ONE NIGHT ONLY: THU May 15 7PM-10:30PM Light and Space Yoga in Ojai
The Ojai Music Festival partners with The Listening Garden for an evening of immersive sonic exploration led by 2025 Music Director and flutist Claire Chase. The event invites attendees to participate in the legacy of experimental and electronic music pioneer, Pauline Oliveros.
Joining Claire Chase will be sound artist Colloboh and dublab founder Mark “Frosty” McNeil to begin and end the evening.
Naom’s Kitchen bento-style Japanese dinner available for purchase, as well as complimentary tea ceremony & wine.
Tickets are $47/person. Limited seating available. Hurry now to save your spot.
Described by The New York Times as โthe most important flutist of our time,โ Claire Chase is a musician, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. One of todayโs most generative forces of new music, Chase returns to Ojai later this season as Musical Director of the 2025 Ojai Music Festival.
Chase has recently performed as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and London Philharmonia. She is currently collaborating with The Getty Center on a public offering inspired by the listening philosophies of Pauline Oliveros (PST ART x Science Collide festival, 2024-25).
Colloboh is a Nigerian-born, LA-based sound artist, producer, composer, and DJ. While known for his modular synth works, heโs broken new ground in experimental performance with recent collaborations with Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Getty Center.
Mark โFrostyโ McNeil is a DJ, radio host, sonic curator, and founder of dublab radio, a pioneering web-based radio station exploring wide-spectrum music since 1999. McNeill currently serves as a Creative Producer for Los Angeles Philharmonic.
About Pauline Oliveros + Deep Listening
Pauline Oliveros was a sonic visionary; her work in composition, improvisation, and teaching was imaginative, ground-breaking and largely dedicated to accessibility.
Deep Listening describes philosophies and practices that explore the space between the physical phenomenon of hearing and the conscious practice of listening. It includes listening and sounding exercises, sonic meditations, and interactive performance. In the words of Oliveros, โDeep Listening involves going below the surface of what is heard, expanding to the whole field of sound while finding focus. This is the way to connect with the acoustic environment, all that inhabits it, and all that there is.โ
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 at concerts, administrative office work, and concessions to housing Festival artists and production team. The Festival is fortunate to have a large community of volunteers who make the experience even more memorable.
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.
OJAI, CA- June 11, 2015: Music Director Steven Schick leads ICE in Varese’s Deserts at Libbey Bowl during the 2015 Ojai Music Festival.
โโฆa musical utopia where open-minded audiences welcome adventurous works presented against a backdrop of green hills, bird song, and Pixie tangerines.โ (New York Times)
The Ojai Music Festival audience members and donors are highly educated, affluent and influential. An effective way to reach this desirable group is through advertising in the Festivalโs program book.
The Program Book Call us old fashion but our complimentary printed Festival program book has always had the unique quality of being used repeatedly by patrons throughout the four-day immersive experience. Advertising with us is an unbeatable opportunity to reach this loyal core of the music-loving and art-going community and leave a memorable impression. Our program books are also a wonderful keepsake — our patrons refer to it throughout the year!
This perfect-bound collector’s item includes program notes by Thomas May on all Libbey Bowl concerts, free concerts and events, artist and composer bios, in-depth Festival features on the Festival, donor listings, staff and volunteer rosters, maps, FAQ, and much more.
By supporting the Ojai Music Festival as an advertiser, you support Ojaiโs signature music event and music education in our Ojai Valley schools.
PLUS — Advertisers are included in the free OMF Mobile App used by patrons throughout the weekend.
Deadlines and Submission of Artwork Space deadline: April 15, 2025 Artwork due: April 21, 2025
Attendance Attendance at the Festival is up to 5000 patrons and community members. Many reference their program books multiple times during the four-day Festival. Ojai Music Festival patrons save and share their books for years as treasured mementos. It is also distributed at key Ojai Valley businesses before the Festival.
Snapshot of Festival Patrons
Upwardly mobile consumers with important purchasing power
Established patrons who support music and arts programs
Dual income families of $250,000 and above
Visits Ojai during the year outside of the Festival weekend
Travel more than three times a year
Highly-educated executives and professionals
Further Inquiries: Contact Gina Gutierrez at[email protected]or 805 646 2181.
The 79th Ojai Music Festival, June 5 to 8, 2025, welcomes as Music Director one of todayโs most vital artists flutist Claire Chase. Reflecting on Ojaiโs natural and sonic environment, 2025 Festival programming offers responses to landscape, as caretakers and participants, and welcomes a multi-generational collective of composers, performers, composer-performers, and improvisers, as well as multimedia artists whose works defy categorization.
The 79th Ojai Music Festival, June 5 to 8, 2025, welcomes as Music Director one of todayโs most vital artists flutist Claire Chase. Reflecting on Ojaiโs natural and sonic environment, 2025 Festival programming offers responses to landscape, as caretakers and participants, and welcomes a multi-generational collective of composers, performers, composer-performers, and improvisers, as well as multimedia artists whose works defy categorization.
West Coast Premieres of Liza Limโs Sex Magic, Craig Tabornโs Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms, Anna Thorvaldsdottirโs Ubique, Susie Ibarraโs Sky Islands, and Terry Rileyโs Pulsefield
The Festival celebrates multiple generations of composers, including residencies by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Tania Leรณn, Annea Lockwood, Liza Lim, and Marcos Balter; composer-performers include Craig Taborn (piano), Leilehua Lanzilotti (viola), and Susie Ibarra (percussion)
An all-star โmeta-ensembleโ of Festival musicians including Seth Parker Woods, cello; Wu Wei, sheng; Steven Schick, conductor and percussion; the JACK Quartet (violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell); Katinka Kleijn, cello; Cory Smythe and Alex Peh, piano and keyboards; Ross Karre, percussion; Joshua Rubin, clarinet; M.A. Tiesenga, saxophone and electronic hurdy-gurdy; and members of Australiaโs ELISION Ensemble
(Ojai CA – February 5, 2025) โ Composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to the Ojai Music Festival to serve as Music Director for the 80th Festival, June 11 to 14, 2026. Since the late 1940s, the Festival has continued the tradition of appointing a new Music Director each year, fostering vitality and diversity in its programming throughout the years.
“Esa-Pekka Salonen is one of the most inventive, adventurous thinkers of 21st-century musical life. The unique format of the Ojai Music Festival gives him an unusually free creative hand as both composer and conductor. Iโm thrilled at the prospect of all that he will dream up,โ said Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian.
Esa-Pekka Salonen, who previously collaborated with the Ojai Music Festival as Music Director for the 1999 and 2001 Festivals, is known as both a composer and conductor. He is the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony and the Conductor Laureate for the Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the faculty of the Colburn School, he directs the pre-professional Negaunee Conducting Program. Salonen co-founded, and until 2018 served as the Artistic Director of the annual Baltic Sea Festival.
This season, Salonen leads the San Francisco Symphony in world premieres of works by Nico Muhly, Xavier Muzik, and Gabriella Smith, among many other programs. He also returns to the Philharmonia Orchestraโboth in London and on tour in Italyโand the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he leads wide-ranging programs including Bryce Dessnerโs Violin Concerto with Pekka Kuusisto and Boulezโs Notations with Pierre-Laurent Aimard. With the Orchestre de Paris, Salonen conducts a reprise of his and Romeo Castellucciโs staged production of Mahlerโs Symphony No. 2, โResurrection,โ and a Boulez Centennial celebration with choreography by Benjamin Millepied, while a Salzburg Easter Festival residency with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra centers on a new Simon McBurney production of Mussorgskyโs Khovanshchina.
Salonenโs compositions are programmed with thirteen different orchestras this season. He conducts his own Tiu, kรญnฤma, and cello concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; he also conducts the cello concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he leads his Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra. His works, led by other conductors, also appear on programs at the Montreal and Aarhus symphony orchestras (Sinfonia concertante), Munich Philharmonic (Insomnia), Lahti Symphony Orchestra (kรญnฤma), Netherlands Radio and Magdeburg philharmonic orchestras (Gemini), Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra (Nyx), Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (Cello Concerto), and Ensemble intercontemporain (Meeting).
