Since the Ojai Music Festival’s founding in 1947, volunteers have ensured the enduring success of the organization, from our renowned four-day Festival and our acclaimed BRAVO music education program.
Volunteer opportunities range from ushering, administrative office work, concessions to housing Festival artists and production team. The Festival is fortunate to have a large community of volunteers.
Besides receiving benefits to volunteer that include lawn tickets, a festival commemorative t-shirt and invitations to events, volunteers get to enjoy the camaraderie of working together and meeting interesting music enthusiasts like Jodine Hammerand!
JODINE HAMMERAND: A Return to Ojai and the Music Festival!
What brought you to Ojai? My family was living in Los Angeles when my parents took my siblings and I to Ojai for the week of Spring Break. We all fell in love with Ojai and our family moved here in 1972.
L-R: Wendy Gray and Jodine Hammerand at the Festival’s volunteer event in March, 2024
When did you start your involvement in the Music Festival? I started at Nordhoff High School as a freshman. It was probably my junior year when I started volunteering for the Ojai Music Festival as an usher. I will never forget watching a run-through with the LA Philharmonic that was being conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas!
When did you make your way back to Ojai? After retiring from Alaska Airlines, I ultimately chose to move back to Ojai right at the height of the pandemic. I was interested in volunteering again and finally was able to usher for the 2022 Ojai Music Festival, then again in 2023. It felt like a happy reunion!
What is a recent fond memory of the Festival? I am a lover of all music genres, especially the Blues. I really enjoyed Rhiannon Giddens being the music director in 2023 with her banjo playing. She also introduced the pipa and the kora, two great instruments rooted deep in history. ‘The roots of the present are deep in the past’ my high school history teacher used to always say! I attended the performance of Ghost Opera and enjoyed listening to the pipa with all the instruments. I ushered at the performance of Omar’s Journey and heard the kora played by Seckou Keita. I arrived before the concert as ushers do to prepare the Libbey Bowl. I was walking down the center aisle of seats when I saw Seckou practicing on stage. When he was finished, he looked my way, and I gave him a thumbs up indicating how beautiful he played. He smiled his big smile and that made me very happy, and I will never forget it.
I look forward to volunteering for the Ojai Music Festival. It is a joy every year, no matter the style of music. In addition, I enjoy every year when the staff and volunteers gather together before the Festival, to listen to Ara Guzelimian with his knowledge of the musicians. He is an asset as artistic and executive director.
TEDDY ABRAMS NAMED ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE OJAI MUSIC FESTIVALEFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 1, 2026
ARA GUZELIMIAN CONTINUES AS ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THROUGH THE 2026 FESTIVAL WITH MUSIC DIRECTOR ESA-PEKKA SALONEN
(Ojai, CA – September 10, 2025) – Ojai Music Festival Board Chairman Jerry Eberhardt announced today the appointment of conductor/composer/pianist Teddy Abrams as Ojai’s next Artistic and Executive Director effective September 1, 2026, with his first Festival being the 81st Festival in June 2027. He will join the ranks of such distinguished predecessors as Ara Guzelimian, who concludes his tenure with the 2026 Festival, Thomas W. Morris, Ernest Fleischmann, and Lawrence Morton. Mr. Abrams’ collaboration with the Ojai Music Festival will be concurrent with his post as Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra.
“Teddy Abrams is one of today’s most striking ambassadors for the impact the arts can have on building community. His artistic sensibilities, collegial spirit, and boundless energy position him as the ideal leader for the Ojai Music Festival as it enters its eighth decade,” said Mr. Eberhardt. “My Board colleagues and I have complete confidence that Teddy will build on the Festival’s momentum and will continue to meet the expectations of our celebrated, supremely adventurous audiences and to provide the platform for our growing family of the world’s most inventive artists to experiment and grow. With the resounding success of Teddy’s work to increase access and build community through music, we know he will help advance the Festival’s commitment to reach across generations and to engage with the very heart of the Ojai community and throughout the region. As we anticipate the 80th anniversary of this glorious Festival, we feel boundless gratitude for Ara Guzelimian’s generous, steady leadership, and we welcome Teddy as we look toward the future.”
Teddy Abrams said, “The Ojai Music Festival is one of the brightest lights in the music world today. The Festival has always seemed like a magical and mythical beacon for me – this was where my mentor, Michael Tilson Thomas conducted in his early career (in addition to his own mentor, Ingolf Dahl); it is where Copland and Stravinsky shared their work, and it is the place that has brought to life the dreams of many of the greatest musicians of the past 80 years. The Ojai Music Festival represents creativity, adventure, and daring, all of which are the hardwired values of the Festival and its exceptionally loyal audiences; these are my deepest values too.”
“It is an overwhelming honor to join the Ojai family as Artistic and Executive Director. I believe the Festival has consistently offered the world a glimpse into the future of music, and the Festival’s programming provides music lovers an opportunity to experience what is possible when creative inspiration is met with an affirmation. So much of this is due to the brilliance of Ojai’s many extraordinary leaders, including this most recent period of growth and success with Ara at the helm. I can’t wait to continue Ojai’s legacy of dreaming big, challenging the music world to think differently, and presenting art that brings the world to Ojai and Ojai to the world,” continued Mr. Abrams.
Ara Guzelimian commented, “This was a deeply considered decision by Ojai’s wonderful Board, led by a most experienced and knowledgeable succession committee. I greatly admire what Teddy has achieved at the Louisville Orchestra and look forward to seeing and to hearing all that he will bring to this new role. I will do all I can to assure a seamless transition and wish Teddy and this singular Festival every success in the years to come.”
Now in his twelfth season as Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra, Teddy Abrams has been the galvanizing force behind the ensemble’s extraordinary artistic renewal and innovative social impact. Among his manifold achievements with the Orchestra are the Creators Corps, a trailblazing initiative that provides a fully funded residency for three composers who receive local housing, a salary, health benefits, and dedicated workspaces, the In Harmony tour, a multi-season, grand-scale community-building project funded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky that takes the Louisville Orchestra to urban and rural areas across the state, and recordings including a Grammy-Award winning album for Deutsche Grammophon featuring his own piano concerto written for Yuja Wang, one of nine works he has written for the orchestra. He was chosen as Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, and his work has been profiled by CBS Sunday Morning, PBSNewsHour, NPR, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and TheNew York Times,which hails him as a “maestro of the people” who “has embedded himself in his community, breaking the mold of modern conductors.”
Mr. Abrams is a passionate advocate for the music of today, having commissioned and/or premiered works by over 40 composers including, Caroline Shaw, Gabriel Kahane, Mason Bates, Christopher Cerrone, Andrew Norman, Angélica Negrón, Timo Andres, Julia Wolfe, Valerie Coleman, Michael Gordon, Lera Auerbach, Chris Thile, Tyshawn Sorey, and Joel Thompson. A cornerstone of his work in Kentucky is the Louisville Orchestra’s Creators Corps, which has welcomed 11 composers into the program thus far, resulting in more than 30 new works by composers Alex Berko, Lisa Bielawa, TJ Cole, Baldwin Giang, Anthony R. Green, Brittany Green, Oswald Huỳnh, Chelsea Komschlies, Kiru Okoye, Tanner Porter, and Tyler Taylor. Recognized for his commitment to making music accessible and to deepening community connections, he currently serves as the Aspen Institute Arts Program’s Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence, a platform which invites Mr. Abrams to lend his perspective in addressing major social and civic issues.
In May 2025, Mr. Guzelimian announced his intention to step away from Ojai, which allowed for an extensive national search for his successor. Prior to this most recent six-year collaboration with the Festival (2020 – 2026), with Music Directors John Adams, AMOC (American Modern Opera Company), Rhiannon Giddens, Mitsuko Uchida, Claire Chase, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, he was Ojai’s Artistic Director from 1992 to 1997, working closely with Music Directors Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Kent Nagano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Emanuel Ax. All told, Mr. Guzelimian will have shaped Ojai’s artistic direction for 12 years when he concludes his tenure from the Festival following the 80th Festival in June 2026.
