Ojai Music Festival

For this summer's Ojai Music Festival, to be held June 10-13, organizers said Wednesday that the focus will be on composer George Benjamin, who is also serving as the event's music director. Benjamin will conduct some of this own work as well as pieces by Oliver Knussen, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Gyorgy Ligeti and more. Among the works by Benjamin scheduled for the festival will be the West Coast premiere of "Into the Little Hill," a chamber opera to be presented in a concert version; "Three Miniatures for Violin" and "Viola Viola."

Nearly four dozen percussionists were scattered about Libbey Park late Thursday afternoon. They were joined by a couple of piccolo players tooting in the trees. The sun was bright and warming. The grounds were crowded with strollers, vendors, artists, frolicking children and dogs, to say nothing of a gaggle of concertgoers preparing for the start of the 66th Ojai Music Festival. The magnificent occasion was a performance of "Inuksuit" by Alaskan composer John Luther Adams.

Although we never really know where music is headed, sometimes we think we do. This is one of those times. The Chicago-based new music sextet eighth blackbird took over this year's Ojai Music Festival in Libbey Bowl for four days and packed it full with more and more varied music (and music theater) than ever before in the quirky, famous festival's 63-year history. The players, in their early 30s, are musical omnivores, convinced that nearly anything goes and goes together. A nonstop series of concerts, demonstrations, a symposium and a film screening that began Thursday night and concluded with a five-hour marathon Sunday was not always convincing.

Ojai Music Festival Where: Libbey Bowl, Ojai When: Thursday through Sunday; complete schedule at http://www.ojaifestival.org Information: (805 ) 646-2053

Ojai Music Festival When: Thursday through Sunday, full schedule at http://www.ojaifestival.org Where: Libbey Bowl, Ojai Tickets: $15 to $110

It's unlikely that the lunch crowd in the Haiku Asian Bistro is aware that one of the world's most progressive classical music singers is giving an interview in their chattering midst. But that's how it is with Dawn Upshaw. She blends right in with the suburban moms in this boutique New York suburb, a brief drive from the town where Upshaw lives with her 17-year-old son. Her 21-year-old daughter is away in college. However, it's safe to say that Upshaw, 50, is the only one in the restaurant talking about her love for the contrapuntal music of 81-year-old composer George Crumb.

Friday Evening Marathon/7 to 10 p.m. Performing at the Ojai Festivals Bowl: Rachel Rosenthal, performance artist; Joan La Barbara, soprano; Frederic Rzewski, piano; California E.A.R.

With astrology suddenly front-page news, the presence of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies as composer-in-residence at the Ojai Music Festival this year (Friday through Sunday) is especially timely. For years, the British composer-conductor has based many of his musical works on the medieval "magic squares"--arithmetic puzzles whose columns of figures, when added vertically, horizontally and diagonally, produce the same sum.

The lights dim and a hush falls over the audience. Raising his hands and then glancing at the musicians before him, the conductor suddenly lets his baton drop. The sounds that emanate from the orchestra, though, hardly inspire those in attendance to sit back and relax. The horns and clarinets produce a screech similar to geese flying into power lines. The violins and cellos wail and whine what seem to be random notes and many members of the audience can find no discernable melody.

A star of the opera and concert stage, she is the latest in a long line of guest artists who have been invited to help create programming for the four-day summer fest. Upshaw, who will be making her fourth appearance in Ojai, will work with artistic director Thomas W. Morris and collaborators such as violinist and composer Richard Tognetti, leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, jazz composer and big band leader Maria Schneider and theater and opera director Peter Sellars.

It's unlikely that the lunch crowd in the Haiku Asian Bistro is aware that one of the world's most progressive classical music singers is giving an interview in their chattering midst. But that's how it is with Dawn Upshaw. She blends right in with the suburban moms in this boutique New York suburb, a brief drive from the town where Upshaw lives with her 17-year-old son. Her 21-year-old daughter is away in college. However, it's safe to say that Upshaw, 50, is the only one in the restaurant talking about her love for the contrapuntal music of 81-year-old composer George Crumb.

When the 65th Ojai Music Festival opens on June 9, one of the main attractions will be the stage itself. Libbey Bowl, the festival's quaint and rustic home for more than half a century, has undergone a $4-million makeover. Its historic wooden clamshell, weakened by rot and termites, has been replaced by a concrete-and-steel structure designed by Ojai architect David Bury; seating and sight lines have been improved; and the cramped backstage has been expanded. "Even with all the changes we've tried to keep the original character," says Jeff Haydon, the festival's executive director, noting that the latest shell echoes its predecessor's familiar arched design.

George Benjamin undertook his first visit to Ojai last January, but in some ways, the trip must have seemed like a homecoming for the celebrated British composer, conductor, pianist and teacher. The freak storms that pounded the normally bucolic Southern Californian landscape throughout the length of his stay made Benjamin, who was in town in his capacity as the music director of this year's Ojai Music Festival, feel as if he'd never left wet and windy England behind. More significantly, though, the journey to Ojai served as a spiritual homecoming for the 50-year-old composer, who has been closely associated with many key figures in the music festival's 63-year history.

Built for $12,000 as a do-it-yourself community project in 1957, rustic Libbey Bowl has always been the little concert stage that could. Russian composer Igor Stravinsky premiered a number of his works at the half-shell amphitheater. His American colleague, composer Aaron Copland, chose the sycamore-tangled setting to debut his conducting career. More recently, surf rocker Jack Johnson packed the bowl with fans of his popular tunes. But time and termites have taken a toll.

A star of the opera and concert stage, she is the latest in a long line of guest artists who have been invited to help create programming for the four-day summer fest. Upshaw, who will be making her fourth appearance in Ojai, will work with artistic director Thomas W. Morris and collaborators such as violinist and composer Richard Tognetti, leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, jazz composer and big band leader Maria Schneider and theater and opera director Peter Sellars.

For this summer's Ojai Music Festival, to be held June 10-13, organizers said Wednesday that the focus will be on composer George Benjamin, who is also serving as the event's music director. Benjamin will conduct some of this own work as well as pieces by Oliver Knussen, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Gyorgy Ligeti and more. Among the works by Benjamin scheduled for the festival will be the West Coast premiere of "Into the Little Hill," a chamber opera to be presented in a concert version; "Three Miniatures for Violin" and "Viola Viola."

Thomas Ades, a looming young man with bulky shoulders, a rumbling voice and a large, brooding face, belongs to a category long thought to have become extinct. He is a famous composer of concert music. The situation seems to strike him as either grave or hilarious. He goes around wearing a supercilious frown that looks as if at any moment it might crack into a guffaw. Size and seriousness, and that undercurrent of hilarity, characterize his music too.