2020 Composer Profile: Olga Neuwirth
“This remarkable creator – of orchestral pieces and chamber works as well as hybrids of film and performance art – draws on a plethora of influences, yet devises her own astonishing sound.” – The Guardian
Olga Neuwirth studied at the Academy of Music in Vienna and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. During her stay in the States she also attended an art college, where she studied painting and film. Her private teachers in composition included Adriana Hölszky, Tristan Murail and Luigi Nono. She first burst onto the international scene in 1991, at the age of 22, when two of her mini-operas were performed at the Wiener Festwochen. Ever since her works have been presented worldwide.
Olga Neuwirth’s works are multi-layered and multi-sensory. Some pieces also draw on the full range of effects of both electronic and orchestral instruments as well as video, which she began integrating into some of her works in the late 1980’s. The listener is struck by the immediacy of her music, which is often dramatic and expressive as she is particularly interested in emotions and how they relate to the brain and memory.
The Ojai Music Festival debuted her World Premiere Incidendo / fluido at the 2002 Ojai Music Festival performed by pianist Marino Formenti. For Music Director Matthias Pintscher’s upcoming Festival, June 11 to 14, 2020, Neuwirth’s music will be showcased throughout the four days.
Purchase 2020 series passes:
Ojai Festival Names New Board Leadership
OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL NAMES NEW BOARD
CHAIR JERROLD EBERHARDT AND FY2020 SLATE OF OFFICERS
(September 19, 2019 OJAI, CA) – The Ojai Music Festival announced its FY2020 Slate of Officers for the Board of Directors this past weekend at the annual Board meeting with Jerrold Eberhardt as Board Chair succeeding David Nygren, who remains on the Board. Other Board officers are Barry Sanders, Vice-Chair Governance; Stephan Farber, Vice-Chair Finance and Treasurer; Michele Brustin, Vice- Chair Development; and Cathryn Krause, Secretary.
“I am deeply honored to continue to serve the Ojai Music Festival in this new capacity as Board chair, and I am humbled to succeed my dear friend David Nygren who served with distinction over the past five years. On behalf of my deeply dedicated Board colleagues, I want to thank David for his thoughtful, generous leadership,” commented Eberhardt. “The first Festival I attended was Eighth Blackbird’s in 2009. Since then, I have enjoyed magical weekends of remarkable music making in Ojai during Tom Morris’ defining tenure. Building on the Festival’s breathtaking artistic momentum, we look toward the future under the leadership of Chad Smith as Artistic Director. Chad, whose artistic genius is well known around the globe, is arguably the best in the business, and he is exactly the right visionary for the Ojai Music Festival today. Under Chad’s watch and as Ojai approaches its 75th anniversary in 2021, we are extremely optimistic about the future of this treasured Festival.”
Jerrold L. Eberhardt had a distinguished 40-year career at Smith Barney. He and his family moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1997 when he was named Senior Executive Vice President and Divisional Director for the Western Division, which included 11 States and was expanded to include Asia and Australia. He retired in 2009. Mr. Eberhardt has been a member of the Board of Directors of Dynasty Financial Partners, LLC since 2012. Dynasty is the premier provider of integrated wealth management solutions and technology for Independent Registered Investment Advisors.
Throughout his business career, he was active in charitable and civic affairs in the Chicago community. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, he was a trustee of the Ravinia Festival Association and served as vice chairman and a member of the executive committee.
Mr. Eberhardt is former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, and currently serves as vice chairman and a member of the executive committee. He is a member of the Board of the Music Academy of the West and serves on the executive committee. He also serves on the Board of the Music Center Foundation and is a past trustee of the Aspen Music Festival & School, having served on the Board for six years. He is a member of The California Club and previously served on the Board of Directors and as the Chairman of the Finance Committee. Mr. Eberhardt graduated from the University of Illinois and received his MBA from the University of Cincinnati.
Ojai Music Festival Board of Directors
The FY2020 Board of Directors currently includes: Barry Sanders, attorney, author and civic leader (Los Angeles); Stephan Farber, founder/CEO of Sound Post Capital (Houston); Michele Brustin, civic leader (Santa Barbara); Cathryn Krause, co-founder of BST Solutions (Ojai); Sandy Buechley, business intelligence manager at Patagonia, Inc. (Ojai); NancyBell Coe, president (retired) of Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara); James P. Drummy, principal at the law firm of Poindexter & Doutré Inc. (Los Angeles); Fred Fisher, founding architect partner of Fred Fisher & Partners (Ojai); David Nygren, founder of Nygren Consulting, LLC; David Oxtoby, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston); Dr. Barry Schifrin, doctor (retired) (Los Angeles); Maurice Singer, founding principal at the Evergreen Advantage (Los Angeles/Santa Barbara); Dr. Bridget Tsao-Brockman, optometrist (Ojai); Merrill Williams, director of public relations of the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa (retired) (Ojai); and the Ojai Festival Women’s Committee president Tiese Quinn (Ojai).
Ojai Music Festival
From its founding in 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has become a place for groundbreaking musical experiences, bringing together innovative artists and curious audiences in an intimate, idyllic setting 75 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The Festival presents broad-ranging programs in unusual ways with an eclectic mix of new and rarely performed music, as well as refreshing juxtapositions of musical styles. The four-day festival is an immersive experience with concerts, free community events, symposia, and gatherings. Considered a highlight of the international music summer season, Ojai has remained a leader in the classical music landscape for seven decades.
Through its signature structure of the Artistic Director appointing an annual Music Director, Ojai has presented a “who’s who” of music including Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kent Nagano, Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, David Robertson, Eighth Blackbird, George Benjamin, Dawn Upshaw, Leif Ove Andsnes, Mark Morris, Jeremy Denk, Steven Schick, Peter Sellars, Vijay Iyer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Barbara Hannigan.
The Ojai Music Festival approaches its 75th anniversary, and looks toward the future with Artistic Director Chad Smith whose first Festival will be in June 2020 with Music Director Matthias Pintscher. Mr. Smith succeeds Thomas W. Morris whose defining tenure spanned 16 years.
74th Ojai Music Festival with Matthias Pintscher
The 74th Festival – June 11 to 14, 2020 – with Music Director Matthias Pintscher will highlight progressive and forward-thinking composers of today’s 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 Pintscher for this adventurous musical exploration will be the Ensemble Intercontemporain in their 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 by past Music Director Pierre Boulez in 1972 and now led by Pintscher. For series passes to the 2020 Festival, visit OjaiFestival.org or call 805 646 2053.
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Contact:
Nikki Scandalios, [email protected], (704) 340-4094
Gina Gutierrez, [email protected], (805) 646-2094
Stephen Gosling Plays John Zorn with JACK Quartet
Friday, June 7, 2019: 11:00am – 11:45am – Libbey Bowl
John Zorn is a universalist, a composer, performer, filmmaker, cultural manager, and aesthetic philosopher who has forged an independent path through stylistic domains that range from the classical avant-garde to virtually all popular idioms. This two-concert survey of his chamber music includes recent works by one of the most fertile, thought-provoking, and idiosyncratic music minds of our time.
2020 Passes on sale now with Music Director Matthias Pintscher!
Ensemble intercontemporain
2019 Audience Survey
The Ojai Music Festival is long known for being a place for experimentation and discovery, and receiving feedback from our patrons is important to us. This year, we sent out an electronic audience survey to 998 emails of 2019 ticket buyers, and we had an overwhelming 41% response. For those who participated, we thank you for making the time to share your evaluations about your experience.
As we continue to comb through the results and comments, we would like to share some initial findings. You can also read 2019 press reviews and view the 2019 photo gallery.
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”116″ display=”basic_slideshow”] Select memorable moments of patrons from the survey:“The “Gershwin” belongs here… an absolute “slam dunk” rivaling anything I’ve seen anywhere… (Lady Gaga… watch your step!) but really, the most memorable “moment” was: Barbara Hannigan. I cannot recall ever experiencing any one person with more depth, comprehensiveness, vision and creativity that what I feel when I hear her sing, conduct or just talk about music. Thank you so much for this year!”
“Finding out that I liked some of Zorn and a lot of Knussen. My time at Ojai each year is a time of musical discovery and a challenge to myself to be open and listening deep.”
“The Rake’s Progress, also meeting old and new friends at the Picnic suppers in the Park.”
“The energy throughout the weekend from the staff, volunteers and concertgoers was infectious.”
“Being reminded how wonderful it is to see friends and acquaintances over and over again, and the accessibility of even the most well-known of the artists.”
“Sun coming through later half of program and a chorus of birds. Vivier’s Lonely Child was a highly inspiring experience seen live. Rake’s Progress. I wept throughout the last third of it.”
LUDWIG’s Ojai Experience
“Once upon a time I have played in the Ojai Music Festival. It was like being in Paradise.’
– Marieke Stordiau, LUDWIG musician
Many Ojai Music Festival artists who step onto the Libbey Bowl stage for the first time are instantly smitten with the enchanting intimate setting of shaded trees and a symphony of birds and crickets as accompanists, and equally so with the curious and enthusiastic audience members who are ready to listen with ears and minds wide open.
Members of LUDWIG – the 2019 ensemble in residence – needless to say had the same experience. Take a look at their journey from Europe to California with photos by Annelies van der Vegt.