Salonen has an extensive and varied recording career. Releases with the San Francisco Symphony include recordings of Bartรณkโs piano concertos, spatial audio recordings of several Ligeti compositions, and the GRAMMYยฎ Award-winning (Best Opera Recording) world premiere recording of Saariahoโs Adriana Mater. Other recent recordings include Straussโs Four Last Songs, Bartรณkโs Miraculous Mandarin and Dance Suite, and a 2018 box set of his complete Sony recordings. His compositions appear on releases from Sony and Deutsche Grammophon, among others; his Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, and Cello Concerto all appear on recordings he conducted himself. Initial details about Mr. Salonenโs 2026 Ojai Music Festival will be shared prior to the 79th Festival, June 5 to 8, 2025, with Music Director Claire Chase. Please visit OjaiFestival.org for information.
ARA GUZELIMIAN, ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Ara Guzelimian is the Artistic and Executive Director of the Ojai Music Festival, having begun in that position in July 2020. The appointment culminates many years of association with the Festival including tenures as director of the Ojai Talks and as Artistic Director from 1992โ97. Guzelimian stepped down as Provost and Dean of the Juilliard School in New York City in June 2020, having served in that position since 2007. He continues at Juilliard as Special Advisor.
Guzelimian serves as artistic consultant for the Marlboro Music Festival and School in Vermont. He is a member of the steering committee of the Aga Khan Music Awards, the artistic committee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust in London, and a board member of the Amphion and Pacific Harmony Foundations. Prior to the Juilliard appointment, he was Senior Director and Artistic Advisor of Carnegie Hall from 1998 to 2006 and earlier held positions at the Aspen Music Festival and School and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Guzelimian is editor of Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (Pantheon Books, 2002), a collection of dialogues between Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said. In September 2003, he was awarded the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his contributions to French music and culture.
OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL The Ojai Music Festival represents an ideal of adventurous, open-minded, and openhearted programming in the most beautiful and welcoming settings, with audiences and artists to match its aspirations. Now in its 79th 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 Festivalโs narrative is guided by a different Music Director, whose distinctive perspectives shape programming โ ensuring energized festivals year after year.
Throughout each year, the Ojai Music Festival contributes to Southern Californiaโs cultural landscape with in-person and online programming as well as robust educational offerings that serve thousands of public-school students and seniors. The organizationโs 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 โwhoโs whoโ of music including Mitsuko Uchida, Rhiannon Giddens, American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*), 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.
79th OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL, JUNE 5 TO 8, 2025, WITH MUSIC DIRECTOR CLAIRE CHASE 2025 Libbey Bowl series passes are available and may be purchased online at OjaiFestival.org or by calling (805) 646-2053. Passes start at $215 for reserved seating. Lawn Area passes start at $90. Single tickets and day passes will go on sale in spring 2025. Follow Festival updates at OjaiFestival.org.
Photo credit of Esa-Pekka Salonen: ยฉ Benjamin Suomela
At the Ojai Music Festival, we thrive on experimentation and discoveryโboth in the music we present and in how we engage with our community. Each year, we take creative risks to offer a unique and transformative experience. But none of this would be possible without our supporters, our passionate music lovers, our community.
Feedback from our patrons is essential to our growth and evolution. Whether itโs thoughts on a particular performance, insights into the festival experience, or suggestions for how we can better serve our audience, their perspective is invaluable.
“Learned a lot. Enjoyed the Libbey Bowl area for relaxed environment, easy parking and other amenities nearby.”
“I loved the music and the entire experience. I can’t wait until next year and might attend a few of this year’s concerts as well.”
“We enjoyed meeting new people and we enjoyed running into people we know but didn’t know that they have attended the Festival for several years (or longer).”
“Every year we wonder how we could possibly top this next year, but it happens – the magic keeps growing!”
“An introduction for me to hear new artists perform whom I ordinarily wouldnโt not be familiar with and to be awakened to new sounds and proficiency of the artists.”
“Lovely, enriching experience for the whole family.”
“It means satisfying my curiosity. It means great people. It means discovery. It means good food. It means beautiful setting. It means staggering artistry.”
Mitsuko Uchida and Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the 2024 Festival Finale Concert | Photo by Timothy Teague
It begins with your commitment.
Because of your curiosity and adventurous spirit, Ojai becomes a gathering place where the worldโs most innovative musicians connect with an inspired community. You make it possible for us to create transformational experiences year after year.
Your gift today can help sustain this extraordinary tradition.
Alexi Kenney at SOUND+WALK, free member event in Ojai, spring 2024 | Photo by Elizabeth Herring
It begins with your generosity.
Because of you, the Festivalโs impact reaches far beyond its four unforgettable days.
In 2025, nearly 3,000 students and seniors in the Ojai Valley will experience the joy of music through our BRAVO Education and Community Programs. Year-round events will foster deeper connections locally, while free livestreams will bring Ojaiโs magic to thousands worldwide.
Your gift today ensures that this impact will grow even further.
Claire Chase, 2025 Ojai Festival Music Director
It begins with your adventurous spirit.
Because of you, Claire Chase will present a bold, inventive program inspired by Ojaiโs natural beauty and sonic landscapes. Together, we will welcome a vibrant, multigenerational collective of composers, performers, and improvisers to create an unforgettable experience.
Your support makes all this possible. Please join us in creating another extraordinary Festival season by making your year-end gift.
BRAVO Music Van | Photo by Cindy BurtonBRAVO Music Van | Photo by Cindy Burton2024 Festival Finale Concert | Photo by Timothy Teague
A Small Expense with a Great Impact
Throughout the year, the Ojai Music Festival prioritizes community, artistic curiosity, and innovative programs, culminating with our treasured Festival in June. The Festivalโs year-round programs are made possible by donations from our loyal audience members, like you!
Recurring gifts allow you to give at the level and timing that works best with both your budget and schedule. They simultaneously allow the Festival to rely on a consistent, year-round revenue stream.
As this year rapidly winds down, I wanted to take a moment to savor some favorite moments and glimpses of the 2024 Festival with the wondrous Mitsuko Uchida as Music Director. It was a particularly joyous and rewarding Festival, with the members of Mahler Chamber Orchestra turning up in every corner of Ojai, delighting in their California adventure. Who would have thought a European-based chamber orchestra would have a Johnny Cash cover band in their ranks! Before we let the year recede in memory, here are some personal snapshots of a few public and private moments that I cherish.
Behind the Scenes
photo by Ara Guzelimian.
Mitsuko Uchida, a musician of boundless curiosity and exuberance, getting an orientation on percussion instruments by Festival artist Sae Hashimoto.
photo by Ara Guzelimian.
Mitsuko is one of the most exacting of artists when it comes to pianos. We were very fortunate to have the superb piano technician Joel Bernache as our house piano โdoctorโ to look after the splendid concert Steinway. Here are both Mitsuko and Joel in action!
Joyful Moments
photo by Ara Guzelimian.
Violinist Alexandra Preucil (with bunny ears) with members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in their delightful childrenโs concert in Libbey Park. A few moments after the concert ended, the tiny daughter of friends spied the violinist walking through the park (without the ears!) โ she pointed with delight and said, โthereโs the bunny,โ at which point the extraordinarily kind Alexandra Preucil came to visit with her.
photo by Ara Guzelimian.
One of my favorite new traditions at the Festival is the early morning free meditation concerts at Chapparal Auditorium on Ojai Avenue. Who knew that a hearty audience would turn up at 8 a.m. on a weekend morning to hear some quiet, reflective new music? Never underestimate the Ojai audience! Hereโs cellist Jay Campbell with a rapt morning audience.
Photo by Timothy Teague.
I particularly love this photo as it captures the ebullient good spirits felt by all at the 2024 Ojai Festival. We are very lucky in the company we keep.
Looking Ahead
All of us here send you our wholehearted thanks for creating this very special community that is the Ojai Music Festival. Iโm always fond of saying the miracle of Ojai is this improbable standard of artistic excellence and innovation that happens to take place in a lovely small town park, with perhaps the most open-eared and open-hearted audience to be found anywhere. The Festival depends to a very large degree โ 75% โ to contributed income. Please consider making a year-end contribution to help us start the new year with a solid foundation of support. We are grateful to each of you for your continued engagement and so look forward to seeing you in the coming year.
