irish and Mediterranean traditional music, and “Zahr” a project that looks at connections between southern Italian traditional music and Arabic music).His latest piano solo album “Northern Migrations” was described as “delicate, wistful and wholly engrossing” by the Irish Times. Francesco is also a member of the celebrated early music ensemble L’Arpeggiata. With l’Arpeggiata he has performed at the most important classical music festivals in Europe and around the world (Turkey, Russia, China, Australia, New Zealand, Brasil, Colombia) and has recorded for Warner, Virgin, Naive and Alpha.

    Since 2018 he collaborates with American grammy award winning singer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, on a duo project that seamlessly combines music from the Mediterranean with music from the African diaspora in the Americas. In 2019 Giddens and Turrisi released their critically acclaimed duo album “there is no Other”. The album single “I’m on my way” was nominated for a 2020 Grammy Award. Their 2021 second duo album “They’re calling me home” was nominated for two Grammy awards and won as best folk album at the 2022 Grammy awards. Francesco currently performs on piano, accordion, harpsichord, organ, various lutes, cello banjo, frame and goblet drums.

    He is equally at home playing with jazz veterans Dave Liebman and Gianluigi Trovesi as he is with Irish traditional sean-nós singer Roisin El Safty and with tarantella specialist Lucilla Galeazzi. Turrisi has toured with Bobby McFerrin, interpreted the music of Steve Reich with Bang on a Can All Stars, accompanied flamenco star Pepe El Habichuela and Greek singer Savina Yannatou.

    Watch Virtual Ojai Talks with Rhiannon Giddens

    About Rhiannon Giddens

    The acclaimed musician Rhiannon Giddens uses her art to excavate the past and reveal bold truths about our present. A MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, Giddens co-founded the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. She most recently won a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for They’re Calling Me Home, and was also nominated for Best American Roots Song for “Avalon” from They’re Calling Me Home, which she made with multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi. Giddens is now a two-time winner and eight-time Grammy nominee for her work as a soloist and collaborator.

    They’re Calling Me Home was released by Nonesuch last April and has been widely celebrated by the NY Times, NPR Music, NPR, Rolling Stone, People, Associated Press and far beyond, with No Depression deeming it “a near perfect album…her finest work to date.” Recorded over six days in the early phase of the pandemic in a small studio outside of Dublin, Ireland – where both Giddens and Turrisi live – They’re Calling Me Home manages to effortlessly blend the music of their native and adoptive countries: America, Italy, and Ireland. The album speaks of the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical “call home” of death.

    Giddens’s lifelong mission is to lift people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been erased, and to work toward a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins. Pitchfork has said of her work, “few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration,” and Smithsonian Magazine calls her “an electrifying artist who brings alive the memories of forgotten predecessors, white and black.”

    Among her many diverse career highlights, Giddens has performed for the Obamas at the White House and received an inaugural Legacy of Americana Award from Nashville’s National Museum of African American History in partnership with the Americana Music Association. Her critical acclaim includes in-depth profiles by CBS Sunday Morning, the New York Times, the New Yorker, and NPR’s Fresh Air, among many others.

    Giddens was featured in Ken Burns’s Country Music series, which aired on PBS, where she spoke about the African American origins of country music. She is also a member of the band Our Native Daughters with three other black female banjo players, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell, and Amythyst Kiah, and co-produced their debut album Songs of Our Native Daughters (2019), which tells stories of historic black womanhood and survival.

    Giddens is in the midst of a tremendous 2022. She announced the publication of her first book, Build a House (October 2022),  Lucy Negro Redux, the ballet Giddens wrote the music for, had its premiere at the Nashville Ballet (premiered in 2019 and toured in 2022), and the libretto and music for Giddens’ original opera, Omar, in collaboration with Michael Abels, based on the autobiography of the enslaved man Omar ibn Said, premiered at the Spoleto USA Festival in May. Giddens is also curating a four-concert Perspectives series as part of Carnegie Hall’s 2022–2023 season. Named Artistic Director of Silkroad Ensemble in 2020, Giddens is developing a number of new programs for that ensemble, including one inspired by the history of the American transcontinental railroad and the cultures and music of its builders.

    She made her Ojai debut for the celebratory 75th Ojai Music Festival with Music Director John Adams in September 2021.

    As an actor, Giddens had a featured role on the television series Nashville.

    Rhiannon Giddens photo by Ebru Yildiz