Ojai Music Festival Streaming

I should have gotten this out last month, when the Ojai Music Festival was live, but I did not - oh, well! The streams are still available. As usually, the programs are fabulous, and I wish Ojai were in almost any month but June, which is always packed in the SF area.

The streams are all free! Here's the list of available concerts and repertory that Ojai circulated some time ago, but note that there might have been updates.

Thursday, June 8 

 

8:00pm | LIQUID BORDERS  

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

 

Gabriela ORTIZ Liquid Borders  

Franz Joseph HAYDN String Quartet in F major, Op. 77 No. 2 Hob. III:82 

Zakir HUSSAIN Pallavi (arr. Reena Esmail)  
Philip GLASS First Movement from String Quartet No. 3 (“Mishima”)  

Colin JACOBSEN  Beloved do not let me be discouraged  

Geeshie WILEY  Last Kind Words 

Rhiannon GIDDENS  Lullaby 

David CROSBY/Nathan SCHRAM  Where We Are Not (arr. Nathan Schram) 

Caroline SHAW  Stem and Root from The Evergreen  

John ADAMS  Judah to Ocean, Rag the Bone from John’s Book of Alleged Dances  
SQUAREPUSHER   Xetaka 1  

 

 

Friday, June 9 

 

10:00am | VIS-À-VIS 

Libbey Bowl 

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

Shawn OKPEBHOLO mi sueño: afro-flamenco 

Tyson Gholston DAVIS American Tableau (Tableau XI) 

Margaret BONDS Troubled Water (Wade in the Water)   

Michael ABELS  Iconoclasm  

Jessie MONTGOMERY Rhapsody No. 2  

Nasim KHORASSANI Growth  

Nina BARZEGAR  Inexorable Passage  

Lei LIANG vis-à-vis 

 

 

8:00pm | AN EVENING WITH RHIANNON GIDDENS AND FRANCESCO TURRISI 

Libbey Bowl  

 

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

 

Saturday, June 10 
 

10:00am | THE WILLOWS ARE NEW 

Libbey Bowl  

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

Niloufar NOURBAKHSH Veiled  

Lei LIANG Mother’s Songs

GE Gan-Ru Gong (from Gu Yue) 

CHOU Wen-Chung The Willows are New

Kayhan KALHOR Solo Improvisation 

 

8:00pm | OMAR’S JOURNEY   

Libbey Bowl  

Limmie Pulliam tenor (Omar) | Rhiannon Giddens soprano (Julie) | Cheryse McLeod Lewis mezzo-soprano (Fatima) | Michael Preacely bass-baritone (Abdul/Abe) | Andy Papas bass-baritone (Owen/Johnson) 
 
Emi Ferguson flute | Joshua Rubin clarinet | Mazz Swift, Michi Wiancko violins | Mario Gotoh viola  

Karen Ouzounian cello | Shawn Conley bass | Leonard Hayes piano | Ross Karre, Francesco Turrisi percussion Justin Robinson fiddle | Seckou Keita kora 

Music from Senegal and the Carolinas 

Music by Rhiannon GIDDENS and Michael ABELS Omar’s Journey     World Premiere 

Libretto by Rhiannon Giddens  

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

 

Sunday, June 11 
 

10:00am | EARLY MUSIC  

Libbey Bowl  

 

Francesco Turrisi curator and keyboards 
Attacca Quartet | Rhiannon Giddens vocals | Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh | Karen Ouzounian cello |  
Wu Man pipa | Joshua Stauffer theorbo  

This concert challenges the idea of late Renaissance and early Baroque music and reinterprets it as a universal language that can connect the 17th century to today through an imagined historical and geographical journey.  

 

5:30pm | STRINGS ATTACHED 

Libbey Bowl 

Amy Schroeder violin | Kayhan Kalhor kamancheh | Seckou Keita kora | Rhiannon Giddens vocals/multi-instrumentalist Wu Man pipa | Francesco Turrisi multi-instrumentalist | Mazz Swift, Michi Wiancko violins | Mario Gotoh viola | Karen Ouzounian cello | Shawn Conley bass | Joshua Stauffer theorbo  
 
A musical summit of Festival artists and a jam session featuring solos and collaborations bringing together bowed and plucked string instruments from the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. An exuberant finale celebrating the many musical stories featured at this year’s Festival!