What a 2024 festival it was! For its 29th season the Ventura Music Festival opened at the city’s most historic outdoor party site. In the high-walled adobe courtyard where the Olivas family hosted a celebration for the election of President Abraham Lincoln came another Kentucky-Indiana resident, Michael Cleveland and his band Flamekeeper. A full house of
patrons picnicked, danced and drank from our new cantina to the amazingly intricate
strings of the Bluegrass Fiddler and Group of the Year. New to bluegrass and bluegrass cognoscenti alike exclaimed it was an extraordinary night to hear America’s unique brand
of folk music combining old-time mountain music, square dance fiddling, blues, gospel,
jazz, and popular music!
The festival then moved to the intimate Ventura College Performing Arts Center for a sold out show by the adventuresome Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (or LACO) performing J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerts that display his groundbreaking new sounds and possibilities for Baroque music in his most lively and colorful solo and orchestral format and setting—music of the spheres to entrance the ears!
Tap-tastic is the only way to describe the counterpoint rhythms of renowned pianist and composer Conrad Tao and visionary dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher. Each tap of the heels and striking of the keyboard brought the appreciative audience into a sixth sense of awareness of how sound moves in its both solemn and slapstick moods.
To complete weekend one, VMF Artistic Director Nuvi Mehta and pianist-composer Greg Anderson took us on a romp through Baroque Music with stunning solo moments from masterpieces of the era—Bach’s Chaconne, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Handel’s Pastorale Sinfonia. The brunch beforehand was a great success for those with a second taste of the senses–for music and for cuisine. Our new lobby bar for every concert lubricated our audiences for enhanced social gathering opportunities, music appreciation and a relaxed, less formal atmosphere!
Weekend two exploded with the high energy of festival favorite Perla Batalla. She brought her multi-culture ensemble to meld with her entrancing voice and a delight a full house of rapt listeners to cover a world-wide range of music that has shaped her life. From Leonard Cohen and Mexican and Spanish canciones to American Songbook and Jazz, each song was delivered with lively reminiscences of a born storyteller with a rambunctious sense of humor. Truly a lovefest of music enveloping musicians and audience alike!
Guitarist Jason Vieaux and bandoneonist Julien Labro brought us on a haunting, then moody, now exhilarating journey through the songbook of tango masterAstor Piazzola and his friends. Astonishingly intricate Pat Metheny masterpieces completed this starlight evening of Jazz shot through with the sublime.
The festival concluded joyously with the return of Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe, truly the rockstar piano dualists of the classical music world. Their delightfully funny patter between a huge range of music composers set us up for brilliant renderings of every kind of masterpiece from Mozart, Dvorak, Bach, Vivaldi and Bizet to the modern anthems of John Williams (Star Wars Fantasies), Sigur Ros ad Tears for Fears.
www.venturamusicfestival.org