I hope this Thanksgiving week finds you well, with time to reflect and savor the joys of life. This is one of my favorite times of the year โ the mornings are suddenly chillier, the sweaters come out of the drawers, the afternoon light is longer and lower on the horizon, we are perhaps more keenly aware of the passing of the year.
It is also a moment to pause and express gratitude. Among lifeโs many joys, I am deeply grateful for my life in music, keeping company with the most inspiring of musicians and fellow listeners. I started coming to the Ojai Festival when I was barely out of my teens and the lovely community that is created each year in Libbey Park is high on my list of treasurable experiences, an annual tradition that renews and surprises at every turn.
Much of life lately has been at a high decibel level, what with a singularly contentious election year, war and devastation of loss in so many parts of the world, and more locally, the sirens signaling an unusual wildfire season from Camarillo to New York (!). Faced with so much troubling noise, my response has always been to turn to music. So, in that spirit, I offer what I call a โquiet playlist of thanksgiving,โ featuring a cross-section of wondrous Ojai artists from the last ten years.
This very personal selection reminds me of beauty, a deep inner life, and the things that we cherish, and which endure apart from all the noise. The tone is set from the start by our 2025 Music Director Claire Chase with Felipe Laraโs Meditation and Calligraphy and includes such treasured Ojai artists as Vรญkingur Olafsson, the Attacca Quartet (playing John Adams), Julia Bullock, Vijay Iyer, Steven Schick, Mitsuko Uchida, and the JACK Quartet. I want to single out one particular track โ Rainy Day from the Silk Road Ensembleโs just-released album American Railroad. One of my fondest memories of the 2023 Festival was the magical duet between Rhiannon Giddens and Wu Man at the closing concert. This is that very piece, a souvenir of a magical Ojai pairing.
I offer this music as our gift, with much gratitude to each of you for all you do to create and nurture this Festival community.
Festival programming will include the West Coast Premieres of Liza Limโs Sex Magic, Craig Tabornโs Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms, Anna Thorvaldsdottirโs Ubique, Susie Ibarraโs Sky Islands, and Terry Rileyโs Pulsefield
Festival celebrates multiple generations of composers, including works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Tania Leรณn, Annea Lockwood, Liza Lim, and Marcos Balter; composer-performers include Craig Taborn (piano), Leilehua Lanzilotti (viola), and Susie Ibarra (percussion)
An all-star โmeta-ensembleโ of Festival musicians including Seth Parker Woods, cello; Wu Wei, sheng; Steven Schick, conductor and percussion; the JACK Quartet (violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell); Katinka Kleijn, cello; Cory Smythe and Alex Peh, piano and keyboards; Ross Karre, percussion; Joshua Rubin, clarinet; M.A. Tiesenga, saxophone and electronic hurdy-gurdy; and members of Australiaโs ELISION Ensemble
โThereโs no place in the world like Ojai, and there is no gathering of musicians and ideas like the Ojai Festival. From the time I was a kid growing up in Southern California, the Festival has taken on mythical dimensions for me.โ – Claire Chase, 2025 Music Director
(OJAI CA – October 15, 2024) โ The 79th Ojai Music Festival, June 5 to 8, 2025, welcomes as Music Director one of todayโs most vital artists, flutist Claire Chase. Reflecting on Ojaiโs natural and sonic environment, the 2025 Festival programming offers responses to landscape as caretakers and participants and welcomes a multi-generational collective of composers, performers, composer-performers, and improvisers.
Described by Chase as a kind of โmeta ensemble,โ Ojaiโs 2025 Festival collaborators include returning artists Steven Schick, who previously served as 2015 Music Director; cellist Seth Parker Woods; the JACK Quartet comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell; clarinetist Joshua Rubin; percussionist Ross Karre; and composerTania Leรณn. Ojai welcomes several artists in their first Festival appearances including Annea Lockwood, composer; Wu Wei, sheng; Marcos Balter, composer; Susie Ibarra, composer, sound artist and percussion; Katinka Kleijn, cello; Leilehua Lanzilotti, composer and viola; Liza Lim, composer; Cory Smythe and Alex Peh, keyboards; Craig Taborn, piano, electronic musician and composer/improviser; M.A. Tiesenga, saxophone and electronic hurdy-gurdy; and members of ELISION Ensemble.
โIn the spirit of collectivism and collaboration, Iโm excited to invite these artists to play together in new and sometimes surprising ensemble configurations. Weโll all show up as both headliners and side acts in each otherโs explorations,โ commented Claire Chase.
โWhile shaping these programs,โ writes Chase, โI was inspired by the author Donna Harawayโs invitation to encounter one another in โunexpected combinations and collaborations,โ in what she calls โoddkinโโa term for our deep and unruly interdependence. What a beautiful description of the messy and miraculous experience of making music in the 21st century! The four days of the Festival will be anchored by four generations of brilliant composers whose projectsโthough wonderfully divergent stylisticallyโexplore common themes of rebirth, re-imagination, reclamation, and re-wilding. Our programs will be brought to life by an exhilarating lineup of performers whose manifold musical backgrounds will meet in unpredictable and electrifying new ways. From Thursday to Sunday, we will conjure thinking forests, liberated rivers, endangered charms, ancient mythologies, holy presences, magical spells, and reimagined communities. And we will embrace multispecies collaboration in performance experiences that extend from the newly rewilded landscapes of the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy to the feathered night choruses fluttering around Libbey Bowl. My hope is that these programs will illuminate and celebrate the fragilities as well as the exuberant possibilities of music made in oddkin. I look forward to welcoming you to the adventure!โ
Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian said, โClaire Chase is one of the most vibrant generators of ideas in todayโs musical life, something she does with boundless imagination and generosity of spirit. Itโs been so rewarding to imagine all of Ojaiโs possibilities with her. Iโm particularly excited by the musical community sheโs creating with the resident performers and composers, weaving them throughout in collaborations and cross-current inspirations. And being a native Californian, Claire responds deeply to the particular beauty and complexity of Ojaiโs natural setting, something represented in many works that explore many distinct environments.โ
The 2025 Festival opens on Thursday, June 5 with Annea Lockwoodโs bayou-borne, an affectionate tribute to Pauline Oliveros, and culminates with Marcos Balterโs Pan from Chaseโs epic Density 2036 project. Balterโs already iconic Pan (2017-18) is an evening-length musical drama for solo flute, live electronics, and an ensemble of community musicians. The all-ages, all-abilities Pan ensembleโa kind of 21st-century Greek chorus that serves as the conscience of the community in this telling of the Greek mythโis assembled newly in each city to which the work travels.
Friday (June 6) begins with an early morning program featuring the JACK Quartet with works by Tania Leรณn, Leilehua Lanziliotti, and two exciting emerging composers, Vicente Atria and Eduardo Aguilar. The Libbey Bowl concert on Friday celebrates the old made new in Anna Thorvaldsdottirโs Impressions for harpsichord and ends with a summit meeting between Craig Taborn and Cory Smythe, two dazzlingly inventive composers and pianists whose worlds encompass creative music, free jazz, new music, and beyond.
In its West Coast premiere, Australian composer Liza Limโs Sex Magic for solo contrabass flute and electronics centers Friday afternoon. Inspired by Claire Chaseโs towering contrabass flute (Bertha), Sex Magic celebrates the sacred erotic in womenโs history, evoking the giant bass flutes of Papua New Guinea and the Australian Didjeridoo in a work that ritually moves across three altars, creating a mystical, mesmerizing evocation of both the present and the timeless past.
Terry Rileyโs The Holy Liftoff will be featured on the Friday evening Libbey Bowl concert. Performed by Claire Chase and the JACK Quartet, The Holy Liftoff was conceived as a series of musical sketches and brilliantly colored drawings. Of Rileyโs recent work Chase said, โAt 90 years young, Terry is on fire with ideas. Heโs creating new ideas and inciting collaborations and connections with urgency and vitality. For Ojai, we are imagining the limitless variations, realizations and possible interpretations of his โliftoffโ to include both performers and audiences.โ Music for a โchorus of cellosโ by Sofia Gubaidulina and Julius Eastman precede The Holy Liftoff.