The Ojai Music Festival and Ara Guzelimian will share details for the upcoming 2026 Festival (June 11-14, 2026) with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen in the fall of 2025. Teddy Abrams The winner of a Grammy Award and Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, Teddy Abrams has been the galvanizing force behind the Louisville Orchestra’s extraordinary artistic renewal and innovative social impact since his appointment as Music Director in September 2014. His Kentucky achievements include acclaimed programs such as the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps and the In Harmony Tour, and adventurous collaborations with artists including Jim James, Jack Harlow, Storm Large, and Jecorey “1200” Arthur, with whom Mr. Abrams founded the Louisville Orchestra Rap School. He collaborates regularly in Louisville and elsewhere with the leading artists of our time including Yo-Yo Ma, Yuja Wang, and Chris Thile.
Mr. Abrams’ guest conducting activities take him across the country, with regular appearances with the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Cincinnati, National, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee Symphonies, the Buffalo and Los Angeles Philharmonics; the Minnesota Orchestra; and at the Ravinia and Aspen Music Festivals. He was Music Director and Conductor of the Britt Festival Orchestra from 2013 to 2023. In Europe, he has conducted the Helsinki and Luxembourg Philharmonics and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He makes debuts with the Atlanta Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, and London’s BBC Symphony Orchestra in the 2025-26 season.
Teddy Abrams is an award-winning composer, whose recent compositions for the Louisville Orchestra include a piano concerto for Yuja Wang, which they recorded for Deutsche Grammophon’s The American Project, winning the pianist and himself a Grammy Award; Mammoth, premiered with Yo-Yo Ma and Davóne Tines at Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park; and his rap opera, The Greatest: Muhammad Ali. His recording of his piano collection Preludes was released on New Amsterdam Records in 2025. He is now at work on a Broadway musical, ALI, and an orchestral history of the state of Kentucky. For additional bio information, visit OjaiFestival.org/Teddy-Abrams-Bio.
Ojai Music Festival The Ojai Music Festival represents an ideal of adventurous, open-minded, and openhearted programming in the most beautiful and welcoming settings, with audiences and artists to match its aspirations. Now in its 80th year, the Festival remains a creative laboratory for thought-provoking musical experiences, bringing together innovative artists and curious audiences in an intimate, idyllic outdoor setting. Each Festival’s narrative is guided by a different Music Director, whose distinctive perspectives shape programming — ensuring energized festivals year after year.
Throughout each year, the Ojai Music Festival contributes to Southern California’s cultural landscape with in-person and online programming as well as robust educational offerings that serve thousands of public-school students and seniors. The organization’s apex is the world-renowned Festival, which takes place over four days in Ojai, a breathtaking valley 75 miles from Los Angeles, which is a perennial platform for the fresh and unexpected. During the immersive experience, a mingling of the most curious take part in concerts, symposia, free community events, and social gatherings. The intimate Festival weekend, considered a highlight of the international summer music season, welcomes up to 5,000 patrons and reaches exponentially more audiences worldwide through streaming and broadcasts of concerts and discussions throughout the year.
Since its founding in 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has presented expansive programming in unusual ways with an eclectic mix of new and rarely performed music, as well as refreshing juxtapositions of musical styles. Through its signature structure of the Artistic Director appointing a different Music Director each year, Ojai has presented a “who’s who” of music including Mitsuko Uchida, Rhiannon Giddens, AMOC (American Modern Opera Company), Vijay Iyer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Barbara Hannigan in recent years; throughout its history, featured artists have included Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kent Nagano, Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, David Robertson, Eighth Blackbird, George Benjamin, Dawn Upshaw, Leif Ove Andsnes, Mark Morris, Jeremy Denk, Steven Schick, Matthias Pintscher, and Peter Sellars.
80th Festival: June 11 – 14, 2026 Composer/Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to the Ojai Music Festival to serve as Music Director for the 80th Festival, June 11 to 14, 2026. Joining him as featured artists will be clarinetist Anthony McGill, Attacca Quartet, the Colburn Orchestra, and LA Phil New Music Group. Esa-Pekka Salonen is one of the most inventive, adventurous thinkers of 21st-century musical life. The unique format of the Ojai Music Festival will give him an unusually free creative hand as both composer and conductor.
The Rake’s Progress premiere with Barbara Hannigan, EQ Artists and the Gothengurg Symphony. Photo by Mats Backer
Special Report from Thomas W. Morris (December 13, 2018)
I am writing this from Gothenburg, a beautiful quiet city in southern Sweden, home of the Gothenburg Symphony, the National Orchestra of Sweden. The widely recorded orchestra has a distinguished conductor heritage with Barbara Hannigan along with Christoph Eschenbach serving as Principal Guest Conductors and Gustavo Dudamel as Honorary Conductor. Former Ojai Music Director Kent Nagano served as Principal Guest Conductor for the last five years.
The occasion here was the world premiere of the new fully staged production of Stravinsky’s 1951 opera, The Rake’s Progress, a co-production of the Gothenburg Symphony, Brussel’s Klara Festival, the Munich Philharmonic, and the Ojai and Aldeburgh Music Festivals. This same production will open the 2019 Festival on Thursday, June 6 in Libbey Bowl.
The Rakes Progress is an astonishing morality tale of good and evil, with text by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, and composed in Stravinsky’s most delicious neoclassic style. The 45-piece orchestra has all the rhythmic clarity found in the classic operas of Mozart, down to the ever present sparkle of a harpsichord continuo. There are arias, ensemble pieces, recitatives, and choruses, all framed in some of Stravinsky’s most bracing, stylish and rhythmically pointed music. The work is full of deep and stark drama, but also enormous humor – a perfect meld of the sublime and the ridiculous.
The production is and performances were out of this world. The mastermind was Barbara Hannigan who conceived the project and conducted, in fact it was her operatic conducting debut. Two years ago, Barbara founded Equilibrium (EQ), her mentoring initiative for young professional artists in the early stage of their careers. She reviewed over 300 applications for the project and personally auditioned over 100 singers and conductors a year ago. 22 were selected to participate during this first year, who come from all over the world.. Through the course of the year, Barbara conducts about three weeks of workshops outside Paris with the group, with the goal of teaching performance practices, refining interpretive issues in particular works, coping with the peculiar challenges of an artist’s life on the road, and functioning at the highest level of professionalism in the face of often challenging circumstances. Joining her in teaching are a yoga instructor from Amsterdam and the incredible Jackie Reardon, world famous tennis player and tennis coach who now spends her career as a life coach and motivational teacher, and author of several books and online teaching courses called Mindset and Friendly Eyes.
The artists also work with Barbara in her own various projects, including The Rake’s Progress. EQ singers form three separate casts for Rake’s (the opera requires six singers). This rotating cast will be working with Barbara in this new production to be performed three times in Gothenburg (I heard the first two performances), two performances at Brussels Klara Festival in March, two performances with the Munich Philharmonic in early May, five concert performances in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Paris, Dortmund and Dresden in late May, and then one performance in Ojai June 6 and a final one in Aldeburgh June 20.The Brussels cast will be the same that comes to Ojai and Aldeburgh.
Barbara engaged the noted young director Linus Fellbom to create, design, light, and direct the production, originally conceived as a “semi-staged” production – vastly simpler than traditional fully-staged productions and usually necessary because of the need to adapt a production to many difference places, different kinds of halls (concerts halls in Gothenburg, Munich, and Aldeburgh), a traditional opera house in Brussels), and different environments such as the unique outdoor setting of Ojai’s Libbey Bowl. “Semi-staged” productions also have the advantage of requiring far less preparation times to set up, a significant factor with so many performances in different places, as well as usually far less in terms of budgets. What Linus has incredibly created is a “fully-staged” production under “semi-staged” limitations. It is a marvel of compactness, power and simplicity – one that will be fascinating in so many different settings.
While not wanting to give away the surprises, I will say the production is based on the concept of an opera production which lands mysteriously in the various settings in gigantic wooden box, plopping itself down the center of the stage, behind which is the orchestra and on the sides of which is the chorus. As the opera unfolds, the box assumes life of its own, framing not only the singing and acting but astonishingly becoming the center of the drama itself. The work’s powerful climax contains a most stunning coups de theater that will take your breath away.
