A renovated venue, a guest music director, a world premiere, a jazz composer and a world-renowned theater director will converge in Ojai this week for the 65th annual Ojai Music Festival.
The Libbey Bowl, in Libbey Park in downtown Ojai on a site held sacred by the Chumash Indians, has been rebuilt. A daylong celebration of the new outdoor stage is happening today with a free community event.
"It's gorgeous, I have to say," says Tom Morris, artistic director of the festival, rejoicing about the new facility.
Morris chooses each year's guest music director and then they work together to fashion the festival program.
"I chose (soprano) Dawn (Upshaw) about three-plus years ago. I look for someone who has very broad musical tastes, loves people and is full of curiosity and adventure," Morris says.
"Very quickly we came to this idea that we should showcase the various aspects of her artistic personality - Dawn as a singer, actress, advocate for new and interesting projects, collaborator and teacher. Then, as collaborators, Peter Sellars comes immediately to mind, Maria Schneider comes to mind, the Australian Chamber Orchestra comes to mind, and all of a sudden you have a bunch of elements.
"You start building anchor projects and the festival program gradually gets filled out. The notion of each year's music director as sort of a nexus leading to other artists or music is absolutely the way I like to work with them."
Sellars lends his unique and universally acclaimed directorial talents to the world premiere of the staged production of George Crumb's setting of Civil War songs, "The Winds of Destiny." Upshaw will take part in the production and it will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday.
Crumb doesn't travel much anymore, but Morris discloses, "Well, actually, we just learned he is coming. It's wonderful. He's very intrigued with this production. It's going to be very special ... . This is one of the senior composers of our time."
Sellars, speaking from Vienna, gives specifics: "A lot of the songs that George Crumb has set are songs of deep consolation, of trying to heal the wounds of a deep divide.
"I hear the music as this real soundtrack for post-traumatic stress that so many of our returning soldiers from Afghanistan are experiencing, where you hear all kinds of noises, sounds, and you are alternately alarmed or lulled and ... disoriented. That it is set for a woman puts the focus on the special situation of female soldiers in the Army right now."
Sellars talks about the effect on his audience. "That's what I love about what we get to do ... . People have very different reactions. My shows are never about telling people what to think, just creating space where they could think. And that part of Crumb's music which is pure magic will be beautiful under a night sky," followed by Afghan music performed by legendary Afghan singer Ustad Farida Mahwash and the Sakhi Ensemble.
The famed director muses about Upshaw, who sings and portrays the female soldier: "It's hard to imagine a more beautiful, more powerful, more quintessential American artist. I've been able to work with Dawn now for about 20 years, some of the great musical experiences of my lifetime. So we're embarking on another one!"
The festival's other world premiere, "Winter Morning Walks," was composed for Upshaw by the jazz and classical composer and conductor Schneider. It will be performed at 5:30 p.m. June 12.
"It's really music of the moment - each time it's done it will be different," says Schneider on the phone from New York. "This is the second piece I've written for her and I'm really excited about it because I made a piece that's really a collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and features three musicians from my own orchestra that I've worked with for many years" (Frank Kimbro, Jay Anderson and Scott Robinson).
"There are elements of improvisation interweaving in and out of the piece, and in and around Dawn and the orchestra. I just love Dawn, I just love the tone of Dawn's voice, I love the way she expresses words; just a magnificent musician."
Schneider adds, "The Australian Chamber Orchestra (led by Richard Tognetti) is a perfect group to do this with. They perform a lot of different styles and are used to playing together without a conductor, so they have to be great listeners - what this piece really needs. My music is accessible; not highly complex but not simplistic either. It's got a lot of detail, a lot of development. The strongest influence in this music was the poetry."
The poetry was by Ted Koozer, and Schneider describes it this way:
"They're just little vignettes of morning walks in the Midwest. Ted's from Iowa; I'm from Minnesota. The poetry just completely inspired me and I think Dawn loves the poetry too, as do my players. The imagery is just extraordinary and it's very touching in a very deep and human way."
With eight festivals under his belt, Morris reflects on his philosophy as artistic director: "I never think of how to do it better. I think of how to do it differently. You do the very best you can.
"I think the degree of adventure, variety and unpredictability is important, the only limitation (being that) of imagination. It's amazing what you can do."
Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18206326?source=rss
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