On Saturday, June 7, following a free โmorning meditationโ in the Ojai Meadow Preserves, a collaboration with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, the first Libbey Bowl concert of the day centers on the West Coast premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottirโs Ubique for flute, two cellos, piano and electronics. Thorvaldsdottir describes the work as โinspired by the notion of being everywhere at the same time, an enveloping omnipresence, while simultaneously focusing on details within the density of each particle, echoed in various forms of fragmentation and interruption and in the sustain of certain elements of a sound beyond their natural resonance – throughout the piece, sounds are both reduced to their smallest particles and their atmospheric presence expanded towards the infinite.โ
Saturday afternoon continues with the West Coast premiere of composer-pianist Craig Tabornโs Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms for flute, clarinet, cello, piano and electronics. Tabornโs critically acclaimed Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms was inspired by a dream in which plants awake, blossom, grow and change as the dreamer walks through a garden. (A second performance of Tabornโs Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms will be offered on Sunday afternoon, June 8.) At the Libbey Bowl that evening is a program of music by Bach, Sofia Gubaidulina (inspired by Bach) and Tania Leรณn, preceding Liza Limโs large-scale How Forests Think. A work inspired by the imagery of ancient forests as vibrant, symbiotic communities that, as the Lim writes, โnourish the old connections and keep a song going. One might think of a forest as a choir or certainly as an ensemble. Stories, dreams, and thoughts inhabit multiple forms in a living matrix.โ
Sunday morning begins with another free โmorning meditationโ program. The JACK Quartet then explores their ongoing โModern/Medievalโ project mid-morning at Libbey Bowl, with music from the 14th to 17th centuries renewed for contemporary performance by composers/JACK violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman. The program includes the west coast premiere of Susie Ibarraโs Sky Islands, a musical tribute to rich and fragile ecosystems inspired by the distinct rainforest habitats of Luzon, Philippines. The work features the interlocking rhythms and melodies of Philippine Northern-style bamboo, gong, and flute music, performed on new sound sculptures of gong metals. Sky Islands is described as โa musical call to action, drawing awareness to dwindling biodiversity, changing climate and global community practices.โ
An exuberant all-company 2025 Festival finale includes music by Leilehua Lanzilotti, Pauline Oliverosโ The Witness and the West Coast premiere of Terry Rileyโs Pulsefield as the joyous ending in celebration of his 90th birthday.
A complete 2025 Ojai Music Festival schedule will be announced in January 2025. Programs and artists are subject to change. For 2025 artist and composer biographies and for Festival updates, visit OjaiFestival.org.
EXPERIENCE THE 79th OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL, JUNE 5 TO 8, 2025 2025 Libbey Bowl series passes are available and may be purchased online at OjaiFestival.org or by calling (805) 646-2053. Passes start at $215 for reserved seating. Lawn Area passes start at $90. Single tickets and day passes will go on sale in spring 2025. Follow Festival updates at OjaiFestival.org.
CLAIRE CHASE, MUSIC DIRECTOR Claire Chase, described by The New York Times recently as โthe North Star of her instrumentโs ever-expanding universe,โ is a musician, interdisciplinary artist, and teacher. Passionately dedicated to the creation of new ecosystems for the music of our time, Chase has given the world premieres of hundreds of new works by a new generation of artists. She was the first flutist to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012, and in 2017 was the first flutist to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize for Classical Music from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Chase served as the Richard and Barbara Debs Creative Chair at Carnegie Hall in the 2022-23 season and serves as the Music Director for the 2025 Ojai Music Festival. Previously, Chase performed at the Ojai Music Festival with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) in 2015 with that yearโs Music Director Steven Schick, in 2016 with Music Director Peter Sellars, and in 2017 with Music Director Vijay Iyer.
Chase has performed as a soloist recently with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and London Philharmonia. Upcoming concerto projects include the world premiere of a new duo concerto by Dai Fujikura for Chase and the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, which the pair will premiere with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, with subsequent performances with Ensemble Resonanz at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and on tour in Switzerland, Belgium, Turkey, and Greece. In the 2022-23 season, Chase premiered a new duo concerto by Felipe Lara with the vocalist and bassist esperanza spalding and the conductor Susanna Mรคlkki, which was named one of the Best Classical Music Performances of the Year by The New York Times.
In 2013, Chase launched the 24-year commissioning project Density 2036, described by The New Yorker as โa quarter-century journey with little precedent.โ Now in its 12th year, Density reimagines the solo flute literature through commissions, performances, recordings, educational initiatives, and a community-focused approach to cultural production. In 2023, Chase performed all ten Density programs to date in a weeklong series of events co-produced by Carnegie Hall and The Kitchen. Central to the Density project is a commitment to supporting an international, multigenerational community of flutists who will take the Density repertoire in bold new interpretive directions. The Density Fellows program, launched in 2023 in celebration of the 10th anniversary, provides an international cohort of emerging flutists with the resources to make the Density repertoire their own. Chase is the artistic director of Density Arts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the flute in the 21st century.
As an undergraduate at Oberlin Conservatory, Chase co-founded the International Contemporary Ensemble, a collective of musicians, digital media artists, producers, and educators committed to creating collaborations built on equity and cultural responsiveness. She served as the ensembleโs artistic director until 2017 and as an ensemble member on performance and educational projects on five continents, developing an artist-driven organizational model that resulted in the premieres of over 1,000 new works and earned the group multiple Chamber Music America/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, the Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center, and the Ensemble of the Year Award from Musical America Worldwide.
A deeply committed educator, Chase is Professor of the Practice in the Department of Music at Harvard University, where she teaches courses on contemporary music, interdisciplinary collaboration, and cultural advocacy. Chase is also Creative Associate at The Juilliard School, where she mentors young artists and engages students in a range of interdisciplinary projects. With her longtime colleague Steven Schick, she cofounded Ensemble Evolution at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, a three-week intensive for the next generation of interdisciplinary artists, curators, and teachers. Chaseโs Debs Creative Chair residency at Carnegie Hall encompassed programming for all ages, including a โDay of Listeningโ for children and families inspired by the listening philosophies of Pauline Oliveros. Chase will partner with the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to expand her Pauline Oliveros project as part of the PST ART x Science Collide festival in 2024-25.
Claire Chaseโs extensive discography includes eight solo albums of world premiere recordings and dozens of collaborative recordings with ensembles, composers, and sound artists from a wide range of musical genres. Chase grew up in Leucadia, California, with the childhood dream of becoming a professional baseball player before she discovered the flute. She lives in Brooklyn.
ARA GUZELIMIAN, ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Ara Guzelimian is the Artistic and Executive Director of the Ojai Music Festival, having begun in that position in July 2020. The appointment culminates many years of association with the Festival including tenures as director of the Ojai Talks and as Artistic Director from 1992โ97. Guzelimian stepped down as Provost and Dean of the Juilliard School in New York City in June 2020, having served in that position since 2007. He continues at Juilliard as Special Advisor.
Prior to the Juilliard appointment, he was Senior Director and Artistic Advisor of Carnegie Hall from 1998 to 2006. Guzelimian serves as artistic consultant for the Marlboro Music Festival and School in Vermont. He is a member of the steering committee of the Aga Khan Music Awards, the artistic committee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust in London, and a board member of the Amphion and Pacific Harmony Foundations. He is also a member of the music visiting committee of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.
Previously, Guzelimian held the position of Artistic Administrator of the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado, and he was long associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, first as producer for the orchestraโs national radio broadcasts and, subsequently, as Artistic Administrator. Guzelimian is editor of Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (Pantheon Books, 2002), a collection of dialogues between Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said. In September 2003, he was awarded the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his contributions to French music and culture.
OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL The Ojai Music Festival represents an ideal of adventurous, open-minded, and openhearted programming in the most beautiful and welcoming of settings, with audiences and artists to match its aspirations. Now in its 78th 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 Festivalโs narrative is guided by a different Music Director, whose distinctive perspectives shape programming โ ensuring energized festivals year after year.
Throughout each year, the Ojai Music Festival contributes to Southern Californiaโs cultural landscape with in-person and online programming as well as robust educational offerings that serve thousands of public-school students and seniors. The organizationโs 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 music summer 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 โwhoโs whoโ 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.
THU November 7.2024 | 5-7PM | Museum of Ventura County (100 East Main St, Ventura)
It was a mesmerizing evening with flutist Emi Ferguson, a favorite of Ojai Music Festival audiences, on November 7 at the Museum of Ventura County.
After enjoying the company of others and exploring the museumโs latest exhibits, Emi led attendees through a beautiful journey of the flute through time and place. Special thanks to Emi for creating a playlist of the program and other fun resources to come back to time and time again when we need the beauty of music to give us comfort and joy.
Relive your favorite Libbey Bowl moments from the 2024 Ojai Music Festival. Watch either whole concerts or individual pieces from each concert. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up-to-date with new video releases.
“The Ojai Music Festival has always meant a wonderful blend of tradition and modernism. I look forward to hearing new and exciting modern and contemporary artists and works always followed by a beautiful and reliable classic. Over the years I have met new people and celebrated new friendships with people I may never have met if not for the festival. I look forward to this event each year.”
“An introduction for me to hear new artists perform whom I ordinarily wouldnโt not be familiar with and to be awakened to new sounds and proficiency of the artists.”
(July 30, 2024 โ OJAI CA) — The Ojai Music Festival is pleased to announce it is a recipient of the Arts and Culture Investment Fund Grant from the County of Ventura and the Ventura County Community Foundation.
The $75,000 grant will support the internationally recognized annual Ojai Music Festival, which presents classical and contemporary music featuring todayโs most innovative and celebrated artists; an expansion of its year-round activities, that will include public performances and partnerships in the Ojai community and the broader Ventura County; and the broadening of its BRAVO education program in public schools with SCORE, a music composition class for high school students.
โWe are deeply grateful to the County and the Board of Supervisors for this very generous and meaningful support,โ said Ara Guzelimian, Artistic and Executive Director of the Ojai Music Festival. โThis marks an important milestone moment in the cultural life of Ventura County, recognizing and supporting the ever-growing range of vibrant arts activity in our communities.”
The Arts and Culture Investment Fund is Ventura Countyโs first dedicated arts and culture grant program, which as approved by the Board of Supervisors as part of the Countyโs 2023 Recovery Plan to support ongoing recovery from the pandemic. Funding supports both nonprofit arts and culture organizations and artists based in Ventura County. For more information and the Arts and Culture Investment Fund and a complete list of grant recipients, please visit www.ventura.org/arts.
About the Ojai Music Festival The Ojai Music Festival represents an ideal of adventurous, open-minded, and openhearted programming in the most beautiful and welcoming of settings, with audiences and artists to match its aspirations. Entering its 79th 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 Festivalโs narrative is guided by a different Music Director, whose distinctive perspectives shape programming โ ensuring energized festivals year after year.
Throughout each year, the Ojai Music Festival contributes to Southern Californiaโs cultural landscape with in-person and online programming as well as robust educational offerings that serve thousands of public-school students and seniors. The organizationโs apex is the world-renowned Festival, which takes place over four days in the breathtaking Ojai Valley in Ventura County. 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 music summer 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 โwhoโs whoโ 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. The 79th Ojai Music Festival, June 5 to 8, 2025, will welcome flutist Claire Chase as Music Director.
Located at the Holiday Marketplace at Libbey Park (210 S. Signal Street), one is at the fountain area and another is at the building closest to the Libbey Bowl. Look for red signs reading WILL CALL
Tickets are $50. Credit card purchases only
Hours are 10PM-4PM on Saturday and 10AM-3PM Sunday
Have you ever driven by a home and instantly been enamored of it, yearning to see inside and out? Here is your opportunity to indulge your curiosity, with a house both elegant and livable. Exuding French vibes, you feel transported to that wine country, although this property is surrounded by fragrant orange groves. Inside the main house, with its massive ceilings, postcard-worthy views from every window, generous rooms, and simplicity abounding, one can only imagine how beautiful a stay in this home would be. Of course, the pool and guest house complete the picture, with areas of restful quiet and tranquility in between.
Floral Desginer: Louesa Roebuck
โThe way of the flowersโ has been studied for centuries. As an artist, floral designer and author, Louesa Roebuck demonstrates that one needs to understand the rules in order to bend them. In her two critically acclaimed books, Foraged Flora and Punk Ikebana, Louesa has composed stunning arrangements and installations that unite cultural influences with an exhilarating freedom from conventional floral design using regionally foraged and gleaned materials.
After moving to California from Ohio in 1998, Louesa worked at the influential Chez Panisse, which profoundly shaped the direction of her career. She continued her education of California culture and beauty working with clothing and textile designer Erica Tanov, then opened โAugust,โ a seminal fashion, art, and community hub illustrating the intersection of luxury apparel and environmentally and socially responsible textile practices. In 2008, Louesa returned to her lifelong love of foraged floral work.
In addition to creating floral art, arrangements and installations for many illustrious clients, her work has been featured in several national and international media including Vogue, GOOP, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, C Magazine, Gardenista, Sunset, Martha Stewart Living and more.
Working with locally seasonal foraged and sourced flora to bring Ojaiโs ever-evolving abundance into Casa Valencia, Louesa has revealed how floral art, sculpture and Holiday designs can be created by embracing the flora right outside your door, inspiring you to cultivate your own vision by inviting the wonders of the natural world into your home.
Louesa lives with her partner Curtis and their three dogs in the hills above Ojai, and considers all of California her home. She, and her autographed books can often be found in their local gallery showroom, Art Port. Her books are also available at your local bookstore and online booksellers.
When two artists, who work from home, design their dream house, you can be sure the creative space will be fabulous. Combining Spanish modern, farmhouse, and bohemian elements, it is an eclectic delight! Location is key, close to town but at the end of a cul-de-sac, built into a hillside surrounded by nature. Art and personal touches give each space dramatic personality, with several sets of stairs separating the many levels. Hand-painted Moroccan tiles are found throughout the kitchen. The living room with vaulted ceiling and prodigious windows offers the perfect place to entertain with the home theater system, showcasing the ownerโs successful career as a television writer. The muse of her father inspires her in the dramatic deep green office with perfectly chosen wallpaper. The poolside wooden deck is surrounded by urban greenery and the sounds of Sespe Creek with a perfect view of the Pink Moment. A professional recording studio is an impressive bonus.
Floral Designer: Emily Denver – Fleur Ojai
The owner of two sustainable floral businesses, Emily Denver is a pioneer in the field to vase, sustainable floristry movement. Fleur Ojai offers luxury florals for small gatherings and events, set design and home staging. Fleurie Florals is a tiny, traveling floral experience contained in a custom-made teardrop trailer, perfect for parties, workshops, and get togethers of all kinds.
Emily is known for her luxurious and natural style, beautifully blending colors and textures that honor the flowers. Mentored by a master florist from France at the age of 17, her design philosophy has become rooted much deeper than traditional floral technique. Emily has been fortunate to have traveled, worked, designed and taught around the world. Along the way, she has created everything from Shakespearean landscapes and English gardens, to becoming an expert on floriography, The Language of Flowers.
Emily has also lent her design aesthetic to her own line of jewelry, handbags, resort wear, and interior design. From shop windows on Melrose, to custom designing jewelry to match evening gowns for Award Season, her motto has continued to be: Good design is good design.
Born in Ventura County and raised all over the United States, Canada and Europe, Emily opened her floral studio and shop in Los Angeles in 2008. After a decade of running her successful floral business, she returned home to Ventura countyโs jewel, Ojai, to create a home base of art and poetry, nature and music, creativity and passion, and of course, flowery goodness for herself, her family and her community. Creating Holiday designs for Sespe Creek Sanctuary for this yearโs Holiday Home Tour has been a joy and a pleasure for her.
