2026 Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian announce full programming for the eightieth Festival: June 11 to 14, 2026 – Ojai Music Festival

2026 Festival Highlights Include:

• A give attention to Esa-Pekka Salonen as a composer together with the U.S. premiere of his new work for violin and cello and the primary full efficiency of his Six Preludes for piano, alongside music by his lecturers Franco Donatoni, Niccolò Castiglioni, and Vinko Globokar, in addition to by mates and colleagues Steven Stucky, Witold Lutosławski, Magnus Lindberg, Oliver Knussen, Kaija Saariaho, and John Adams, whose quartet Iron Jig will obtain its world premiere
• Additional featured works by Salonen embody his Arabesques for Olly, Homunculus, kínēma, Lachen verlernt, and Fog; Salonen conducts the Friday, Saturday and Sunday night concert events
• The Ojai Festival acknowledges defining musical figures of Ojai’s first 80 years, together with Igor Stravinsky and Olivier Messiaen, giants of 20^th century music Luciano Berio, George Crumb, Morton Feldman, György Ligeti, Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis, that includes their music all through the Festival alongside works by Shye Ben Tzur,  Bryce Dessner, Reena Esmail, Brian Ferneyhough, Jonny Greenwood, Michael Ippolito, David Lang, Alvin Lucier, Jessie Montgomery, Radiohead, Rajasthan Express, Gabriella Smith, and Anna Thorvaldsdóttir
• The 2026 Ojai Festival options the Southern California new music scene and Salonen’s shut associations, together with LA Phil New Music Group, Colburn Orchestra, and L.A. Dance Project, and welcomes Attacca Quartet; clarinetist Anthony  McGill;  violinists Leila Josefowicz and Geneva Lewis; cellist Jay Campbell; conductors Aleksandra Melaniuk and Mert Yalniz; pianists Conor Hanick, John Novacek, Todd Moellenberg, and Aron Kallay; vocalists Bridget Esler and Eric Finbarr Carey; flutist Rose Lombardo; percussionist Jonathan Hepfer; and accordionist Hanzhi Wang

“The tradition of the Ojai Music Festival is that there is no tradition other than that people can do things that they wouldn’t be able to do elsewhere. Ojai invites us to dream, and it’s a place where dreams can become reality.”  – Esa-Pekka Salonen

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(Ojai CA – March 24, 2026) – Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian announce programming and inventive collaborators for the 80^th Ojai Music Festival, June 11 to 14, 2026.  The upcoming Festival focuses on many dimensions of Salonen’s inventive life.

“Esa-Pekka Salonen is one of the most vibrant and adventurous creative forces in our musical world,” mentioned Ara Guzelimian. “It has been an absolute joy to dream up programs together that focus on numerous personal dimensions—his work as composer and conductor, his rich associations with and remarkable history in Los Angeles, the formative influence of his teachers and the giant musical figures of 20^th century music, his deep friendships with many peer composers, and his championing of a new generation of composers. Our work together dates back to his earliest days at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and it’s deeply meaningful to me that I conclude my own tenure at Ojai with such a happy reunion!”

Central to his musical life, the 2026 Ojai Music Festival will characteristic works by Salonen together with the U.S. premiere of his new work for violin and cello with Geneva Lewis and Conor Hanick and the primary full efficiency of his Six Preludes for piano with Conor Hanick. Salonen’s works stand alongside these of his lecturers Franco Donatoni, Niccolò Castiglioni, and Vinko Globokar, in addition to these by mates and colleagues Steven Stucky, Witold Lutosławski, Magnus Lindberg, Oliver Knussen, Kaija Saariaho, and John Adams, whose Iron Jig will obtain its world premiere by the Attacca Quartet. Additional featured works by Salonen will embody his Arabesques for Olly, Homunculus, kínēma, Lachen verlernt, and Fog. Salonen will conduct three night weekend concert events in Libbey Bowl.   

The 2026 Festival will acknowledge defining musical figures of its first 80 years, together with Igor Stravinsky and Olivier Messiaen, each of whom took half memorably within the Festival (Stravinsky in 1955 and 1956, Messiaen in 1985). Giants of 20^th century music are featured all through the Festival, together with Luciano Berio, George Crumb, Morton Feldman, György Ligeti, Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis. Evening concert events on the Libbey Bowl can be anchored by Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), and the Festival will conclude with Stravinsky’s Pulcinella (full ballet).  Standing alongside these seminal figures of the final century can be works by composers of immediately together with Shye Ben Tzur, Bryce Dessner, Reena Esmail, Brian Ferneyhough, Jonny Greenwood, Michael Ippolito, David Lang, Alvin Lucier, Jessie Montgomery, Radiohead, Rajasthan Express, Gabriella Smith, and Anna Thorvaldsdóttir.

The resident ensembles will rejoice Esa-Pekka Salonen’s longstanding ties to Los Angeles, together with his transformative tenure as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. At Ojai, he can be joined by members of the LA Phil New Music Group in a singular program tailor-made particularly for the Ojai Festival. The ensemble final performed in Ojai in September 2021, the place this system curated by that 12 months’s Music Director John Adams included Salonen’s objet trouvés. 

