Ojai Festival Appoints Teddy Abrams

Teddy Abrams

Photo: Lauren Desberg, courtesy of 21C Media Group

Teddy Abrams, composer and music director of the Louisville Orchestra, will succeed Ara Guzelimian as artistic and executive director of the Ojai Music Festival, effective September 1, 2026. The first festival for which he'll appoint the music director is the 2027 festival. Esa-Pekka Salonen is the music director for the 2026 festival.

Ojai's press release is after the jump.

Ojai 2026

Photo: Minna Hatinen / San Francisco Symphony

The photo says it all: the Ojai Festival's 2026 music director will be by-then-former-SFS-music-director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The dates are June 11-14, 2026.

 

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! 

Ojai 2021

Good news from southern California: the Ojai Festival, music director John Adams, will take place this year, in September rather than June. There will be several world premieres (Sunt Lacrimae Rerum (these are the tears of things) by Dylan Mattingly and the revised version of Gabriela Ortiz’s La Calaca, along with the West Coast Premiere of Samuel Adams’ Chamber Concerto and the first concert performance of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Objets Trouvés) and a typically rich schedule, which is below the cut. The festival's dates are September 16 to 19, 2021.

Ojai Festival Cancels

The Ojai Festival, which was scheduled for June 11-14, 2020, has made the decision to cancel. This edition of the long-running festival was curated by composer/conductor Matthias Pintscher, and would have included the participation of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, one of the world's great contemporary music performance groups. I posted the preliminary schedule in November, 2019, and Pintscher and Chad Smith, now chief executive of the LA Phil, had planned a glorious season. The presence of Boulez's great sur Incises alone might have gotten me there.

I want to note that Ojai's letter explaining the decision is a model of how such news should be communicated: with care, with respect for and acknowledgement of the people involved and the emotions they're feeling, with great tact and courtesy. The letter includes the information that the festival participants had already been notified, as well, meaning no one learned of this on Twitter or from the NY Times. Bravo, Ojai.

Ojai 2020

The preliminary schedule for the Ojai Music Festival has been published. This is the 74th edition; it'll be held June 11 to 14, 2020, in Ojai. Chad Smith is the Artistic Director (though we know he is moving on from this post) and Matthias Pintscher is Music Director.

The schedule is fantastic, and maybe this will be the year I get there, although June, 2020, will be a bear, between SF Opera's summer season, MTT's last weeks as music director of SFS, and, as usual, Pride Weekend making Civic Center all but impassable at the end of June. That is, I will have to reschedule some performances and it won't be easy.

SATURDAY JUNE 6
9pm
Ojai Preview Concert at Noon to Midnight
Walt Disney Concert Hall

Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Ensemble intercontemporain
IRCAM

Olga NEUWIRTH  Le Encantadas o le avventure nel mare delle meraviglie

THURSDAY JUNE 11

3:00pm
OJAI TALKS
Ojai Presbyterian Church
Ara Guzelimian, Ojai Talks
Matthias Pintscher and guests

7:30pm
Libbey Bowl
Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Ensemble intercontemporain
Della Miles, vocalist

Unsuk CHIN  Gougalon (Scenes from a Street Theater)
Matthias PINTSCHER  BereshitOlga NEUWIRTH  Eleanor Suite (US Premiere)

FRIDAY JUNE 12

8:00am
OJAI DAWNS
Zalk Theatre

Calder Quartet
Olga NEUWIRTH  In the realms of the unreal
SCHUBERT  String Quartet in G major, D.887

11:00am
Libbey Bowl

Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Ensemble intercontemporain

GENESIS CYCLE  (US Premiere)
Day 1 Chaya CZERNOWIN  on the Face of the DeepDay 2 Marko NIKODIJEVIC  Dies secundus
Day 3 Franck BEDROSSIAN  Vayehi erev vayehi bokerDay 4 Anna THORVALDSDOTTIR  Illumine, pour octuor àDay 5 Joan MAGRANÉ FIGUERA  Marines i boscatges i
Day 6 Stefano GERVASONI  Eufaunique
Day 7 Mark ANDRE  riss 1
Day 8 Toshio HOSAKAWA  The Flood (EIC/Ojai co-commission)/(World Premiere)