Emilyโs floral design and styling has been featured in The Knot, Town & Country, Country Living, Vogue, Martha Stewart, Wedding Chicks, Style Me Pretty, Magnolia Rouge, and Green Wedding Shoes.
A magnificent hilltop minimalist masterpiece, designed by the owners themselves. Beyond the stainless-steel front doors, sleek contemporary lines are accented with impressive original artwork displayed throughout. Floor to ceiling windows and glass doors maximize the stunning views of the East End and the Topa Topas. The primary bedroom has two glass walls to take in the gorgeous beauty, and the huge his and hers bathrooms and wardrobes alone are worth the visit. The large outdoor terrace is โboundedโ by a sparkling pool with infinity edges on three sides and leads to gorgeous desert and South African landscaping.
Floral Designer: Lynn Malone
Floral design has always been a passion for Lynn, from picking and making Motherโs Day flowers as a child, to working for nearly three decades at local nonprofit and government organizations who needed florals for their events, always within a tight budget. A self-taught designer, Lynn spent twenty years learning to create beautiful florals affordably, primarily by incorporating seasonal and foraged flowers, foliage and other natural elements.
In 2013, Lynn semi-retired to open her own flower shop, Digs, which quickly became one of Ojaiโs โgo toโ flower shops and later evolved into three different floral design studios after the shop was sold. After five years in retail floristry, she decided it was time to REALLY retire. Soon afterward, she realized she missed the flowers and floral interactions with friends and clients. Lynn currently designs for friends, an occasional wedding, and local organizations, including the Ojai Music Festival, the Ojai Land Conservancy and Rotary Clubs, creating unique florals for events and fundraisers on a budget. She occasionally leads floral workshops for local groups to help facilitate community gatherings around floral design.
Lynn serves as the design liaison for the Holiday Home Tour, matching designers and their unique styles with the homes on the tour and providing support for designers, homeowners and committee members. Having spent most of her floral career designing for multitudes of clients with their own unique styles and needs, Lynn has learned to be flexible in her approach to floral design in keeping with different needs and aesthetics of clients and friends. She has enjoyed working with the homeowners of two of this yearโs Holiday Homes, each with very diverse styles, and each themed around different holidays.
Collector’s Cottage
A charming storybook cottage, right out of a Snow White fairy tale, houses a local mini-museum of myriad collectibles. Each themed room is full to the brim with delights from bears to Barbies to Beanie Babies, from Elvis to Alice in Wonderland, and so much more. See if you can guess the names of all the costumed Bears. Be mesmerized by the train set that fills a large room, as it chugs around the Disneyland village. Youโll feel like a child again as you revisit fantasy favorites from your youth and be impressed with many significant items of sophisticated one-of-a-kind memorabilia.
Floral Designer: Lynn Malone
Floral design has always been a passion for Lynn, from picking and making Motherโs Day flowers as a child, to working for nearly three decades at local nonprofit and government organizations who needed florals for their events, always within a tight budget. A self-taught designer, Lynn spent twenty years learning to create beautiful florals affordably, primarily by incorporating seasonal and foraged flowers, foliage and other natural elements.
In 2013, Lynn semi-retired to open her own flower shop, Digs, which quickly became one of Ojaiโs โgo toโ flower shops and later evolved into three different floral design studios after the shop was sold. After five years in retail floristry, she decided it was time to REALLY retire. Soon afterward, she realized she missed the flowers and floral interactions with friends and clients. Lynn currently designs for friends, an occasional wedding, and local organizations, including the Ojai Music Festival, the Ojai Land Conservancy and Rotary Clubs, creating unique florals for events and fundraisers on a budget. She occasionally leads floral workshops for local groups to help facilitate community gatherings around floral design.
Lynn serves as the design liaison for the Holiday Home Tour, matching designers and their unique styles with the homes on the tour and providing support for designers, homeowners and committee members. Having spent most of her floral career designing for multitudes of clients with their own unique styles and needs, Lynn has learned to be flexible in her approach to floral design in keeping with different needs and aesthetics of clients and friends. She has enjoyed working with the homeowners of two of this yearโs Holiday Homes, each with very diverse styles, and each themed around different holidays.
Described as the best holiday home tour in the region, guests visit four exceptional homes during the 2024 Ojai Holiday Home Tour & Marketplace. The tour offers a diverse array of homes that reflect the unique charm of Ojai, and it celebrates the festive seasons adorned with floral inspirations by local Ojai designers.
Shoppers at the 2023 Holiday Marketplace
Marking 28 years in 2024, the Holiday Home Tour & Marketplace welcomes visitors from Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties. Tours are guided by a team of volunteer docents in each home.
In addition to touring four beautiful Ojai homes, visitors to the event can do holiday shopping early at the Marketplace. On both days, 65+ vendors and artisans sell unique and handmade goods in Libbey Park from 10AM-4:30PM.
NEW! Convenient, no-hassle check-out directly at vendor booths.
During the marketplace, hear performances by students of the BRAVO programs from elementary to high school grades. Throughout the home tour, enjoy live music by the following local talents.
The Women’s Committee invites you to keep the Holiday Home Tour & Marketplace a part of your annual holiday tradition by becoming a sponsor or a volunteer.
As one of the largest financial supporters of the Ojai Music Festival and its BRAVO Education and Community Programs, the Women’s Committee is proud of its essential role in our community’s future through this annual staple.
The 2024 marketplace is now full, with 75 vendors. If you are a 2024 vendor and would like to check or edit your vendor information, log in to the portal below. If you would like for us to reach out to you when applications open up for the 2025 Marketplace, use the button below!
Since 2012, the Ojai Music Festival has expanded its global footprint building a worldwide audience and has deepened connections with patrons throughout the year with free Live Stream Broadcasts. The 78th Festival, June 6 to 9, continues this offering with acclaimed pianist Mitsuko Uchida as Music Director.
You can watch the free live streams of the Libbey Bowl concerts from the Festival’s home page which will begin Thu, June 6 at 8pm. The complete evening concerts will only be available at the time of the performance. UPDATE: Full morning concerts and highlights of the evening concerts are now available below and on our YouTube channel (7/1/24).
Stay updated on new Festival videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.
For more context on this year’s Festival, enjoy these links:
HAYDN String Quartet in C major, Op. 33, No. 3 (โBirdโ) SCHOENBERG Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19 SCHOENBERG String Quartet No. 2 in F-sharp minor, Op. 10
Thank you for joining us at our 78th Festival, June 6-9, 2024. It was a glorious time to be in our communal festival experience, particularly in the company of our wondrous Music Director, Mitsuko Uchida. We were graced by her performances of extraordinary depth and insight along with the exhilaration of her partnership with the generous, brilliant musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the 2024 featured artists.
Take a look at excerpts from the press.
“…weโre talking about Ojai, where open-minded audiences take in music accompanied by nature and snack on freshly picked pixie tangerines. Uchida might have seemed like a headliner, but this festival is about sharing the wealth.”
New York Times
“Whatโs so extraordinary about the Ojai Music Festival, now in its 78th year? Many things, actually, including its brevity (this year running June 6 through 9); challenging and often sharply contrasting programming; and a rich concentration of talent…”
Wall Street Journal
“Uchidaโs playing was so uncompromisingly ethereal that its purpose seemed meant to open the listenerโs mind a crack.”
“In programming cahoots with artistic director Ara Guzelimian, Uchida managed to tap many important and lesser-heard musical touchpoints over the weekend, including paying respects to Saariaho, who died just more than a year ago. Her Lichtbogen, conducted here by her daughter Aliisa Neige Barriere, has a shimmering, evanescent atmosphere, mixing acoustic and electronic elements with abiding sensitivity…”
SB Independent
“The Ojai moment came during the cadenza of the second movement, Larghetto, when the piano, in its highest register, evokes the entrancing power of Papagenoโs magic bells. A silence descended over Libbey Bowl that was so complete that the only sounds were the piano, the croaking of frogs, the rustling of crickets, and the songs of night birds. It was as if Uchidaโs playing had somehow entranced us all.”
