"Dawn Upshaw is a phenomenon of our time, an artist willing to reach outside herself to expand her musical horizons by forging links between artists, repertories, audiences, and generations. And with Ojai, she shares that one defining passion: only connect." - Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris
"The story of war, and the trauma that follows in its wake, is an old one, but it has new dimensions in our generation with the development of an all-volunteer military with the presence of women serving across all the branches of our armed forces. George Crumb's most recently completed song cycle, The Winds of Destiny, is a setting of Civil War songs filled with echoes, rattles, memories and unexpected violence that reaches back and reaches forward across time. All of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress are in this music: the cycling back and reliving of experiences over and over again; the eerie mental landscape disturbed and hyper-alert to every noise; every noise a trigger for another round of internal or external violence. This exploration of The Winds of Destiny is a report from the front lines on the state of the world with messages that can only be delivered by music." - Peter Sellars, director
May 11: A cornerstone project of the 2011 Ojai Music Festival, The Winds of Destiny Project, offers an in-depth exploration of music in the time of war on Fri., June 10. The day-long musical, intellectual and emotional journal will feature the world premiere of new staging by Peter Sellars of George Crumb's The Winds of Destiny (American Songbook IV); vocalist Ustad Farida Mahwash and The Sakhi Ensemble performing music from Afghanistan; a director's introduction to The Winds of Destiny by Peter Sellars; and award winning journalist and author Mark Danner in a discussion with Peter Sellars, which in Mark Danner's words will, "try to take account of the moral concerns of the United States as a polity and a great power and how these must stem, or should stem, ultimately, from a grounding in the humanities."
The world premiere of a new staged production by Mr. Sellars of George Crumb's The Winds of Destiny (American Songbook IV), featuring Ojai's 2011 music director Dawn Upshaw, anchors the Friday evening concert on June 10. Written in 2004, The Winds of Destiny is a work for soprano and percussion quartet performed on a variety of traditional and exotic instruments, and amplified piano. Joining Ms. Upshaw will be California-based percussion ensemble red fish blue fish with Steven Schick in its Ojai debut, and pianist Gilbert Kalish, last seen at the Festival in 2008.
Musicologist and Festival program book annotator Christopher Hailey writes, "In The Winds of Destiny, the fourth installation of his multi-volume American Song Book, Crumb conjures up memories of the American Civil War, a cataclysm that began 150 years ago this year. Among the artifacts documenting the passions and the agonies, the aspirations and the anguish of those bloody times is their music, from the anthems to the marching songs, the parlor ballads to the spirituals. Theatrical gestures are an important component of Crumb's music, yet another instance of the uncanny in which he de-familiarizes the familiar rituals of concert performance. Peter Sellars' staging is wholly in keeping with the composer's aesthetic intentions, for it serves to underscore the ways in which the experiences that gave rise to these 'songs of strife, love, mystery, and exultation' continue to haunt our lives today."  Mr. Sellars new staged version will frame The Winds of Destiny through the lens of a female American veteran (Dawn Upshaw) returning from the war in Afghanistan. The Winds of Destiny is a co-production of the Ojai Music Festival and Cal Performances at UC Berkeley. For complete program notes by Christopher Hailey and a reflective essay by Peter Sellars, visit www.OjaiFestival.org
Long considered "the voice of Afghanistan," Ustad Mahwash is celebrated around the globe for her ghazal repertoire. Her personal story, like that of so many Afghan women, is one of unyielding perseverance (as witnessed by the great personal risk she encountered by performing in public during the early years of Taliban rule). Ustad is joined by The Sakhi Ensemble, which features some the most distinguished Afghan musicians in the Diaspora. Under the artistic direction of rubab virtuoso Homayoun Sakhi, this program is offered to all as an exquisite reminder of the tenacious presence of love that no war could ever crush.

Date: Fri., June 10
What: The Winds of Destiny Project - Festival Symposium: "Music in the Time of War"
When: 3-5pm
Where: Ojai Community Church (907 El Centro Street)
Who: Ara Guzelimian, symposium director, Peter Sellars, director, Mark Danner, journalist
The Symposium session will feature award-winning journalist and author Mark Danner and director Peter Sellars discussing the civic consequences of the absence of the humanities in American public life and articulate a strengthened and repurposed role for the humanities in the future of American public life.
