Teddy Abrams Named Artistic and Executive Director – Ojai Music Festival

TEDDY ABRAMS NAMED ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 1, 2026

ARA GUZELIMIAN CONTINUES AS ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THROUGH THE 2026 FESTIVAL WITH MUSIC DIRECTOR ESA-PEKKA SALONEN

(Ojai, CA – September 10, 2025) – Ojai Music Festival Board Chairman Jerry Eberhardt introduced right now the appointment of conductor/composer/pianist Teddy Abrams as Ojai’s subsequent Artistic and Executive Director efficient September 1, 2026, along with his first Festival being the 81^st Festival in June 2027. He will be a part of the ranks of such distinguished predecessors as Ara Guzelimian, who concludes his tenure with the 2026 Festival, Thomas W. Morris, Ernest Fleischmann, and Lawrence Morton. Mr. Abrams’ collaboration with the Ojai Music Festival might be concurrent along with his put up as Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra.

“Teddy Abrams is one of today’s most striking ambassadors for the impact the arts can have on building community. His artistic sensibilities, collegial spirit, and boundless energy position him as the ideal leader for the Ojai Music Festival as it enters its eighth decade,” mentioned Mr. Eberhardt. “My Board colleagues and I have complete confidence that Teddy will build on the Festival’s momentum and will continue to meet the expectations of our celebrated, supremely adventurous audiences and to provide the platform for our growing family of the world’s most inventive artists to experiment and grow. With the resounding success of Teddy’s work to increase access and build community through music, we know he will help advance the Festival’s commitment to reach across generations and to engage with the very heart of the Ojai community and throughout the region. As we anticipate the 80^th anniversary of this glorious Festival, we feel boundless gratitude for Ara Guzelimian’s generous, steady leadership, and we welcome Teddy as we look toward the future.”

Teddy Abrams mentioned, “The Ojai Music Festival is one of the brightest lights in the music world today. The Festival has always seemed like a magical and mythical beacon for me – this was where my mentor, Michael Tilson Thomas conducted in his early career (in addition to his own mentor, Ingolf Dahl); it is where Copland and Stravinsky shared their work, and it is the place that has brought to life the dreams of many of the greatest musicians of the past 80 years. The Ojai Music Festival represents creativity, adventure, and daring, all of which are the hardwired values of the Festival and its exceptionally loyal audiences; these are my deepest values too.”

“It is an overwhelming honor to join the Ojai family as Artistic and Executive Director. I believe the Festival has consistently offered the world a glimpse into the future of music, and the Festival’s programming provides music lovers an opportunity to experience what is possible when creative inspiration is met with an affirmation. So much of this is due to the brilliance of Ojai’s many extraordinary leaders, including this most recent period of growth and success with Ara at the helm. I can’t wait to continue Ojai’s legacy of dreaming big, challenging the music world to think differently, and presenting art that brings the world to Ojai and Ojai to the world,” continued Mr. Abrams.

Ara Guzelimian commented, “This was a deeply considered decision by Ojai’s wonderful Board, led by a most experienced and knowledgeable succession committee. I greatly admire what Teddy has achieved at the Louisville Orchestra and look forward to seeing and to hearing all that he will bring to this new role. I will do all I can to assure a seamless transition and wish Teddy and this singular Festival every success in the years to come.”

Now in his twelfth season as Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra, Teddy Abrams has been the galvanizing pressure behind the ensemble’s extraordinary inventive renewal and progressive social affect. Among his manifold achievements with the Orchestra are the Creators Corps, a trailblazing initiative that gives a totally funded residency for 3 composers who obtain native housing, a wage, well being advantages, and devoted workspaces, the In Harmony tour, a multi-season, grand-scale community-building challenge funded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky that takes the Louisville Orchestra to city and rural areas throughout the state, and recordings together with a Grammy-Award profitable album for Deutsche Grammophon that includes his personal piano concerto written for Yuja Wang, considered one of 9 works he has written for the orchestra. He was chosen as Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, and his work has been profiled by CBS Sunday Morning, PBS NewsHour, NPR, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times,which hails him as a “maestro of the people” who “has embedded himself in his community, breaking the mold of modern conductors.”

