Ojai Music Festival, 80 Years
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  • AMOC’s Music Playlist

    AMOC’s Music Playlist

    The 2022 Festival Music Director AMOC, a collective of today’s most adventurous musicians, singers, composers, choreographers, and dancers, is as eclectic and open minded with their musical interests as one would expect. To begin the new year and expand our own musical horizons, we asked each member of AMOC to share their personal listening of the moment — a selection which is characteristically wide-ranging and very individualistic.

    Listen on Spotify and Apple Music
    (Preview the AMOC playlist and log on to your account to listen to the full songs)

    SPOTIFY


    APPLE MUSIC

    Click HERE to listen on Apple Music

    Jonny Allen:
    Jazz Crimes by Joshua Redman
    This is a track that I just keep coming back to.  The groove is subtle but persistent.  Joshua Redman is such an incredible artist and Brian Blade’s drumming has always been an inspiration to me.



     

    Paul Appleby:
    My “what I’m listening to” pick is Kate Soper’s set of three songs for soprano and string quartets, Nadja.  I am a huge fan of Kate’s music because she has a language and voice that is entirely her own.  Her intellectual and literary interested are deeply personalized in her compositions and performances and her somewhat esoteric tests become vivid and immediate in her music.  This score is a great example of Kate’s incredible level of technical accomplishment as well as her imaginative and unique approach to her art.

    More info

     

    Matthew Aucoin:
    Stranger Love, Act 3 (excerpt), by Dylan Mattingly, performed by Contemporaneous
    Dylan Mattingly writes music of limitless jubilance and joy. This excerpt from his opera Stranger Love is a kind of dance party for the angels, built upon an unlikely echo from a Springsteen-esque “promised land.”

     

    Doug Balliett:
    I cannot stop listening to Ok ok pt 2 from Kanye’s latest album “Donda”. It’s got a heavy dark groove and guest Shenseea’s verse is jaw-dropping.



     

    Julia Bullock:
    Up From The Skies by Jimi Hendrix, from the album Bold As Love (1967)
    It’s like some prophetic, post-apocalyptic love song… (honestly hope to find a way to sing it one day)



     

    Jay Campbell:
    I’m currently listening my way through Wadada Leo Smith’s Ten Freedom Summers, a gigantic sprawling 4.5 hour collection of 19 pieces written over the course of 30+ years, each one titled after various moments, ideas, people, or places related to the Civil Rights Movement. It’s music that is very much alive in a literal sense. As in, it really feels like it is deeply meditating on the lived experience of human life itself. It’s extremely moving, exciting, surprising, and sometimes baffling. But when I listen to this highly abstract music, my ears somehow feel closer to hearing a full spectrum of complex human experience in all of its contradictions of tragedy, playfulness, rage, and joy. And maybe things that I haven’t even felt yet. And — when you consider the context of the composer himself, a Black man born and raised in segregated Mississippi — things that many of us are privileged to never have to personally feel or experience.

     

    Anthony Roth Costanzo:
    Lately I’ve become obsessed with Betty Carter and how wildly inventive and abstract she is, both in how she deploys the extremes of her voice, and how she charts the trajectory of a song. From her piercing head tones, to her forthright parlato, to her childlike upper chest register, to her impossibly rich baritone notes, I find her a total revelation. You can hear those colors set forth in this track:



     

    Miranda Cuckson:
    Wadada Leo Smith America’s National Parks
    I adore this work (which I first heard a few years ago) for many reasons, including its bracing beauty, its grouping of very satisfyingly distinct utterances and instrumental presences, its continually thrilling sensations of space and texture, and the composer’s deep vision of the psychological tension in our shared natural landscapes.

     

    Julia Eichten:
    While it was an extreme challenge to choose only one song from Xenia Rubinos’ latest album, Una Rosa, Cógelo Suave has been one of many that I have on repeat.  This swirl of a song will make any day brighter, break you open and have you singing!



     

    Emi Ferguson:



     

    Keir GoGwilt:











     

    Conor Hanick:
    The last thing played on my music app was the first disc of Beach House’s upcoming album, Once Twice Melody, which is lush, sweeping, synthy, and grandiose.