Salonen has lengthy had a robust inventive relationship with the Colburn School, the place he serves as Head of Conducting and leads the Negaunee Conducting Program. The 2026 Ojai Festival will see Salonen lead the Colburn Orchestra in two concert events, marking the ensemble’s Ojai debut. Also making their first Ojai look is the L.A. Dance Project (Artistic Director Benjamin Millepied) in a premiere program of dances set to Luciano Berio’s Sequenzas. The Attacca Quartet can be returning to Ojai after acclaimed visits in 2021 on the invitation of John Adams, and in 2023, collaborating with that 12 months’s Music Director Rhiannon Giddens. Passionate advocates of up to date repertoire, the quartet contains violinists Amy Schroeder, Domenic Salerni, violist Nathan Schram, and cellist Andrew Yee.

Celebrated 2026 Festival artists will embody Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, the place he was soloist in that orchestra’s 2023 efficiency of Salonen’s concerto kínēma with the composer conducting, a partnership that can be renewed at Ojai.  Violinists Leila Josefowicz and Geneva Lewis (each former Colburn School college students); cellist Jay Campbell; conductors Aleksandra Melaniuk and Mert Yalniz; pianists Conor Hanick, John Novacek, Todd Moellenberg, and Aron Kallay; soprano Bridget Esler; tenor Eric Finbarr Carey; flutist Rose Lombardo; percussionist Jonathan Hepfer; and accordionist Hanzhi Wang comprise the 2026 Festival’s household of artists.

The 2026 Festival additionally marks the conclusion of Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian’s defining tenure. His present tenure started with the digital 74^th Festival in June 2020 with Music Director Matthias Pintscher and continued in particular person in September 2021 with that 12 months’s Music Director John Adams. That was adopted by Music Directors AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company), Rhiannon Giddens, Mitsuko Uchida, and Claire Chase. Guzelimian had additionally served as Ojai’s Artistic Director from 1992 to 1997, working carefully with Festival Music Directors Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Kent Nagano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Emanuel Ax. Conductor/composer/pianist Teddy Abrams was named Ojai’s subsequent Artistic and Executive Director efficient September 1, 2026, along with his first Festival to be the 81st Festival in June 2027. He will be part of the ranks of such distinguished predecessors as Guzelimian, Thomas W. Morris, Ernest Fleischmann, and Lawrence Morton.

COMMUNITY OFFERINGS
An integral a part of the immersive Ojai Festival expertise are the free neighborhood occasions in Libbey Park and all through Ojai. The 2026 schedule will embody two “Morning Meditations.” On Saturday, June 13 on the Ojai Meadows Preserve, in a collaboration with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, the free occasion will characteristic bird-inspired music by Franco Donatoni and Olivier Messiaen for solo winds that includes 2026 artists. On Sunday, June 14 at Chaparral Auditorium, the Morning Meditation with Geneva Lewis (violin) and Jay Campbell (cello) will characteristic music of Kajia Saariaho, Ravel, and others.  The annual free household live performance can be led by the Ojai Festival’s BRAVO music schooling program and can happen on Sunday following the Libbey Bowl morning live performance.

OJAI FILMS
The Ojai Music Festival will welcome the return of showcasing movies through the weekend on the not too long ago transformed state-of-the-art Ojai Playhouse. The 2026 movie collection will characteristic three movies curated by Esa-Pekka Salonen. 

OJAI TALKS
The 2026 Festival will start with Ojai Talks on Thursday, June 11. The talks can be in two elements: first, a panel with featured artists moderated by Ojai on the Air with WQXR/New Sounds host John Schaefer adopted by a dialog between Ara Guzelimian and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Additional on-site dialogue through the Festival will embody Ojai Chats, the post-concert discussions on the Libbey Park Gazebo with Festival artists.

BEYOND OJAI: DIGITAL OFFERINGS
The Ojai Music Festival lives past the flagship four-day pageant in June, permitting additional engagement with audiences worldwide. Free choices embody the Festival’s state-of-the-art stay streaming and archived library of concert events, Virtual Ojai Talks with featured 2026 Festival artists, and OjaiSolid, the podcast collection that gives insights on upcoming programming. The Festival’s digital tasks can be found at OjaiFestival.org.

Ojai on the Air with WQXR/New Sounds host John Schaefer continues this 12 months. The collection of packages connects audiences and artists who interact deeply with adventurous new music. Sign up for the New Sounds publication to remain knowledgeable about Ojai on the Air dates at NewSounds.org.

For the complete and updated 2026 Festival schedule, go to OjaiFestival.org.

ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, 2026 MUSIC DIRECTOR
Esa-Pekka Salonen, who beforehand collaborated with the Ojai Music Festival as Music Director for the 1999 and 2001 Festivals, is famend as each a composer and conductor. He was not too long ago named Creative Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, efficient 2026–27, and Creativity and Innovation Chair of the Philharmonie de Paris and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre de Paris, efficient 2027–28. He is the Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and previously served as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony. He is a school member at Los Angeles’s Colburn School, the place he based and directs the Negaunee Conducting Program. Salonen co-founded, and till 2018 served because the Artistic Director of, the annual Baltic Sea Festival.