I saw two performances in Gothenburg, and both were thrilling. The production was over the top in its power and meaning, and the singing and acting by the unique Gothenburg cast from EQ simply the best I have ever heard in this opera, both individually and also as an ensemble. A note that singing the title role of Anne Truelove was Aphrodite Patoulidou, a young Greek soprano, who will also sing the role in Ojai: remember this name and the fact that you can say you discovered her in Ojai, much the same as discovering the young Julia Bullock in Ojai in 2011. The sheer energy, ensemble and vocal art of all of these young performers was totally captivating. The audience rose to its feet at the end in loud cheers each night. Reviews have been ecstatic. And above it all, Barbara Hannigan’s mastery of the score, her incisive conducting and her electrifying presence gave coherent shape, energy and power to the whole score.
Ojai is in for a treat. The Rake’s Progress has not been widely performed in southern California, only two touring performances in the 1960s and a performance about five years ago by Opera Pacifica. (Neither the LA Opera or LA Philharmonic have performed the work.) Ojai amazingly has heard performances of three excerpts from the work – the so-called Bedlam Scene in 1962 conducted by the Lukas Foss, and Anne Truelove’s famous aria scene in 1956 conducted by Robert Craft, and again in 1968, conducted by Lawrence Foster. I am so proud we can open the 2019 Festival with this fully-staged production – which not only expands our range of production capabilities but ties neatly to the fact that Stravinsky himself was Ojai Music Director in 1956, just five years after composing Rake’s.
As the devilish Nick Shadow says at the end of the first scene – “the progress of a Rake begins” – indeed, a journey that will last the whole season for Barbara Hannigan, and of which we will be the beneficiary in June, an event not to be missed.
The Ojai Music Festival allows the world beyond Ojai’s Libbey Bowl to experience the music and ideas expressed at the Festival through state-of-the art live streaming access during the four-day event. In addition to the concerts, you can also watch our live stream interviews with hosts Steven Smith of National Sawdust and Thomas Kotcheff of Classical KUSC. Please join us for the 2019 Ojai Music Festival live broadcast!
Thursday, June 6 2019
Start Time
Event
7:00 pm
Pre-Show with hosts Smith & Kotcheff
7:30 pm
The Rake’s Progress
Friday, June 7 2019
Morning
Start Time
Event
3:00 pm
Pre-Show & Barbara Hannigan Interview
3:30 pm
The Music of John Zorn Part 1
4:30 pm
Concert Recap & Interview with Peppie Wiersma of LUDWIG
5:00 pm
The Music of John Zorn Part 2
5:55 pm
Concert Recap & Ojai Talks with Barbara Hannigan
Evening
Start Time
Event
7:00 pm
Pre-Show & Interview with Bill Elliott
7:30 pm
Part 1: Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen, & Schoenberg
8:30 pm
Concert Recap & Interview with Edo Frenkel
9:00 pm
Part 2: Schoenberg, Debussy, Vivier
10:00 pm
Concert Recap
Saturday, June 8 2019
Morning
Start Time
Event
3:00 pm
Pre-Show & Interview with Elgan Lyr Thomas of EQ
3:30 pm
Part 1: Tribute to Oliver Knussen
4:20 pm
Concert Recap & Interview with Aphrodite Patoulidou of EQ
4:50 pm
Part 2: Rachmaninoff, Turnage
5:50 pm
Concert Recap & Ojai Talks with Thomas W. Morris
Evening
Start Time
Event
7:00 pm
Concert Recap & Interview with Jay Campbell & Christopher Otto of JACK Quartet
Festival season is almost upon us! Artists, interns, production staff, and festival goers have begun to flood the gorgeous city of Ojai, eagerly anticipating all that the town has to offer. Here is our curated guide to the best restaurants, shops, and other hot spots to check out during your stay in Ojai. (Plus some other favorites outside of the valley to check out!)
Food & Drink
Agave Maria: Authentic Mexican cuisine with great patio seating.
Bonnie Lu’s: Country-style diner serving up Americana favorites.
Farmer & the Cook: Farm-fresh food with an emphasis on organic ingredients.
Jim & Rob’s: Healthy and fresh burritos and burgers.
Villanova Prep: A Catholic boarding school in Augustinian tradition.
Thacher School: A college preparatory boarding school in Ojai.
We hope you enjoy your stay In the beautiful town of Ojai. Don’t forget to come back for Ojai Day, a family-friendly extravaganza occurring Saturday October 19, and the 20th Annual Ojai Film Festival, occurring October 31 through November 10!
“Once upon a time I have played in the Ojai Music Festival. It was like being in Paradise.’ – Marieke Stordiau, LUDWIG musician
Many Ojai Music Festival artists who step onto the Libbey Bowl stage for the first time are instantly smitten with the enchanting intimate setting of shaded trees and a symphony of birds and crickets as accompanists, and equally so with the curious and enthusiastic audience members who are ready to listen with ears and minds wide open.
Members of LUDWIG – the 2019 ensemble in residence – needless to say had the same experience. Take a look at their journey from Europe to California with photos by Annelies van der Vegt.
Ojai Music Festival. – “The Rake’s Progresss” 6/6/19 Libby Bowl by David Bazemore
The 2019 Ojai Music Festival with Music Director Barbara Hannigan brought a new experience to this year’s listeners, as she showcased her numerous skills as “a fearless femme fatale actress, dancer, athlete, sports psychologist, educator, cook and rising star conductor”. (Read the rest of this article here). Relive the 2019 Festival anytime by watching our archived live streaming concerts.
Feedback from our audience, artists, and members of the press is important to us. Read review excerpts below. We will continue to update these next few as reviews come in.
“an ironwoman musical triathlon of exacting singing, vital conducting and inspiring mentoring” LA Times
“Hannigan thrust her arm to the sky in a gesture of pure triumph, all you could say was, “Wow!” SFCV
“Ojai Music Festival — a utopia where open-minded audiences welcome adventurous works presented against a backdrop of green hills, bird song and Pixie tangerines.” NY Times
“a Coachella for classical and new-music fans.” LA Weekly
“Here was Ms. Hannigan in all her polymathic glory: the impresario who commissioned the piece; the conductor whose persuasive authority demonstrated that it was no vanity project; and the alluring singer, bright and magnetic, who wasn’t above ending on a literal high note.” NY Times
“It is still the quirkiest major music festival in America.” LA Times
“Over its four movements, Schoenberg makes the transition from Wagnerian chromaticism into free-floating atonal space, with a soprano adding a text in the final two movements. Hannigan made it sound downright operatic, pushing her voice to expressionistic limits with a rapid flutter as the members of the JACK bore down.” – Musical America
“Suddenly, in the past few years, the jazz portion of the (contemporary music-geared Ojai Music Festival) story has been shifting and expanding in relevant ways… this year’s roster included jazz- related artists John Zorn, Tyshawn Sorey, and Mark-Anthony Turnage.” – All About jazz
“one of America’s most daring and contemporary-oriented festivals, well-known around internationally.” – Santa Barbara Independent
“If music is a journey, then the Ojai Music Festivalis a serendipitous and often indirect one.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
In Hannigan’s sensitive hands, Vivier’s incantatory 22-minute score, which he called “a long song of solitude,” made touching emotional and narrative sense and conjured arresting timbres from the percussion instruments, including chimes and bass drum. – Classical Voice North America
2019 Festival finale with Barbara Hannigan and LUDWIG. Photo by Annaliese van der Vegt
The Ojai Music Festival is long known for being a place for experimentation and discovery, and receiving feedback from our patrons is important to us. This year, we sent out an electronic audience survey to 998 emails of 2019 ticket buyers, and we had an overwhelming 41% response. For those who participated, we thank you for making the time to share your evaluations about your experience.
As we continue to comb through the results and comments, we would like to share some initial findings. You can also read 2019 press reviews and view the 2019 photo gallery.