7:30pm
Libbey Bowl

Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Ensemble intercontemporainDimitri Vassilakis, piano
LA Phil New Music Group

Calder Quartet

MENDELSSOHN  String Octet, Op. 20

Matthias PINTSCHER  Nur (West Coast Premiere)

Steve REICH  Tehillim

SATURDAY JUNE 13

8:00am
OJAI DAWNS
Zalk Theatre

Calder Quartet
Members of Ensemble intercontemporain

CAGE  String Quartet in Four Parts
Matthias PINTSCHER  UrielIVES  String Quartet No. 2

11:00am
Libbey BowlMatthias Pintscher, conductor
Ensemble intercontemporainHidéki Nagano, piano 

LIGETI  Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
BACH  Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049
Olga NEUWIRTH  Aello – ballet mécanomorphe

7:30pm
Libbey Bowl

Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Ensemble intercontemporain
Members of the LA PhilMOZART  Gran Partita
BOULEZ  sur Incises

SUNDAY JUNE 14

8:30am
Libbey Bowl 

Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Ensemble intercontemporain
Calder Quartet

Matthias PINTSCHER  4° quartetto d’archi Ritratto di Gesualdo

GESUALDO  Arrangement by Sciarrino

BACH  Selection from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080

BOULEZ  Mémoriale       

11:00am
Libbey Bowl
Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Ensemble intercontemporain
Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano
Andrew Staples, tenor
VARÈSE OctandreZAPPA  The Perfect StrangerMAHLER  Das Lied von der Erde (arr. Glenn Cortese)

4:30pm
Libbey Bowl

Calder Quartet and other guest artists

Free Community Concert for Ojai with the music of Angélica Negrón, Gabriela Ortiz, Copland,
and Stravinsky

Programs and artists are subject to change. For updated schedule, visit OjaiFestval.org

Changes at Ojai Festival

Earlier this month, the LA Philharmonic named Chad Smith as the orchestra's next CEO. At the time, I wondered, but did not write about, what this meant for his March, 2018 appointment as the festival's Artistic Director.

Now we know. Smith will hold that position through the 2020 festival, when Matthias Pintscher will be Music Director. After that, Ara Guzelimian, the outgoing Provost and Dean of Juilliard, will take over as Artistic Director at Ojai -- or, if you prefer, return to the post he held from 1992 to 1997. Guzelimian will be Artistic Director for an initial term of three years.

Here's the press release:

(October 17, 2019 – Ojai, CA) – Ojai Music Festival Board Chairman Jerrold Eberhardt announced today the appointment of Ara Guzelimian as Ojai’s next Artistic Director with the 75^th Festival, June 10 to 13, 2021. Mr. Guzelimian begins his initial three-year tenure with Ojai following the 2020 Festival under the artistic direction of Chad Smith. Mr. Smith, who was named as the Festival’s Artistic Director in March 2018, announced his intention to step away from Ojai given his October 1, 2019 appointment as Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

“Ara Guzelimian’s remarkable artistic perspective, expertise, and relationships will be paramount as he guides the future direction of the Festival. Through his work with young musicians around the world, Ara truly has his finger on the pulse of music making today. My Board colleagues and I are absolutely thrilled that Ara has agreed to take the helm as Artistic Director,” said Jerrold Eberhardt. “When Tom Morris decided to conclude his defining 16-year tenure, the Board immediately approached Chad Smith with our full confidence that Chad was the right visionary to build on Tom’s artistic legacy. Two weeks ago, the LA Phil named Chad as their new CEO – a brilliant move for that organization and for the field of music. We accept and understand Chad’s desire to focus fully on the Philharmonic, and appreciate that he will remain Ojai’s Artistic Director through the June 2020 Festival.”