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”115″ display=”basic_thumbnail”]Meet the 2019 Interns
2019 Ojai Music Festival Interns
We are so happy to welcome the 2019 Class of Festival Interns! Learn more about them below.
Glenna Adkins is a musician and writer studying at Sarah Lawrence College, and a recent recipient of the Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award for Music. As a cellist, improviser, and avid music listener, Glenna is passionate about the performance of new music and the collaborative efforts of artists playing and experimenting together. Inspired by the intersection of different art forms, she has created and performed music for various productions of devised theater and dance, exploring ideas of musical narrative through improvised sound. As a writer, Glenna finds inspiration in ideas of time and memory, in music, and the liminal spaces connecting these curiosities. When not in school, Glenna lives in Los Angeles where she teaches cello and finishes novels she mistakenly thought she’d have time to read during the school year. She is very happy to return to Ojai for her second summer as a Festival intern.
Oliver Jung, originally from Santa Monica, CA, is a producer of Wave and Bass music, and an audio engineer. He is currently pursuing a BFA in Music Technology at California Institute of the Arts (Calarts) with a minor in Digital Arts. His work explores the dark, distorted, and ethereal, focusing on bringing beauty to the offensive. Accidentally falling into the world of live sound, Oliver has staged 200+ events for the likes of John Mayer and Carlos Vives. Moving forward, he continues producing for himself, as well as for collaborations and installations.
Maddi Baird is a Music Composition student at San Diego State University. Maddi emphasizes in multimedia scoring and sound design, as well as the creation of sound installations. Having a strong passion for music technology, synthesis and analog gear, she focuses on creating unique and textured soundscapes while utilizing modular synthesis and software such as MAX. Maddi currently serves as the Chief Engineer for KCR College Radio and works as the Student Engineer for KPBS where she is able to blend her interests in technology, music, and public radio. Maddi plays in the SDSU Javanese Gamelan, as well playing bass guitar and synthesizer in the experimental duo Pastel Set. Following the Ojai Festival in 2019, she will study composition in France with Laurel Halo.
Ryan Schmidt‘s philosophy for navigating a career is the ideal of citizen-artistry. He carries a background of music and the nonprofit sector with the desire to uplift and inspire hope and well-being. An avid contemporary music performer, he was a Performer-Fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival last summer and toured five National Parks with the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble. He is a Teaching Artist Assistant at a Michigan nonprofit organization called Artists Creating Together which serves individuals with disabilities through visual and performing art programs. He looks forward to meeting and serving the Ojai Music Festival community!
Paul Seitz, a native of Chicago, Illinois, Is currently a rising sophomore at Boston University where he studies Trombone Performance with a minor in Arts Leadership. Paul Has been a student worker at the International Trombone Festival and an Audition Ambassador at Boston University. Paul hopes to one day play trombone professionally In orchestra, opera, solo and chamber music settings. In addition, Paul hopes to develop skills in the fields of arts leadership and Administration. Paul enjoys romantic era classical music and his favorite composers are Mahler, Shostakovich and Hindemith. In his free time, Paul enjoys biking, swimming, running and strength training. Paul is excited for the opportunity to be a intern at Ojai Music Festival.
Bree Fotheringham is a student at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles where she studies with Robert Lipsett. An accomplished violinist, Bree has made solo appearances with many orchestras, including the Utah Symphony and has been awarded several competition prizes including the grand prize at the 2018 North American Recovered Voices competition. She has performed with world-class artists including Joseph Silverstein, and Andrew Marriner. Bree is currently the assistant concertmaster of the American Youth Symphony and an orchestral leadership fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, where she will serve as concertmaster of the Philharmonic beginning in June. Passionate about community engagement, Bree makes a conscious effort to make classical music more accessible in her community by organizing several community concerts a year through Colburn’s Center for Innovation and Community Impact. She has performed with the Colburn Orchestra during the school’s community engagement week and chamber performances as an artist-in-residence at Street Symphony.
Sierra Dudas is the Marketing and PR intern for the 2019 Ojai Music Festival. After spending her childhood surrounded by music, Sierra decided to pursue her dream as a Music Industry student at the University of Southern California. Eager to learn as much as possible about the music business, she has worked with the Guild of Music Supervisors, Grammy U, and Coyote Country Radio Station. Sierra is also a Showrunner for the USC Speakers Committee, a group that brings guests such as Ken Jeong of Crazy Rich Asians and Jonathan Van Ness of Queer Eye onto campus. In her free time, Sierra loves to paint, eat brunch, and host Bachelor viewing parties for her friends.
Sarah Voshall is currently a fourth year piano major at the California Institute of the Arts studying with Ming Tsu and Vicki Ray. Her current project for this summer is producing a one-day piano festival in Antelope Valley, CA for student pianists. She has recently completed a business affairs internship at Alfred Music in Van Nuys where she worked in license administration. When she’s not practicing furiously for her upcoming graduation recital, she spends her time reading, taking photos, playing cajon, and day tripping all over southern California. Upon graduation, her plan is to pursue graduate studies in business or systems engineering with a focus on nonprofit arts organizations.
2020 Music Director: Matthias Pintscher
“It is a tremendous pleasure and incredible honor to be music director for the 2020 Ojai Festival, something I have dreamed about since moving to New York twelve years ago. I feel a combination of joy and responsibility to showcase composers and works that create something like an INVISIBLE BRIDGE between the two continents in which I am living and working: Europe and the USA. I have realized that my role as musical communicator – as composer, conductor, educator, and festival di- rector – is to actively strengthen the interactions and connections between the music of today and its heritage in the US and on the “old continent”. As a European living in New York and Paris, I want to explore this INVISIBLE BRIDGE as one of the key elements for my programming of the 2020 Ojai Festival: thoughtful, innovative, loving, provocative, and poetic. Music speaks most directly from hu- man to human, and Ojai is a perfect place to showcase this. I am excited. See you in 2020.” – Matthias Pintscher, 2020 Music Director
Matthias Pintscher is the Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the world’s leading contemporary music ensemble founded by Pierre Boulez. In addition to a robust concert season in Paris, he toured extensively with them throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States this season including concerts in Berlin, Brussels, Russia, and the United States. Known equally as one of to-day’s foremost composers, Mr. Pintscher will conduct the premiere of his new work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, performed by Georg Nigl and the Chorus and Symphonieorchester des Bayer- ischen Rundfunks at their Musica Viva festival in February 2020.
In the 2019/20 season, Mr. Pintscher makes debuts with the symphony orchestras of Montreal, Baltimore, Houston, Pittsburgh, and with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen. He also makes his debut at the Vienna State Opera conducting the premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s new opera Orlando, and returns to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin to conduct performances of Beat Furrer’s Violetter Schnee, which he premiered in January 2019. Re-invitations this season include the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In summer 2020, Mr. Pintscher will serve as Music Director of the 74th Ojai Music Festival.
Highlights of Mr. Pintscher’s 2018/19 season included serving as the Season Creative Chair for the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, as Artist-in-Residence at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and con- cluding a nine-year term as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s Artist-in-Association. Last season, Mr. Pintscher made his debuts with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Staatsoper Berlin, and returned to the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, the New York Philharmonic, the New World Symphony in Miami, and the Music Academy of the West. In Europe, he conducted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival and returned to the Orchestre de Paris, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and Helsinki Philharmonic. Mr. Pintscher also conducted the premiere of his work Nur, a new concerto for piano and ensemble, performed by Daniel Barenboim and the Boulez Ensemble in January 2018. An enthusiastic supporter of and mentor to students and young musicians, Mr. Pintscher served as Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra from 2016- 2018 and worked with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic in their 2017/18 season, culminating in a concert at the Philharmonie.
Matthias Pintscher began his musical training in conducting, studying with Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös in his early twenties, during which time composing took a more prominent role in his life. He rapidly gained critical acclaim in both areas of activity, and continues to compose in addition to his conducting career. As a composer, Mr. Pintscher’s music is championed by some of today’s finest performing artists, orchestras, and conductors. His works have been performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Paris, among many others. Bärenreiter is his exclusive publisher, and recordings of his compositions can be found on Kairos, EMI, Teldec, Wergo, and Winter & Winter. Mr. Pintscher has been on the composition faculty of The Juilliard School since 2014.
2019 Festival Gallery
The 2019 Ojai Music Festival was a memorable four-day collective experience. Check out our gallery below to relive all the fun!
Photos by David Bazemore and Sierra Dudas
Rewatch Your Favorite Concerts
Although the 2019 Ojai Music Festival has come to a close, you can still relive every wonderful moment by rewatching your favorite concerts.
Welcome to Ojai! An All-Access Guide to the Sights and Spots
Festival season is almost upon us! Artists, interns, production staff, and festival goers have begun to flood the gorgeous city of Ojai, eagerly anticipating all that the town has to offer. Here is our curated guide to the best restaurants, shops, and other hot spots to check out during your stay in Ojai. (Plus some other favorites outside of the valley to check out!)
Food & Drink
Agave Maria: Authentic Mexican cuisine with great patio seating.
Bonnie Lu’s: Country-style diner serving up Americana favorites.
