Advertisement

Ojai Music Festival names future music directors, including Leif Ove Andsnes and Mark Morris

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Each year, the Ojai Music Festival selects a new music director whose job is to choose the programming for the annual new-music event held in the hills of Ventura County. Soprano Dawn Upshaw will lead this year’s festival, which will take place June 9 to 12. For the following three festivals, organizers have announced that pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, choreographer Mark Morris and pianist Jeremy Denk will serve as music directors for 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Andsnes will lead next year’s festival, which is scheduled to take place June 7 to 10, 2012. The pianist has chosen to collaborate with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotjin, pianist Marc-André Hamelin, conductor-composer Reinbert DeLeeuw, clarinetist Martin Frøst and actress Barbara Sukowa.

Advertisement

The Ojai Music Festival focuses on contemporary and cutting-edge works by composers both living and dead. The festival is run by Thomas W. Morris, who is the artistic director.

This year’s festival, curated by Upshaw, will feature a staging of George Crumb’s ‘Winds of Destiny (American Songbook IV),’ directed by Peter Sellars; a new commission by American composer Maria Schneider; and performances of music by music by Leos Janácek, Peter Sculthorpe, Beethoven and Prokofiev.

Past music directors at Ojai include John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pierre Boulez, Michael Tilson Thomas and the group eighth blackbird.

RELATED:

Ojai Music Festival announces 2011 lineup

Music review: Leif Ove Andsnes and Christian Tetzlaff at Disney Hall

Music review: Jeremy Denk makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut with Gustavo Dudamel

Advertisement

-- David Ng

Photo (top): Leif Ove Andsnes. Credit: Los Angeles Philharmonic

Photo (bottom): Dawn Upshaw. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Advertisement