San Francisco Classical Voice
“[Alexi] Kenney, 30, who has seemed on the verge of stardom for some time, certainly became one of the highlights of this festival (he made his Ojai debut in 2021). Along with Kafka Fragments, he gave a brilliant solo performance, with innocuous abstract projections by visual artist Xuan, of another hour-long work called Shifting Ground, consisting of 11 pieces by various composers, also at the Ojai Valley School.
2024OjaiMusicFestival FRI 6-7-24 8pm_Matthew Sadler and Alexander Freund trumpets _credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0287)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival FRI 6-7-24 8pm_Mahler Chamber Orchestra-Mitsuko Uchida piano and director-Joseฬ Maria Blumenschein concertmaster and leader _credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0364-Edit)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival FRI 6-7-24 8pm_Mahler Chamber Orchestra-Mitsuko Uchida piano and director-Joseฬ Maria Blumenschein concertmaster and leader _credit Timothy Teague (DSC_9495)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival FRI 6-7-24 8pm_Mahler Chamber Orchestra-Mitsuko Uchida piano and director-Joseฬ Maria Blumenschein concertmaster and leader _credit Timothy Teague (DSC_9523)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 10am_Ljubinka Kulisic accordion_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0537)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 10am_Ljubinka Kulisic accordion_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0524)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 10am_Rick Stotijn double bass-Vicente Alberola conductor-musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0591)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 10am_Rick Stotijn double bass-Vicente Alberola conductor-musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (DSC_9589)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 8pm_musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0835)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 8pm_musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (DSC_9989)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 8pm_Aliisa Neige Barrieฬre conductor-musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0849)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 8pm_Aliisa Neige Barrieฬre conductor-musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (DSC_0055)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 8pm_Vicente Alberola clarinet-musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0859)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 8pm_Mitsuko Uchida piano and director-Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (DSC_0141)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24 8pm_Mitsuko Uchida piano and director-Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_1001)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24 10am_Alexi Kenney violin_credit Timothy Teague (DSC_0201)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24 10am_Sae Hashimoto percussion_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_1036)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24 10am_Brentano String Quartet_credit Timothy Teague (DSC_0223)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24 530pm_Joseฬ Maria Blumenschein concertmaster and leader-Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (DSC_0557)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24 530pm_Mitsuko Uchida piano and director-Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (DSC_0616)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24 530pm_Mitsuko Uchida piano and director-Mahler Chamber Orchestra_credit Timothy Teague (DSC_0634)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24_audience-staff_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0673)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24_audience-staff_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0676)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24_audience-staff_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0755-Edit)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SAT 6-8-24_audience-staff_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_0802)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24_audience-staff_credit Timothy Teague (DSC_0341)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24_audience-staff_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_1245)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24_audience-staff_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_1291)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24_audience-staff_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_1334)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival SUN 6-9-24_audience-staff_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_1354)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival THU 6-6-24_Guests enjoy the opening night concert on June 6 at Libbey Bowl_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_9630)_2mb resize
2024OjaiMusicFestival THU 6-6-24_Julie Smith Phillips with audience at the free evening Pop-Up at the Gazebo_credit Timothy Teague (TOT_9449)_2mb resize
This season on OJAICAST, we have one very special episode where host Emily Praetorius gets to talk in-depth with Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian about what magic is in store for us at the 2024 Ojai Music Festival (June 6-9). From Mozart to Schoenberg and Haydn to Gubaidulina, we take a musical tour of the Festival programming with some extra insights into Music Director Mitsuko Uchidaโs close connections with the fabulous roster of musicians joining her this year.
ABOUT OUR OJAICAST HOST Emily Praetorius, a former Ojai Music Festival Rothenberg Intern Fellow, is a composer from Ojai, CA. She recently received her DMA from Columbia University in 2023 where she studied composition with Georg Friedrich Haas and George Lewis. Her pieces have been performed by several New York City based ensembles such as Yarn/Wire, Mivos Quartet, TAK and Wet Ink Ensemble. Recent works include a solo viola work on violist Carrie Freyโs 2023 album Seagrass and a current collaboration with violin-viola duo andPlay. After 10 years of living in New York City where she studied, composed and co-owned Kuro Kirin Espresso & Coffee, she returned to her hometown of Ojai to live in the sunshine and go hiking every weekend.
Since 2012, the Ojai Music Festival has expanded its global footprint building a worldwide audience and has deepened connections with patrons throughout the year with free Live Stream Broadcasts. The 78th Festival, June 6 to 9, continues this offering with acclaimed pianist Mitsuko Uchida as Music Director.
You can watch the free live streams of the Libbey Bowl concerts from the Festival’s home page which will begin Thu, June 6 at 8pm. The complete evening concerts will only be available at the time of the performance. Full morning concerts and highlights of the evening concerts will be available on our website and on our YouTube channel following the Festival. Below is the schedule of concerts to be live streamed.
For more context on this year’s Festival, enjoy these links:
HAYDN String Quartet in C major, Op. 33, No. 3 (โBirdโ) SCHOENBERG Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19 MOZART Fantasy in D minor, K. 397 SCHOENBERG String Quartet No. 2 in F-sharp minor, Op. 10
STRAVINSKY Fanfare for a New Theater WEBERN Five Movements for Strings, Op. 5 SCHOENBERG Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 MOZART Piano Concerto in E flat, K. 482
DEBUSSY (arr. Benno SACHS) Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun KAIJA SAARIAHO Lichtbogen ESA-PEKKA SALONEN Elegy (from kรญnฤma) MOZART Piano Concerto in B flat, K. 595
HAYDN Symphony No. 46 in B major, Hob. I:46 JรRG WIDMANN Chorale Quartet(Choralquartett), version for chamber orchestra MOZART Piano Concerto in G major, K. 453
Live Stream FAQ
Where do I find the Live Stream? At concert time, the Live Stream will be available at the top of our Homepage.
It’s concert time and I still don’t see the Live Stream on the Homepage. Sometimes your browser stores an old version of the webpage. To refresh the page, click the “” button in your browser.
I see the Live Stream. How do I watch full screen? To watch full screen on the Homepage, click the ““ button in the bottom right of the player.
Where can I watch the Live Stream concert after it ends? Live Stream videos will be available the following day on the 2024 Live Stream Schedule. Following the Festival, they will remain on our website and our Festival YouTube Channel. However, the evening concerts will only be shown the night of the performance.
Many thanks to all who attended the Virtual Ojai Talks on the music of Gubaidulina, Lachenmann, and Saariaho led by Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Here is the featured music and the resources that were discussed that we’d love to share with all! These are all readily accessible YouTube links.
Gubaidulina Interview
Schoenberg: String Quartet No. 2
Clip from Helmut Lachenman: My Way documentary
Interview with Helmut Lachenman
Lachenmann: Mouvement
Trailer for Echoes of the Universe: The Music of Kaija Saariaho documentary
Many thanks to all who attended the Virtual Ojai Talks on the music of Schoenberg led by Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian. Here is the featured music and the resources that were discussed that we’d love to share with all!
The Music We Heard:
These are all readily accessible YouTube links. A companion playlist in either Apple Music or Spotify appears at the bottom, for those who prefer those sources for streaming. One note – the very beautiful Matthias Pintscher/Karajan Academy live performance of the Schoenberg Chamber Symphony No. 1 is only available on YouTube, so the streaming playlists include a different but also compelling performance led by Simon Rattle.
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9
Matthias Pintscher conductor with the ensemble of the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic
Photo by Nathan Wickstrum from the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy
In celebration of the day, we take a journey in the company of Mitsuko Uchida. This is sampling of recordings from throughout her career, exploring her wide ranging interests from Mozart to Schoenberg – these are all recordings I love and would be so happy to have along with me on a desert island.
We begin with the most celebrated (and romantic!) of Mozart piano concerto slow movements and proceed on to some lesser-known Schubert miniatures, no less exquisite for their brevity. Schumann comes next in two celebrated movements, followed by a surprisingly apt tiny piece by Schoenberg as a prelude to visionary Debussy in a now-legendary recording of his Etudes. We then turn to perhaps the quirkiest of all Mozart miniatures, then conclude with the joyous but rarely played Concert Rondo in D, a fittingly spirited finale to this brief sampler. And all of it in eager anticipation of musical joys to come in Ojai this June!