Farmer & the Cook: Farm-fresh food with an emphasis on organic ingredients.
Jim & Rob’s: Healthy and fresh burritos and burgers.
Rainbow Bridge: Market featuring healthy grab-n-go options.
Ranch House: A romantic spot serving farm-to-table cuisine.
Retail
Gem Quest Jewelers: Jewelry and repair store with handmade designs.
Serendipity Toys: One of the last old-school toy shops featuring retro and contemporary playthings from around the world.
Sespe Creek: Voted Ventura County’s #1 cannabis dispensary.
BookEnds Book Store: Selling books in a renovated former church.
Cattywampus Crafts: An assortment of natural materials and craft supplies.
Shangri-La Care: Cannabis dispensary voted 2018 Small Business of the Year.
Barbara Bowman: Internationally inspired jewelry.
Bart’s Books: World-renowned outdoor bookstore.
Activities
Ojai Valley Trail Riding: Horse ranch featuring trail rides throughout the Enchanted Forest and Ventura River Valley.
Old Creek Ranch: 850-acre cattle ranch featuring a winery and fruit orchards.
Porch Gallery: Art gallery featuring contemporary artwork.
Bamboo Creek Spa: Massage therapists trained in China.
Brittany Davis Gallery: A classical gallery with a twist.
Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza: Performing Arts Center with live music, comedy shows, movie nights, and dance performances.
Agora Foundation: Offering book seminars, panels, and more.
Music Academy of West: Summer music conservatory offering numerous concert series, masterclasses, and film screenings.
Pacific Opera Project: Offering affordable and accessible opera performances.
UCSB Arts & Lectures: Hosting dance performances, concerts, movie screenings, and lectures in the Santa Barbara area.
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum: Arts Center performing classic theater.
Canvas & Paper: Exhibition space for paintings and drawings.
Human Arts Gallery: Representing over 130 American artists.
Realty & Organizations
Joan Roberts: Former state director for the California Association of Realtors.
Sharon MaHarry: President of the Ojai Valley Board of Realtors.
The Artesian: Innovative senior living for those engaged in the community.
The Gables: Compassionate assisted living facility.
Blue Iguana Inn: A bohemian boutique inn featuring lush gardens.
Nora Davis: An accomplished Ojai real estate agent for more than 30 years.
Michael Malone: A financial advisor with a love for volunteering.
Patty Waltcher: Coldwell Banker Previews Specialist.
Monica Ros School: Providing a magical education for Ojai’s children.
Ojai Hospital Foundation: Investing in the health of Ojai residents.
Ojai Valley School: A private college prep day and boarding school.
Oak Grove School: A progressive boarding school in Ojai.
Villanova Prep: A Catholic boarding school in Augustinian tradition.
Thacher School: A college preparatory boarding school in Ojai.
We hope you enjoy your stay In the beautiful town of Ojai. Don’t forget to come back for Ojai Day, a family-friendly extravaganza occurring Saturday October 19, and the 20th Annual Ojai Film Festival, occurring October 31 through November 10!
Ojai Gallery Walk
[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.ojaifestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Discover-art-in-ojai-2.pdf” title=”Discover art in ojai-2″]2019 Open Rehearsal Schedule
[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.ojaifestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Open-rehearsal-schedule8.pdf” title=”Open rehearsal schedule8″]John Zorn, Rites of Passage, & Grisey
Saturday evening, June 8th, kicks off with John Zorn’s Jumalattaret, bringing the gods and ancient heroes of the Finnish epic Kalevala to life through a cycle of songs with Barbara Hannigan and Stephen Gosling. The music uses a variety of techniques and genres and moves from lyrical folk-like simplicity to more complex atonal and textural pyrotechnics.
In Part II of the evening, the folk songs of Rites of Passage will incorporate indigenous and raw folk material reflecting each performer’s cultural and ethnic heritage; with resonances that are both primal and personal. Collectively, the songs chart a cyclical journey through courtship and marriage, the bloom of new love, conflict and dissolution, new beginnings, and love reawakened. A line from the final, jubilant piece, the Cuban folksong Guantanamera, gives voice to the creative impulse that underpins it all: “Before I die, I want to share these poems of my soul.”
We end the evening with Quatre Chants Pour Franchir Le Seuil, Gérard Grisey’s last completed score before his sudden and unexpected death in 1998. Its subject – passing the frontier from this world to the next – may well seem eerily prescient, but its themes of threshold and transition are threaded throughout the composer’s works and lie at the core of his creative being. As a pioneer of spectral music, Grisey explored the subtle gradations that grow out of the microtonal properties of each tone. 
Rake’s Progress Libretto
Rake’s Progress Synopsis
Download the libretto
In the idyllic countryside, Anne Trulove and Tom Rakewell celebrate their love. Anne’s father has found a job for Tom in the city, but Tom longs for an easier path to money. Nick Shadow appears with news that Tom has inherited a fortune from an unknown uncle. They must leave for London and Tom need only pay Shadow for his services after a year and a day. In the wicked city, Shadow introduces Tom to Mother Goose’s brothel. Back in the country, Anne fears the worst and decides that she must rescue Tom.
Meanwhile, Tom, in his new London house, is already bored with ordinary pleasures, so Shadow suggests visiting the amazing bearded woman, Baba the Turk. When Anne arrives at Tom’s house, she is horrified to find him married to the hideous Baba. When Tom tires of Baba as well, Shadow appears with one last new idea… a machine that turns stones into bread. Anne again appears to save Tom, but this time his house is for sale and his property for auction. The bankrupt Tom has disappeared with Shadow. Baba urges Anne to follow him.
A year and a day from their first meeting, Shadow brings Tom to a graveyard at night. A terrified Tom discovers he must pay not with money but with his soul. But, as Shadow is about to take hold of him, Tom hears Anne’s voice in the distance and his past love is reawakened. Shadow, defeated, disappears into the ground. Tom survives, but he is now mad and is shut up in Bedlam. Anne comes there to comfort him, but there is little to be done. Her father arrives and persuades her to leave Tom to his fate.
In the epilogue each of the principal characters draws a moral from the tale and all join together to assert that “for idle hands and hearts and minds, the Devil finds a work to do.”
—from Boosey & Hawkes
Video: Barbara Hannigan on the 2019 Festival
2019 Music Director Barbara Hannigan – conductor, singer, and mentor – discusses her artistic values and describes herself as a creative person intensely interested in the collaborative process.
The Ojai Music Festival Welcomes New Board Members
The Ojai Music Festival and Board Chair David Nygren announces the appointment of two new members of its Board of Directors, as well as the full slate of officers for the 2018-19 season voted in at the September annual meeting. Joining the 18-member Board of Directors is Stephan Farber and Judith Hale Norris.
Stephan Farber is a private wealth advisor working closely with multi-generation families who encounter distinctive challenges in managing and stewarding their wealth. Farber works with leading collectors of musical instruments and art. He has particular depth in wealth transfer strategies and tax-sensitive philanthropic initiatives. Prior to his career in banking, he worked for many years in the music industry with a wide range of artists including Philip Glass, David Bowie, and The Rolling Stones. A string instrument enthusiast, Stephan collects and plays pre-war Gibson mandolins and serves on the board of Arco Collaborative, established by internationally renowned violinist Jennifer Koh. He received his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and B.A. from Oberlin College. Currently, he lives with his family in Houston, Texas.
Judith Hale Norris is the President of the Ojai Festival Women’s Committee. She also serves on the Board of the Ojai Education Foundation, the Steering Committee of the Ojai Women’s Fund, and as Co-Chair of the Council of Distinguished Advisers, Straus Institute of Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law. She recently retired as an Adjunct Professor and Associate Director of the Investor Advocacy Clinic at Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law. Prior to her appointment in 2010 as Associate Director of the Investor Advocacy Clinic, she served as Vice President and Director for the Western Region of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Dispute Resolution with regional headquarters in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Before joining FINRA in 1986, She served as Chief Staff Counsel for the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (DC) and for the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Boston). She also served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and as a trial and appellate attorney for the U. S. Department of Justice in Washington, D. C. Norris received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maine and her Juris Doctor degree from Boston University School of Law. She received her Mediator Certificate from the Institute of Conflict Management.
The 2018-19 Board Officers are David Nygren, chairman; Barry Sanders, vice-chair strategic planning; David Oxtoby, vice-chair governance; Cathryn Krause, secretary; and Jerrold Eberhardt, treasurer.
About the Ojai Music Festival
From its founding in 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has created a place for groundbreaking musical experiences, bringing together innovative artists and curious audiences in an intimate, idyllic setting 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The Festival presents broad-ranging programs in unusual ways with an eclectic mix of rarely performed music, refreshing juxtapositions of musical styles, and works by today’s composers. The four-day festival is an immersive experience with concerts, free community events, symposia, and social 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 unique structure of the Artistic Director appointing an annual Music Director, Ojai has presented a “who’s who” of music including Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, 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, and Vijay Iyer. Following Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Ojai will welcome Music Director Barbara Hannigan (2019), Matthias Pintscher (2020), and Mitsuko Uchida (2021).