Ara Guzelimian commented, “The Ojai Festival represents an ideal of adventurous, open-minded, and open-hearted programming in the most beautiful and welcoming of settings with an audience to match its aspirations. To become Artistic Director at this moment, as the Festival approaches its 75^th anniversary, is a deeply meaningful homecoming for me. I fell in love with Ojai in my teens - the place, the community, the spirit. I’ve enjoyed the warmest of friendships with my extraordinary predecessors - Lawrence Morton, Ernest Fleischmann, Tom Morris, and now, Chad Smith - and some of my most cherished musical experiences are rooted here. To return in this capacity brings me such joy. I look forward to working with the wonderful Board and staff to imagine a forward-facing festival very much true to the 2020s!”  
Chad Smith said, “For nearly 75 years, the Ojai Music Festival has been a major platform for the world’s most probing, adventurous, and visionary musicians. It is, therefore, bittersweet to step away from this incredible opportunity after the 2020 Festival, but Ojai deserves the full creative energies of its Artistic Director and the LA Phil requires the singular focus of its CEO. That Ara’s personal journey allows him to assume the role of Artistic Director at Ojai, just as mine requires me to step away, is fortuitous. Ara is, quite simply, one of the great artistic minds in our field, and I look forward to supporting him and the Festival in the years to come from my position with the Philharmonic.”

Currently Provost and Dean of The Juilliard School, Ara Guzelimian had previously announced his intention to step down from that position in June 2020. At Juilliard, he will continue in an advisory role, and will teach, during the 2020/21 academic year. Mr. Guzelimian was Ojai’s Artistic Director from 1992 to 1997, working closely with Festival Music Directors Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Kent Nagano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Emanuel Ax. Since 2004, he has served as the Festival’s Ojai Talks Director.

Next month, the Ojai Music Festival and Chad Smith will share details for the upcoming 2020 Festival – June 11 to 14, with Music Director Matthias Pintscher. 

Ara Guzelimian
Ara Guzelimian is Provost and Dean of the Juilliard School in New York City having been appointed to the post in August 2006. At Juilliard, he works closely with the President in overseeing the faculty, curriculum and artistic planning of the distinguished performing arts conservatory in all three of its divisions – dance, drama and music. 

Prior to the Juilliard appointment, he was Senior Director and Artistic Advisor of Carnegie Hall from 1998 to 2006; in that post, he oversaw the artistic planning and programming for the opening of Zankel Hall in 2003. He was also host and producer of the acclaimed “Making Music” composer series at Carnegie Hall from 1999 to 2008. Mr. Guzelimian currently serves as Artistic Consultant for the Marlboro Music Festival and School in Vermont. He is also a member of the Music Visiting Committee of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Music Awards, and a Board member of the Amphion and Pacific Harmony Foundations.

He has given lectures and taught at the invitation of the Metropolitan Opera, the Salzburg Easter Festival, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Chicago Symphony, the National Center for the Performing Arts in Taipei and the Jerusalem Music Center. Previously, Ara 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 at the beginning of his career, first as producer for the Orchestra’s national radio broadcasts and, subsequently, as Artistic Administrator. As a writer and music critic, he has contributed to such publications as Musical America, Opera Quarterly, Opera News, Symphony magazine, The New York Times, the Record Geijutsu magazine (Tokyo), the program books of the Salzburg and the Helsinki Festivals, and the journal for the IRCAM center in Paris.

Mr. 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. The Chicago, Boston, and London Symphony orchestras, conducted by Bernard Haitink, have performed Mr. Guzelimian’s performing edition of Mendelssohn’s incidental music to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In September 2003, Mr. Guzelimian 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 
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 Festival, that takes place in June, 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, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Barbara Hannigan. The Ojai Music Festival anticipates the 74^th Festival, June 11 to 14, 2020, with conductor and composer Matthias Pintscher.

As it approaches its 75th anniversary, Ojai looks toward its future with Ara Guzelimian, whose tenure as Artistic Director will begin following the 2020 Festival.

74^th Festival: June 11 to 14, 2020 
The 74^th Festival - June 11 to 14, 2020 - with Music Director Matthias Pintscher will highlight progressive and forward-thinking composers of our generation while paying homage to early classical roots. Featuring a vast array of composers from the past six centuries, the program will connect the traditional with the contemporary. Joining Mr. Pintscher for this adventurous musical exploration will be the Ensemble Intercontemporain in its Ojai Music Festival debut. This Paris-based world-renowned ensemble of 31 full-time musicians is dedicated to performing and promoting contemporary chamber music, which was founded in 1972 by former Ojai Music Director Pierre Boulez, and is now led by Mr. Pintscher. 

