AMOC Runs the Ojai Music Festival

The American Modern Opera Company is a multi-disciplinary collective of some of America's keenest talents in the fields of music, dance, theater, writing, producing and composing. They are also the first interdisciplinary group to lead the Ojai Music Festival as Music Director. They are led by artistic directors Matthew Aucoin and Zack Winokur. Winokur and Davone Tines, baritone-bass singer, join the podcast to talk about their ambitious plans for this year's festival. Some members of the collective are already familiar with Ojai, such as violinist Miranda Cuckson, soprano Julia Bullock, who, with Tines, will stage a full production of Olivier Messaien's song cycle "Harawi." AMOC will also introduce new artists to the Festival, including Julius Eastman, whose gifts for composing, vocals, piano and dance had often been neglected. Eastman was proudly gay at a time in the conservative classical world culture, and his gifts we talk about at length. The festival is also producing works by another neglected artist, Connie Converse, who is  credited for pioneering the singer-songwriter tradition.  We talk about how and why truly outstanding artists are often neglected and forgotten in their own time, and the festival's role in bringing them back into the spotlight. Another line of conversation is AMOC's similarities in spirit to Black Mountain College, which included Ojai-favorite composer John Cage, modern dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham and visual artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.  AMOC has just won a $750,000 grant from the Andrew K. Mellon Foundation, and we talk about what they plan to do with the money, as well as what an affirming moment is was for the collective, founded in 2017.