As the Ojai Music Festival approaches its 75th anniversary and looks toward the future with recently appointed Artistic Director Chad Smith, who will take the helm in 2020, the innumerable contributions by Thomas W. Morris will continue to be realized through the 2019 Festival and beyond. Under Mr. Morris’ creative watch, the Festival continues to push boundaries and scope; explore each music director’s individual perspective, creativity, and artistic communities; invite an ever-broadening roster of artists; and build connections across musical communities with through-curated programming for each Festival.
73rd Ojai Music Festival
The Festival’s 73rd installment – June 6-9, 2019 – celebrates and explores the creative artistic force of Music Director Barbara Hannigan as conductor, singer, and mentor. The four-day immersive experience will be a synthesis of dark and light: chiaroscuro with music curated by Hannigan that resonates deeply with her interests and collaborations. Music will include Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and other vocal works by Schoenberg, Grisey, Turnage, and Vivier. The Festival will also feature the American debut of LUDWIG orchestra and members of Hannigan’s new Equilibrium mentoring initiative.
Series Passes for 2019 Ojai Music Festival
Advance 2019 series subscriptions are available for purchase at OjaiFestival.org or by calling (805) 646-2053. Ticket prices range from $165 to $925 for reserved seating and lawn series start at $75.
Up Close: Patron Memories
The Festival continues to thrive because of the enthusiastic support of its friends and patrons. Enjoy a few snapshots of a memorable Festival moment!
[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”109″ exclusions=”1202″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_pro_thumbnail_grid” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”240″ thumbnail_height=”160″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”12″ border_size=”0″ border_color=”#eeeeee” spacing=”2″ number_of_columns=”3″ display_type_view=”default” ngg_triggers_display=”never” captions_enabled=”1″ captions_display_sharing=”0″ captions_display_title=”1″ captions_display_description=”1″ captions_animation=”slideup” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]Images courtesy of Frank Gruber.
2019 Ojai Music Festival Featuring Music Director Barbara Hannigan
The Festival will look back in tribute to composers with deep historical relationships to Ojai – Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and Olivier Messiaen – and will look forward to major voices of our time, including Gerard Grisey, Mark-Anthony Turnage, John Luther Adams, and John Zorn.
Barbara as a conductor in semi-staged performance of Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress (complete)
Barbara as a performer singing in Gerard Grisey’s Quatre Chants pour franchir le seuil conducted by Steven Schick, singing Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2, and singing/conducting George Gershwin’s selections from the Grammy-winning CD Girl Crazy
Barbara as a mentor with seven young singers in residence from her new mentoring initiative Equilibrium
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The 73rd Ojai Music Festival, June 6-9, 2019, celebrates and explores the creative breadth of Music Director Barbara Hannigan, as conductor, singer, and mentor. Joining Ms. Hannigan will be the US debut of her mentoring initiative for young professional artists, Equilibrium (EQ), as well as the US debut of the orchestral collective from Amsterdam, LUDWIG, with whom Ms. Hannigan made her Grammy Award-winning conducting debut CD “Crazy Girl Crazy” in 2017.
2019 Music Director Barbara Hannigan shared,
“What does the Ojai Music Festival mean to me? Possibility. Embrace. Challenge. Electricity. Resonance. The Ojai Festival is an atelier where we are invited to gather, as audience and performers, where we are in communion with one another, witnessing the act of live performance. Storytelling, dramaturgy, heart to heart exchange are at the center of my programming choices. This Festival will be a synthesis of dark and light – chiaroscuro – and brings the human voice to the forefront of many events, exploring the various ways composers have been inspired to express themselves through the interplay of text and music.
The Ojai Festival is a more than a playground: it is a circus tent, a jungle gym, an obstacle course, a field of dreams. There are risks being taken, and we open ourselves with curiosity, to possibilities of sound, of flying and falling, of being overwhelmed. Performers always have a degree of courage, but the same must be said of the loyal, curious and inspiring audiences of the Ojai Festival. I simply can’t wait.”
The 2019 Festival marks the sixteenth and final year under the artistic direction of Thomas W. Morris. As the Ojai Music Festival approaches its 75th anniversary and looks toward the future, the innumerable contributions by Mr. Morris will continue to be realized through the 2019 Festival and beyond. Under his creative watch, the Festival pushed boundaries and scope; explored each music director’s individual perspective, creativity, and artistic communities; invited an ever-broadening roster of artists; expanded in scope into an immersion experience over four days; introduced live and archival video streaming of concerts and talks; and built connections across musical communities with through-curated programming for each Festival.
Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris said,
“One of the most rewarding parts of my artistic director responsibilities has been selecting the annual music director – an ever-evolving process informed by the extraordinary resilience and receptivity of the Ojai Music Festival and its audience, as well as the astonishing wealth of artistic talent that exists. The world of music is so different than it was sixteen years ago with the artistic possibilities exploding, the breadth and depth of creative talent expanding, artificial boundaries between genres disappearing, and the appetite for audiences for more intense and distinctive musical experiences increasing. It is those forces that have propelled the sequence of music director appointments over the years – from a singer, to a pianist, to a choreographer, to a pianist/author, to a percussionist/conductor, to a stage director, to an improviser/composer, to a violinist, and to a singer/conductor/mentor. I would be less than honest to admit that this was a sequence well thought out in advance; in fact, the process was organic – an evolving adventure as each music director opened up new possibilities for the next in the context of an ever-changing environment. In many ways, Ojai is an ever self-reinforcing and regenerative flywheel of creativity.
I am thrilled that Barbara Hannigan is my creative partner in 2019, my last after sixteen glorious and stimulating years. Barbara, a dear friend and a great artist, is a beacon of extraordinary creativity through her incredible artistry and ceaseless curiosity and commitment to the future. She represents everything an artist of the future must be. A renowned soprano, conductor and musician, she demonstrates the values that define the next generation of great artistic leaders with her new Equilibrium mentoring initiative for young artists. It will be a festival of provocative new sounds, imaginative productions, palatable energy, and outright fun – what I see as a fitting capstone to what has been an invigorating, stimulating, and daunting adventure for me over these years.”
Launching the Festival concert line-up on Thursday, June 6 will be Ms. Hannigan’s work from the podium, Stravinsky’s neoclassic opera, The Rake’s Progress, a Faustian fable for our time addressing the subjects of love, laziness, and greed. Anne Truelove was one of the first operatic roles Ms. Hannigan ever sang, and the opera holds a special place in her heart. Ms. Hannigan conducts this semi-staged performance featuring members of her Equilibrium mentoring initiative as the cast and the Los Robles Master Chorale in their Ojai debut. The production, directed by Linus Fellbom, is a co-production with the Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden, the Klara Festival in Brussels, the Munich Philharmonic in Germany, plus the Aldeburgh Festival. The Rake’s Progress is new to Ojai with the exception of a performance in 1962 of one scene from the opera, and has been very rarely performed in Southern California.During the Festival, Ms. Hannigan also conducts works by Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, and Claude Vivier.
As a singer, Ms. Hannigan will perform Gérard Grisey’s masterpiece, Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil,a 45-minute song cycle for soprano and 16 instruments which explores the passage from life into death. Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil, completed just days before Grisey’s death, will be conducted by Ojai’s 2015 Music Director Steven Schick. Ms. Hannigan will perform in Arnold Schoenberg’s sensual String Quartet No. 2 for soprano & string quartet with the JACK Quartet. Ms. Hannigan will serve as both singer and conductor in Girl Crazy Suite, a touching and infectious arrangement by Tony-award winning Bill Elliott, which is part of Hannigan’s 2017 Grammy-winning album Crazy Girl Crazy, that will close the Festival on Sunday, June 9. Also featured will be Ms. Hannigan and pianist Stephen Gosling performing the US premiere of John Zorn’s Jumalattaret, an extraordinary quest for soprano and piano inspired by the goddesses of Finland’s Kalevala saga.
In January 2017, Ms. Hannigan launched the Equilibrium (EQ) initiative to mentor 21 young professional musicians in the first substantial phase of their careers. EQ includes intensive workshop retreats, which focus on developing and strengthening the skills needed for sustaining a fulfilling career, as well as offering performance opportunities with Ms. Hannigan and others. EQ artists are selected from an international field of applicants for their talent, musicianship, passion, drive, curiosity, discipline, versatility, and creativity. Seven of these young artists will form the cast of The Rake’s Progress, as well as perform additional music by Igor Stravinsky, Claude Vivier, Mark-Anthony Turnage. On Saturday, June 8, the singers will participate in a special program of folk songs from their diverse native countries entitled, Rites of Passage.
LUDWIG,
the celebrated collective from Amsterdam, with whom Ms. Hannigan works closely and collaborated with on the recent Grammy and Juno award-winning album Crazy Girl Crazy(Alpha Classics), makes its Ojai and US debut with the 2019 Festival. Formed in 2012, LUDWIG distinguishes itself artistically and in terms of its range and flexibility. Varying in size from a single soloist to a full-scale symphonic orchestra, LUDWIG carefully crafts its diverse programming. In 2015, LUDWIG received The Art of Impact grant for their pioneering research project Ludwig and the Brain, which, in cooperation with leading scientists, explores innovative ways music can have positive effects on health and education.