    I’ve also been enjoying Jonny Greenwood’s soundtrack to the film The Power of the Dog, especially the Messiaen-esque finale Psalm 22.



    Lastly, folks are rightly excited about the recent Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders collaboration, but I’ve found myself revisiting Floating Points’ 2015 album of experimental synth-jazz, Elaenia, with a particular habit of rewinding “Silhouettes (I, II, III)”



     

    Coleman Itzkoff:
    Pick: Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice
    I’ll admit to a certain degree of bias for my playlist pick, Matt being a close friend and current roommate here in New York City, but I truly felt compelled to list this new opera of his, which recently held it’s Met premiere to much acclaim. I was able to attend two live performances, as well as listen to the BBC broadcast on a recent long car trip and found so much of the music staying with me, swirling around in the back of my consciousness like the really great music tends to do. The score is dazzling, deeply moving, complex, tectonic (superlatives abound!), and the performance by Erin Morley, Joshua Hopkins, Barry Banks, and more, all backed by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Met Orchestra, is totally and utterly ravishing. For those already dedicated fans of Matt’s work, Eurydice is the latest and greatest contribution to his oeuvre (not to mention the latest in a 400-year Orphic opera tradition). And for those less familiar with the music of Matthew Aucoin, I can think of no better place to start!

    More info

     

    Or Schraiber:
    Formidable by Stromae always makes me dance.



     

    Bobbi Jene Smith:
    La Solitude always makes me feel the dance inside of me. It has been a song that has been a starting point for many dances I have made. Thank you, Barbara, for haunting and dancing with me. I hope this song will make you feel the dance in you too.



     


    Davónes Tines:
    six thirty by Ariana Grande
    Towards the end of the year I’m feeling cozy and romantic.  This song from one of my favorite artists, on her latest album, continues to evolve her special combination of crisp vocals wrapped in string-infused r&b redux.



     

    Zack Winokur:
    We Do Not Belong Together performed by Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin. I’ve been listening pretty nonstop to Stephen Sondheim since his death. It’s hard to choose just one, but this song is the devastating apotheosis of a genuinely real relationship at the core of Sunday in the Park with George, a show I was going to direct last spring until covid struck it down.



  • We did it … Together!

    We did it … Together!

    Message from Ara Guzelimian

    It turned out to be a magical time of reunion and renewal, as we celebrated our 75th anniversary Festival in the best of company. As I take a breath and reflect on that beautiful September weekend, I feel boundless gratitude. We gathered together in Ojai and cherished the singular joy of being in the company of music and musicians as a communal experience.

    The predominant emotion of the concerts was one of joy and optimism, particularly as defined by the energies and creativity of a new generation of composers. John Adams was so very wise in making sure this anniversary festival looked forward. All our artists embraced that spirit wholeheartedly, especially determined to do so in the face of the painful events of the past eighteen months.  Our great thanks go to John, not only for the riches of his own music, but also for the choice of artists and works which so beautifully defined the arc of this festival.

    Let us take a moment to bask in just a few selected memories. Enjoy our photo gallery of Festival moments as captured by photographer Timothy Teague:

    It took remarkable devotion on the part of many people to get us here, beginning with our dedicated Board of Directors who have been steadfast in their vision, generosity and clarity of purpose. I offer my heartfelt thanks to the artists, the staff, interns, volunteers and housing hosts who worked tirelessly to make this a most special festival, often in the face of unexpected challenges – did I mention that Víkingur Ólafsson was nearly turned away at the airport in Reykjavik because of confusion about his (entirely correct!) visa documentation? Somehow, there was always a solution to be found. Even the weather was ideal, with mild temperatures and soft breezes to bring Ojai enchantment 

    But I reserve a very measure of thanks to each of you, for your continued faith in the Ojai Festival, for complying with the safety measures, for your generosity in supporting the festival financially, and most of all, for your irreplaceable presence at concerts (and by extension, long distance by way of our streamed concerts). You help create one of the most attentive, understanding, adventurous, and open-hearted audiences I have ever experienced.  

