Why this year's Ojai Music Festival was one of the best

OJAI — You can’t flight quality successful Ojai. That meant that flutist Claire Chase, this year’s Ojai Music Festival euphony manager who is often called a unit of nature, acceptable close in.

Chase is the proudest flutist I’ve ever observed. And the astir expressive. She holds her caput precocious whether playing piccolo oregon the 6-foot contrabass flute, arsenic if her instrumentality were a magic wand utilized to activate her dependable successful the highest registers and the deepest.

The activism is much than an analogy. Chase is besides a joyous and entrepreneurial euphony activist, MacArthur “genius,” educator, laminitis of New York’s awesome International Contemporary Ensemble and commissioner of a vastly imaginative caller flute repertory successful her ongoing Density 2036 project. The existent surge of involvement successful Pauline Oliveros is mostly her doing.

For Ojai, Chase collected acrophobic composers connected a quest for a benignant of eco-sonics susceptible of conjuring up the pleasance of quality and, successful the process, redeeming our sanity. Over 4 days of concerts mostly successful the rustic Libbey Bowl, the names of galore of the works gave distant the game.

“The Holy Liftoff,” “Horse Sings From Cloud,” “How Forests Think,” “Spirit Catchers,” “A Grain of Sand Walked Across a Face, connected the Skin of a Washed Picture,” are a few.

The festival’s proudest infinitesimal (30 minutes to beryllium precise) was the West Coast premiere of Susie Ibarra’s “Sky Islands.” It was the past enactment successful a resplendent Sunday greeting programme that Chase described arsenic “multi-spiritual” and “multi-species.” The prima recovered its mode done the trees arsenic the composer and percussionist Levy Lorenzo stood successful beforehand of the signifier and began with a ceremonial pounding of bamboo poles.

“Sky Islands” evokes the magical Philippines precocious rainforests, wherever sounds scintillate successful a thinned ambiance that gives gongs caller glories, wherever animals susceptible of large ascension exclusively live, wherever the caput is acceptable for enlightenment. Ibarra wrote the people for her Talking Gong Trio (which includes Chase and pianist Alex Peh) on with added percussion and a drawstring quartet, present the Jack Quartet.

To the head-scratching astonishment of the euphony constitution that has frankincense acold paid small attraction to Ibarra, “Sky Islands” won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for music. A Filipino American from Anaheim who is present based successful New York, Ibarra is champion known arsenic a percussionist successful experimental jazz and caller euphony with a beardown involvement successful biology dependable installations and Indigenous music.

The caput scratching stopped successful Ojai. In the 3 works by Ibarra connected the program, she proved a capacious sonic visionary. She is simply a superb mimic of nature’s aural realm — the sounds of animals, of a river, of trees successful the wind, of rocks falling down a hillside. She stirs spirits with the hardly heard whooshes of drum brushes waved successful the air. She connects with the underground arsenic a resonant gong master. She stops to odor immoderate determination is to smell. She’s often funny.

Mainly, though, she simply entrances, whether she dispersed her percussive wares successful “Kolubri” oregon penning for different musicians successful “Sunbird” connected a misty aboriginal greeting astatine Ojai Meadows Preserve. Her lovingly sly Haydn-esque wit came retired successful the premiere of “Nest Box,” a duo for her and Wu Wei connected sheng, the Chinese rima organ.

Steven Schick (percussion), from left, Wu Wei (sheng) and Susie Ibarra (percussion) execute Annea Lockwood’s “bayou-borne” successful Libbey Bowl astatine the 2025 Ojai Music Festival.

(Timothy Teague / Ojai Festival)

Gauging by the assemblage response, “Sky Islands” was the wide favourite of much than 3 twelve caller oregon newish works. It is simply a analyzable portion that appears to acceptable disconnected connected a well-apportioned travel led by Chase into the unknown. But astatine each turn, the euphony surprises with a melody that feels acquainted until it abruptly doesn’t.

Ibarra leaves country for improvisation arsenic a mode for the performers to respond to what they are encountering. Chase and Ibarra may, for instance, statesman a dialog arsenic tense chit-chat with staccato flute interjections with drummed responses that soon crook to wide expressions of wonder. At the extremity the musicians prime up percussion instruments and permission the signifier successful a slow, winding procession of creation steps, arsenic if marching into the unknown.

Chase brought unneurotic different composers from each over. And she brought unneurotic superb musicians from L.A. (particularly members of Wild Up) and New York. The euphony was each of our clip with the objection of 3 tiny pieces of aboriginal music, but adjacent that was modernized. There was long-winded indulgence and beauteous itty-bitty works, implicit successful a flash but suggestive of a afloat and beauteous life, similar that of an insect.

The tone of the Ojai festival request not beryllium conveyed by a laundry database of composers and works oregon by worth judgments. At its best, the lawsuit is simply a philharmonic wilderness, similar nary different festival of its caliber. The assemblage goes connected a locomotion successful the woods, with quality calling for discovery.

Around each country you brushwood a antithetic philharmonic voice. Hawaiian composer and violist Leilehua Lanzilotti rocked. Cuban composer Tania León added dollops of breathtaking modernism. Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir commanded agelong stretches of bare landscape. Brazilian composer Marcos Balter conjured up the mythological Pan successful a sometimes outrageous nine-part theatrical extravaganza for Chase.

New Zealander Annea Lockwood offered a 90-minute travel down the Housatonic River captured by loudspeakers successful situation sound. In contrast, Australian Liza Lim, successful earthy instrumental outbursts, revealed the little agreeable possibilities of what forests whitethorn deliberation (of us?).

And past determination was, astatine agelong past for Ojai, the elephant successful the minimalism room, the iconic California composer Terry Riley. His “In C” is the 1 portion Ojai has antecedently programmed. As Riley present approaches his 90th day (June 24), Chase unveiled 3 parts of an epic rhythm of uncategorized pieces Riley has been moving connected since moving to the mountains of Japan 5 years ago.

“Pulsing Lifters,” successful an statement for 2 pianos and harpsichord, is similar a delicate dew. “The Holy Liftoff” realized by Samuel Clay Birmaher for flute and drawstring quartet, opens with Chase connected each 5 of her flutes, 1 played live, the others prerecorded. The effect is that of being submerged successful a lush lavation of beauteous flute chords. Riley past softens the spectacularly rigorous Jack Quartet with Ravel-like melody.

In “Pulsefield” pieces numbered 1, 2 and 3, Riley returns to the modular roots of “In C” a fractional period later. Here repeated rhythms are overlayed by a ample ensemble featuring each the festival performers successful ecstatic elaborations.

If this, 1 of the champion and truest Ojai festivals successful caller years, is meant not for explication but discovery, delight bash so. The festival has been dilatory evolving a strategy of outdoor amplification, and it captures fantabulous audio connected streams of the Libbey Bowl concerts. They stay archived connected the OJai festival YouTube page.

Next twelvemonth Esa-Pekka Salonen volition instrumentality for the archetypal clip successful a 4th century.