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”116″ display=”basic_slideshow”] Select memorable moments of patrons from the survey:
“The “Gershwin” belongs here… an absolute “slam dunk” rivaling anything I’ve seen anywhere… (Lady Gaga… watch your step!) but really, the most memorable “moment” was: Barbara Hannigan. I cannot recall ever experiencing any one person with more depth, comprehensiveness, vision and creativity that what I feel when I hear her sing, conduct or just talk about music. Thank you so much for this year!”
“Finding out that I liked some of Zorn and a lot of Knussen. My time at Ojai each year is a time of musical discovery and a challenge to myself to be open and listening deep.”
“The Rake’s Progress, also meeting old and new friends at the Picnic suppers in the Park.”
“The energy throughout the weekend from the staff, volunteers and concertgoers was infectious.”
“Being reminded how wonderful it is to see friends and acquaintances over and over again, and the accessibility of even the most well-known of the artists.”
“Sun coming through later half of program and a chorus of birds. Vivier’s Lonely Child was a highly inspiring experience seen live. Rake’s Progress. I wept throughout the last third of it.”
In 1976, Pierre Boulez founded the Ensemble intercontemporain with the support of Michel Guy (who was Minister of Culture at the time) and the collaboration and Nicholas Snowman. The Ensemble’s 31 soloists share a passion for 20th to 21st century music. They are employed on permanent contract, enabling them to fulfill the major aims of the Ensemble: performance, creation, and education for young musicians and the general public.
Under the artistic direction of Matthias Pintscher the musicians work in close collaboration with composers, exploring instrumental techniques and developing projects that interweave music, dance, theater, film, video, and visual arts. In collaboration with IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), the Ensemble Intercontemporain is also active in the field of synthetic sound generation. New pieces are commissioned and performed on a regular basis with the support of the Fondation Meyer.
The Ensemble is renowned for its strong emphasis on music education: concerts for kids, creative workshops for students, training programs for future performers, conductors, and composers. Since 2004, the Ensemble soloists have been tutoring young instrumentalists, conductors and composers in the field of contemporary repertoire at the Lucerne Festival Academy, a several week educational project held by the Lucerne Festival.
Resident of the Philharmonie de Paris, the Ensemble performs and records in France and abroad, taking part in major festivals worldwide. The Ensemble is financed by the Ministry of Culture and Communication and receives additional support from the Paris City Council. New commissions by Ensemble intercontemporain are supported by Fondation Meyer.
2020 Music Director Matthias Pintscher is already getting started with next year’s programming of the 74th Ojai Music Festival, June 11 to 14. We are so excited to share all of the exciting pieces and ensembles he is lining up. Listen to his vision for Ojai in the video below.
The Festival will feature a fantastic array of contemporary works that connect back to the seminal music moments of our great tradition; moving forward with respect to what is behind us. Featuring works by Pierre Boulez, Mozart, and Music Director Matthias Pintscher, 2020 will encompass a bridge of the classical contemporary relationship between Europe and the USA.
Watch the video below to hear Artistic Director Chad Smith’s 2020 vision in his own words.
The BRAVO Program is looking forward to an exciting year! By Laura Walter, BRAVO Education Coordinator
It’s the start of the school year and our Education Through Music (ETM) weekly classes have begun in all public Ojai elementary schools for ages four to nine. ETM is based on folk songs and increases language fluency and the ability to sing in tune. In the age of the digital brain, we nurture and educate through having aesthetic experiences—joy and beauty. Teachers comment, “I notice an improvement in their listening skills, but more importantly their ability to take turns and be happy for their friends who are chosen. Students who were inhibited the first few times, now are excited to participate!”
Our BRAVO program is also out-and-about in the community — approaching quickly is the annual Ojai Day on October 19, where our volunteers will set up our ever-popular BRAVO Instrument Petting Zoo in Libbey Park. It’s always fun to see people of all ages try out the myriad of instruments from blowing a trumpet to banging on some boom-whackers.
Another place to see BRAVO in action is at the Holiday Home Tour and Marketplace on November 16 and 17. Local musicians serenade tour guests with strains of Mozart, Joni Mitchell, Top Ten Renaissance favorites, and James Taylor—what a variety! This year we will also have music for the Marketplace at Libbey Park. Be on the lookout for vocal quartets, fiddlers, easy listening, and classical oboe!
Take a musical trip to China or Indonesia in the spring by joining us at our Imagine concert! Building on last year’s vast success, we are looking forward to collaborating with Ojai Valley School and the Barbara Barnard Smith World Musics Foundation to present another world music concert for students from ten Ojai schools. We will once again add a late afternoon free community concert.
In conjunction with Music in the Schools month, Music Van will make its way to Ojai elementary schools with the help of a dedicated team of more than 50 volunteers. We introduce children to the instruments of the orchestra: brass, winds, percussion, and strings. Each child (and volunteer!) can try every instrument and the organized cacophony is surprisingly delightful! Mostly because of the smiles and giggles from all participants. Every year we hear from teachers that many students are inspired to choose an instrument and join the music program. Many children who struggle in school can find success in music. They have a chance to excel and find something they are passionate about. Working together and striving toward beauty are a vital part of educating our future citizens. Many thanks to Santa Barbara Symphony for use of their Music Van.
In addition to serving schoolchildren in the Ojai Valley, our Bridge Program is an inter-generational program that has third graders stepping up to interact with senior residents at the Gables of Ojai. Children, seniors, and caregivers spend time meeting each other, singing, skipping together (either on our feet, or just our hands), dancing, and finding new partners. The children are excited to meet new friends and find out about their lives. Many of the seniors remark afterward that they remember these songs from their childhood and didn’t know that children still sing them. Our time is filled with laughter, beauty, and wonder. At the end no one really wants to leave. There have been many tears of joy at these events.
The BRAVO program is made possible with the support of generous funders – California Arts Council, the Stauffer Foundation, the City of Ojai, and the Ojai Festival Women’s Committee.
For more information in volunteering or supporting our BRAVO program, please email info@ojafestival.org or call us at 805 646 2094 and ask for Laura Walter.
“It is a tremendous pleasure and incredible honor to be music director for the 2020 Ojai Festival, something I have dreamed about since moving to New York twelve years ago. I feel a combination of joy and responsibility to showcase composers and works that create something like an INVISIBLE BRIDGE between the two continents in which I am living and working: Europe and the USA. I have realized that my role as musical communicator – as composer, conductor, educator, and festival director – is to actively strengthen the interactions and connections between the music of today and its heritage in the US and on the “old continent”. As a European living in New York and Paris, I want to explore this INVISIBLE BRIDGE as one of the key elements for my programming of the 2020 Ojai Festival: thoughtful, innovative, loving, provocative, and poetic. Music speaks most directly from human to human, and Ojai is a perfect place to showcase this. I am excited. See you in 2020. – Matthias Pintscher, 2020 Music Director
(May 30, 2019 – Ojai, California) – As the Ojai Music Festival anticipates the upcoming 73rd Festival (June 6 to 9, 2019) with Music Director Barbara Hannigan, the Festival’s 2020 Music Director Matthias Pintscher and incoming Artistic Director Chad Smith share initial programming for the 74th Festival, June 11 to 14, 2020.
Chad Smith begins his tenure as the Ojai Music Festival’s Artistic Director with the 2020 Festival in partnership with 2020 Music Director Matthias Pintscher. Mr. Smith succeeds Thomas W. Morris, who has shaped Ojai’s artistic direction for sixteen years and will be retiring from the Festival following the upcoming 73rd edition.
“For nearly 75 years, the Ojai Music Festival has been Southern California’s home for the most probing, adventurous, and visionary musicians, and I couldn’t be more excited to be joining this organization as its next Artistic Director. I first experienced the unique spirit of Ojai in 2001, when Esa-Pekka Salonen was the Festival’s Music Director. I was struck by the uncompromising programming, the incredibly devoted and informed audience, and the pure joy in the performances emanating from Libbey Bowl. In that weekend, in that first experience with Ojai, I came to understand the special nature of making music in this part of the world, and I was hooked. From my seat in Los Angeles, I have watched as Tom Morris has expanded the possibilities of what this Festival could be, making it more international, more inclusive, and ultimately more relevant year by year. Tom is one of the lions in our field, and I could not be more humbled, but also inspired, to take the reins from him. This Festival is poised for even greater things; I am thrilled to be a part of that future. To imagine the start of my tenure with Ojai, I can’t think of a more fitting partner than my good friend, conductor and composer Matthias Pintscher. We are excited to share initial plans for our 2020 Festival,” said Chad Smith, incoming Artistic Director.