     And now, we begin the happy anticipation of the Festival to come in June 2022. We had a vivid introduction to two more artists from AMOC (the American Modern Opera Company), the collective of 17 instrumentalists, singers, dancers, choreographers, and composers, who together will be the Music Director in June. Violinist Miranda Cuckson and flutist Emi Ferguson, core members of AMOC, both made brilliant debuts at this year’s Festival. 

    Miranda Cuckson shone in the virtuosic and expressive challenges of Samuel Adams’ Chamber Concerto, played a recital that ranged from Bach to Saariaho, and, in a stunning Libbey Bowl performance of Bach, created an iconic only-in-Ojai image: 

    Emi Ferguson played Gabriela Ortiz’s Huitzitl with expressive power and grace, despite the distractions of another only-in-Ojai moment, the sounding of a persistent security alarm nearby. So I thought it’s only fair to revisit Emi’s mesmerizing performance, this time with the benefit of some subtle audio filtering that magically minimizes the sound of the alarm and focuses attention entirely on Gaby’s evocative music and the beauty of Emi’s playing! 

    We can happily anticipate look ahead to more musical encounters with both Emi and Miranda, the return of favorite Festival favorite artists (and current members of AMOC) soprano Julia Bullock, bass-baritone Davóne Tines, and cellist Jay Campbell, as well as a happy introduction to all of the brilliant creative spirits of this endlessly-creative collective in the next Festival. We will meet all of the members of AMOC in the coming months by way of special online programming and conversations. 

    In the meantime, our wholehearted thanks to each of you. I look forward to seeing you all again in June 2022 or sooner! 

  • 2021 Critical Acclaim

    2021 Critical Acclaim

    Ojai Music Festival 2021. John Adams, Miranda Cuckson, Rhiannon Giddens, Víkingur Ólafsson, Attacca Quartet. Photos by Timothy Teague

    Thank you for joining us at our 75th Festival, September 16-19, 2021. Read review excerpts below. Relive concerts anytime by watching our archived live streaming concerts. View our photo gallery of some of our favorite Festival moments.

    Download PDF of reviews here

    “a forward-looking survey of young artists — fitting for a festival that has long focused on the future” New York Times

    “Against unsettlingly uncertain odds, Ojai’s 75th anniversary festival happened as hoped and promised, and it was special” Los Angeles Times

    “In Ojai, circa 2021, themes of “homecoming” and pandemic-related dynamics struck emotional chords beyond the provocative and consoling musical goods.” San Francisco Classical Voice

    “Throughout its illustrious history, the Ojai Music Festival has been known for a series of unpredictable, serendipitous musical experiences that become known as quintessential Ojai moments. One such moment stood out as a highlight of this year’s festival – an “Ojai Dawns” concert… [with a program of] all Mexican composers, music by [Gabriela] Ortiz, Javier Álvarez, and Georgina Derbez.” San Francisco Classical Voice

    “Pandemic-waylaid, the Ojai Music Festival finally erected its contemporary-music-geared Big Top with one of its strongest programs of late.” Santa Barbara Independent

    “Rhiannon Giddens was an inspired choice to anchor the festival with… a rousing concert of her original/traditional material on Saturday night… The concert… resonated with all of the pain and struggle we have experienced over the last two years in a way that was at once healing and grounding.” Santa Barbara Independent

    “arguably the most exciting music event in this country” Berkshire Fine Arts

    “Music sounds fresh and very much of the moment. It both delights and moves in its Ojai setting.” Berkshire Fine Arts

    “thoughtfully programmed and precisely performed” Sequenza 21

    “The Ojai spirit of adventure was alive in the programming hands of music director du jour John Adams… and the new artistic and executive director Ara Guzelimian” Classical Voice North America 

  • REUNION

    REUNION

    It is more than a festival. It is a homecoming, the recognition of a bond. On rough wooden benches — back in the day — or stretched out on the lawn, settled on a blanket, families in tow, this is a kindred fellowship, both alert and at ease. Performers get it right away because it only takes a rehearsal or two to realize that here it’s different. Young composers, cradling their newborn, often take more time. But after the jitters and anxieties of a premiere or first performance they look around and see where they are and are transformed.