Salonen started the present season on a tour with the Orchestre de Paris centered on the premiere of his new Horn Concerto. He later brings the piece to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Other conducting highlights embody a pair of Pierre Boulez centennial packages on the New York Philharmonic, residencies with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Bergen International Festival, and dates with the LA Phil, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris. He concludes the season on the Ojai Music Festival, which he curates because the 2026 Music Director.

Salonen conducts a number of of his compositions this season, together with Tiu and Dona Nobis Pacem with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and his Sinfonia concertante with Olivier Latry and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. His music can also be programmed, with different conductors, at orchestras and ensembles all over the world.

Salonen has an intensive and various recording profession, each as a conductor and composer. Recent releases embody the GRAMMY® Award-winning (Best Opera Recording) world premiere recording of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater on Deutsche Grammophon, recordings of Bartók’s three piano concertos with Pierre-Laurent Aimard on Pentatone, in addition to spatial audio recordings of Ligeti’s Clocks and Clouds, Lux Aeterna, and Ramifications on Apple Music Classical. His concertos for piano (composed for Yefim Bronfman), violin (for Leila Josefowicz, featured in an advert marketing campaign for the Apple iPad), and cello (for Yo-Yo Ma) all seem on recordings carried out by Salonen himself.

ARA GUZELIMIAN, ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Ara Guzelimian is Artistic and Executive Director of the Ojai Music Festival, having been appointed to that place in July 2020. The appointment culminates a few years of affiliation with the Festival, together with tenures as director of the Ojai Talks on the Festival and as Artistic Director 1992-97.

Guzelimian stepped down as Provost and Dean of the Juilliard School in New York City in June 2020, having served in that place since 2007. At Juilliard, he labored carefully with the president in overseeing the college, curriculum, and inventive planning of the distinguished performing arts conservatory in all three of its divisions – dance, drama, and music. He continues at Juilliard within the function of Special Advisor.

Prior to the Juilliard appointment, he was Senior Director and Artistic Advisor of Carnegie Hall from 1998 to 2006. Guzelimian serves as inventive advisor for the Marlboro Music Festival and School in Vermont. He is a member of the steering committee of the Aga Khan Music Awards, the inventive committee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust in London, and a board member of the Amphion and Pacific Harmony Foundations. 

Previously, Guzelimian held the place of Artistic Administrator of the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado, and he was lengthy related to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, first as producer for the orchestra’s nationwide radio broadcasts, and subsequently, as inventive administrator. Guzelimian is editor of Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (Pantheon Books, 2002), a set of dialogues between Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said. In September 2003, he was awarded the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French authorities for his contributions to French music and tradition.

OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL
The Ojai Music Festival represents an excellent of adventurous, open-minded, and open-hearted programming in probably the most lovely and welcoming settings, with audiences and artists to match its aspirations. Now in its eightieth 12 months, the Festival stays a inventive laboratory for thought-provoking musical experiences, bringing collectively progressive artists and curious audiences in an intimate, idyllic out of doors setting. Each Festival’s narrative is guided by a unique Music Director, whose distinctive views form programming—guaranteeing energized festivals 12 months after 12 months.

Throughout every year, the Ojai Music Festival contributes to Southern California’s cultural panorama with in-person and on-line programming in addition to sturdy academic choices that serve hundreds of public-school college students and seniors. The group’s apex is the world-renowned Festival, which takes place over 4 days in Ojai, a panoramic valley 75 miles from Los Angeles, which is a perennial platform for the contemporary and surprising. During the immersive expertise, a mingling of probably the most curious participate in concert events, symposia, free neighborhood occasions, and social gatherings. The intimate Festival weekend, thought of a spotlight of the worldwide summer season music season, welcomes as much as 5,000 patrons and reaches exponentially extra audiences worldwide via streaming and broadcasts of concert events and discussions all year long. 

Since its founding in 1947, the Ojai Music Festival has introduced expansive programming in uncommon methods with an eclectic combine of latest and barely carried out music, in addition to refreshing juxtapositions of musical types. Through its signature construction of the Artistic Director appointing a unique Music Director every year, Ojai has introduced a “who’s who” of music together with Mitsuko Uchida, Rhiannon Giddens, American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*), Vijay Iyer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Barbara Hannigan in recent times; all through its historical past, featured artists have included Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kent Nagano, Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, David Robertson, Eighth Blackbird, George Benjamin, Dawn Upshaw, Leif Ove Andsnes, Mark Morris, Jeremy Denk, Steven Schick, Matthias Pintscher, and Peter Sellars.

eightieth OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL, JUNE 11 to 14, 2026
Single tickets and day passes can be found and could also be bought at OjaiFestival.org or by calling (805) 646-2053. Libbey Bowl single tickets begin from $60 within the reserved part. Libbey Bowl basic admission for the garden space is $25. Add-on occasion costs are $65. Tickets for the Ojai Films will be bought instantly at OjaiPlayhouse.com. Student reductions and group gross sales can be found by inquiring with the Festival Box Office at boxoffice@ojaifestival.org.