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
SUN 06|08
8:00AM MORNING MEDITATION
Chaparral Auditorium
Seth Parker Woods, cello | Ross Karre, percussion | Leilehua Lanzilotti, viola
Leilehua LANZILOTTI the embryology of the heart (excerpt)
Bahar ROYAEE New work for solo percussion (World premiere)
Anna THORVALDSDOTTIR Sola
Free and open to the public
10:30AM RITUALS
Libbey Bowl
Wu Wei, sheng | Alex Peh, piano | Claire Chase, flute | Susie Ibarra and Levy Lorenzo, percussion | JACK Quartet
Modern Medieval (arr. Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman)
Susie IBARRA New work for sheng and percussion (World premiere)
Tania LEÓN Ritual
Susie IBARRA Sky Islands (West Coast premiere)
The JACK Quartet explores Modern/Medieval with music from the 14th to 17th centuries, renewed for contemporary performance by composers/JACK violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman. The program is followed by the West Coast premiere of Susie Ibarra’s Sky Islands, evoking a unique environment of the elevated rain forests in the Philippines with the interlocking rhythms and melodies of Philippine Northern-style bamboo, gong, and flute music, performed on new sound sculptures of gong metals.
12:00PM FAMILY CONCERT
Libbey Park Gazebo
1:00PM OJAI FILMS
Ojai Playhouse
32 Sounds Film by Sam Green
In collaboration with the Ojai Playhouse
2:00-5:00PM HOUSATONIC
Move Sanctuary
Annea LOCKWOOD Housatonic Sound installation
Annea Lockwood’s sound map of the Housatonic River, captured as a four-channel sound installation. Complete cycles of the work begin at 2pm and 3:30pm. Casual drop-ins welcome at any time.
Free and open to the public
2:30PM OJAI AFTERNOONS (repeat performance)
Greenberg Center, Ojai Valley School
Claire Chase, flute | Joshua Rubin, clarinet | Craig Taborn, piano | Susie Ibarra, percussion | Levy Lorenzo, electronics
Craig TABORN Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms
A concert centered on the West Coast premiere of Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms for flute, clarinet, cello, piano, and electronics by the endlessly inventive composer-pianist Craig Taborn. The work is inspired by a dream in which plants awake, blossom, grow, and change as the dreamer walks through a garden.
5:30PM PULSEFIELD
Libbey Bowl
Claire Chase, flute | Festival Artists | Steven Schick, conductor
Leilehua LANZILOTTI ko’u inoa
Pauline OLIVEROS The Witness
Tania LEÓN Singsong (World premiere of solo version)
Terry RILEY Pulsefield 3 (World premiere)
An exuberant all-company 2025 Festival finale includes music by Leilehua Lanzilotti, Pauline Oliveros’s The Witness, and the world premiere of a new version of Tania León’s Singsong adapted for solo flute. The Festival culminates in the world premiere of Terry Riley’s Pulsefield 3, in a joyous celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday.