In his recent State of the Union address President Obama conspicuously called on a new generation of Americans to become scientists and engineers as if the humanities had no contribution to make to American public life.  On the occasion of the premiere performances by Dawn Upshaw of George Crumb's The Winds of Destiny song cycle, we propose to discuss the civic consequences of the absence of the humanities in American public life and to articulate a strengthened and repurposed role for the humanities in the future of American public life. Mark Danner, a prominent and path-breaking journalist, will discuss his own practice in reporting from war zones and areas of profound trauma. What role do the humanities play in his writing? What are the levels of insight and awareness and moral compass that are given dimension by his grounding in the humanities?  What are the limits and responsibilities of journalists and the possibilities and responsibilities of artists? And how do both roles work together to create an informed voting public in an engaged democracy?

Date: Fri., June 10
What: Festival Concert: The Winds of Destiny (American Songbook IV)
When: 8pm
Where: Libbey Bowl
Who: Dawn Upshaw - soprano, Gilbert Kalish - piano - red fish blue fish - percussion, Dustin Donahue, Jennifer Torrence, Bonnie Whiting Smith, Steven Schick - artistic director, Ustad Farida Mahwash - vocals, The Sakhi Ensemble, Zmarai Aref - tabla - dohlak, Khalil Ragheb - harmonium, Pervez Sakhi - rubab - tula, Peter Sellars - director, Dunya Ramicova - costume designer, James F. Ingalls - lighting designer, Diane J. Malecki - producer, Pamela Salling - production stage manager

PROGRAM: The performance begins at 8pm with a Director's Introduction by Peter Sellars from the Libbey Bowl stage. There will be no Concert Insight prior to the concert.
After a brief intermission will be the performance of Peter Sellars' staging of George Crumb's The Winds of Destiny (American Songbook IV) Songs of Strife, Love, Mystery and Exultation - A Cycle of American Civil War Songs, Folk Songs, and Spirituals. The performers include soprano Dawn Upshaw, pianist Gilbert Kalish and percussionists red fish blue fish with Steven Schick. This is the world premiere of the staged production, a co-production of the Ojai Music Festival and Cal Performances.
Following intermission, the concert will conclude with music of Afghanistan performed by Ustad Farida Mahwash and The Sakhi Ensemble. Works will be announced from the stage.
Together with Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris, 2011 Music Director Dawn Upshaw has engaged several key artistic collaborators for the 2011 Festival: violinist and arranger Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, with whom she has toured the U.S., Europe and Australia in recent years; jazz composer and big band leader Maria Schneider, whose first work for Ms. Upshaw and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra was premiered in 2008, and receives its New York Premiere at Carnegie Hall on May 13 at Spring for Music; and stage director Peter Sellars, with whom she is marking her tenth theatrical collaboration in a 20-year span, in landmark works ranging from Bach and Handel to Adams and Golijov.  Widely known as one of today's foremost - and most versatile - sopranos, Dawn Upshaw's partnership with the 65th Ojai Music Festival marks her fourth since 2001. Ms. Upshaw is also a champion of new works, a widely sought-after artistic collaborator, and an inspiring teacher. The four-time GRAMMY Award winner has achieved international acclaim on opera and concert stages worldwide. During four days in one of California's most pristine landscapes, the Ojai Music Festival explores an eclectic range of programming, including a new work by Maria Schneider specifically for Dawn Upshaw.
For complete 2011 Ojai Music Festival and Libbey Bowl reopening information, including programming, schedules and artist biographies, visit the web site at www.OjaiFestival.org
Ojai North! launches in partnership with Cal Performances of Berkeley
A new multi-year residency project in partnership with Cal Performances in Berkeley, Ojai North! will be launched following the 2011 Ojai Music Festival. From June 13 to 18, 2011, Ojai Music Festival programs and artists will be in residence on the campus of the University of California Berkeley (UCB) marking the first of a multi-year partnership. The partnership will include annual reprises of Ojai concerts in Berkeley, as well as joint commissions and co-productions. The Maria Schneider commission, Winter Morning Walks, will be the first of such joint commissions, and the Peter Sellars staged production of George Crumb's The Winds of Destiny will be the first such co-production, which will have two performances - June 16 and 18 at Zellerbach Playhouse. With Ojai North!, signature Ojai Music Festival programming will become available through live performances to a wider audience, expanding the Festival's reach beyond Ojai. Additional information on Ojai North! can be found at www.OjaiFestival.org and www.CalPerformances.org
Artists and programs are subject to change. Main concerts will be at the new Libbey Bowl.
