The Ojai Music Festival celebrates collaboration and dialogue across multiple generations of composers and performers, including four World Premieres of works by Susie Ibarra, Tania León, Terry Riley, and Bahar Royaee; two U.S. Premieres by Tania León and Liza Lim; eight West Coast Premieres; residencies by Tania León, Annea Lockwood, Liza Lim, Craig Taborn, Susie Ibarra, Leilehua Lanzilotti, and Marcos Balter; and seminal works by John Coltrane, Julius Eastman, Sofia Gubaidulina, Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, and more
Schedule
FRI 06|06
8:00AM OJAI DAWNS
Zalk Theater, Beasant Hill School
JACK Quartet
Liza LIM Cardamom (US Premiere)
Eduardo AGUILAR HYPER (West Coast premiere)
Tania LEÓN Abanico
Vicente ATRIA Roundabout (West Coast premiere)
Early morning program featuring JACK Quartet with works by Tania León, Liza Lim, and two exciting emerging composers, Vicente Atria and Eduardo Aguilar.
10:30AM PULSING LIFTERS
Libbey Bowl
Alex Peh, harpsichord & keyboard | Cory Smythe and Craig Taborn, piano & keyboards
Terry RILEY Pulsing Lifters (World premiere of new trio arrangement by Alex Peh)
Anna THORVALDSDOTTIR Impressions
John COLTRANE/Cory SMYTHE Countdowns
Craig TABORN + Cory SMYTHE Duo Improvisation for Ojai
A program of works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Cory Smythe, and Craig Taborn that celebrates the old made new in Thorvaldsdottir’s Impressions for harpsichord as well as a summit meeting between two dazzlingly inventive composer/pianists whose worlds encompass jazz, new music, and beyond.
1:00PM OJAI FILMS
Ojai Playhouse
32 Sounds Film by Sam Green
In collaboration with the Ojai Playhouse
3:30PM OJAI AFTERNOONS
Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School
Claire Chase, flute | Levy Lorenzo, electronics | Nicholas Houfek, lighting
Liza LIM Sex Magic (West Coast premiere)
In its West Coast premiere, Australian composer Liza Lim’s Density 2036 contribution Sex Magic for solo contrabass flute and electronics centers Friday afternoon. Inspired by Claire Chase’s towering contrabass flute (Bertha), Sex Magic evokes and celebrates women’s power across time and cultures, evoking the giant bass flutes of Papua New Guinea and the Australian didgeridoo in a work that ritually moves across three altars, creating a mystical, mesmerizing evocation of both the present and the timeless past.
8:00PM THE HOLY LIFTOFF
Libbey Bowl
Leilehua Lanzilotti, viola | Jay Campbell, Katinka Kleijn, Seth Parker Woods, cello | Claire Chase, flute | JACK Quartet | USC Cello Ensemble | Steven Schick, conductor
Leilehua LANZILOTTI ko’u inoa
Sofia GUBAIDULINA Mirage: The Dancing Sun
Julius EASTMAN The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc
Terry RILEY The Holy Liftoff (Realization by Samuel Clay Birmaher)
Music for a “chorus of cellos” by Julius Eastman precede The Holy Liftoff, the most recent work by pioneering American composer Terry Riley, played in Ojai by Claire Chase and the JACK Quartet. Written as a series of musical sketches and brilliantly colored drawings, an exuberant and energized work represents a culmination for Riley, who says “I feel like this piece sums up a lot of things I’ve worked for.”
