The final day, Sunday, June 12th: A free Family Concert – Premiere! The International Contemporary Ensemble’s collaboration with the Youth Orchestra of LA at Heart Of LA Symphonic Winds sowed the seeds for this concert of 8 world premieres. “Pa’lante,” composed and conducted by Tania Leon, was a rollicking blend of cultural and musical influences played with gusto by this large grouping of youth and professionals. 4 solo pieces composed by the LA Philharmonic’s Composer Fellows and 2 pieces for wind quartet by Senior Composing Fellows, were performed by members of ICE and highlighted a wide diversity among these young new composers. “CW Rainforest” was composed by members of YOLA at HOLA under the guidance of ICE exploring new visual ways of writing music without using notes, and performed by the YOLA Wind Ensemble. The Mystic Hour III: A U.S. Premiere of “Kopernicus – A Ritual Opera” by Claude Vivier, a work left unfinished at his death at 34. Encounters with many notables such as Lewis Carroll, Merlin, Mozart and Copernicus (naturally) in the next world by the heroine Agni as she transitions from living to dead were performed by Roomful of Teeth and members of ICE, conducted by RoT founding member Eric Dudley . It was all a bit hard to follow for me while shooting, made more so by long passages in an invented (and indecipherable) language. They were musically interesting, but there was a bit too much of it.
Thus came to a close 2016’s Ojai Music Festival at the Libbey Bowl, 3 evenings and 3 days of adventurous and challenging excursions to the outer reaches of the human musical universe. Kudos to music director Peter Sellars and all who made this event happen! Click on images to make larger.
