CalArtians in 69th Ojai Music Festival

Above: The trailer for the 69th Ojai Music Festival.

This week (June 10-14), Ojai, Calif., hosts the 69th Annual Ojai Music Festival. A number of CalArts musicians are performing at the “adventurous and unpredictable” musical event.

On June 11, New York’s International Contemporary Ensemble, UC San Diego’s red fish blue fish and the CalArts Ensemble—a group composed of students, faculty and alumni—present the West Coast premiere of alumnus and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams’ (Music BFA 73) Sila: The Breath of the World. The 75-minute work positions musicians all over downtown Ojai’s Libbey Park, where audience members are free to roam to listen to different parts of the music.

“It should sound like the park is humming,” says musical director Steven Schick in a recent Los Angeles Times article. Schick is the first percussionist invited to serve as Ojai Music Festival’s director.

Composer and Herb Alpert Award in the Arts winner Julia Wolfe’s string orchestra version of Four Marys also premieres at the fest.

Also among the featured performers is pianist and CalArts faculty Vicki Ray, who performs works by Edgard Varèse, Carlos Chavez, Alberto Ginastera, Olivier Messiaen, Maurice Ravel, Pierre Boulez and Bèla Bartók.

Since its inception in 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has created a place for groundbreaking musical experiences, bringing together innovative artists and curious audiences in an intimate, idyllic setting 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The festival presents broad-ranging programs that embrace the diversity of modern music.