DAWN UPSHAW, music director
Joining a rare natural warmth with a fierce commitment to the transforming communicative power of music, Dawn Upshaw has achieved worldwide celebrity as a singer of opera and concert repertoire ranging from the sacred works of Bach to the freshest sounds of today. Her ability to reach to the heart of music and text has earned her both the devotion of an exceptionally diverse audience, and the awards and distinctions accorded to only the most distinguished of artists. In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, the first vocal artist to be awarded the five-year "genius" prize, and in 2008 she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Her acclaimed performances on the opera stage comprise the great Mozart roles (Pamina, Ilia, Susanna, Despina) as well as modern works by Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Messiaen. From Salzburg, Paris and Glyndebourne to the Metropolitan Opera, where she began her career in 1984 and has since made nearly 300 appearances, Dawn Upshaw has also championed numerous new works created for her including The Great Gatsby by John Harbison; the Grawemeyer Award-winning opera, L'Amour de Loin and oratorio La Passion de Simone by Kaija Saariaho; John Adams' Nativity oratorio El Nino; and Osvaldo Golijov's chamber opera Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre.
Ms. Upshaw's 2010-11 season opened with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in performances of Golijov and Canteloube at the Tanglewood Music Festival. She tours Europe in Peter Sellars' acclaimed production of Kurtag's Kafka Fragments, and appears in recital at London's Barbican Centre (with Gerald Finley). She reprises her celebrated role in John Adams's El Nino with the San Francisco Symphony, and begins a second three-year term as Artistic Partner with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, with whom she also appears at Carnegie Hall as part of the "Spring For Music" series. She sings world premieres of four new works written for her, including a chamber piece by Donnacha Dennehy and the Crash Ensemble in Dublin, slated for release on Nonesuch Records; a co-commission with the Terezin Foundation and the Prague Spring Festival by Pablo Ortiz; a vocal and chamber orchestra commission from Gabriela Frank for the SPCO; and a jazz-inflected score by Maria Schneider for the Australian Chamber Orchestra, with first performances at the 2011 Ojai Festival where Ms. Upshaw is the Music Director.
It says much about Dawn Upshaw's sensibilities as an artist and colleague that she is a favored partner of many leading musicians, including Richard Goode, the Kronos Quartet, James Levine, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In her work as a recitalist, and particularly in her work with composers, Dawn Upshaw has become a generative force in concert music, having premiered more than 25 works in the past decade. From Carnegie Hall to large and small venues throughout the world she regularly presents specially designed programs composed of lieder, unusual contemporary works in many languages, and folk and popular music. She furthers this work in master classes and workshops with young singers at major music festivals, conservatories, and liberal arts colleges. She is artistic director of the Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center.
A four-time GRAMMY Award winner, Dawn Upshaw is featured on more than 50 recordings, including the million-selling Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Gorecki. Her discography also includes full-length opera recordings of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro; Messiaen's St. Francois d'Assise; Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress; John Adams' El Nino; two volumes of Canteloube's "Songs of the Auvergne", and a dozen recital recordings. Her most recent release on Deutsche Grammophon is "Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra," the third in a series of acclaimed recordings of Osvaldo Golijov's music.
Dawn Upshaw holds honorary doctorate degrees from Yale, the Manhattan School of Music, Allegheny College, and Illinois Wesleyan University. She began her career as a 1984 winner of the Young Concert Artists Auditions and the 1985 Walter W. Naumburg Competition, and was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Young Artists Development Program.
