Ojai Music Festival

During the 2023 season, the 77th festival, june 6 to 11, 2023, was led by pulitzer prize winning composer and grammy winning musician rhiannon giddens as music director. Together with festival artistic and executive director ara guzelimian, giddens' programs touched on many of her interests across musical genres, from baroque music to black traditions in american roots music, from classical music from china and persia to the influence of non-western music on american contemporary works. To ensure the festival reaches a far wider audience outside of libbey bowl, free live streaming of the mainstage concerts were made available on the festival'Festivals's website as well as throughout the year along with other archived festival seasons.the festival continued providing free online offerings including the ojaicast podcast and virtual Ojai talks to further engage with patrons. These sessions with 2023 festival artists gave participants an opportunity to learn about the festival repertoire and programs and enjoy music via the virtual world. The festival'Festivals's celebrated bravo music education program continued to serve Ojai public elementary schools with free workshops, interactive demonstrations, and concerts. During the school year, bravo served 3575 students. Thanks to continued funding, bravo presented its artists-in-residence program led by six local area musicians going into the classrooms. Spring programs included the imagine concert at libbey bowl for upper elementary students who enjoy a live concert with professional musicians and music van, organized by bravo volunteers, which visited eight schools allowing students to try different musical instruments. During the summer, bravo continues with two art & music camps led by bravo teachers and volunteers where children learn in an interactive environment of music, movement, and art. Another aspect of bravo is "bridge" where students visit local senior retirement homes and share music through songs and games with the residents.the festival'Festivals's celebrated bravo music education program was able to begin safe in-person workshops and classes in Ojai public elementary schools. Through its education through music program 660 students in all six elementary schools were served. Thanks to additional funding, bravo launched an artists-in-residence program. It also brought back the imagine concert held at the libbey bowl in the spring of 2022. This was the first time for many upper elementary students to see a live performance since the pandemic. In the fall of 2021, the Ojai music festival'Festivals's second ppp loan was forgiven. The organization was a grant recipient of the California svog (shuttered venue operators grant) receiving $225,000 and was grateful to receive a ventura county grant to assist with funding the festival'Festivals's covid-safety protocol expenses. Even through the challenges of the pandemic, the board of directors, under the leadership of chair jerry eberhardt, took upon the goal to continue working on a comprehensive campaign to ensure the future of the festival. This "future forward" campaign was supported by the board with 100% commitment before the end of the year. The three pillars of the campaign are supporting new artistic programs and works, growth of the bravo education program, and expansion of online initiatives. Through the board's continued efforts, the festival was also able to retire the festival'Festivals's line of credit by the end of august 2022, and the board approved moving $225,000 in the festival'Festivals's endowment. In recent months, the festival also paid off the commercial loan with bank of sierra. The festival has now retired all debts. The 77th Ojai music festival took place june 8 to 11, 2023 and welcomed grammy-winning musician and composer rhiannon giddens as music director. Programs touched on giddens' interests across musical boundaries, from opera and baroque music to black traditions in american roots music, from the classical traditions of music from china and persia to the influence of non-western music on american contemporary music. A few of the concert pillars included the world premiere of omar's journey, an ojai-commissioned work for voices and chamber ensemble drawn from the pulitzer prize winning opera omar; a reimagining of tan dun's pioneering ghost opera; and a performance of carlos simon's between worlds. Featured artists were kayhan kalhor, steven schick, francesco turrisi, wu man, members of the silkroad ensemble, and attacca quartet.