The Ojai Music Festival announced this morning that Chad Smith will be their new Artistic Director beginning in 2020. Mr. Smith will take over for Thomas W. Morris, Ojai’s Artistic Director since 2004 and former top executive with the Cleveland Orchestra and Boston Symphony, who had previously announced his decision to retire after the 2019 … Continue reading
Hello, everyone. If you’re shocked that I’ve actually published something three days in a row, join the club. I realize that I’ve not been publishing at the rate I have in the past. I’m working on changing that. It’s not that I haven’t been writing; I have. It’s just hasn’t made it here to All is … Continue reading
Attend the Ojai Music Festival, Southern California’s loveable cabal of contemporary classical music, and you expect works by living composers, particularly brand new pieces that get their debut at the festival. This year, the first world premiere shows up on Saturday afternoon: This might also be a form of dreaming by Caroline Shaw (with text by Claudia … Continue reading
There are few places that celebrate living composers and their works more than the Ojai Festival. And among those favored by this haven for contemporary classical music is Kaija Saariaho. She first gained notice in the early 1980’s as part of the “Ears Open Society,” the Finnish collective of Sibelius Academy alumni which included Esa-Pekka … Continue reading
It’s an overcast and relatively muggy Saturday morning in Ojai. Still here for the 69th edition of the town’s iconic Music Festival and we’re about 45 minutes away from today’s first concert of Day Four (or Three if you don’t count Wednesday night). Planning on detailed reviews of the entire festival experience, but wanted to … Continue reading
Tonight marks the opening concerts in the 2015 rendition of that annual musical adventure known as the Ojai Festival. As is their habit, the folks at Ojai change Music Directors every year, and for this year’s festival, they tapped percussionist extraordinaire, Steven Schick. The Iowa native holds a number of notable posts (Distinguished Professor of … Continue reading
Listening to music you’ve never heard before is, by definition, full of unknowns. One aspect you don’t always think about is how long a piece will take to play. Printed program notes frequently include estimated timings, but that isn’t always the case, and you’re at the mercy of the composer’s and musicians’ ability to keep … Continue reading
At the opening talk of this year’s Ojai Music Festival last Thursday, Ara Guzelimien (Provost & Dean of The Julliard School and former Artistic Director of the Ojai Festival) astutely observed that The Rite of Spring has become big business. What used to scare audiences now regularly packs houses. With all of the buzz surrounding … Continue reading
My two-part review of this past weekend’s 67th Ojai Music Festival will be up very soon. In the meantime, please enjoy these photos from the weekend (see the gallery below). Except for a few shots taken by me (as noted in the descriptions), most of the photos — in fact, pretty much all the really … Continue reading
Good news, Ojai Music Festival fans: your year-long wait for the next iteration of this wonderfully wacky artistic experience is finally over. Today marks the beginning of the 67th edition of this venerable Southern California homage to adventurous music. This year’s Music Director is Mark Morris (yes, the choreographer) — at first blush, a seemingly unlikely choice, … Continue reading
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