    For all the unseen planning of a dedicated staff (or more likely because of it) — Ojai always feels improvised, something that just happens. How easily conversations begin, over a new work, a performance, or this and that. Introductions come later, maybe after a year or two with a “remember when.” Then casual acquaintance blossoms into friendship. Yes, that’s a big part of it, the shared memories, something even initiates pick up on, when on Sunday they look back on Friday and the distance travelled in between. Something, too, about the place, the trees, the hills, the soft mists in the morning, the beating sun at noon, the evening chill. Old-timers know to come prepared, newcomers learn quickly. Then we leave, disperse, maybe one last meal and the long drive back, envying those who call Ojai home.

    There are regulars, of course, true believers who attend every event. For others, however, Ojai is a smorgasbord — up for a day, perhaps, or an afternoon, or some years not at all. No matter; we all come back sooner or later, a habit formed through decades. Naturally, there have been changes. Time was, the festival was a simpler affair. Three days, five or six concerts; lots of time to spare, to chat, shop, a leisurely coffee, a bookstore browse, perhaps a walk, or bike ride. Back then Ojai sometimes felt like a coda to the Los Angeles season, to the Monday Evening Concerts, or the concerts of the Philharmonic, a showcase for the Southland’s finest, under the guidance, among others, of Lawrence Morton, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Ingolf Dahl, Pierre Boulez, Ernest Fleischmann, not to mention resident composers such as Messiaen, Carter, or Kurtág — the legacies of giants. There was never a formula, a fixed agenda. There was freedom to pick, choose, and explore; to address the cultural and political preoccupations of the moment, to dare something new, to cozy up to something familiar, to be unapologetically eclectic. Ojai, as John Henken has written, “was always ahead of the counter- and multi-cultural curve.” Theater, dance, opera, non-Western music, and jazz have long been part of the mix. Just one thing: The music comes first.

    It’s been more abuzz with activity recently. A stage rebuilt and shifted, a few trees lost, proper seats instead of sagging benches, a more forgiving sunshade, lots of bustle in the park. Tom Morris brought us events from dawn to midnight, spread around the lower and upper valley. The focus has grown from conductors and composers to include performers and ensembles; brash, innovative young artists from across the country and abroad who are rethinking music and the concert experience. New trends and fashions, our legacies in the making.
     
    75 years — or longer? Consider a long-forgotten 1926 Ojai Valley Festival of Chamber Music, the so-called Frost-Sprague Festival with a $1,000 prize for the best new string quartet. “One of the greatest musical events that has ever taken place in America,” was the local assessment. Ah, the pride! We like to think we’re on the map, that we make a difference. No doubt we are, no doubt we have. Commissions, premieres, big names, new talents, correspondents from New York, London, and Frankfurt, weblinks, blurbs, and blogs, the world takes note. That’s all nice, good, and fine. But somehow, though we might care, Ojai itself is above such things. We listen, delight in new sounds, discover other cultures, new ways of making music, or interpretations that make us hear afresh what we thought we knew. But this place, this space takes it all in its serene embrace — the music with the birds, the crickets, the sirens, the bells, and the distant lawn mower. And because that’s so, this is a place of private epiphanies, revelations that come unbidden — we all have our favorites — moments to store quietly in our memories, to recall and share. Such are the shared moments that make each year’s festival a reunion. Together again. How good it will feel.

    by Christopher Hailey 

    Special thanks to Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne for their support of the Festival’s 75th anniversary season 

  • Podcast Series: OJAICAST 2021

    Podcast Series: OJAICAST 2021

    SEASON 1

    Welcome to OJAICAST where we pull back the curtain to explore all-things music to satisfy musical appetites, whether you are a newcomer or longtime music fan. Special guests help shine the light on topics, ranging from concert repertoire, music of today, to their own Ojai experiences. OJAICAST is hosted by composer, pianist and Festival Live Stream Host Thomas Kotcheff.

    Episode 1

    Our first episode gives an in-depth look into the 75th Ojai Music Festival (September 16-19, 2021) repertoire and the musical threads that connect it all together, curated by Music Director John Adams. Guests include Ojai Festival Artistic & Executive Director Ara Guzelimian, Program Book Annotator Thomas May, and featured 2021 composer Gabriela Ortiz.