The JACK Quartet, which made its Ojai debut at the 2018 Festival, returns performing Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2 with Ms. Hannigan as soprano, Marc Sabat’s Euler Lattice Spirals Scenery, Tyshawn Sorey’s Everything Changes, Nothing Changes, Catherine Lamb’s String Quartet, and a two-part concert of works by John Zorn, including three piano trios with Stephen Gosling, and two quartets The Unseenand The Alchemist. Deemed “superheroes of the new music world” (Boston Globe), JACK is dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and spread of new string quartet music. Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, the group collaborates with composers of our day and was recently named the 2018 Ensemble of the Year by Musical America.
Oliver Knussen, who passed away at the early age of 66 on July 8, 2018, was Ojai’s Music Director in 2005, and worked extensively with Barbara Hannigan in the 1990s. In tribute, the Festival will offer a program of Mr. Knussen’s music including ensemble and piano pieces. Thomas W. Morris said on his passing, “Olly, as he was known to everyone, was a giant musician – figuratively and literally – a bear of a man with the gentlest and kindest disposition of anyone I have ever known. I was always amazed about the breadth of his openness and curiosity for music, and he simply knew and loved more music than anyone I knew. His music was meticulously crafted, finely etched, and deeply inspired. He is profoundly missed professionally and personally.”
Additional featured music includes Terry Riley’s seminal In C, receiving its second Ojai Festival performance and featuring 2019 Festival artists and William Walton’s entertainment, Façade, a concoction for speaker and six instruments on humorous poems by Edith Sitwell, will be narrated by Barbara Hannigan and surprise guests.
Free Community Concerts
The Festival continues to build on its commitment to reach broader audiences with several opportunities for the community to experience Festival offerings. Over the course of the first three afternoons of the 2019 Festival, percussionist Steven Schick will perform the eight movements of John Luther Adams’ The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies. Works by John Luther Adams have been performed for Ojai audiences and have included Sila, Inuksuit (co-commissioned by the Ojai Music Festival), and recently Everything that Rises performed at the 2018 Festival.
Ojai Films
For the first time since 2014, the Ojai Music Festival welcomes the return of Ojai Films, a series of two screenings during the weekend at the Ojai Presbyterian Church, while the Ojai Playhouse continues its reconstruction. On Friday, June 7 the Festival will include, I’m a creative animal: A Portrait of Barbara Hannigan produced in 2014 by SRF and directed by Barbara Seiler. On Saturday, June 8, the Festival will present the US premiere of Taking Risks, a documentary produced by Accentus Music on the birth of Equilibrium which follows its inception through all stages of the casting and production, and culminating in the world premiere of the semi-staged production of The Rake’s Progress (which is performed in Ojai June 6) in Gothenburg in December 2018.
Ojai Talks
The 2019 Festival begins with Ojai Talks hosted by Ara Guzelimian, former Festival Artistic Director and current Dean and Provost of The Juilliard School. On Thursday, June 6, a three-part series of discussions will begin with an exploration of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium (EQ) initiative, with Ms. Hannigan and EQ artists. Mr. Guzelimian will interview Thomas W. Morris on his sixteen-year tenure as Ojai’s Artistic Director for the second part, and the third part of the discussion series will speak to the reinvention of musical groups, with members of LUDWIG.
Additional on-site and online dialogue during the 2019 Festival includes Concert Insights, the pre-concert talks at the Libbey Bowl Tennis Courts with Festival artists led by resident musicologist Christopher Hailey. Pre-concert interviews with artists are broadcast through the Festival’s free live streaming program, hosted by content-expert individuals.
2018 Festival Photos
Here are some photos from this year’s Festival! Many thanks to David Bazemore and Stephen Adams for images.
[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”104″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”240″ thumbnail_height=”160″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”20″ number_of_columns=”3″ ajax_pagination=”1″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”0″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show slideshow]” ngg_triggers_display=”never” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]Meet Our 2018 Interns!
Each year, the Ojai Music Festival Arts Management Internship Program welcomes 12-14 college students and recent graduates to go behind the scenes of a renowned summer music festival. We are very excited to introduce this year’s wonderful interns!
Glenna Adkins:
Glenna Adkins is a cellist and improviser who grew up in Los Angeles. She currently studies music and writing at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. As an instrumentalist, composer, and avid music listener, she is passionate about the performance of new music, as well as the collaborative process between artists. Inspired by the intersection of different art forms, Glenna also composes and performs for works of derived theater and dance, exploring ideas of musical narrative through extended techniques. She has worked at REDCAT and at Reisinger Concert Hall and has recorded as a session musician in several film soundtracks. Additionally, Glenna is interested in issues of sustainability and has served as an Education Intern at the Science Barge in Yonkers, NY, giving school children guided tours of the institution’s hydroponic growing systems.
Peter Appleby:
Peter Appleby is a resident of Santa Paula and has developed a great appreciation for community events and local music festivals. After graduating from Villanova Prep School this spring, Peter will be studying International Relations at California Lutheran University in the fall. An amateur musician himself, Peter has had the privilege of participating in Claire Chase’s performance of PAN in 2017 through the Ojai Music Festival. He is excited to return to Ojai this summer and is eager to help with the festival.
Zoe Appleby:
Zoe Appleby is a Southern California resident who is lucky enough to have been involved in the Ojai Music Festival for three years now. For undergraduate school, Zoe attended Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA, where she studied the greatest works of Western thought and literature in a Great Books Program. After spending six weeks in the summer of 2017 in Rome, Italy, studying art history, she decided that the academic field of art history was where she passions lay. Zoe has since been accepted into UC Riverside’s Art History department as an MA student studying medieval art history. After eventually completing her Ph.D. at a different institution, she would be interested in both teaching and researching at the college level and perhaps curating at a museum. She is passionate about bringing the arts to the public, and she has found the Ojai Music Festival to be an amazing event for her to experience the worlds where art and business meet to make something truly beautiful. She recently held a curatorial internship at the Santa Paula Art Museum, an institution which, like the Ojai Music Festival, embodies the spirit of artistic progress and public outreach. Zoe can usually be found swimming at one of the Southern California beaches, or rock-climbing in the cliffs above Ojai.
Maddi Baird:
Maddi Baird is an undergraduate music composition major at San Diego State University. She has had a passion for music and the arts from a young age, and has carried this passion by playing French horn, bass guitar, and by playing in SDSU’s Javanese Gamelan. While studying under Dr. Joseph Waters and Dr. Chris Warren, she has developed a passion for synthesis and analog synthesizers. In the future, she hopes to pursue a graduate degree in film scoring. Within her first semester at SDSU, she has acquired a position at their student union as an Audio-Visual technician and is the recipient of the Frank McCarty Endowed Scholarship in Music Composition. Maddi spends her free time volunteering at Ship in The Woods, a nonprofit art museum. She also has a radio show for KCR College Radio.
Byron Beasley:
Byron Beasley studies music technology at San Diego State University. He has been playing musical instruments since the age of 9 and currently composes music for the Trombone Ensemble at San Diego State. Byron also works as a studio technician at San Diego State, and has experience working with a variety of clients on a daily basis. At the studio, Byron’s job consists of assisting clients with audio and visual productions.
In high school, he worked as a section leader of the brass section, and has performed with a variety of ensembles. Byron also has experience playing in jazz band, marching bands, and wind ensembles (with jazz band being his favorite). He loves to listen to jazz in his free time and enjoys exercising as well. Byron has also composed music for a few video games, and so his diverse experiences in music make him a well-rounded musician, producer, and composer. His greatest aspiration is to work in the music and entertainment industry. Byron loves working behind the scenes to ensure that a product can come to fruition.
Kathryn Carlson:
Kathryn Carlson is a cellist who will soon be receiving her diploma for her Bachelor of Music degree in Instrumental Performance with cello emphasis from the UCSB music department. She is interested in pursuing new music, which she became involved in during her sophomore year of high school after being introduced to it by her music theory teacher Mr. Hertzog (composer for the kung-fu film Bloodsport). She has been a member of the UCSB Ensemble for Contemporary Music (ECM) throughout her time at UCSB and has performed new works in various concerts, including the 2016 UCSB Summer Music Festival, and the Beethoven, New Music, and Cupcake Bar concert hosted by the Now Hear Ensemble. In 2016 she was awarded the ECM Distinguished Performance Award and has recently performed in master classes hosted by The Knights and the Juilliard String Quartet. Having been an intern for the 2017 Ojai Music Festival, she is looking forward to joining the fantastic Ojai Music Festival team once again.
Alberto Cruz:
Alberto Cruz is a composer and recording engineer, currently studying composition at the California Institute of the Arts. During his time there, he has studied with, and continues to work with, Anne LeBaron, Matthias Webber, Karen Tanaka, Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, John Baffa, and Bob Clendenen. He has fully committed himself to a curriculum at CalArts consisting of composition for film and media, as well as recording and mixing in both live and studio settings. Currently, Alberto works for the School of Film/Video at CalArts running various recording sessions for ADR, spoken word, foley, and music. He also works for the Herb Alpert School of music, recording for live and studio musicians, running a webcast/lighting board for live shows, and acting as a producer/promoter for various shows. When not at CalArts, he works as a studio intern for Matthew Snyder at Allegro Recordings. During his time at CalArts so far, Alberto has produced six shows, played clarinet and other instruments in numerous ensembles, written music for seven films, worked as a sound designer for two films, handled music preparation/orchestration for various established composers around LA, run countless recording sessions for animators, directors, solo musicians, large ensembles, and a large variety of people from other backgrounds, and written over ten performed works for the concert stage. Entering his fourth year of higher education, Alberto’s passion for film music and recording has been fully realized into a reality that he intends to pursue throughout the rest of his life.
