OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL
Claire Chase was the Music Director of the 2025 Ojai Music Festival. She had the honor and privilege of programming four full days of music, featuring many works from her project Density 2036. Performers included frequent collaborators Alex Peh, Susie Ibarra, Joshua Rubin, JACK Quartet, and many more. Highlights included the West Coast premiere of 2025 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Music Susie Ibarra’s “Sky Islands” and the world premiere of Terry Riley’s “Pulsefield 3.”
Photos by Timothy Teague
“The spirit of the Ojai festival need not be conveyed by a laundry list of composers and works or by value judgments. At its best, the event is a musical wilderness, like no other festival of its caliber. The audience goes on a walk in the woods, with nature calling for discovery.”
Claire Chase embraces composer Marcos Balter after performing his "Pan."
Claire Chase, Alex Peh, Susie Ibarra, JACK Quartet, and Levy Lorenzo perform Susie Ibarra's "Sky Islands."
Claire Chase performs a morning meditation for the community at the Ojai Preserves.
Claire Chase and JACK Quartet perform Terry Riley's "The Holy Liftoff."
Cory Smythe and Manari Ushigua perform onstage.
Claire Chase performing "Pan" by Marcos Balter with onstage volunteers from the Ojai community.
Katinka Klein, Cory Smythe, Claire Chase, and Seth Parker Woods bow after performing Anna Thorvaldsdottir's "Ubique."
“The most magnetic performer of the weekend, unsurprisingly, was Chase herself. Few musicians seize a stage with her energy, whipping her flutes around with pied piper charisma, and “Density 2036” has been producing a slew of works tailor-made to her talents since she got it started in 2013. The Chase-iest “Density” piece of all may well be Marcos Balter’s “Pan,” in which she raced around the stage enacting the story of the roguish, pipes-playing god, trailed by an intergenerational horde of followers drawn from the town of Ojai.”
The Ojai Music Festival livestream playbacks are available for many of the featured concerts. Watch them on YouTube below:
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