    SHOW NOTES / CREDITS:
    Thomas Kotcheff, host
    Thomas Kotcheff, producer
    Louis Ng, recording engineer

    OJAICAST theme by Thomas Kotcheff and Louis Weeks

    Music used in this episode:
    Philip Glass – Evening Song No. 2 performed by Timo Andres
    Gabriela Ortiz – Río de las mariposas performed by Southwest Chamber Music

    N.B. John Adams was Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival in 1993 and not 1994 as stated in the podcast.

    Episode 2

    American composer and conductor John Adams, who leads the 75th Ojai Music Festival, has been an influence for many artists and composers, including several of our 2021 collaborators.  The second episode invites pianists Vicki Ray and Joanne Pearce Martin, composer Dylan Mattingly, and chairman emeritus and longtime president of Nonesuch Records Robert Hurwitz to discuss their personal connections with John Adams.

    SHOW NOTES / CREDITS:

    Thomas Kotcheff, host
    Thomas Kotcheff, producer
    Louis Ng, recording engineer

    OJAICAST theme by Thomas Kotcheff and Louis Weeks

    Music used in this episode:
    John Adams – Hallelujah Junction performed by Nicolas Hodges and Rolf Hind
    John Adams – Road Movies: III. 40% Swing performed by Leila Josefowicz and John Novacek
    Dylan Mattingly – Magnolia performed by ZOFO duet (Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi)
    John Adams – The Dharma at Big Sur, Pt. II: Sri Moonshine performed by Tracy Silverman, John Adams, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
    John Adams – I Still Play performed by Timo Andres

    Episode 3

    Classical music can be intimidating to newcomers and frequent concertgoers alike, even more so, new contemporary music. Host Thomas Kotcheff discusses this topic with the help from his guests, Musicologist Lance Brunner and composer and Festival Live Stream host Veronika Krausas, on finding meaning and confidence in the process of listening to classical music.

    SHOW NOTES / CREDITS:
    Thomas Kotcheff, host
    Thomas Kotcheff, producer
    Louis Ng, recording engineer

    OJAICAST theme by Thomas Kotcheff and Louis Weeks

    Music used in this episode:
    Rachmaninoff – Isle of the Dead  performed by Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
    Glass – Glassworks, Opening (Reworked By Christian Badzura) performed by Víkingur Ólafsson
    Knut Nystedt/Johann Sebastian Bach – Immortal Bach performed by Maulbronner Kammerchor, Benjamin Hartmann

    Episode 4

    The Ojai Music Festival has been around since 1947, but rather than sticking to status quo, it continues to evolve and surprise with unusual intersections of musical styles and genres. Invited to talk about their Ojai experiences will be alum – Matthew Duvall of Eighth Blackbird, Music Director of the 2009 Festival, and Steven Schick, percussionist, conductor and Music Director of the 2015 Festival.

    SHOW NOTES / CREDITS:
    Thomas Kotcheff, host
    Thomas Kotcheff, producer
    Louis Ng, recording engineer

    OJAICAST theme by Thomas Kotcheff and Louis Weeks

    Music used in this episode:
    Missy Mazzoli – Still Life with Avalanche performed by Eighth Blackbird
    Xenakis – Rebonds B performed by Steven Schick

    About Thomas Kotcheff:
    Thomas Kotcheff is a Los Angeles based composer and pianist. His compositions have been described as “truly beautiful and inspired” (icareifyoulisten.com) and “explosive” (Gramophone magazine), and have been performed internationally by The Riot Ensemble, wild Up, New York Youth Symphony, Sandbox Percussion, violinist Jennifer Koh, the Argus Quartet, the Lyris Quartet, the Alinde Quartett, The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, HOCKET, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble amongst others. Thomas has received awards and honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presser Foundation, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, BMI, ASCAP, the New York Youth Symphony, the National Association of Composers USA, and the American Composers Forum. Thomas has been a composition fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s National Composers Intensive, the Festival International d’Art Lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, the Aspen Summer Music Festival and School, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Bennington Chamber Music Conference, and the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival. He has been artist in residence at the Byrdcliffe Art Colony, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Avaloch Farm Music Institute, the Studios of Key West, the Blackbird Creative Lab, and the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Thomas holds degrees in composition and piano performance from the Peabody Institute and the University of Southern California. For more information visit www.ThomasKotcheff.com