Jamie Leidwinger:
Jamie Leidwinger is a Baltimore-based composer. She received her MM in Composition at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins, a BA in Music from Dickinson College, and her teachers include Pulitzer Prize-winner Du Yun, Amy Beth Kirsten, Douglas Buchanan, and David Smooke. Jamie previously interned with the Ojai Music Festival, Q2 Music (NYC, now NewSounds), the Artistic Director of Symphony Space (NYC), and recently produced Q2 Music’s Instagram takeover series, “A Day in the Life,” as a freelance contributor; she is currently an Associate Artist Fellow with Amy Beth Kirsten’s music-theatre ensemble HOWL. Current projects include a podcast featuring interviews with Peter Sellars, Alex Ross, and more (release: Summer 2018), a collaboration with Baltimore-based street choir Voices Rise, co-founding a women’s vocal chamber octet, and co-founding SENSE, a Baltimore-based interdisciplinary, immersive, and inclusive arts series.
Emily Persinko:
Emily Persinko has interned at the Ojai Music Festival for the past two years, working closely with the marketing department and the box office. Emily graduated from San Diego State University (SDSU) this spring where she studied music entrepreneurship and business and is currently pursuing a career in arts administration. Emily is an event stage manager for La Jolla Music Society, a production assistant at San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory, and Assistant Operations Coordinator at Art of Élan. Emily has also recently interned at the San Diego Symphony in the development department and The Broad Stage in Santa Monica as an artistic intern. Emily has held positions as the principle flutist of the SDSU Wind Symphony and Chamber Orchestra. She also teaches at a private flute studio in San Diego and recently performed her senior flute recital.
Molly Tucker:
Molly Tucker, from Thousand Oaks, California, is currently in her third year at Oberlin College and Conservatory where she is pursuing degrees in Violin Performance and Economics. As a violinist, she has participated in such festivals as Bowdoin International Music Festival, Madeline Island Chamber Music Camp, The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, and the Montecito International Music Festival. Additionally, Molly has been a soloist with the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic and the California State University Northridge Youth Philharmonic. Her musical explorations have taken her to contemporary and Baroque music, as well as folk traditions. She has performed in an Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble performance of Hans Abrahamsen’s Schnee, as well as an Oberlin premiere of Celso-Garrido Lecca’s String Quartet No. 2, and has led and soloed with the Oberlin Baroque Orchestra. Molly has also fiddled since the age of seven and has attended Ashokan Music and Dance Camps and The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. As a lover of contra dance, she has played dances in both California and New Hampshire, and regularly plays for the monthly dances at Oberlin. Molly is a co-founder of Quartet Davis, a string quartet that plays original arrangements of folk and jazz, which was one of the recipients of Oberlin’s Flint Initiative Grant for a three-week Midwest and East Coast tour in January 2018. She is also a part of Caraway House, a fiddle and voice duo that performs tunes from Scandinavian and Old Time traditions. In January 2017, she traveled to Amman, Jordan with an Oberlin string quartet to play at schools and public venues, including a performance with the Jordan Orchestra sponsored by the United States Embassy. She has studied with Marilyn McDonald, Linda Rose, and Kim Kilgore, and has had the opportunity to work with renowned musicians such as Kikuei Ikeda, the Punch Brothers, Fabian Almazan, The Calder Quartet, Billy Childs, and Christian Howes. Outside of her musical life, she is active in the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, organizes the Oberlin Quaker Student Group, and works for Oberlin Conservatory Admissions.
Sarah Voshall:
Sarah Voshall is a pianist, collaborator, and teacher based in Los Angeles county. She is currently a third year piano performance major at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA. In high school, she studied improvisation with Daniel Hopkins, who remains a constant source of inspiration. At CalArts, she is privileged to study piano with Ming Tsu, and greatly appreciates the mentorship of Vicki Ray. She has also studied harpsichord with Tisha Mabee. Sarah’s current interests lie in methodically exploring the keyboard works of Bach alongside the surprisingly parallel piano pieces of Bartok. Recently, Sarah has found an interest in learning and performing chamber works with a trio of fellow CalArtians. As a means of cultivating a culture of music (and paying the bills), Sarah has been giving private piano lessons to students of all ages for the past decade. Sarah also teaches piano classes at West Creek Academy to second and third graders, a group of musicians whose youthful enthusiasm continues to delight and exasperate her in equal parts. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys spending time with her little sister who educates her in the memes of the day and forces her to listen to musical theatre soundtracks.
Madeleine Wilmsen:
Madeleine Wilmsen is a flute student at the University of Kansas and received her Bachelor of Arts in Music with a minor in Psychology in May of 2018. While attending undergrad, Madeleine participated in numerous ensembles and chamber groups. Between the years 2015 and 2017, Madeleine was a member of a flute and percussion duo that premiered new works by in-residence composers. She performed as principal player of the KU Symphony Orchestra during the Spring of 2017 and is currently the principal flutist of the KU Wind Ensemble. This spring, KUWE will perform a Reach Out Kansas commissioned piece at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and will be recording a new album. For the last three years, Madeleine has served as President and founding member of the KU Flute Club. She was instrumental in the creation of the club and worked to establish many yearly events, including the annual KU Flute Day in the spring. During the fall of 2017, Madeleine worked as a Development intern at the Kansas City Symphony where she learned the ins and outs of a major non-profit and frequently communicated with symphony donors. She plans on earning a MM in flute performance and furthering her career in music (whether it be performing, teaching, or arts management).
Dominique Wright:
Dominique Wright just finished her sophomore year at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA where she is an Economics Major and Flute Performance Minor. She is interested in continuing her work in social media marketing and is eager to work for larger companies and to gain further experience in management. Dominique has also played the flute for ten years. When she was just beginning her musical studies, she lost her flute at school. When a mother at her school heard about the lost instrument, she went home to find her old flute and brought it back to school so that Dominique could continue playing. Since experiencing that gesture of kindness, Dominique has not wanted to stop playing music. This June will be her second time working with the Ojai Music Festival and she cannot wait to take a part in the festival again.
2018 Live Stream Schedule
Special thanks to Lynn Bremer for underwriting support of the live streaming programs.
Produced and filmed by Live Concert Productions.
THURSDAY, JUNE 7
| Start Time | Event |
| 8:30 PM | Live with Smith & Kotcheff |
| 9:00 PM | Evening Concert BYE BYE BEETHOVEN |
| 10:20 PM | Talk Back Q & A Patricia Kopatchinskaja, MCO members |
FRIDAY, JUNE 8
| Start Time | Event |
| 1:00 PM | Afternoon Concert A Singular Vision: Part I |
| 2:00 PM | Interview with Michael Hersch |
| 2:30 PM | Afternoon Concert A Singular Vision: Part II |
| 3:45 PM | Interview with Barbara Hannigan |
| 4:00 PM | Video on Demand (VOD) Music at Dawn Replay |
| 5:05 PM | Video on Demand Ojai Talks Part 1 Replay |
| 7:30 PM | Evening Concert Across Time: Part I |
| 8:30 PM | Interview with Patricia Kopatchinskaja |
| 9:00 PM | Evening Concert Across Time: Part II |
| 10:30 PM | Free Community Concert John Luther Adams: Everything That Rises |
SATURDAY, JUNE 9
| Start Time | Event |
| 1:00 PM | Afternoon Concert With Abandon: Part I |
| 2:00 PM | Interview with Jay Campbell |
| 2:30 PM | Afternoon Concert With Abandon: Part II |
| 3:45 PM | Interview with Maria Ursprung |
| 4:30 PM | Video On Demand Ojai Talks Part 2 REPLAY |
| 5:35 PM | Video On Demand Music at Dawn REPLAY |
| 6:30 PM | Video On Demand Ojai Talks Part 3 REPLAY |
| 7:30 PM | Evening Concert Looking Inward |
| 8:30 PM | Interview with Ah Young Hong |
| 9:00 PM | Evening Concert Dies Irae (West Coast Premiere) |
| 10:30 PM | Talkback Q&A Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Maria Ursprung, Jay Campbell, Christian Heubes from MCO with Tom Morris |
SUNDAY, JUNE 10
| Start Time | Event |
| 1:00 PM | Afternoon Concert Exploring the Expanse: Part I |
| 2:00 PM | Interview with MCO Members |
| 2:30 PM | Afternoon Concert Exploring the Expanse: Part II |
| 3:45 PM | Interview with Anthony Romaniuk |
| 4:30 PM | Evening Concert A Devil’s Bargain and Some Earthly Delights |
| 5:30 PM | Interview with Thomas W. Morris |
Barbara Hannigan, 2019 Music Director
Nova Scotian musician Barbara Hannigan divides her time between singing on the world’s major stages and conducting leading orchestras. The Berlin Philharmonic, Münchner Philharmoniker, Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony are among the orchestras with whom she holds close relationships. Barbara has worked with the most prominent conductors, including Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kirill Petrenko, David Zinman, Vladimir Jurowski, Antonio Pappano, Alan Gilbert, and Reinbert de Leeuw. Her commitment to the music of our time has led to an extensive collaboration with composers including Boulez, Dutilleux, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin, and Abrahamsen.
