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Old meets new at the Ojai Music Festival

A musician performs on stage with a wind instrument known as a sheng.
Caroline Feraday
/
KCLU
Musician Wu Wei rehearsing for the Ojai Music Festival, with his ancient Chinese instrument called a Sheng

Wu Wei plays an ancient Chinese instrument and is one of the many artists performing new music at the internationally renowned music festival, which starts on Thursday.

Rehearsing on stage at an outdoor amphitheater is Grammy Award-winning musician Wu Wei.

He’s using the mouthpiece of the musical instrument he’s playing—one I’ve never seen before—which has multiple dark bamboo pipes and towers over his head.

It’s an ancient Chinese instrument called a sheng, and Wu Wei is a virtuoso.

"What I play is a historical instrument from China. They have more than 3,000 years of history," Wu Wei told KCLU. "The name is called sheng, and in English, it's called Chinese mouth organ. It's an old instrument. I think it's the oldest harmonic wind instrument."

Wu Wei said that the instrument is "in principle very simple" and has 37 pipes, each capable of producing just one note. But, he said, he can play 20 notes at one time.

It’s Wu Wei’s first time at the Ojai Music Festival, and he says he’s delighted to be performing new music.

"The Ojai Festival is very well known in the world. It's amazing, like paradise for the musicians," he said.

But while the sheng is more than 3,000 years old, the music Wu Wei plays is fresh and new, explained Ara Guzelimian, Ojai Music Festival's Musical Director.

"Wu Wei is amazing," he said. "There's nobody like him on the planet because he both honors and deeply understands the thousands of years of tradition of the instrument. And at the same time, he's an explorer and the instrument is born also new every time he plays, especially in these collaborations."

"I love that combination of both very old and as new as today, which is also true to the Ojai Festival," said Guzelimian.

Ojai Music Festival's Director Ara Guzelimian, with Wu Wei
Caroline Feraday
/
KCLU
Ojai Music Festival's Director Ara Guzelimian, with Wu Wei

He said the festival is a chance for music lovers and newcomers to explore.

"Every concert is different combinations of musicians and that inspires lots of discovery and adventure in what's possible to be done," he said.

The Ojai Music Festival features performances at the Libbey Bowl and other locations. A number of free events are also scheduled over the next three days, and performances are streamed online for free.

Caroline joined KCLU in October 2020. She won LA Press Club's Audio Journalist of the Year Award for three consecutive years in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Since joining the station she's also won 11 Golden Mike Awards, 8 Los Angeles Press Club Journalism Awards, 4 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and three Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for Excellence in Writing, Diversity and Use of Sound.

She started her broadcasting career in the UK, in both radio and television for BBC News, 95.8 Capital FM and Sky News and was awarded by Prince Philip for her services to radio and journalism in 2007.

She has lived in California for twelve years and is both an American and British citizen - and a very proud mom to her daughter, Elsie.