  • Join Us for Suppers in the Park

    Join Us for Suppers in the Park

    omf_supper_022

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

    Friday Night September 17: Santa Barbara Catering Connection
    Boxed Dinner

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

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

    Saturday Night September 18: Ojai Rotie
    Boxed Dinner 

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

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

     

     

  • Ojai Farmers Riff on the Culture of Growing Things

    Ojai Farmers Riff on the Culture of Growing Things

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

     

    • Lisa McKinnon is a former Ventura County Star journalist who continues to write about local food (and the people who grow, prepare and serve it) for 805 Living and Central Coast Farm & Ranch magazines. She’s on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok as 805foodie, and blogs at 805foodie.com. 
  • Countdown to the 75th Festival

    Countdown to the 75th Festival

     

     

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

     

     

    Video production by Two Fish Digital. 

     

     

  • Libbey Bowl Seat Map

    Click images to expand.

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

    Box Office Hours

    Mon-Fri: 10am to 5pm

    805 646 2053
    boxoffice@ojaifestival.org

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

  • Look-Back: Ojai’s Musical Pop-Ups

    Look-Back: Ojai’s Musical Pop-Ups

     

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

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

     

     

  • Music at Ojai Meadows Preserve

    Music at Ojai Meadows Preserve

     

    Dear Ojai Festival friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Ara Guzelimian
    Artistic & Executive Director

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

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

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

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

     

     

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

     

    Video production by Two Fish Digital. 

     

     

  • Virtual Ojai Talks

    Virtual Ojai Talks

     


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

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with Niloufar Shiri

    Musical Pop-Up with Niloufar Shiri

     

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

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

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

     

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

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

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

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

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

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

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

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with Shelley Burgon

    Musical Pop-Up with Shelley Burgon

     

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

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

    REPERTOIRE
    CAGE   In a Landscape 
    Colorado 
    SHELLEY BURGON  Prospect

    ABOUT THE ARTIST 

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

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

     

     

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

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

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with BRAVO & Laura Walter

     

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

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

    REPERTOIRE
    DEBUSSY   Syrinx
    HU JIEXU  Here Comes the Cuckoo 
    MESSIAEN   Blackbird

     

    ABOUT THE ARTIST 

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

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

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

      Learn more about the Festival’s BRAVO program >

     

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

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

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with Fiona Digney

    Musical Pop-Up with Fiona Digney

     

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

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

    REPERTOIRE
    CAGE   I Ching 
    Michael GORDON   XY

    ABOUT THE ARTIST 

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

     

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

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

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with Helen Kim

    Musical Pop-Up with Helen Kim

     

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

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

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

     

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

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

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

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Up with Niloufar Shiri

    Musical Pop-Up with Niloufar Shiri

     

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

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

    REPERTOIRE
    Abolhassan Sabā   Zard-e Malijeh   
    Avaz-e Dashti

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

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

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

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

    QUICK LINKS

    2021 Festival Schedule >
    Purchase Festival Passes >

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

     

     

  • Musical Pop-Ups Around Town

    Musical Pop-Ups Around Town

     

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

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

     

     

  • Dylan Mattingly & Emily Levin

    Dylan Mattingly & Emily Levin

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


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

     

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

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

     

    About Dylan Mattingly

     

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

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

    About Emily Levin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

     

    La Vita Nuova (and other consequences of Spring)

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

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

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

    • Dylan Mattingly, composer 

     

  • 2021 Festival Moves to September

    2021 Festival Moves to September

    Dear Ojai Festival friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

    With thanks and good wishes, 

     
    Artistic & Executive Director 

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  • Festival Timeline: 8 decades of adventurous music-making

    Festival Timeline: 8 decades of adventurous music-making

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

    1940s

    1950s

    1960s

    1970s

    1980s

    1990s

    2000s

    2010s

    2020s

    *photos by Timothy Teague

  • Playing Changes

    Playing Changes

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

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

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

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

    About Samuel Adams

     

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Visit Sam’s website here>

     

    About Helen Kim

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