Ojai, 2019: Barbara Hannigan, Music Director

The final Ojai schedule was published today. I have a big problem: this is opposite the annual Northern California jujitsu camp that I try to attend. The program below is astonishing.

June 6-9, 2019

Thomas W. Morris, Artistic Director

Barbara Hannigan, 2019 Music Director 

Thursday, June 6

1:00-4:30pm Ojai Presbyterian Church
OJAI TALKS 
Led by Ojai Talks Director Ara Guzelimian, these three insightful sessions explore various facets of music-making and ideas featuring Barbara Hannigan and members of EQ, an interview with Thomas W. Morris on his Ojai years, and with members of LUDWIG on their distinctive vision.

5:30-6:00pm Libbey Park Gazebo
FREE COMMUNITY CONCERT 
JOHN LUTHER ADAMS/ The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies Part I
Steven Schick, percussion 

7:30-10:30pm Libbey Bowl
STRAVINSKY/ The Rake’s Progress  (fully-staged)                          
Equilibrium Artists: Aphrodite Patoulidou, soprano; Yannis Francois, bass; Elgan Llyr Thomas, tenor; Fleur Barron, mezzo-soprano; Antoin Herrera-Lopez Kessel, bass; James Way, tenor

LUDWIG 

Los Robles Master Chorale

Edo Frenkel, harpsichord

Linus Fellbom, director

Barbara Hannigan, conductor

Friday, June 7

8:00-9:00am Ojai Art Center
Donor Concert 
CLARA IANOTTA/ dead wasps in the jam-jar (iii)  US Premiere
TYSHAWN SOREY/ Everything Changes, Nothing Changes  West Coast Premiere
JACK Quartet           

11:00am-1:00pm Libbey Bowl 

Part I 11:00-11:45am
JOHN ZORN/ The Alchemist       
JOHN ZORN/ Hexentarot 
JOHN ZORN/ Ghosts 
JOHN ZORN/ The Aristos
JACK Quartet
Stephen Gosling, piano 
                       
Part II 12:15-1:00pm
JOHN ZORN/ Ouroboros
JOHN ZORN/ The Unseen           
JOHN ZORN/ Necronomicon                                         
JACK QUARTET
Jay Campbell, cello
Alexa Ciciretti, cello

2:00- 3:00pm  Ojai Presbyterian Church 
OJAI FILM
Zorn II (2016-2018) a film by Mathieu Amalric   
           
5:30-6:00pm Libbey Park Gazebo
FREE COMMUNITY CONCERT 
JOHN LUTHER ADAMS/ The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies Part II
Steven Schick, percussion 

7:30-10:00pm  Libbey Bowl

Part I 7:30-8:30pm
DEBUSSY/ Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut (from Images Book 1)
RAVEL/ Une barque sur l’ocean (from Miroirs)
MESSIAEN/ Un reflet dans le vent (from Preludes)                                                 
SCHOENBERG/ String Quartet No. 2  
Stephen Gosling, piano 
Barbara Hannigan, soprano
JACK Quartet

Part II 9:00 – 10:00pm 
DEBUSSY/ Syrinx                                                                        
SCHOENBERG/ Verklärte Nacht
VIVIER/ Lonely Child                                             
Aphrodite Patoulidou, soprano
LUDWIG 
Barbara Hannigan, conductor

10:15-11:30pm Ojai Art Center 
DANCING UNDER THE STARS 
A late night of ballroom dancing with LUDWIG Ballroom Band and Bill Elliott, master of ceremonies
(donor event)          

Saturday, June 8

8:00-9:00am Zalk Theatre 
JAMES DILLON/ La Coupure      
Steven Schick, percussion
Ross Karre, William Brent, video and sound design

11:00am-1pm Libbey Bowl 

Part I 11:00-11:30am
Tribute to Oliver Knussen with music by Oliver Knussen
KNUSSEN/ Masks for flute with wind chimes
KNUSSEN/ Autumnal for violin and piano
KNUSSEN/ Sonja’s Lullaby
KNUSSEN/ Cantata
KNUSSEN/ Eccentric Melody for cello
KNUSSEN/ Ophelia’s Last Dance
KNUSSEN/ Study for Metamorphosis for solo bassoon
LUDWIG
Stephen Gosling, piano
Jay Campbell, cello
                       
