The 2020 Ojai Music Festival was going to be one of the biggest in its history, featuring artists like the Calder Quartet and conductor Matthias Pintscher. Coronavirus changed all that, leading to cancellation of the 74th annual event. But, festival organizers are doing special online events to be able to give something to disappointed music fans.
Gina Guiterrez is the Ojai Music Festival’s Chief Operating Officer.
She says they have been working with the thousands of ticketholders for this year’s event. She says some are turning their tickets into donations to the non-prfit organization which hosts the event. Many others are converting their tickets into ones for the 2021 festival.
But, they wanted to do something now to help fill the void for trapped at home classical music fans.
Gutierrez says the result is their “Tune In Tuesday” events, which include webcasts of past festival concerts, including fresh program notes, and new introductions recorded by festival alumni:
The free concerts begin at 6 p.m. Tuesdays.
Working with the Ojai Unifed School District, the music festival has also created new online programing for kids. It's hosting online programing aimed at kids, but designed so families can watch it together.
Gutierrez says it’s intended to be both fun and educational.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes the festival’s staff is going to start focuing on preparing for its June, 2021 celebration, which is supposed to be its 75th anniversary event:
You can find the online classic Ojai Music Festival’s concerts, as well as the special kids events at the festival’s website: ojaifestivals.org