PETER SELLARS, director
Opera, theater, and festival director Peter Sellars is one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the performing arts in America and abroad. A visionary artist, Sellars is known for ground-breaking interpretations of classic works. Whether it is Mozart, Handel, Shakespeare, Sophocles, or the 16th-century Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu, Peter Sellars strikes a universal chord with audiences, engaging and illuminating contemporary social and political issues. Sellars has staged operas at the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Netherlands Opera, the Opera National de Paris, the Salzburg Festival, and the San Francisco Opera, among others, establishing a reputation for bringing 20th-century and contemporary operas to the stage, including works by Olivier Messiaen, Paul Hindemith, and Gyorgy Ligeti. Inspired by the compositions of Kaija Saariaho, Osvaldo Golijov, and Tan Dun, he has guided the creation of productions of their work that have expanded the repertoire of modern opera. Sellars has been a driving force in the creation of many new works with longtime collaborator John Adams, including Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, El Nino, Doctor Atomic, and A Flowering Tree. Recent Sellars projects have included a staging of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex/Symphony of Psalms for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Sydney Festival; a production of Shakespeare's Othello seen in Vienna, Bochum (Germany) and New York; a critically acclaimed concert staging of Johann Sebastian Bach's Saint Matthew Passion with the Berlin Phllharmonic Orchestra performed in Salzburg and Berlin, and, earlier this year, a staging of Nixon in China for the Metropolitan Opera and Handel's Hercules for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Sellars' productions featuring Dawn Upshaw have included Messaien's Saint Francois D'Assise, Adams' El Nino, Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin, Golijov's Ainadamar, and Gyorgy Kurtag's Kafka Fragments. Sellars has led several major arts festivals, including the 1990 and 1993 Los Angeles Festivals; the 2002 Adelaide Arts Festival in Australia; and the 2003 Venice Biennale International Festival of Theater in Italy. In 2006 he was Artistic Director of New Crowned Hope, a month-long festival in Vienna for which he invited international artists from diverse cultural backgrounds to create new work in the fields of music, theater, dance, film, the visual arts, and architecture for the city of Vienna's Mozart Year celebrating the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. Sellars is a professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and Resident Curator of the Telluride Film Festival. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Erasmus Prize, the Sundance Institute Risk-Takers Award, and the Gish Prize, and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
GILBERT KALISH, piano
Gilbert Kalish leads a musical life of unusual variety and breadth. His profound influence on the musical community as educator, and as pianist in myriad performances and recordings, has established him as a major figure in American music making. A native New Yorker and graduate of Columbia College, Mr. Kalish studied with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and Isabella Vengerova. He was this pianist of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players for 30 years and was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a group devoted to new music that flourished during the 1960s and 70s. He is a frequent guest artist with many of the world's most distinguished chamber ensembles. His thirty-year partnership with the great mezzo-soprano Jan De Gaetani was universally recognized as one of the most remarkable artistic collaborations of our time. He maintains longstanding duos with the cellists Timothy Eddy and Joel Krosnick, and he appears frequently with soprano Dawn Upshaw. As educator he is Distinguished Professor and Head of Performance Activities at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. From 1969-1997 he was a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center and served as the "Chairman of the Faculty" at Tanglewood from 1985-1997. He often serves as guest artist at distinguished music institutions such as The Banff Centre, and the Steans Institute at Ravinia, and the Marlboro Festival. He is renowned for his master class presentations. Mr. Kalish's discography of some 100 recordings encompasses classical repertory, 20th Century masterworks and new compositions. In 1995, he was presented with the Paul Fromm Award by the University of Chicago Music Department for distinguished service to the music of our time.
RED FISH BLUE FISH, percussion ensemble
red fish blue fish is the resident percussion ensemble of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and functions as a laboratory for the development of new percussion techniques, sounds and music. The group has toured widely including performances at Lincoln Center and the Henry Street Settlement in New York City, the Agora Festival (Paris), the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella Series, the National Gallery of Art, the Centro des Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and the Tapei International Percussion Conference, in addition to a regular series of concerts at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The group has recorded for Tzadik and Mode Records. A recently released a 3CD set of the complete percussion works of Iannis Xenakis on Mode Records was received with great critical acclaim. A DVD of Roger Reynold's Sanctuary for percussion quartet and soloist was released by Mode in late 2010, and another DVD of the entire early percussion music of Karlheinz Stockhausen will be released by red fish blue fish on Mode Records in 2011.
STEVEN SCHICK, red fish blue fish artistic director
Percussionist, conductor and author Steven Schick was born in Iowa and raised in a farming family. For the past thirty years he has championed contemporary percussion music as a performer and teacher, by commissioning and premiering more than one hundred new works for percussion. Schick is Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and a Consulting Artist in Percussion at the Manhattan School of Music. He was the percussionist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars of New York City from 1992-2002, and from 2000 to 2004 served as Artistic Director of the Centre International de Percussion de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland.  Schick is founder and Artistic Director of the percussion group, "red fish blue fish," and director of "Roots and Rhizomes," a summer course on contemporary percussion music hosted at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In 2007 assumed the post of Music Director and conductor of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, and is the principal guest conductor of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).