Part II 12:00-1:00pm         
RACHMANINOFF/ The Isle of the Dead (arranged by Thomas Beijer)   
MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE/ Twice Through the Heart                

Kate Howden, mezzo-soprano 
LUDWIG 
Edo Frenkel, conductor                             

2:00- 3:30pm  Ojai Presbyterian Church 
OJAI FILM
Music is Music – a film by Mathieu Amalric
C’est presque au bout du monde – a film by Mathieu Amalric
Taking Risks  - a documentary film by Accentus Music about Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium mentoring initiative  US Premiere

5:30-6:00pm Libbey Park Gazebo
FREE COMMUNITY CONCERT 
JOHN LUTHER ADAMS/ The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies Part III
Steven Schick, percussion 

7:30-10:15pm  Libbey Bowl 

Part I 7:30-8:00pm 
JOHN ZORN/ Jumalattaret                       

Barbara Hannigan, soprano
Stephen Gosling, piano 

Part II 8:15-9:00pm 
RITES OF PASSAGE: Folk songs from around the world 
Equilibrium Artists
Edo Frenkel, piano

Part II 9:30-10:15pm 
GRISEY/ Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil (Four Songs Crossing the Threshold)           
Barbara Hannigan, soprano
LUDWIG 
Steven Schick, conductor 
                       
Sunday, June 9

8:00-9:00am Zalk Theatre 
CATHERINE LAMB/ String Quartet   US Premiere
JACK Quartet 

11:00am-1:15pm Libbey Bowl

Part I 11:00-11:45am
WALTON/ Façade: An Entertainment                                                              
LUDWIG 
Barbara Hannigan, speaker 

Part II 12:15-1:15pm         
TERRY RILEY/ In C           
Festival artists
                                                           
4:30-6:30pm Libbey Bowl 
STRAVINSKY/ Pulcinella (complete)     
HAYDN/ Symphony No. 49 “La Passione”     
GERSHWIN/ Girl Crazy Suite (arranged by Bill Elliott)          
Kate Howden, mezzo-soprano 
James Way, tenor
Antoin Herrera-Lopez Kessel, bass
LUDWIG  
Barbara Hannigan, conductor and soprano

Heartening News from the Ojai Festival

This morning's email brings the great news that Chad Smith, chief operating officer of the LAPhil, will succeed Thomas Morris as the artistic director of the Ojai Festival. Great news because Smith has been one of the forces behind the diverse and forward-looking programming at the LA Phil, and was considered a strong candidate to succeed Deborah Borda after her surprise departure. He will continue with the LA Phil, which is good news for them as well.

Press release after the cut.

Ojai 2018 News

A press release arrived about Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s planned programming for next year, and hoo boy, it's pretty great. You may recall that she stepped in for Esa-Pekka Salonen, who withdrew owing to his composing schedule.

From the press release:

The 2018 Ojai Music Festival welcomes the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in its first extended United States residency. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1997 based on the shared vision of being a free and international ensemble, dedicated to creating and sharing exceptional experiences in classical music. With 45 members spanning 20 different countries at its core, the MCO works as a nomadic collective of passionate musicians uniting for specific tours in Europe and across the world. Based in Berlin, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra forms the basis of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and has long and fruitful artistic relationships with major artists, including Ms. Kopatchinskaja and Mitsuko Uchida, Ojai’s 2021 Music Director. In Ojai, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra will be featured both as an orchestral ensemble, and also as a showcase for the superb solo and chamber music artistry of its members.

Major 2018 Festival projects include two staged concerts designed by Ms. Kopatchinskaja. The first is Bye Bye Beethoven, which she describes as a commentary on “the irrelevance of the classic concert routine for our present life.” This staged program features a mash-up of music by Charles Ives, John Cage, Joseph Haydn, György Kurtág, Johann Sebastian Bach, and the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Ms. Kopatchinskaja’s second semi-staged concert is her own provocative commentary on the inevitable consequences on the planet of global warming. Titled Dies Irae, the program includes music by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Michael Hersch, Byzantine chant, Giacinto Scelsi, and Galina Ustvolskaya’s remarkable Dies Irae for eight double basses, piano, and wooden coffin.