Mr. Abrams is a passionate advocate for the music of right now, having commissioned and/or premiered works by over 40 composers together with, Caroline Shaw, Gabriel Kahane, Mason Bates, Christopher Cerrone, Andrew Norman, Angélica Negrón, Timo Andres, Julia Wolfe, Valerie Coleman, Michael Gordon, Lera Auerbach, Chris Thile, Tyshawn Sorey, and Joel Thompson. A cornerstone of his work in Kentucky is the Louisville Orchestra’s Creators Corps, which has welcomed 11 composers into this system to this point, leading to greater than 30 new works by composers Alex Berko, Lisa Bielawa, TJ Cole, Baldwin Giang, Anthony R. Green, Brittany Green, Oswald Huỳnh, Chelsea Komschlies, Kiru Okoye, Tanner Porter, and Tyler Taylor. Recognized for his dedication to creating music accessible and to deepening group connections, he at the moment serves because the Aspen Institute Arts Program’s Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence, a platform which invitations Mr. Abrams to lend his perspective in addressing main social and civic points.  

In May 2025, Mr. Guzelimian introduced his intention to step away from Ojai, which allowed for an in depth nationwide seek for his successor. Prior to this most up-to-date six-year collaboration with the Festival (2020 – 2026), with Music Directors John Adams, AMOC (American Modern Opera Company), Rhiannon Giddens, Mitsuko Uchida, Claire Chase, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, he was Ojai’s Artistic Director from 1992 to 1997, working intently with Music Directors Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Kent Nagano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Emanuel Ax. All instructed, Mr. Guzelimian may have formed Ojai’s inventive path for 12 years when he concludes his tenure from the Festival following the 80^th Festival in June 2026.

The Ojai Music Festival and Ara Guzelimian will share particulars for the upcoming 2026 Festival (June 11-14, 2026) with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen within the fall of 2025. 

Teddy Abrams
The winner of a Grammy Award and Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, Teddy Abrams has been the galvanizing pressure behind the Louisville Orchestra’s extraordinary inventive renewal and progressive social affect since his appointment as Music Director in September 2014. His Kentucky achievements embrace acclaimed packages such because the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps and the In Harmony Tour, and adventurous collaborations with artists together with Jim James, Jack Harlow, Storm Large, and Jecorey “1200” Arthur, with whom Mr. Abrams based the Louisville Orchestra Rap School. He collaborates frequently in Louisville and elsewhere with the main artists of our time together with Yo-Yo Ma, Yuja Wang, and Chris Thile.

Mr. Abrams’ visitor conducting actions take him throughout the nation, with common appearances with the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Cincinnati, National, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee Symphonies, the Buffalo and Los Angeles Philharmonics; the Minnesota Orchestra; and on the Ravinia and Aspen Music Festivals. He was Music Director and Conductor of the Britt Festival Orchestra from 2013 to 2023. In Europe, he has carried out the Helsinki and Luxembourg Philharmonics and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He makes debuts with the Atlanta Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, and London’s BBC Symphony Orchestra within the 2025-26 season.

Teddy Abrams is an award-winning composer, whose current compositions for the Louisville Orchestra embrace a piano concerto for Yuja Wang, which they recorded for Deutsche Grammophon’s The American Project, profitable the pianist and himself a Grammy Award; Mammoth, premiered with Yo-Yo Ma and Davóne Tines at Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park; and his rap opera, The Greatest: Muhammad Ali. His recording of his piano assortment Preludes was launched on New Amsterdam Records in 2025. He is now at work on a Broadway musical, ALI, and an orchestral historical past of the state of Kentucky. For extra bio info, go to OjaiFestival.org/Teddy-Abrams-Bio.

Ojai Music Festival
The Ojai Music Festival represents a perfect of adventurous, open-minded, and openhearted 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 outside setting. Each Festival’s narrative is guided by a unique Music Director, whose distinctive views form programming — making certain 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 instructional 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 sudden. During the immersive expertise, a mingling of probably the most curious participate in concert events, symposia, free group occasions, and social gatherings. The intimate Festival weekend, thought-about a spotlight of the worldwide summer time music season, welcomes as much as 5,000 patrons and reaches exponentially extra audiences worldwide by 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 kinds. 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, AMOC (American Modern Opera Company), Vijay Iyer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Barbara Hannigan lately; 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.

80^th Festival: June 11 – 14, 2026
Composer/Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to the Ojai Music Festival to function Music Director for the eightieth Festival, June 11 to 14, 2026. Joining him as featured artists might be clarinetist Anthony McGill, Attacca Quartet, the Colburn Orchestra, and LA Phil New Music Group. Esa-Pekka Salonen is likely one of the most ingenious, adventurous thinkers of 21^st-century musical life. The distinctive format of the Ojai Music Festival will give him an unusually free inventive hand as each composer and conductor.

For Festival sequence passes to the 2026 Festival, go to OjaiFestival.org or name 805 646 2053.

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Press contacts:
Ojai Music Festival: Gina Gutierrez, [email protected] (805) 646-2094
National/International: Nikki Scandalios, [email protected] (704) 340-4094

Photo by Lauren Desberg