Unforgettable operatic appearances include the title role in a “chameleonic and compelling” (Gramophone) Lulu in Krszysztof Warlikowski’s staging at La Monnaie, and more recently Lulu at Hamburg Staatsoper conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Christoph Marthaler; the title role of Pelléas et Mélisande in Katie Mitchell’s staging at the 2016 Festival d’Aix-en-Province conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and in Krszysztof Warlikowski’s more recent production at the Ruhrtriennale in Germany; and a fearless interpretation of Marie as a flame in the darkness in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten at the Bayerische Staatsoper—a hugely acclaimed presentation directed by Andreas Kriegenberg and conducted by Kirill Petrenko, for which she won the Faust Award in Germany. She made her Opéra national de Paris debut in 2015 with La Voix humaine again in a Warlikowski production and returned in April 2018 to reprise the role. She created the role of Ophelia in Brett Dean’s Hamlet at the Glyndebourne Festival in summer 2017 and created the role of Agnes in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, a production which has garnered rave reviews worldwide, with most recent performances at New York’s Lincoln Center (2015) and London’s Royal Opera House (2017); and had the world premiere of Benjamin’s new opera also at London’s Royal Opera House.
Recently appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden, Ms. Hannigan made her conducting debut in 2011 at the Chatelet in Paris, and her path since that time has been a constant creative development, having created special programs for the Toronto Symphony, Danish National and Swedish Radio symphony orchestras, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Münchner Philharmoniker, as well as the orchestra of the Munich Staatsoper.
In 2017, Ms. Hannigan released her first album as both singer and conductor, with Holland’s LUDWIG orchestra as the orchestral force, on Alpha Classics, entitled Crazy Girl Crazy. The album features works by Berio, Berg, and a specially commissioned Gershwin arrangement by Bill Elliott, as well as a bonus dvd by Mathieu Amalric. The album has won both the Grammy and Juno awards for best classical vocal album.
Ms. Hannigan’s other recordings have garnered awards from Gramophone, Edison, Victoires de la Musique and the Royal Philharmonic Society. Other awards include Singer of the Year (Opernwelt, 2013), Musical Personality of the Year (Syndicat de la Presse Francaise, 2012), Ehrenpreise (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2018), and Rolf Schock Prize for Musical Arts (2018).
Recently appointed as a member to the Order of Canada (2016), Ms. Hannigan’s life as an artist has been the subject of several documentaries: Accentus Music’s acclaimed documentary I’m a creative animal, produced at Lucerne Festival 2014 where she was Artiste Etoile, Dutch television’s Canadees Podiumdier (NTR 2014), as well as three films by Mathieu Amalric: C’est presque au bout du monde, Lulu Variations, and Music is Music.
In 2017 Ms. Hannigan created Equilibrium, an international mentoring initiative for young professional musicians, and chose 21 participants from a total of 350 applicants from 39 countries to participate in Equilibrium’s first season (2018/19), which will have over 20 performances with four partner orchestras in works including Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Mozart’s Requiem, and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella.
2018 Festival Updated Announcement
72nd Ojai Music Festival: June 7-10, 2018
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Music Director
Download PDF Version of Release
The 2018 Festival presents many dimensions of Kopatchinskaja:
· Violinist in works by Luigi Nono, Beethoven, Tigran Mansurian, and Ligeti
· Collaborator with soprano Ah Young Hong in Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments, Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello with JACK Quartet cellist Jay Campbell, and with her parents in an exploration of Moldavan folk music
· Advocate for music by Michael Hersch and Galina Ustvolskaya
Highlights of the 2018 Festival:
· Two semi-staged concerts conceived and directed by Kopatchinskaja
· The world premiere of a commissioned work by Michael Hersch
· Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat on the occasion of its centennial
· Free music events including Luciano Berio’s Sequenzas for solo instruments, two concerts for children devised and performed by Kopatchinskaja, and John Luther Adams’ new string quartet “everything that rises” as a tribute to Ojai Valley renewal following the Thomas Fire
Joining Patricia Kopatchinskaja are close artistic collaborators, all of whom are making their Festival debuts: Berlin-based Mahler Chamber Orchestra in its first extended United States residency, JACK Quartet, composer/pianist Michael Hersch, pianist Markus Hinterhäuser, pianist/harpsichordist Anthony Romaniuk, pianist Amy Yang, and Kopatchinskaja’s parents, Viktor and Emilia Kopatchinsky
The new partnership with Great Britain’s Aldeburgh Festival launches June 20-23, 2018
Cal Performances’ Ojai at Berkeley is June 15-17, 2018
“Ojai is special. There is no fight with new music. There is no fear. Just curiosity and hunger for fresh music of today. The Ojai audiences are completely open minded, and it’s a wonderful possibility to do music that I truly enjoy and find powerfully relevant in our present world. Ojai is magic,” Patricia Kopatchinskaja, 2018 Music Director.
(OJAI CA – UPDATE May 24, 2018) – The 72nd Ojai Music Festival, June 7-10, 2018, presents Music Director Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s unbounded musical creativity in the context of today’s social and political climate. The Ojai, Ventura, and Santa Barbara areas continue to replenish from the devastation of the Thomas Fire. The Topa Topa Mountains surrounding the Ojai Valley have already given rise to new growth, and the Festival honors this renewal with new works, debuts, and free community concerts.
“When I first met Patricia Kopatchinskaja, I knew she was a natural to be Music Director of the Festival. She is, quite simply, a force of nature. Her unstoppable energy, blazing virtuosity, and relentless curiosity are irresistible. The 2018 Festival will showcase her wildly diverse artistic tal-ents as a violinist, a collaborator, a director, an advocate, and as a creative force. Patricia sees music in the context of today’s social and political issues, so the 2018 Festival is one that will surely offer confrontation, questioning, and healing. The 2018 Festival aims to capture Patricia’s infectious energy and virtuosity,” said Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris.
The 2018 Ojai Music Festival welcomes the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) in its first extended United States residency. Founded in 1997, the Berlin-based MCO defines itself as a free and international ensemble, dedicated to creating and sharing exceptional experiences in classical music. With members spanning 20 different countries, the MCO works as a nomadic collec-tive of passionate musicians uniting for specific projects in Europe and across the world. The MCO forms the basis of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and maintains long and fruitful artistic relationships with major artists, including Ms. Kopatchinskaja and Mitsuko Uchida, Ojai’s 2021 Music Director. In Ojai, MCO will display its versatility and virtuosity as an orchestral ensemble, in smaller chamber iterations, and also in superb solo performances from individual members.
The JACK Quartet also makes its Ojai debut at the 2018 Festival. Deemed “superheroes of the new music world” (Boston Globe), JACK is dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and spread of new string quartet music. Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, the group collaborates with composers of our day, including John Luther Adams, Chaya Czernowin, Simon Steen-Andersen, Caroline Shaw, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, Matthias Pintscher, and John Zorn. At the 2018 Festival, JACK will perform works by Georg Frederick Haas, Horatio Radulescu, Morton Feldman, George Crumb, and John Luther Adams.
Major projects will include two semi-staged concerts conceived and directed by Ms. Kopatchinskaja. The first, which opens the Festival on Thursday night, is Bye Bye Beethoven. Ms. Kopatchinskaja describes the concert as a commentary on “the irrelevance of the classic concert routine for our present life.” This program features a mash-up of music by Charles Ives, John Cage, Joseph Haydn, György Kurtág, Johann Sebastian Bach, and the Beethoven Violin Concerto. This marks the US premiere of Bye Bye Beethoven, which was premiered at the Hamburg International Music Festival and subsequently staged in Berlin. This production marked the fourth collaboration between Ms. Kopatchinskaja and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Bye Bye Beethoven involves musicians in both conventional and unconventional roles, encounters with different musical genres and discourse among sound, space and imagery.
The second semi-staged concert conceived and directed by Ms. Kopatchinskaja is a provocative commentary on the consequences of global warming. Titled Dies Irae, the program is an aesthetic reflection of a time rife with global warming, wars over resources, and refugee crises. Musical selections include Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, George Crumb, Michael Hersch, Byzantine chant, and Galina Ustvolskaya’s remarkable Dies irae for eight double basses, piano, and wooden box. The evening performance on Saturday, June 9 marks its American premiere.
A new work, I hope we get a chance to visit soon by American composer Michael Hersch – described by him as a dramatic narrative 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. Performing in the premiere will be sopranos Ah Young Hong and Kiera Duffy, alto saxophone player Gary Lou-ie, and members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Tito Munoz. Set to poetry and text by Rebecca Elson, Mary Harris O’Reilly, and Christopher Middleton, the new work is com-missioned by the Ojai Music Festival, Cal Performances Berkeley, Aldeburgh Festival, and PN Review. Mr. Hersch, who wrote a violin concerto for Ms. Kopatchinskaja two years ago, is con-sidered one of the most gifted composers of his generation. He currently serves on the composi-tion faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. The Friday, June 8 premiere follows works by Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, and music by Purcell, Bartok, Shostakovich, and George Crumb performed by Anthony Romaniuk, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and JACK Quartet.
