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Ojai Music Festival Celebrates Pierre Boulez

Jun. 04, 2015

Ojai Music Festival Celebrates Pierre Boulez

The Ojai Music Festival, taking place this year June 10-14, celebrates the 90th birthday year and prodigious musical career of Pierre Boulez with the West Coast premiere of A Pierre Dream: A Portrait of Pierre Boulez. Presented by Chicago Symphony’s “Beyond the Score” series, A Pierre Dream is a kaleidoscope of recorded and live music, archival footage, and new interviews with Boulez, complete with an original set designed by architect Frank Gehry, musicians from ICE, red fish blue fish, soprano Melissa Highes, pianist Josephine Chan and seven actors, all under the direction of conductor Steven Schick. "Beyond the Score" creative director Gerard McBurney and Ojai Music Festival Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris lead a talk back with the audience following the performance.

Ojai is a cherished place for Boulez, who first visited in 1966 and went on to serve as artistic director for seven seasons between 1967 and 2003, more than any other artistic director in the history of the festival. In this time, he firmly established a legacy of commitment to contemporary music and revolutionary programming of present-day music with 20th-century classics, including performances of several of his seminal works such as Éclat, Pli selon pli, and sur Incises.

The Boulez at 90 program features an Ojai Talks event at the Libbey Bowl directed by Ara Guzelimian in three parts: “Working with Pierre Boulez” with Thomas W. Morris, “Boulez in Ojai” with Ralph Grierson and Bill Kraft, and “Boulez and Beyond the Score” with Frank Gehry. The “Beyond the Score” event promises to be “a phantasmagorical acoustic and theatrical journey through a lifetime of Pierre Boulez’s musical adventures, innovations, and discoveries.” Additional performances include Dérive 1, Dérive 2, Dialogue de l’ombre double, Sonatine, and Improvisation sur Mallarmé I: Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui.

Additional information about Pierre Boulez can be found at universaledition.com.

For tickets and concert information, visit ojaifestival.com.

Pierre Boulez
Éclat (1965)
for 15 instruments
1.1.0.0-0.1.1.0-perc-vn.vc
8’ 

Pli selon pli (1957-1962)
Portrait de Mallarmé
for soprano and orchestra
text (Fr) by Stéphane Mallarmé
4.1.3.1.2asax-4.2.3.0-8perc-3hp.cel.pno.mand.gtr-4vn.8va.5vc.6db
67’ 

sur Incises (1996/1998/2006)
for 3 pianos, 3 harps, and 3 percussionists
40’

Dérive 1 (1984)
for 6 instruments
fl.cl-vib-pno-vn.vc
7-8'

Dérive 2 (1988-2006; 2009)
for 11 instruments
ca.cl.bsn-hn-mar.vib-hp.pno-vn.va.vc
45'

Dialogue de l’ombre double (1984)
for clarinet and tape
20'

Sonatine (1946)
for flute and piano
12'

Improvisation sur Mallarmé I: Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui (1957)
for soprano and 7 instruments
text (Fr) by Stéphane Mallarmé
4perc-vib.tbells-hp
6' 

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