A new piece by American composer Michael Hersch – described by him as a dramatic cantata for two sopranos and eight instrumentalists – will receive its world premiere at the 2018 Ojai Music Festival, with subsequent performances at Cal Performances’ Ojai at Berkeley and at Great Britain’s venerable Aldeburgh Festival. Mr. Hersch, who wrote a violin concerto for Ms. Kopatchinskaja two years ago, is considered one of the most gifted composers of his generation and is a formidable pianist. He currently serves on the composition faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. This new work is a co-commission by the Ojai Music Festival, Cal Performances Berkeley, the Aldeburgh Festival, and PNReview, the prominent British poetry magazine at which Mr. Hersch is artist-in-residence.

Additional programming highlights include Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments; Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat on the occasion of its centennial; major chamber and piano music by Galina Ustvolskaya; as well as Roumanian and Moldavian folk music performed by Ms. Kopatchinskaja and her parents, Viktor and Emilia Kopatchinski on cimbalom and violin. The Festival closes with the Ligeti Violin Concerto performed by Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

As I said, wow. That's a great start.

Ojai Music Director Update

Patricia Kopatchinskaja 

Okay, this is one of those good-news-bad-news posts, except that the bad news isn't that bad. Patricia Kopatchinskaja, who had been scheduled to be Ojai's music director for 2020, will instead be the music director for 2018. This is neutral; we get this talented violinist and new music advocate sooner!

The bad news is that Esa-Pekka Salonen was supposed to the MD in 2018, and he has withdrawn from that year. The embedded good news in Salonen's withdrawal is that his composition schedule is the cause. More music by Salonen is an unalloyed good thing.

Ojai at Berkeley (formerly Ojai North), 2016

At the end of this post you'll find the schedule for this year's Ojai at Berkeley. It's only three performances, where Ojai at Ojai has a dozen or so - this is very unfortunate. The Berkeley set doesn't come close to reflecting what will be performed to the south.

CAL PERFORMANCES AT UC BERKELEY PRESENTS

OJAI AT BERKELEY

JUNE 16–18, 2016

IN ZELLERBACH HALL AND ZELLERBACH PLAYHOUSE

Peter Sellars, music director

Thomas W. Morris, artistic director, Ojai Music Festival

Matías Tarnopolsky, executive and artistic director, Cal Performances

SCHEDULE AND PROGRAMS:

Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 8pm

Zellerbach Playhouse

Bancroft Way at Dana Street

UC Berkeley Campus

Kaija Saariaho

La Passion de Simone

Text: Amin Maalouf

Julia Bullock, soprano
ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble)

Roomful of Teeth

Joana Carneiro, conductor

Peter Sellars, director

Ben Zamora, lighting designer

Tickets: $20. Ojai at Berkeley Festival Pass good for entry to all three performances $45. On sale Saturday, April 9 at 1pm.

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Friday, June 17, 2016, 6:30-7:30pm 

Zellerbach Hall

                                                 

Pre-performance Talk

Artist talk with Ojai at Berkeley music director Peter Sellars and Cal Performances director Matías Tarnopolsky

Tickets: The pre-performance talk is free to all ticketholders for the concert that evening.

Friday, June 17, 2016 at 8pm

Zellerbach Hall

Bancroft Way at Dana Street

UC Berkeley Campus

Dina El Wedidi and Band: The Sounds of Tahrir Square, Cairo

Turning Back                                                                                    
Eight Nayikas

Tickets: $20. Ojai at Berkeley Festival Pass good for entry to all three performances $45. On sale Saturday, April 9 at 1pm.

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Saturday, June 18, 2016 at 8pm

Zellerbach Playhouse

Bancroft Way at Dana Street

UC Berkeley Campus

Josephine Baker: A Portrait (commissioned by ICE)

Arrangements and new music: Tyshawn Sorey

Julia Bullock, soprano

ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble)

Tyshawn Sorey, piano and drums

Tickets: $20. Ojai at Berkeley Festival Pass good for entry to all three performances $45. On sale Saturday, April 9 at 1pm.

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Saturday, June 18, 2016 following the performance

Zellerbach Playhouse Stage

Post-performance Talk

Community Response Panel chaired by Cal Performances associate director Rob Bailis.

Tickets: The post-performance talk is free to all ticketholders for the concert that evening.