Ojai Music Festival, Photo: Courtesy of the artist
June 7-10, 2012
Various locations – Ojai, CA
Dutch mezzo-Soprano Christianne Stotijn and Dutch conductor, composer and pianist Reindert de Leeuw perform at the 66th Ojai Music Festival in California.
Mezzo soprano Christianne Stotijn was born in Delft, the Netherlands and received her first solo diploma for violin in 2000. She then Pursued intensive vocal studies with Udo Reinemann at the Amsterdam Conservatory graduating cum laude. S he furthered her studies with Jard van Nes, Noelle Barker and Dame Janet Baker. Throughout her career, she has won important prizes Include Several prestigious 2005/06 ECHO Rising Star, 2005 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and the Dutch Music Prize in 2008 . Also Christi Stotijn was a BBC New Generation Artist in 2007.
In the field of Modern and Contemporary music, Reinbert de Leeuw is widely know and a highly respected musician. Born in Amsterdam, Reinbert de Leeuw’s musical activities cover a wide field: Conductor, composer and pianist. Since 1974 he has been conductor and music director of the Schönberg Ensemble. He is also author of a book on Charles Ives and a book with musical essays and has collaborated on 8 film documentary series of twentieth-century composers such as Messiaen, Ligeti, Gubaidulina, Vivier, Górecki shown on dutch television and which have won international acclaim. Reinbert de Leeuw regularly conducts Holland’s foremost orchestras and ensembles, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Residentie Orchestra The Hague and ensembles such as the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the ASKO and the Netherlands Wind ensembles and the orchestras of the Dutch Radio.
Established in 1947 by music aficionado John Bauer, the Ojai Music Festival has fostered a healthy spirit of eclecticism in its adventurous programs, gaining a worldwide reputation for attracting artists who are given artistic freedom as they perform exceptional pieces of classical music.
That spirit was reinforced in 1954 with the appointment of Lawrence Morton as the Festival Artistic Director. A man of broad musical tastes, Morton was a visionary whose constant curiosity and unwavering integrity shaped the Festival’s future direction. Under his leadership, the Ojai Festival developed an enduring concept whereby the artistic director engages a different Festival music director each year around whom that year’s Festival is built.
Among the Festival’s diverse music directors have been such renowned musical luminaries as composers John Adams, Ingolf Dahl, Peter Maxwell Davies, Lukas Foss, John Harbison and Oliver Knussen; conductors Kent Nagano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Esa-Pekka Salonen; and instrumentalists Emanuel Ax and Mitsuko Uchida.
In its sixth decade, the Festival – under the leadership of Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris – continues this unparalleled musical legacy in which the creativity of the moment and the artists define each year’s event. Please see the 2012 schedule.