(January 16, 2024 โ OJAI CA) — The Ojai Music Festival launches SCORE, a new initiative of the Festivalโs BRAVO music education program that will provide the tools and guidance necessary for Nordhoff High School (NHS) music students to compose their own musical works. The 17-week course, which will be free to the students, will be led by NHS music teacher Bill Wagner and SCORE coordinator Emily Praetorius.
To participate in the enrichment class, NHS students will have previous course study through the NHS music department, along with a demonstrated interest in learning music composition. Registration for SCORE began in December, 2023.
โThe Festival, through its BRAVO music education program, has been providing free school workshops, artist residencies, Music Van, and free Imagine concerts to elementary-age students for nearly 40 years in the Ojai Valley. By expanding with SCORE to the upper grades, we will be able to help high school students tap into their own musical creativity across genres with the expert guidance of the schoolโs own Bill Wagner and Ojai-based composer Emily Praetorius. I am so glad that we can continue to deepen our connection in our Ojai community on a year-round basis,โ said Festival Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian.
In the class, students will learn to find their own compositional voices and processes by composing for themselves and their fellow classmates in a series of cumulative projects. Through each project, students will learn a new tool of the compositional process, from music notation and idea generation to notation software and audio recording. Listening sessions, composition lessons, and guest speakers will enhance the classโs exploration of musical composition and contemporary music in general. The course will culminate with a performance of the studentsโ works performed by NHS music students.
“We are very excited to be collaborating with the Ojai Music Festival to offer SCORE for Nordhoff students to begin to explore music from a composerโs viewpoint. The perspective they will gain through the process will be invaluable to their development as musicians. Iโm looking forward to hearing their creative works take shape,” shares Wagner.
EMILY PRAETORIUS, SCORE COORDINATOR
Emily Praetorius, a former Ojai Music Festival Rothenberg Intern Fellow, is a composer from Ojai, CA. She recently received her DMA from Columbia University in 2023 where she studied composition with Georg Friedrich Haas and George Lewis. Her pieces have been performed by several New York City based ensembles such as Yarn/Wire, Mivos Quartet, TAK and Wet Ink Ensemble. Recent works include a solo viola work on violist Carrie Freyโs 2023 album Seagrass and a current collaboration with violin-viola duo andPlay. After 10 years of living in New York City where she studied, composed and co-owned Kuro Kirin Espresso & Coffee, she returned to her hometown of Ojai to live in the sunshine and go hiking every weekend.
BRAVO MUSIC EDUCATION PROGRAM IN THE SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY
The Ojai Music Festivalโs BRAVO program has been serving the Ojai Valley community for close to four decades. Over each year, BRAVO serves nearly 3,000 public school children with free music workshops, artist residencies, Music Van, and concerts. BRAVO also offers free workshops at local senior centers and includes talks and free community events during the Ojai Music Festival in June.
OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL Since 1947, the Festival has remained a creative laboratory for thought-provoking musical experiences, bringing together innovative artists and curious audiences in an intimate, idyllic outdoor setting. Each Festivalโs narrative is guided by a different Music Director, whose distinctive perspectives shape programming โ ensuring energized festivals year after year.
Throughout each year, the Ojai Music Festival contributes to Southern Californiaโs cultural landscape with in-person and online Festival-related programming as well as robust educational offerings that serve thousands of public-school students and seniors. The organizationโs apex is the world-renowned four-day Festival, which takes place in Ojai, a breathtaking valley 75 miles from Los Angeles, which is a perennial platform for the fresh and unexpected. During the immersive experience, a mingling of the most curious take part in concerts, symposia, free community events, and social gatherings. During the intimate Festival weekend, considered a highlight of the international music summer season, Ojai welcomes up to 5,000 patrons and reaches 35 times more audiences worldwide through live and on-demand streaming of concerts and discussions throughout the year.
The 2024 Ojai Music Festival is slated for June 6 to 9 with acclaimed pianist Mitsuko Uchida as Music Director, featuring the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, violinist Alexi Kenny, cellist Jay Campbell, and the Brentano String Quartet. For information on BRAVO and the 2024 Festival, visit OjaiFestival.org.
The 2024 Festival welcomes Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brentano String Quartet, violinist Alexi Kenney, cellist Jay Campbell, harpist Julie Smith Phillips, and introduces soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, percussionist Sae Hashimoto, accordionist Ljubinka Kulisic, and bassist Rick Stotijn to Ojai audiences.
Mitsuko Uchida performs each Festival evening in works by Schoenberg and Mozart
Works by Kaija Saariaho are woven throughout the Festival, including Dreaming Chaconne,Fall, Six Japanese Gardens, and Lichtbogen, conducted by Saariahoโs daughter, Aliisa Neige Barriรจre
Concert programs include the music of John Adams, Bartรณk, Biber, Cage, Debussy, Sofia Gubaidulina, Kurtรกg, Helmut Lachenmann, Missy Mazzoli, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Stravinsky, Jรถrg Widmann, and John Zorn
In collaboration with Baryshnikov Arts, Shifting Ground features violinist Alexi Kenney and video projections by Xuan, juxtaposing Baroque works by Bach and Matteis, with recent music by Kaija Saariaho, Angรฉlica Negrรณn, Paul Wiancko, and Salina Fisher
The Festival features music from both the First and Second Viennese Schools, from Haydn and Mozart to Berg, Webern, and multiple works by Arnold Schoenberg in honor of the 150th Anniversary of his birth
As the New Year approaches, it is only fitting to take a moment to reflect on the year that was at the Ojai Music Festival. Rhiannon Giddens was at the exhilarating center of this yearโs Festival, illuminating everything she does with passion, formidable commitment, and heart. She is one of those artists who uses her gifts to make our understanding of the world broader and more whole.
And what a Festival it was, with discovery, adventure, and delight around every corner, from new music to old and everything in between, from Senegal to North Carolina, from Mexico to Iran, from Haydn to Squarepusher . . .
Photo by Jack Baran
Tan Dunโs pioneering Ghost Opera brought together the remarkable Wu Man, who was in on its creation, with a new generation of collaborators in the Attacca Quartet and dancer/choreographer PeiJu Chien Pott in a completely fresh re-thinking of the work. In late September, the production traveled East for performances at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in New York, another in a long tradition of Ojai-originated projects having creative ripple effects across the performing arts world.
Back home in Ojai, we celebrated the first-ever statewide California Festival of new music with a November concert – an engrossing and hugely inventive program of music by Reena Esmail, Dylan Mattingly, M.A. Tiesenga, and Samuel Adams, showcasing the creativity of a new generation of California composers. We were mesmerized by the Hindustani vocals of Saili Oak and encountered the electronic hurdy-gurdy!
Looking back on the year, I am filled with gratitude on every level at the company we keep โ the artists, the staff, the many volunteers, the endlessly open and curious audiences, our gracious and generous donors. Thank you for being part of this boundless musical adventure!
And there is much more to come around the corner. We can happily anticipate the 2024 Festival with the profound artistry of Mitsuko Uchida, joined by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and a host of gifted young artists in a characteristically wide-ranging program from Mozart to Kaija Saariaho.
More details about the Festival to come in January. See you in 2024!
In the meantime, all the warmest good wishes for a healthy, happy, and most of all, peaceful New Year,
Ara Guzelimian
Artistic and Executive Director
The artwork, FESTIVAL, created by Christopher Noxon. Christopher Noxon paints and writes in Ojai, California. Sullivan Goss Gallery in Santa Barbara featured his work in the 2023 exhibit โBetty Lane & Christopher Noxon: From One Generation to the Next.โ His work is in the permanent collection of the Ojai Valley Museum and heโs shown at Gallery 825 in Los Angeles, the Santa Paula Art Museum and the Beatrice Woods Center for the Arts. His writing and illustrations have appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic and New York Times Magazine. ChristopherNoxonArt.com
” button in your browser.
“ button in the bottom right of the player.