USTAD FARIDA MAHWASH, vocalist
Ustad Farida Mahwash was born into a conservative Afghan family. Her mother was a Quran teacher and religion loomed large throughout her upbringing. For many years, her interest in music was suppressed as, at the time, female singers and musicians were viewed with contempt. Upon completion of her studies, Farida accepted a position in the Kabul Radio Station. There, she was discovered by the station's director who encouraged her to pursue singing as a career. Farida took music and singing lessons under the scholarship of Ustad Mohammad Hashem Cheshti. An established maestro, he quickly put the protege under a rigorous training regime. Most of the lessons, which were based on North Indian classical music, are still used today to train Afghan singers. In 1977, Farida was conferred the title of Maestra by Ustad Sarahang, a controversial move as, until that point, it was an honor reserved for men. In 1977, she received the title of Ustad (master). After the political turmoil of late 1970s through 1980s Ustad Mahwash was forced to leave Afghanistan. In 1991, with her family in tow she moved to Pakistan where she took refuge from the two warring sides of the time, each of whom urged her to sing for their cause or face assassination. Worn and exhausted, she applied for asylum abroad. Eventually, her plight was recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and she was granted political asylum in the United States. Ustad Mahwash has gone on to become the "voice of Afghanistan," sharing the country's rich musical heritage in critically-acclaimed performances and recordings. In 2003, she received a prestigious BBC Radio 3 World Music Award, which was issued for artistic excellence as well as for her work speaking on behalf of thousands of orphaned Afghan children. Through it all, she remains a powerful vocalist and passionate champion of refined, yet haunting, music in the service of a peace-filled Afghanistan.
The Sakhi Ensemble
Zmarai Aref - tabla - dohlak, Khalil Ragheb - harmonium, Pervez Sakhi, rubab - tula, Homayoun Sakhi - artistic director. Comprised of some of the most sought-after Afghan musicians living in the United States, The Sakhi Ensemble makes it concert debut at the Ojai Music Festival. Under the artistic direction of its founder, acclaimed rubab master Homayoun Sakhi, tonight's ensemble features Zmarai Aref (tabla, dohlak), Khalil Ragheb (harmonium), and Pervez Sakhi (rubab, tula). In addition to artistic excellence, these musicians share a commitment to nurturing the next generation of musicians both here and in Afghanistan. The ensemble wishes to extend its warm appreciation to Peter Sellars and Dawn Upshaw for inviting them to participate in this very special evening of music.
GEORGE CRUMB, composer
George Crumb's reputation as a composer of hauntingly beautiful scores has made him one of the most frequently performed composers in today's musical world. From Los Angeles to Moscow, and from Scandinavia to South America, festivals devoted to the music of George Crumb have sprung up like wildflowers. Crumb, the winner of a 2001 Grammy Award and the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in Music, continues to compose new scores that enrich the musical lives of those who come in contact with his profoundly humanistic art. George Crumb's early compositions include Three Early Songs (1947), for voice and piano; Sonata (1955) for solo violoncello; and Variazioni (1959) for orchestra-the composer's doctoral thesis. In the 1960s and 1970s, George Crumb produced a series of highly influential pieces that were immediately taken up by soloists and ensembles throughout the world. Many of these were vocal works based on the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, including Ancient Voices of Children (1970); Madrigals, Books 1-4 (1965,69); Night of the Four Moons (1969); and Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death (1968). Other major works from this period include: Black Angels (1970), for electric string quartet; Vox Balaenae (1971), for electric flute, electric cello and amplified piano; Makrokosmos, Volumes 1 and 2 (1972, 73) for amplified piano; Music for a Summer Evening (1974) for two amplified pianos and percussion; and Crumb's largest score-Star-Child (1977), for soprano, solo trombone, antiphonal children-s voices, male speaking choir, bell ringers and large orchestra. George Crumb's most recent works include Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik for solo piano (2001), Otherworldly Resonances for two pianos (2002) and a four-part song cycle, American Songbook (The River of Life, A Journey Beyond Time, Unto the Hills, The Winds of Destiny) (2001-2004). George Crumb's music often juxtaposes contrasting musical styles. The references range from music of the western art-music tradition, to hymns and folk music, to non-Western musics. Many of Crumb's works include programmatic, symbolic, mystical and theatrical elements, which are often reflected in his beautiful and meticulously notated scores. A shy, yet warmly eloquent personality, Crumb retired from his teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania after more than 30 years of service. George Crumb's music is published by C.F. Peters and the ongoing series of "Complete Crumb" recordings, supervised by the composer, is being issued on Bridge Records.
