Mitsuko Uchida Named Music Director of the 2024 Ojai Music Festival

The renowned pianist and conductor has previously appeared at the California-based festival in 2004 and 1998

To keep the Ojai Festival's leadership fresh, its management selects a new Music Director every year. Japanese-British pianist and conductor Mitsuko Uchida has been named for the 2024 edition, after having last performed at the festival in 2004 and served as its co-director in 1998.

Uchida has enjoyed close relationships with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Alongside her reputation as a masterful interpreter of nineteenth-century music, she is also a specialist in the works of composers such as Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and György Kurtág. She is the artistic partner for the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which will also appear at Ojai in 2024.

In 2024, artists joining the festival for the first time include soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and the Brentano String Quartet. VC Artist Alexi Kenney is among the players returning to Ojai.

The Ojai Festival has been held in southern California for the last 75 years and makes a point of foregrounding innovative programming. The 2024 festival is set to include works by György Kurtág, Kaija Saariaho, Angelica Negron, Kate Soper, and Salina Fisher — with a special focus on the music of Arnold Schoenberg, 150 years after his birth.

"We are so delighted to announce the eagerly awaited return of Mitsuko Uchida to the Ojai Music Festival," said Ara Guzelimian, Ojai's Artistic and Executive Director. "Mitsuko is one of the most revered musicians of our time, imparting everything she plays with profound insight and commitment."

"It is a particular joy for me to work with Mitsuko, given our long-standing friendship and collaborations over the years. We promise a characteristic Ojai mix of the new and old, the expected and the unexpected."