Programming for the 2020 Festival will feature the music of Pierre Boulez, Chaya Czernowin, Helmut Lachenmann, Olga Neuwirth, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and several works by Pintscher, among many others. Ojai will welcome the Ensemble Intercontemporain, of which Mr. Pintscher is music director, as the 2020 Festival’s ensemble-in-residence. Founded by Pierre Boulez, the world-renowned Ensemble Intercontemporain and Pintscher collaborate closely with composers to explore instrumental techniques and develop projects which interweave music, dance, theater, film, and the visual arts. This will mark the Ensemble’s first appearance in Ojai. Additionally, members of IRCAM, the Paris-based Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music, will collaborate on several 2020 Festival performances. Programming details for Ojai 2020 will be announced in the fall.
Matthias Pintscher, 2020 Music Director Matthias Pintscher is the Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the world’s leading contemporary music ensemble founded by Pierre Boulez. In addition to a robust concert season in Paris, he toured extensively with them throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States this season including concerts in Berlin, Brussels, Russia, and the United States. Known equally as one of today’s foremost composers, Mr. Pintscher will conduct the premiere of his new work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, performed by Georg Nigl and the Chorus and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at their Musica Viva festival in February 2020.
In the 2019/20 season, Mr. Pintscher makes debuts with the symphony orchestras of Montreal, Baltimore, Houston, Pittsburgh, and with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen. He also makes his debut at the Vienna State Opera conducting the premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s new opera Orlando, and returns to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin to conduct performances of Beat Furrer’s Violetter Schnee, which he premiered in January 2019. Re-invitations this season include the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In summer 2020, Mr. Pintscher will serve as Music Director of the 74thOjai Music Festival.
Highlights of Mr. Pintscher’s 2018/19 season included serving as the Season Creative Chair for the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, as Artist-in-Residence at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and concluding a nine-year term as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s Artist-in-Association. Last season, Mr. Pintscher made his debuts with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Staatsoper Berlin, and returned to the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, the New York Philharmonic, the New World Symphony in Miami, and the Music Academy of the West. In Europe, he conducted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival and returned to the Orchestre de Paris, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and Helsinki Philharmonic. Mr. Pintscher also conducted the premiere of his work Nur, a new concerto for piano and ensemble, performed by Daniel Barenboim and the Boulez Ensemble in January 2018. An enthusiastic supporter of and mentor to students and young musicians, Mr. Pintscher served as Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra from 2016-2018 and worked with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic in their 2017/18 season, culminating in a concert at the Philharmonie.
Matthias Pintscher began his musical training in conducting, studying with Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös in his early twenties, during which time composing took a more prominent role in his life. He rapidly gained critical acclaim in both areas of activity, and continues to compose in addition to his conducting career. As a composer, Mr. Pintscher’s music is championed by some of today’s finest performing artists, orchestras, and conductors. His works have been performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Paris, among many others. Bärenreiter is his exclusive publisher, and recordings of his compositions can be found on Kairos, EMI, Teldec, Wergo, and Winter & Winter. Mr. Pintscher has been on the composition faculty of The Juilliard School since 2014.
Ensemble Intercontemporain
Ensemble intercontemporain
In 1976, Pierre Boulez founded the Ensemble Intercontemporain with the support of Michel Guy (who was Minister of Culture at the time) and the collaboration and Nicholas Snowman. The Ensemble’s 31 soloists share a passion for 20th to 21st century music. They are employed on permanent contract, enabling them to fulfill the major aims of the Ensemble: performance, creation, and education for young musicians and the general public.
Under the artistic direction of Matthias Pintscher the musicians work in close collaboration with composers, exploring instrumental techniques and developing projects that interweave music, dance, theater, film, video, and visual arts. In collaboration with IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), the Ensemble Intercontemporain is also active in the field of synthetic sound generation. New pieces are commissioned and performed on a regular basis with the support of the Fondation Meyer.
The Ensemble is renowned for its strong emphasis on music education: concerts for kids, creative workshops for students, training programs for future performers, conductors, and composers. Since 2004, the Ensemble soloists have been tutoring young instrumentalists, conductors and composers in the field of contemporary repertoire at the Lucerne Festival Academy, a several week educational project held by the Lucerne Festival.
Resident of the Philharmonie de Paris, the Ensemble performs and records in France and abroad, taking part in major festivals worldwide. The Ensemble is financed by the Ministry of Culture and Communication and receives additional support from the Paris City Council. New commissions by Ensemble Intercontemporain are supported by Fondation Meyer.
IRCAM, the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music IRCAM, the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music directed by Frank Madlener, is one of the world’s largest public research centers dedicated to both musical expression and scientific research. This unique location where artistic sensibilities collide with scientific and technological innovation brings together over 160 collaborators.
IRCAM’s three principal activities – creation, research, transmission – are visible in IRCAM’s Parisian concert season, its productions throughout France and abroad, and in its two annual rendezvous: ManiFeste, which combines an international festival with a multidisciplinary academy, and the Vertigo forum, which presents technical mutations and their tangible effects on artistic creation.
Founded by Pierre Boulez, IRCAM is associated with the Centre Pompidou, under the tutelage of the French Ministry of Culture. The mixed STMS research lab (Sciences and Technologies for Music and Sound), housed by IRCAM, also benefits from the support of the CNRS and Sorbonne University.
Incoming Artistic Director Chad Smith_image by Cindy Pitou Burton
Chad Smith, Incoming Artistic Director
Chad Smith is the Chief Operating Officer for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. Mr. Smith joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association in 2002, serving as VP of artistic planning for over a decade before becoming COO in 2015. As COO, he is responsible for the artistic oversight and coordination of the orchestra’s programming, as well as the organization’s strategic planning, marketing, PR, production, orchestra operations, media, and educational initiatives.
During his tenure, Mr. Smith has implemented an expansive vision of what an orchestra can be through a deep commitment to living composers, the development of multi-disciplinary collaborations, and thematic festivals which have positioned the Philharmonic at the center of the city’s cultural discourse. Committed to making classical music more inclusive, he has overseen the launch of many of the organization’s defining educational programs, including YOLA, a program which has provided daily after-school music training to thousands of children in several of LA’s most underserved communities.
He currently serves as a trustee of the New England Conservatory of Music, as a member of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Prize executive committee, and on the artistic advisory board for the Music Academy of the West. Mr. Smith began his career in 2000 at the New World Symphony, after receiving his B.M. (Vocal Performance) and B.A. (European History) in the NEC/Tufts dual degree program. He received his M.M. in 1998 in Vocal Performance from NEC.
The Ojai Music Festival From its founding in 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has become a place for groundbreaking musical experiences, bringing together innovative artists and curious audiences in an intimate, idyllic setting 75 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The Festival presents broad-ranging programs in unusual ways with an eclectic mix of new and rarely performed music, as well as refreshing juxtapositions of musical styles. The four-day festival is an immersive experience with concerts, free community events, symposia, and gatherings. Considered a highlight of the international music summer season, Ojai has remained a leader in the classical music landscape for seven decades.
Through its signature structure of the Artistic Director appointing an annual Music Director, Ojai has presented a “who’s who” of music including Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kent Nagano, Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, David Robertson, Eighth Blackbird, George Benjamin, Dawn Upshaw, Leif Ove Andsnes, Mark Morris, Jeremy Denk, Steven Schick, Peter Sellars, Vijay Iyer, and Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Following Barbara Hannigan’s 2019 Festival, Ojai welcomes Mathias Pintscher as its 2020 Music Director.
As the Ojai Music Festival approaches its 75th anniversary and looks toward the future with incoming Artistic Director Chad Smith, the innumerable contributions of outgoing Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris over his sixteen-year tenure will continue to be felt through the 2019 Festival and beyond.
