New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The 75th Ojai
Music Festival takes place this week,
September 16-19, with events led by 2021
Music Director John Adams, the Ojai debuts of Rhiannon Giddens and Attacca Quartet, and the return of Timo Andres all streaming for free live from the Libbey Bowl in Ojai, California. You can tune in to the program, including the following selections featuring the aforementioned artists, and find the complete schedule at ojaifestival.org.
THURSDAY
• 9pm PDT. Attacca Quartet helps kick things off, taking part in the multi-artist Prelude to a Festival, which includes Timo Andres's Early to Rise and more.
FRIDAY
• 11am PDT. Attacca Quartet returns the following morning to join Rhiannon Giddens for a program of her songs and works John Adams, Caroline Shaw, and others.
• 8pm PDT. John Adams conducts the Ojai Festival Orchestra in works by Timo Andres, Ingram Marshall, Samuel Adams, Debussy, Bach, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
SATURDAY
• 10:15am PDT. The day begins with a brief interview with John Adams, preceding a recital by pianist Víkingur Ólafsson.
• 8pm PDT. Rhiannon Giddens is joined by Francesco Turrisi and
Friends for a program of songs from their new album, They're
Calling Me Home. The album was recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ireland, when the two expats found themselves drawn to and comforted by the music of their native and adoptive countries of America, Italy, and Ireland. The result is a twelve-song album that speaks to the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical call "home" of death.
SUNDAY
• 8am PDT. Timo Andres performs songs from I Still Play, an album of new solo piano compositions by artists who have recorded for Nonesuch Records, written in honor of the label's longtime President Bob Hurwitz on the occasion of his 2017 shift into the Chairman Emeritus role. The album and program feature the title piece by John Adams, Andres's own Wise Words, and works by Laurie Anderson, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, Steve Reich, and more.
• 11am PDT. LA Phil New
Music Group perform John Adams's Hallelujah Junction and more.
• 5:30pm. For the Festival Finale, Rhiannon Giddens and pianist Víkingur Ólafsson join Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and conductor John Adams performing selections from Adams's Doctor Atomic and I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Sw the Sky, and more.
