Ojai Music Festival facts for kids

The Ojai Music Festival is a yearly event in Ojai, California, where people celebrate classical music. It happens for four days every June. The festival is known for playing exciting and sometimes unusual music, especially by modern composers. They also find and share older, less known musical pieces.

The main place where the music is played is called the Libbey Bowl. It's an outdoor stage located close to the center of Ojai.

Libbey Bowl, where the festival takes place.

Discovering the Ojai Music Festival

How the Festival Started

Before the music festival began, the Ojai valley was already a popular spot for artists, musicians, and thinkers. In the early 1920s, a group called the Theosophical Society bought land there. This land became home to a respected spiritual thinker named Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Many famous people visited Ojai to hear Krishnamurti speak. These included the composer Igor Stravinsky, actress Greta Garbo, and filmmaker Charles Chaplin. The composer John Cage once wrote about how special the valley felt to him. The beautiful area even inspired the fictional place called Shangri-La in the 1937 movie Lost Horizon.

The festival did not take place in 2020.

The Festival's Beginning

The Ojai Music Festival officially started in 1947. It was founded by John Leopold Jergens Bauer, who loved music. He hoped it would become a big event, like the famous Salzburg Festival in Austria. While it didn't become quite that large, a wonderful music festival still grew.

In the early years, it was easy to attract top musicians and soloists from Hollywood. A newspaper in 1949 described how people enjoyed the festival. There were fancy ladies and people in casual clothes sitting under oak trees, all listening to great music.

Leaders of the Festival

In 1954, Lawrence Morton became the Festival's Artistic Director. He had a wide range of musical tastes and was very curious. He helped shape what the festival would become. Morton was known for bringing new and unusual music to Ojai.

He worked with famous composers like Igor Stravinsky and convinced Aaron Copland to conduct for the first time. He also brought the French composer Pierre Boulez to the festival many times.

Morton believed in trying new things, which sometimes surprised people who preferred more traditional music. He left for a while in 1960, and the festival briefly featured more popular acts. But it quickly returned to its focus on unique and challenging music.

For example, in 1962, the composer Luciano Berio was there. He and other composers discussed the future of music. The amazing jazz musician Eric Dolphy also performed a difficult flute solo that spring.

Under Morton's leadership, the festival started a tradition. Each year, a different music director is chosen. The festival's performances are then planned around that person's ideas.

Nine people have served as Artistic Director:

• Lawrence Morton (1954–1970, 1981–1987)
• Gerhard Samuel (1971–1975)
• William Malloch (1978–1980)
• Jeanette O'Connor (1987–1990)
• Christopher Hunt (1991)
• Ara Guzelimian (1992–1997)
• Ernest Fleischmann (1998–2003)
• Thomas W. Morris (2004–2019)
• Ara Guzelimian (since 2020)

Thomas W. Morris, a past director, preferred not to organize the festival around specific themes. He believed that focusing too much on a theme might mean including music that wasn't the best fit. He wanted the programming to make sense but not be too strict.

Talented Music Directors

The Ojai Music Festival has worked with many highly respected composers, conductors, and musicians. These talented people have served as Music Director, helping to shape each year's program.

Some famous names include:

• Igor Stravinsky
• Aaron Copland
• Pierre Boulez
• Michael Tilson Thomas
• John Adams
• Peter Sellars
• Esa-Pekka Salonen
• Simon Rattle
• Rhiannon Giddens

In recent years, skilled instrumentalists have also been Music Directors. These include pianists like Emanuel Ax and Mitsuko Uchida, and the Emerson String Quartet.

Artists and Musicians at the Festival

Many other amazing artists have been part of the festival. These include composers like Luciano Berio and Olivier Messiaen. More recently, composers such as Steve Reich and Thomas Ades have been featured.

A wide variety of musicians have performed at Ojai. These include jazz musician Eric Dolphy, sitar player Ravi Shankar, and opera singers like Dawn Upshaw. Sol Babitz, the festival's first concertmaster, was a friend of Igor Stravinsky. His knowledge of early music even influenced Stravinsky.

During the 1970s and 1980s, jazz music was a big part of every festival. Great jazz artists like Oscar Peterson and Milt Jackson performed.

Since 1970, the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra has often played at the festival. Other well-known orchestras have also visited, such as the Cleveland Orchestra. The "Ojai Festival Orchestra" is made up of very talented local musicians. They have been a key part of the festival for many years.

Many smaller music groups, called chamber groups, have also performed. These include the Juilliard String Quartet and the Kronos Quartet. The festival has also featured music from different cultures, like Indian music, mariachi, and West African drum music.

Beyond musicians, the festival has welcomed visual artists and performers. These include the potter Beatrice Wood and theater director Peter Sellars. For many years, famous modern artists like David Hockney designed the festival posters.

The New Libbey Bowl

The original Libbey Bowl was built by local volunteers in 1957. After a big community effort, the old building was taken down in July 2010.

The new Libbey Bowl opened for the 65th Music Festival in June 2011. It has better sound, stronger construction, and is more environmentally friendly. It still looks like the familiar, rustic outdoor stage that people loved.

See also

In Spanish: Festival Musical de Ojai para niños