KUSC Newsletter June 2009

A Wild Musical Party

by Tim Munro

Get the original article, or see more details about the Ojai Festival

Eighth blackbird was named Music Director of the 2009 Ojai Festival way back in the summer of 2006. This was shockingly, overwhelmingly, nerve-rattlingly unexpected. Taking the reins of the Festival, we would be stepping into the shoes of some giants of 20th-century music, including Stravinsky, Copland, Boulez, and the Emerson Quartet. The weight of tradition has remained on the back of our minds throughout the process, but so has the “kids-in-a-candy-store” feeling: “Those crazy Ojai folks are giving us a whole festival? Woo-hoo!”.

Our first programming meeting with Ojai’s artistic director Thomas W. Morris in September 2006 was chaotic. Conversations collided, overlapped, intersected; megalomaniacal plans and utopian visions were hatched; hundreds of programs were planned. We all agreed the Festival should reflect the character of eighth blackbird, and two overarching ideas were settled upon: present unique, unexpected, groundbreaking chamber music experiences; and, make the Festival a wild, no-holds-barred musical party.

“Groundbreaking chamber music”? The Festival would expand the traditional definition of chamber music to include all of the bizarre things that we do as a 21st-century new music band: chamber-sized music theater (the world premiere of Rinde Eckert/Steve Mackey’s Slide); the collision of dance and small ensemble (Mark deChiazza’s radical new Pierrot Lunaire); unconducted “super-ensembles” (Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians; David Gordon’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Quasi-Sinfonia; Andriessen’s raucous, pedal-to-the-metal Worker’s Union).

“A wild musical party”? By cramming a diverse group of the country’s best musicians in close proximity, we would encourage cross-pollination, turning Ojai 2009 into a weekend-long jam session, concluding with a “marathon” concert that will be a rollicking good time for all!

There are good reasons that the designation “Music Director” is typically used in its singular form. Artistic decisions made by committee can be stilted, bureaucratic, compromised. This is where Tom Morris, former Executive Director of the Cleveland Orchestra and one of America’s most experienced orchestral “thinkers,” was essential. We met with him every few months until early 2009, and during the meetings he played many roles with ease and gusto: supportive dad (“That’s a great idea – nice work!”); experienced diplomat (“You both have interesting ideas, we just need to find the right place for them”); football coach (“OK guys, we’ve done solid work so far, but we still have a big job ahead of us”); the voice of reason (“I really think that is too much work for you”). He resolved inevitable disputes, massaged our egos, and focused our minds on the task at hand.

From the outset, we wanted Slide as the centerpiece of Ojai 2009. This project, eight years in the making, reunites prize-winning collaborators Rinde Eckert and Steve Mackey, who have created an ambitious night of “concert-theater” in which all eight performers speak, sing, play instruments, and take roles in this poignant drama. Eckert plays Renard, a psychologist whose 40-year-old experiment into perception and reality still haunts him.

Other highlights from Ojai 2009? The world premiere of a new production of Schoenberg’s tragicomic masterpiece Pierrot Lunaire, in which director Mark DeChiazza uses dance and gesture to connect to the human core of this bizarre, fascinating work. We will also perform Steve Reich’s new Pulitzer Prize-winner: the Double Sextet.

We have invited more than 20 of our favorite friends and collaborators to join us at the Festival, including the brilliant pianist Jeremy Denk, genre-bending ensemble Tin Hat, legendary soprano Lucy Shelton, surprising recorder quartet QNG, superstar guitarist/ composer Steve Mackey, rising Aussie star flutist Alexis Kenny, and a battery of amazing percussionists.

After three years of dreaming and scheming, the craziness of Ojai 2009 is almost upon us. I do hope you’ll join us for our wild musical thrill-ride!

Flutist Tim Munro is a member of eighth blackbird.