Live video streaming of the Ojai Music Festival The Ojai Music Festival continues to draw thousands of curious and engaged music enthusiasts from across the country. Ojai includes free access to the Festival experience through live and archived video streaming online at OjaiFestival.org. This year’s live streaming runs June 6 through June 9 and will include guest interviews throughout the webcasts. Hosting this year will be Director of Publications for National Sawdust and longtime journalist Steve Smith and Los Angeles-based composer and Classical KUSC host Thomas Kotcheff.
Series Passes for 2020 Ojai Music Festival Advance 2020 series subscriptions will be available for purchase during the 2019 Festival and online at OjaiFestival.org.
Single Tickets for 2019 Ojai Music Festival with Music Director Barbara Hannigan 2019 Festival single tickets are available and may be purchased online at OjaiFestival.org or by calling (805) 646-2053. 2019 Ojai Music Festival ticket prices range from $45 to $150 for reserved seating and lawn tickets are $20. Student discounts are available.
This year’s closing concert highlights that music, to thrive, must always be about the joyous urgency of now. With a series of contrasting pieces, festival director Barbara Hannigan celebrates the “synthesis of dark and light: chiaroscuro,” as she puts it.
Haydn’s Symphony No. 49, composed in 1768, demonstrates the process in which old and new huddle together at the threshold of change. The orchestration and structure are conventional and yet the content reflects the unprecedented emotional turbulence of Haydn’s Sturm und Drang period: dynamic extremes, dramatic melodic leaps, and unexpected accents and silences. Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, a ballet interspersed with songs featuring stock characters, echoes Baroque composer Pergolesi and creates new perspectives for the present.
George Gershwin’s Girl Crazy, inspired by jazz, Tin Pan alley, and Broadway theater, premiered in 1930 and featured an all-star cast that included Ethel Merman and Ginger Rogers, and a pit orchestra teeming with luminaries. Featuring Barbara Hannigan as both conductor and soprano, Bill Elliott’s Girl Crazy Suite enfolds the show’s hits in a series of droll arrangements that extend from gauzy impressionism to brassy Broadway swagger, bringing the dramatic finale of this year’s festival to a fitting close.
OUTGOING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR TOM MORRIS TALKS UP THE OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL
After years at the helm of the Ojai Music Festival, Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris is ready for his next chapter. He says that the festival will be in good hands and that new creative directions are on his personal horizon. Morris ends his stay having fostered a legacy of eclecticism and invention, and he’s grateful for all that he’s learned at the helm of one of the world’s most iconic musical gatherings. On a sunny winter day, he took time to sit down with the Ojai Quarterly to reflect on his time introducing our ears to sounds strange and wonderful. conversation has been edited for length.
By JESSE PHELPS. Reprinted by permission by Ojai Quarterly / SPRING 2019
OQ: When did you come on board, and what did that process look like? TOM MORRIS: My first Festival as Artistic Director was 2004. I was approached about three years before that. You know, the way we work, you have to plan three-plus years ahead. From my standpoint, the timing was impeccable because when I got the first call … I was going to retire from the Cleveland Orchestra. It was 17 years there and I decided at age 60, it was time to move on … And the other two things that were intriguing to me about this – I mean, I ran the Boston Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra for 35 years as the chief executive – but my real interest was in the artistic side. I was involved in all that in the orchestra world, I wasn’t responsible for it. And so, in essence, switching a career from the executive side to the artistic side was intriguing to me. It fit what I love. It actually focused it. Obviously, the reputation of the Festival goes without saying. But the fact that it was small-scale but high-impact also appealed to me.
OQ: Had you been to Ojai previously? TM: I had. I started with the Boston Symphony in May, in the summer of 1969, and lo and behold, who should arrive as the Symphony Conductor but (current San Francisco Symphony M usic Director and seven-time Ojai Music Festival Music Director) Michael Tilson Thomas, a young hotshot conductor. And Michael, as I got to know him, was always talking about this Festival, the Ojai Music Festival, which I’d not heard of, and Ojai really gave Michael his break. But I never went to the festival, for various reasons, until 1996. And I fell in love with it.
OQ: You feel like there’s a different kind of integrity here, in service to the art? TM: If you look at my career – where I went from the Boston Symphony, which is a huge conglomerate – Boston Symphony Orchestra Incorporated, which I was the CEO of, ran the Boston Symphony, it ran Tanglewood, it ran the Boston Pops – it’s massive. I went from there to the Cleveland Orchestra, which I think is the best anywhere, but it was a much smaller and more focused organization and it had a far greater belief system around the culture of art. And then to Ojai. So my whole career, I like to think of it as sort of an increasingly deep focus, less about size than meaning.
OQ: The impact of what you’re doing hasn’t lessened any. TM: It’s gotten bigger in fact… Everyone thinks growth means bigger stuff. But it can also be smaller stuff or better stuff, or it can be different stuff.
OQ: What have you learned? TM: It’s basically about a far broadened set of musical possibilities. And when I came here, I immediately sort of said, well, we’re not going to be orchestral. There are times in Ojai’s history when there was a lot of orchestra. I just didn’t want to do that. First of all, the facility is too small for a big 100-piece orchestra and also there’s a pretty great orchestra just down the road at Disney Hall. The music, to me, has grown from this magical setting and has this incredible audience. It s a magic alchemy, if you will. So I would describe my 16 years here as sort of the education of Tom Morris and the immersion of Tom Morris in these other worlds of music. Society’s changing, but the world of music is completely changing now. Because genres are disappearing and everything is melded together and in fact a lot of the creative excitement is actually between the genres.
OQ:Ojai really does offer this opportunity for that collision. I was fortunate to come and interview (2017 Musical Director) Vijay Iyer, and through that talk was inspired to go to the Sunday show where he was playing with (percussion master) Zakir Hussain and…(Indian Carnatic vocalist) Aruna Sairam… Right! And that was like something transcendent. TIhat’s the only way to describe what I witnessed there. TM: Of course! And you can’t describe what kind of music that was. No. TM: It was a collision of four artists who had not worked together before, who wanted to work together. And we created the opportunity for them to work. And I remember Vijay had said to me, you know, I’ve never worked with Zakir Hussain and I’ve never worked with Aruna Sairam and I want to do that. So we put it together. They all came with ideas and to watch the creation of music in front of your eyes- and the give and take and how it was morphing- you were watching creativity in real time.
OQ: High, high, high level creativity.
TM: Beyond high level. And to me, to be involved in that kind of artistry, that’s not something you simply can do in a symphony orchestra. So, my learning here has been one of vastly expanded horizons and expanding and changing personal tastes and a whole new world of artistic friends. And what’s interesting, I find, if you look at my work here, it’s very organic and cumulative.
OQ: It wasn’t a planned arc. TM: What was really happening was as we started to try different things. It expanded the range of possibilities, which expanded the range of possibilities, and if you look at the sequence of Music Directors, you can see that each one was in such a completely different direction, which is one of the beauties here.
OQ: I imagine you wouldn’t be stepping away if you didn’t have full confidence in your successor.
TM: I have complete confidence in (incoming Artistic Director) Chad (Smith). I couldn’t have a better successor. In my view, Chad is creative, he’s got a broad range of interests. He’s been in the orchestral world, but all you have to do is look at what he’s been doing (as the COO) at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the range of artistic offerings there, which puts most other orchestral offerings to shame, in my view.
OQ: Do you think he’ll be as eclectic? TM: What I hope is that he treats it as a learning laboratory for him, as I was able to do. What I’ve learned is that music exists in space, in a space, and how that space feels is where you pull the energy from. And this is one of the most spectacularly beautiful settings in the world.111ere’s nothing normal about the concert facilities. I mean, it’s outside, it’s amplified, and it has this audience which just is so into it. Every artist who comes says it’s the greatest audience we’ve ever played for because they trust, they respond, whether they like it or they don’t. In Ojai, it’s about the idea of Ojai. The Festival is about adventure, it’s about challenge, it’s about surprise.
OQ: There’s always the possibility of that magic we talked about.
TM: Correct. And it’ll always happen v somewhere. And think about that from an audience perspective.
OQ: Right. Just the act of attendance is in some way experimental. But with that experiment comes sort of an infinite range of possibility of experience.
