The Ojai Music Festival has announced that pianist/conductor Mitsuko Uchida will be the Music Director for its 2024 Festival, which is set to take place June 6 to 9, 2024.

Uchida previously performed at the 1998 and 2004 Festivals.

“We are so delighted to announce the eagerly awaited return of Mitsuko Uchida to the Ojai Music Festival. Mitsuko is one of the most revered musicians of our time, imparting everything she plays with profound insight and commitment.  It is a particular joy for me to work with Mitsuko, given our long-standing friendship and collaborations over the years,” said Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian in an official press statement. “We are also thrilled to welcome back the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom she has built a deep partnership over many years. In addition to the MCO, Mitsuko has invited a number of guest artists closely associated with her over the years at Vermont’s legendary Marlboro Festival, where she is Co-Artistic Director — clarinetist Anthony McGill, soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, violinist Alexi Kenney, and the Brentano String Quartet. We promise a characteristic Ojai mix of the new and old, the expected and the unexpected.”

The 2024 Festival will also see the return of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO), which previously appeared at the 2018 Festival with Music Director Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Joining Uchida and the MCO at the 2024 Festival will be soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, clarinetist Anthony McGill, the Brentano String Quartet, and violinist Alexi Kenney, who performed at the 75th Festival with Music Director John Adams.

The programming will include works by Gyorgy Kurtag, Kaija Saariaho, Angelica Negron, Kate Soper, Salina Fisher, and Arnold Schoenberg, honoring the 150th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth.

More details about the 2024 Festival will be shared in the fall of 2023. Meanwhile, the upcoming 77th Festival with Music Director Rhiannon Giddens is set to take place from June 8 to 11, 2023.