Rattle to Lead Ojai Fest of British, French Works

The 54th annual Ojai Music Festival, May 31 through June 4, will showcase British and French music with guest artistic director Simon Rattle at the helm, and with an emphasis on the works of the festival’s two young British composers in residence: Thomas Ades, whose Grawemeyer Award-winning “Asyla” will be performed, and Mark-Anthony Turnage, who will have two U.S. premieres at the festival. In all, there will be two world and six U.S. premieres at Ojai, which is known for its pioneering musical spirit.

Conducted by Rattle, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will play on three of the six weekend concerts, June 2-4. In addition, a young American experimental group, Flux, will play one concert; and L.A.’s own new music specialist Gloria Cheng will appear in a solo piano recital. Other soloists include singers Heidi Grant Murphy and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

Two “Sundowner” concerts by the CalArts Strings will precede the festival proper, and will be played in Ojai Art Center at 5:30 p.m. on May 31 and June 1.

On June 2’s evening program, Rattle leads the L.A. Philharmonic in the Turnage’s “Kai,” Ades’ “Asyla” and Ravel’s opera “L’Enfant et les Sortileges.” The Philharmonic New Music Group plays June 3, when Rattle conducts Turnage’s jazz-inspired “Blood on the Floor” and Naomi Sekiya’s “Deluge.” Sekiya, a student at the USC Thornton School of Music, is the first recipient of the Ojai Festival Young Composers Music for Tomorrow award.

Closing the festival with the traditional late Sunday afternoon concert, June 4, Rattle and the Philharmonic will offer Ades’ “These Premises Are Alarmed,” the Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from Britten’s “Peter Grimes” and Poulenc’s “Les Mamelles de Tiresias.”

Information: (805) 646-2094.