TM: I’ve been widely quoted on this. I look at concerts as experiences, as events. It happens at a certain time. And I think we can learn something from sports events. Why do people go to live sports events?
OQ: You don’t know what the outcome is going to be. TM: Correct. And every concert that I’m interested in putting on, and everything we do here, the outcome is uncertain. That edge is why people who want to go to art exhibits or shows, that’s what excites them.
OQ: So why are you leaving us, and what’s next? TM: I don’t think you should overstay your welcome. A good friend of mine once said, “Never run the risk of being forgotten but not gone.” I seem to have this habit, Boston was 17 years, Cleveland was 17 years, and this is 16. It actually adds up to 50, which I find curious. I’ve changed it a lot here and it’s time for somebody else to take it to the next stage. So that’s the first reason, which is very personal. And the second is, the organization in 2021 and ’22 is celebrating its 75th anniversary. There was some talk that I would see it through the anniversary, but the 75th anniversary ought to be a time to propel forward.
OQ: So what are you going to do?
TM: I don’t know yet. When you change what you’re doing, I look at it as two decisions. It’s a decision to leave and it’s a decision to go someplace. And that’s happened consistently in my career … I’ve found that one you’ve jettisoned what you’re doing, the possibilities explode. And I’ve been very active recently with Interlochen (the famous youth arts education institute in Miichigan) as a board member, and I’m very interested in how artists are trained. So my guess is somehow that’ll be a factor in what I’m doing going forward. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that there might be another festival in the offing. I’m a complete failure at retirement. I keep going back to this learning thing. The greatest thing about doing what I do is I get to work with the most creative people. It’s a very sparky, creative existence. And that’s something I just don’t want to leave. I’d rather have an effect through doing than reflecting.
OQ: You’re all about the experience.
TM: This place is just such a freeform laboratory. It’s a humbling experience having the artistic responsibility for a venerable organization. It’s gone from being sort of fundamentally contemporary classical, and almost European music, to much wider, which to me reflects what’s going on in society and in the world today.1he range of artists who come is just completely broader and different and the possibilities have expanded, radically.
OQ: Thank you for helping to shepherd that. TM: It’s not been a burden. It’s a personal quest for me too. It’s affected me and taught me. You know, one of the great things about not-for-profit organizations like this one is , that they give you the opportunity to lead and to create and I’ll forever be grateful to the Ojai Music Festival for the belief and support and enthusiasm. And the complete lack of fear.
OQ: We’ll always be grateful to you for being willing to fearlessly undergo that journey in front of us and with us.
TM: It’s very personal to me, and I think that’s what it has to be. I will say that I’m the luckiest person. I’ve had the luckiest career of anyone I can imagine. I’m actually paid to do what I love. What’s better than that? And this year’s going to be about as perfect a capstone as I can imagine. There are going to be moments of awe and moments of laughter and moments of fright. And the level of artists coming, you just can’t get better artists than are here this year anywhere.
The Ojai Music Festival returns for one last go-round with Thomas Morris as Artistic Director this June 6-9. This year’s Music Director is multi-faceted Canadian conductor and soprano, Barbara Hannigan. Tickets and more information about the events can be found at ojaifestival.org.
Nova Scotian musician Barbara Hannigan divides her time between singing on the world’s major stages and conducting leading orchestras. The Berlin Philharmonic, Münchner Philharmoniker, Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony are among the orchestras with whom she holds close relationships. Ms. Hannigan has worked with the most prominent conductors, including Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kirill Petrenko, David Zinman, Vladimir Jurowski, Antonio Pappano, Alan Gilbert, and Reinbert de Leeuw. Her commitment to the music of our time has led to an extensive collaboration with composers including Boulez, Dutilleux, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin, and Abrahamsen. She has recently been appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden, following Kent Nagano’s tenure in that position.
Unforgettable operatic appearances include the title role in Lulu in Krszysztof Warlikowski’s staging at Brussels’ La Monnaie, and more recently at Hamburg Staatsoper conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Christoph Marthaler; the title role of Pelléas et Mélisande in Katie Mitchell’s staging at the 2016 Festival d’Aix-en-Province conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and in Krszysztof Warlikowski’s more recent production at the Ruhrtriennale in Germany; and Marie in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten at the Bayerische Staatsoper—a hugely acclaimed presentation directed by Andreas Kriegenberg and conducted by Kirill Petrenko, for which she won the Faust Award in Germany. She made her Opéra National de Paris debut in 2015 with La voix humaine again in a Warlikowski production and returned in April 2018 to reprise the role. She created the role of Ophelia in Brett Dean’s Hamlet at the Glyndebourne Festival in summer 2017 and created the lead soprano roles in both of George Benjamin’s full scale operas: Written on Skin, and Lessons in Love and Violence.
In 2017, Ms. Hannigan released her first album as both singer and conductor, with Holland’s LUDWIG orchestra as the orchestral force, on Alpha Classics, entitled Crazy Girl Crazy. The album features works by Berio, Berg, and a specially commissioned Gershwin arrangement by Bill Elliott, as well as a bonus dvd by Mathieu Amalric. The album has received numerous awards worldwide including the Grammy and Juno awards for best classical vocal album.
Ms. Hannigan’s previous recordings have garnered awards from Gramophone, Edison, Victoires de la Musique and the Royal Philharmonic Society. Other awards include Singer of the Year (Opernwelt, 2013), Musical Personality of the Year (Syndicat de la Presse Francaise, 2012), Ehrenpreise (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2018), and Rolf Schock Prize for Musical Arts (2018), and she was recently appointed as a member to the Order of Canada (2016).
In 2017, Ms. Hannigan created Equilibrium, an international mentoring initiative for young professional musicians, and chose 21 participants from a total of 350 applicants from 39 countries to participate in Equilibrium’s first season (2018/19), which will have over 20 performances with four partner orchestras in works including Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Mozart’s Requiem, and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella.
Founded by soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, Equilibrium focuses on young musicians who are finished with their training and in the first substantial phase of their professional career, with special attention to singers. Suited for musicians who already have professional solo experience on stage, Equilibrium aims to help young artists further their professional development, elevating their total musicianship and discipline, offering projects with leading orchestras and ensembles. Seven of her EQ artists will be performing at the 73rd Ojai Music Festival, June 6 to 9, 2019 with Barbara Hannigan.
The Ojai Music Festival welcomes Ojai Valley residents to get involved in the upcoming Ojai Music Festival slated for June 6 to 9, 2019 with Grammy-winning soprano Barbara Hannigan as music director. The Festival is seeking guest housing for musicians, production crew, and interns that include guest cottages, private rooms, and homes. The Festival also includes volunteer opportunities in various positions in the following areas: ushering, venue set up, special events, and merchandise sales. Volunteers receive special perks for their generous donation of time and talent.
The 73rd Ojai Music Festival, June 6-9, 2019, celebrates and explores the creative breadth of Music Director Barbara Hannigan, as conductor, singer, and mentor. Joining Hannigan will be the US debut of her mentoring initiative for young professional artists, Equilibrium (EQ), and the US debut of the orchestral collective from Amsterdam, LUDWIG, with whom Hannigan made her Grammy Award-winning conducting debut CD “Crazy Girl Crazy” in 2017. Returning to Ojai will be 2015 Music Director Steven Schick, who will both perform and conduct, and the JACK Quartet performing works by John Zorn, Tyshawn Sorey, and Arnold Schoenberg.
Program highlight include the staged production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with Hannigan conducting and members of EQ as the cast; Hannigan as singer in Gérard Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil, John Zorn’s Jumalattaret, and Girl Crazy Suite, a special arrangement by Bill Elliott of songs from the Gershwin musical; Hannigan conducting Vivier’s Lonely Child, Schoenberg’s VerklärteNacht and Stravinsky’s complete ballet Pulcinella. In addition, the Festival will give a concert in memoriam for 2005 Music Director Oliver Knussen.
For more information on housing hosts or volunteering for the Ojai Music Festival, please call 805 646-2094 or email info@ojaifestival.org, or download application here.
Soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan brings singers from her newly launched Equilibrium Mentoring Initiative to perform at the 73rd Ojai Music Festival, June 6 to 9, at Ojai’s Libbey Bowl. One of the curated programs on June 8 will be “Rites of Passage” – folk songs performed by the EQ artists who will share music from their native countries.
The Ojai Music Festival celebrates works by Debussy, Messiaen, and Schoenberg in Part One of our Friday evening concert on June 7. Prepare yourself for a journey through shadowy forests, across oceans, soaring through the wind, basking in the light of the moon, breathing in the air of another planet.
Poetic imagery, painting, and nature served to stimulate Debussy’s imagination, as did his encounter with non-Western music. In Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut (And the moon descends on the temple that was), one hears in its suspended stillness elements of the music of Bali.
Ravel’s Une barque sur l’océan (A boat on the ocean), the third of his five-movement Miroirs, is a study of motion, captured in surging arpeggiated currents.
Un reflet dans le vent (A reflection in the wind) is the last of Messiaen’s eight Préludes, all of which bear the hallmarks of his distinctive harmonic and rhythmic language. Their descriptive titles suggest influences from Debussy and crisp textures from Ravel.
Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet is relatively short, its textures and formal layout clear and transparent. The impassioned first movement is an abbreviated sonata form; the second, a fidgety scherzo. The third movement delivers an unprecedented shock: the commanding voice of soprano Barbara Hannigan.
Prepare yourself for a dream beyond time as Barbara Hannigan leads Vivier’s powerfully enigmatic Lonely Child to end a thrilling, picturesque evening featuring Debussy’s Syrinx and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, Friday June 7th at 7:30PM
The myth of Syrinx is the story of a chaste nymph transformed into river reeds to escape Pan’s pursuit. Pan, in turn, creates from these reeds the pipes with which he laments his loss. Debussy’s piece for solo flute, scarcely three minutes long, serves as the prelude to another work of transformation: Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night).
Considered at that time to be offensive to the modesty of chamber music, the steamy program Verklärte Nacht (drawn from Richard Dehmel’s poem of the same name) is a work of one single movement filled with chromatic harmonies and dense textures. Schoenberg’s music closely follows a woman’s tortured confession to her lover that she is carrying the child of another man. In the radiant conclusion, the man assures his partner that the stranger’s child will be his own, transfigured by their love.
Vivier has described Lonely Child as “a long song of solitude” composed “without using chords, harmony, or counterpoint,” a homophonic texture that becomes one single, “intervalized” melody: “Thus, there are no longer any chords, and the entire orchestra is then transformed into a timbre. The roughness and the intensity of this timbre depend on the base interval. Musically speaking, there was only one thing I needed to control, which automatically, somehow, would create the rest of the music, that is great beams of color!”
The Ojai Music Festival kicks off Friday morning, June 7 with the music of composer John Zorn, the prolific saxophonist whose creative force has spawned album after album across several decades of work, samples of which can be heard in the links below.
Friday’s chamber works by John Zorn with Stephen Gosling and the JACK Quartet include Hexentarot, Ghosts, and The Aristos for piano trio, The Unseen, and The Alchemist for string quartet.
About the composer – John Zorn is an American composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist, and multi-instrumentalist with hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, and producer across a variety of genres including jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and music improvisation. He incorporates diverse styles in his compositions, which he identifies as avant-garde or experimental. Zorn was described by Down Beat magazine as “one of our most important composers.”
This Two-part concert opens with a tribute to the late Oliver Knussen (2005 Ojai Music Director), a composer of infinite wit, imagination, and refinement, qualities readily in evidence in this wide-ranging selection of chamber works. In the dramatic scene, Twice Through the Heart, Mark-Anthony Turnage (who studied with Knussen), filters his fascination with contemporary social issues through jazz and classical idioms. Rachmaninoff’s idiom is lushly Romantic. Here, though, LUDWIG presents his orchestral tone poem, The Isle of the Dead, in an arrangement for chamber ensemble.
This is a concert Olly Knussen would have loved. He was a champion of new music, including that of his student and close friend Mark-Anthony Turnage, but he also loved the delectable harmonies and rich orchestral textures of such late Romantics as Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The works on this tribute are all relatively short but chronological. Masks, the rare early piece that survived Knussen’s critical scrutiny, is heard here with its ad libitum glass chimes. It has joined Debussy’s Syrinx and Varèse’s Density 21.5 as one of the classics of the solo flute literature. Knussen described the next three works that make up a triptych as “diary-like expressions” that were at the same time explorations of new harmonic spaces.
Autumnal, written in memory of Benjamin Britten, has two movements – Nocturne and Serenade – named after two of Britten’s own song cycles.
In Sonja’s Lullaby, written for Knussen’s infant daughter (now an accomplished singer specializing in new music), the lowest registers of the piano anchor a gentle rocking motion and widely spaced sonorities and filigree in the voices above.
Cantata for oboe and string quartet, the longest movement of the set, is more episodic, a quality that reminded Knussen of 18th-century solo cantatas in their alternation of recitatives and self-contained numbers. There are moments of high drama before an introspective coda recalls the work’s opening.
Eccentric Melody, written for Elliott Carter’s 90th birthday, is a compact, powerful work that explores the cello’s full expressive range.
Ophelia’s Last Dance is fashioned from one of the many fragments in Knussen’s compositional workshop (this one dating from 1974). The melody continued to haunt him and in 2009-10 he brought it together with several other “‘homeless’ dance fragments” to produce a piece “related more by personal history and by mood than anything more concrete.” Study for “Metamorphosis” – another early work – was revised just before Knussen’s death and dedicated to the memory of the composer Alan Stout.
The 73rd Ojai Music Festival, June 6 to 9, is on the horizon. Get a head start by reading the 2019 Festival program notes by musicologist and program book annotator Christopher Hailey. Download the PDF via the link.
I saw two performances in Gothenburg, and both were thrilling. The production was over the top in its power and meaning, and the singing and acting by the unique Gothenburg cast from EQ simply the best I have ever heard in this opera, both individually and also as an ensemble. A note that singing the title role of Anne Truelove was Aphrodite Patoulidou, a young Greek soprano, who will also sing the role in Ojai: remember this name and the fact that you can say you discovered her in Ojai, much the same as discovering the young Julia Bullock in Ojai in 2011. The sheer energy, ensemble and vocal art of all of these young performers was totally captivating. The audience rose to its feet at the end in loud cheers each night. Reviews have been ecstatic. And above it all, Barbara Hannigan’s mastery of the score, her incisive conducting and her electrifying presence gave coherent shape, energy and power to the whole score.
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In 1976, Pierre Boulez founded the Ensemble intercontemporain with the support of Michel Guy (who was Minister of Culture at the time) and the collaboration and Nicholas Snowman. The Ensemble’s 31 soloists share a passion for 20th to 21st century music. They are employed on permanent contract, enabling them to fulfill the major aims of the Ensemble: performance, creation, and education for young musicians and the general public.
In conjunction with Music in the Schools month, Music Van will make its way to Ojai elementary schools with the help of a dedicated team of more than 50 volunteers. We introduce children to the instruments of the orchestra: brass, winds, percussion, and strings. Each child (and volunteer!) can try every instrument and the organized cacophony is surprisingly delightful! Mostly because of the smiles and giggles from all participants. Every year we hear from teachers that many students are inspired to choose an instrument and join the music program. Many children who struggle in school can find success in music. They have a chance to excel and find something they are passionate about. Working together and striving toward beauty are a vital part of educating our future citizens. Many thanks to Santa Barbara Symphony for use of their Music Van.
In addition to serving schoolchildren in the Ojai Valley, our Bridge Program is an inter-generational program that has third graders stepping up to interact with senior residents at the Gables of Ojai. Children, seniors, and caregivers spend time meeting each other, singing, skipping together (either on our feet, or just our hands), dancing, and finding new partners. The children are excited to meet new friends and find out about their lives. Many of the seniors remark afterward that they remember these songs from their childhood and didn’t know that children still sing them. Our time is filled with laughter, beauty, and wonder. At the end no one really wants to leave. There have been many tears of joy at these events.
OQ: When did you come on board, and what did that process look like?