Featured on Friday afternoon (June 8) will be the music of Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya, described by Alex Ross as “one of the century’s grand originals.” Kopatchinskaja has long been a passionate advocate of Ustvolskaya’s music and will perform her Duet and So-nata with pianist Markus Hinterhäuser. Hinterhäuser, who is also the Intendant of the Salzburg Festival, will perform all six of her piano sonatas. Ustvolskaya’s powerful Dies irae will be featured in the Saturday evening concert of the same title.
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 Romanian and Moldavan folk music performed by Ms. Kopatchinskaja and her parents, Viktor and Emilia Kopatchinsky on cimbalom and violin. The Festival closes with the Ligeti Violin Concerto performed by Patricia Kopatchinskaja.
Free Community Concerts
The 2018 Festival continues to build on its commitment to reach broader audiences with several opportunities for all to experience Ojai offerings. On Thursday June 7, following the three-part Ojai Talks dialogues, the Festival commences the first in a series of five free concerts in the Gazebo of Libbey Park, featuring performances of Luciano Berio’s Sequenzas for solo instruments performed by members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. On Saturday morning (June 9), Viktor Koptachinsky will perform in works for cimbalon at the Gazebo hosted by his daughter Patricia and Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris. Ms. Kopatchinskaja and Scott Worthington, electronics (who replaces Jorge Chiong-Sanchez), will perform Luigi Nono’s La lontanaza nostalgica utopia futura in a free concert on Thursday evening in Libbey Park, preceding the Festival’s first main Libbey Bowl concert of Ms. Kopatchinskaja’s semi-staged concert Bye Bye Beethoven.
New to the schedule is on Friday evening (June 8), the JACK Quartet will perform John Luther Adams’ Everything that Rises, a work commissioned by the quartet, in a free community concert in tribute to the Ojai Valley renewal following December’s devastating wild fires. Additionally, Ms. Kopatchinskaja has programmed two free concerts just for children. Children of all ages will convene in the Ojai Art Center listen to works by Berio, Biber, Cage, Holliger, Arthur Honegger, and Ferdinand the Bull by Alan Ridout for solo violin and speaker. These concerts for children are presented in association with the Festival’s BRAVO education program for schools and community.
Ojai Talks
The 2018 Festival begins with Ojai Talks hosted by Ara Guzelimian, former Festival Artistic Director and current Dean and Provost of The Julliard School. On Thursday, June 7, a three-part series of discussions will begin with an exploration of Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s musical preferences and inspirations, followed by a discussion with composer Michael Hersch and soprano Ah Young Hong. The third part of the series will speak to the reinvention of musical groups with the JACK Quartet. Additional on-site and on-line dialogue during the 2018 Festival includes Concert Insights, the preconcert talks at the LIbbey Bowl Tennis Courts with Festival artists hosted by resident musicologist Christoper Hailey, and live stream interviews between concerts.
For up-to-date Festival information, artist biographies and photos, and access to concerts, etc., visit the Ojai Music Festival website at OjaiFestival.org.
New Partnership with the Aldeburgh Festival
Following the 2018 Festival in Ojai with Music Director Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the following week’s Ojai at Berkeley presented in collaboration with Cal Performances, a new partnership with Aldeburgh will take place at the end of the Aldeburgh Festival (June 20 – 23) based at the acclaimed Maltings Concert Hall and in the town of Snape near Aldeburgh in England. The col-laboration with Aldeburgh follows the formation of Ojai at Berkeley as a partnership of co-productions and co-commissions that affords the Ojai Music Festival, the Aldeburgh Festival, and Cal Performances the ability to present more complex and creative artistic projects than could be conceived by each partner separately. The Aldeburgh relationship launches in June 2018, for an initial four-year period.
Ojai at Berkeley
Marking the eighth year of artistic partnership, Ojai at Berkeley celebrates the dynamic nature of the Ojai Music Festival and of Cal Performances. As two distinct communities, Ojai and Berke-ley are both known for intrepid artistic discovery, spirited intellect, and enduring engagement in the arts. Inaugurated in 2011, Ojai at Berkeley is a joint force that enables co-commissions and co-productions and allows artists to achieve more than could be imagined by each organization separately. Ojai at Berkeley will take place from June 15-17 in Berkeley, CA, following the Ojai Music Festival. For more information, visit CalPerformances.org.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, 2018 Music Director
Ms. Kopatchinskaja’s (Ko pat chin sky yah) 2017/18 season commenced with the world premi-ere of her new project Dies Irae at the Lucerne Festival where she was ‘artiste étoile’. The second staged program which follows the success of Bye Bye Beethoven with Mahler Chamber Orchestra in 2016, is conceptualized using a theme from the Latin Requiem Mass and features music from composers such as Scelsi, Biber and Ustwolskaja. The North American premiere will take place at the Ojai Festival in June 2018 where she is Music Director.
Ms. Kopatchinskaja’s was awarded the prestigious Swiss Grand Award for Music in September 2017 and continues to move from strength to strength adding a Grammy award to her list of ac-colades in the 17/18 Season. The Violinist was presented with the award for Best Chamber Mu-sic/Small Ensemble Performance for her disc Death and the Maiden, recorded with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra and released on Alpha Classics.
Concert highlights in 17/18 include; performances of Stravinsky’s concerto with Currentzis and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the same repertoire with Gimeno and the Rotterdam Phil-harmonic Orchestra. She has played with Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Payare and will perform with Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and Geneva Camerata for Berg’s violin concerto.
Chamber music is immensely important to Ms. Kopatchinskaja and she performs regularly with artists such as Markus Hinterhäuser, Anthony Romaniuk and Jay Campbell. With pianist, Polina Leschenko she has recorded and released ‘Deux’ for Alpha Classics. Together the duo reimagi-nes the sonatas of Ravel, Poulenc, Bartok and Dohnányi.
Thomas W. Morris, Artistic Director
Thomas W. Morris was appointed Artistic Director of the Ojai Music Festival starting with the 2004 Festival. As Artistic Director, he is responsible for artistic planning and each year appoints a music director with whom shapes the Festival’s programming. During Mr. Morris’ tenure, audi-ences have increased, the scope and density of the Festival has expanded, the collaborative partnership Ojai at Berkeley with Cal Performances at UC Berkeley has started, a new partner-ship with England’s Aldeburgh Festival will be initiated this year, and a comprehensive program of video streaming of all concerts has been instituted. Mr. Morris is recognized as one of the most innovative leaders in the orchestra industry and served as the long-time chief executive of both The Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He is currently active na-tionally and internationally as a consultant, lecturer, teacher, and writer. Mr. Morris was a found-ing director of Spring for Music and served as the project’s artistic director. He is currently vice chair of the Board of Directors of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and he is also an accom-plished percussionist. In November, Mr. Morris announced his decision to retire as the Festival’s Artistic Director following the 2019 Festival with Music Director Barbara Hannigan, after shaping Ojai’s artistic direction for sixteen years.
About the Ojai Music Festival
From its founding in 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has created a place for groundbreaking musi-cal experiences, bringing together innovative artists and curious audiences in an intimate, idyllic setting 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The Festival presents broad-ranging programs in unu-sual ways with an eclectic mix of rarely performed music, refreshing juxtapositions of musical styles, and works by today’s composers. The four-day festival is an immersive experience with concerts, free community events, symposia, and gatherings. Considered a highlight of the inter-national music summer season, Ojai has remained a leader in the classical music landscape for seven decades.
Through its unique structure of the Artistic Director appointing an annual Music Director, Ojai has presented a “who’s who” of music including Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, 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, and Vijay Iyer. Following Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Ojai will welcome Music Director Barbara Hannigan (2019), Matthias Pintscher (2020) and Mitsuko Uchida (2021).
As the Ojai Music Festival approaches its 75th anniversary and looks toward the future with re-cently appointed Artistic Director Chad Smith, who will take the helm in 2020, the innumerable contributions by Thomas W. Morris will continue to be realized through the 2019 Festival and be-yond. Under Mr. Morris’ creative watch, the Festival continues to push boundaries and scope; explore each music director’s individual perspective, creativity, and artistic communities; invite an ever-broadening roster of artists; and build connections across musical communities with through-curated programming for each Festival.
Remote Access to the Ojai Music Festival
The Ojai Music Festival continues to draw thousands of curious and engaged music enthusiasts from across the country. As tickets remain in high demand, Ojai includes free access to the Fes-tival experience through live and archived video streaming at OjaiFestival.org. The live streaming includes guest interviews throughout the web cast. Hosting this year will be director of publications at National Sawdust and longtime journalist Steve Smith and LA-based composer/musician and host of Underscore.FM podcast Thomas Kotcheff.
Tickets for the 2018 Ojai Music Festival
2018 Festival single tickets are available and may be purchased online at OjaiFestival.org or by calling (805) 646-2053. 2018 Ojai Music Festival single tickets range from $45 to $150 for re-served seating and lawn tickets for $20.
OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
June 7-10, 2018