MARK DANNER, journalist
Mark Danner is a writer and reporter who for twenty-five years has written on politics and foreign affairs, focusing on war and conflict. He has covered Central America, Haiti, the Balkans, Iraq and the Middle East, among many other stories. Danner is Chancellor's Professor of Journalism and Politics at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs, Politics and the Humanities at Bard College. Among his books are Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War, Torture and Truth, The Secret Way to War, and The Massacre at El Mozote. Danner was a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker and is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. His work has appeared in Harper's, The New York Times, Aperture, and many other newspapers and magazines. He has co-written and helped produce two hour-long documentaries for the ABC News program Peter Jennings Reporting, and his work has received, among other honors, a National Magazine Award, three Overseas Press Awards, and an Emmy. In 1999 Danner was named a MacArthur Fellow. He speaks and lectures widely on foreign policy and America's role in the world.

Ojai Music Festival Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris is recognized as one of the most visionary leaders and innovative concert programmers in the music industry. His tenure with the Festival began in 2004, and extends through 2017. As Artistic Director, Morris is responsible for identifying and engaging each Festival music director and, in collaboration with each music director, curating Festival programming in the fearless tradition for which Ojai has become renowned. In February 2004, Morris retired as executive director of The Cleveland Orchestra, a position he held since 1987. He has served in a number of capacities, including general manager of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1969 to 1985, where he had overall responsibility for the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, Tanglewood, and Symphony Hall. In addition to his Ojai position, Morris is artistic director of the new Spring for Music Festival at New York's Carnegie Hall to debut in May 2011, and is also active as a consultant, teacher, and writer.
The Ojai Music Festival continues its unmatched musical legacy and international reputation for artistic excellence, adventurous programs, and creative artistic camaraderie. Ojai's tradition of inviting a new music director for each season guarantees variety and vitality across festivals. The 2011 Festival explores the musical interests, and celebrates the artistic collaborations of Music Director Dawn Upshaw, one of today's foremost - and most versatile - sopranos. Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes (2012), choreographer Mark Morris (2013) and pianist Jeremy Denk (2014) will serve as future Festival music directors. Since 1947, the Ojai Valley has remained the quintessential haven for passionate music lovers and trailblazing artists, and serves as a creative laboratory where extraordinary music-making and provocative discussions flourish. Thomas W. Morris, Artistic Director since 2004, and each appointed music director partner to create programs of wide-ranging repertoire and unexpected connections. Among the Festival's diverse music directors have been such renowned musical personalities as John Adams, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, George Benjamin, Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, Ingolf Dahl, Peter Maxwell Davies, eighth blackbird, Lukas Foss, John Harbison, Oliver Knussen, Kent Nagano, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Igor Stravinsky, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Mitsuko Uchida. Considered a highlight of the summer classical music season, the Ojai Music Festival is a four-day series of concerts, symposia, and auxiliary events set in the idyllic Ojai Valley, known as California's Shangri-la. Located 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles, Ojai Music Festival concerts take place at the newly renovated outdoor Libbey Bowl, on a site held sacred by the Chumash Indians.
A new multi-year residency project in partnership with Cal Performances in Berkeley, Ojai North!, will be launched following the 2011 Ojai Music Festival. Following future Festivals, Ojai Music Festival programs and artists will be in residence on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). The partnership will include annual performances of Ojai concerts in Berkeley, as well as joint commissions and co-productions.
Tickets and Info. The Ojai Music Festival is offering a special TGIF pass for the Fri., June 10 concert starting from $39. The pass includes both the Friday symposium and the evening concert. Single tickets range from $25 to $100 for reserved seating and lawn seating at $15. (Reserved section tickets increase the week of the Festival.) Festival passes are also available ranging from $68 to $320 for five concerts; weekend passes from $57 to $266 for four concerts, and day passes from $25 to $115. Tickets and passes available online at www.OjaiFestival.org or by calling the box office at 805-646-2053.
Festival concerts take place at the new Libbey Bowl at East Ojai Avenue in downtown Ojai. The Friday Symposium is at the Ojai Community Church, 907 El Centro Street.