Modern & Cultural Works to Featured in Ojai Music Festival’s 75th Edition

By Logan Martell

The Ojai Music Festival has announced the 75th edition of its festival will take place in person, running from September 16 through 19, 2021.

The festival program, curated by conductor and Music Director John Adams, will focus on a number of living composers, with their music being featured throughout. Composers include Samuel Carl Adams, Timo Andres, Rhiannon Giddens, Dylan Mattingly, Gabriella Ortiz, Gabriella Smith, and Carlos Simon. Adams will also conduct two chamber orchestra concerts of selections from Debussy, Bach, Gabriella Smith, and Carlos Simon, as well as the premiere of Samuel Carl Adams’ “Chamber Concerto” featuring violinist Miranda Cuckson.

Giddens, who will be making her festival debut, will perform her own works with the Attacca Quartet, as well as appear as a soloist with John Adams. There will be a series of events that explore the culture, music, and cosmology of the indigenous peoples of the Ojai Valley, led by Chumash Elder Julie Tumamait.

As part of their long partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the festival will include a concert by members of the LA Phil New Music Group, with the world premiere of Dylan Mattingly’s “Sunt Lacrimae Rerum.” The work is co-commissioned by the OMF and the LA Philharmonic Association, and is scored for two harps and re-tuned pianos.

The festival will also integrate elements of their year-round BAVO education program. Public school children will be given free workshops by featured artists and composers, as well as the opportunity to perform alongside them at the festival in a free community concert.

“The Ojai Music Festival has always done things differently with its special mix of casual manner and provocative programming,” says Adams in a press release. “Ever since its inception in the days of Stravinsky and Copland it has stood out among music festivals for its celebration of the new.  I am honored to return as Music Director, and I am eager to introduce to our audiences a new generation of composers and performers who give a glimpse of what the future of creativity in music will be. Rhiannon Giddens, Víkingur Ólafsson, Carlos Simon, Gabriella Smith, Gabriella Ortiz, and Samuel Adams are just a few among many who will give this year’s Festival a jolt of energy that will resound in the magnificent setting of the Ojai Valley. It will be a treat not to be missed.”

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