Ojai and Ravinia

Last Thursday I left for Ojai, California as a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus for a week-long tour singing the music of Osvaldo Golijov. He is the hottest composer around today, and the ASO’s own Robert Spano just happens to be a champion of Ozzie’s music. That’s a beautiful thing because when Robert was invited to become the Music Director for this innovative festival in gorgeous Ojai, he decided to feature the orchestra and chamber chorus in the music of Osvaldo Golijov. The Ojai Festival has been around for 60 years, and among the Festival's diverse music directors there have been such renowned musical luminaries as composers John Adams, Ingolf Dahl, Peter Maxwell Davies, Lukas Foss, John Harbison and Oliver Knussen; conductors Kent Nagano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Esa-Pekka Salonen; and instrumentalists Emanuel Ax and Mitsuko Uchida. It is able to achieve this feat because each Music Director holds tenure for one year, which really means four days of pure adrenaline. Its eclecticism has resulted in innovation and adventure. We had some tremendous reviews, and you can see them on the ASO Chorus website.

As an Ainadamar Girl (This is Golijov’s first opera, premiered in Tanglewood in 2003 and revised for Santa Fe in 2005. There are 18 of us Atlanta girls [ladies] who sang in the Greek Chorus-like ensemble for the Deutsche Grammophon recording.), I had to sing a concert each day—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This was at once exhilarating and exhausting. Well, here goes the day to day…

Thursday, June 8

Ben dropped me off at Callaway Plaza at the Woodruff Arts Center whereby us Chamber Choristers were treated like first class citizens, or at least like orchestra musicians. What this means is that we checked our baggage with the in charge people, and it would then magically appear in our hotels rooms at the Marriott Ventura Beach, which by the way, is just 200 meters from the Pacific Ocean. Lunch was also being provided. Albeit, this fine meal consisted of a soggy sandwich of your choosing (turkey, ham, or roast beef), a bag of chips, a cookie, and a soft drink—not a gourmet feast, but to those of us who have not been fed by the symphony organization for some time now, it was a delightful surprise. An eventless coach ride to the airport was followed by a not too pleasant flight to Los Angeles on AirTran. The flight was seriously overbooked, and the co-pilot had to plead several time for people to volunteer to bump themselves off the flight. Hello, we are on tour. We’re not gonna get off this damn plane! Finally, this co-pilot got a bit testy. Okay, he was bitchy, to say it kindly. I believe the direct quote was, “thanks for all of your help and cooperation, or the lack thereof.” How sweet was that? Well, I could not have been more psyched to take off. What made the situation even more pleasant was the 40 minute taxiing that had to be done because there was a line of 20 airplanes waiting to take off before us. The pièce de résistance was the announcement about half-way through the flight that they were out of ice, so there will be no more beverage service for us. Ahh, the pleasures of discount air travel…

Then we finally landed at LAX. Apparently there were three stowaways who got on one of our coaches and nearly proceeded to go to Ventura with us. Which was a 90 minute ride on the beautiful Hwy 101, not. However, their presence was detected while the coach was still on airport grounds, so our dear stowaways departed. As it turned out, two of the three coaches took the Pacific Coast Scenic Highway out to Ventura, and guess in which one I rode? Yep, the one who didn’t. So while my compatriots were enjoying the sights of the Pacific coast, I, along with about 40 others, were enjoying rush hour traffic. To top off this auspicious start, our driver, Juvi (JEW-vi, short for Juvenando [HOO-vay-nan-do]), took a wrong turn near the hotel, went an extra few miles, and nearly dropped us off at a very lovely and decrepit industrial looking place. Watching him drive backwards on Ventura Boulevard was such a treat. Well, once we finally landed at the hotel, Michelle, Owen, and I set off for historic downtown Ventura, which was a charming place full of thrift shops, antique stores, and eateries. After what seemed like a marathon walk, we stopped at Zoey’s to grab a bite. A little café nestled in a small courtyard, we sat there in the sun enjoying the little bit of warmth that was in the air. As we left the restaurant for more sight-seeing, I really wanted to do a wine tasting, so we headed to Natalie’s Eclectibles, a place which was closing on June 10th because the building had been bought and the owners did not want to start again somewhere else. In the back corner there was a wine cellar, and the wine tasting was only $10 for 6 wines. The offer was too good to pass up, so the three of us sat down and had some of the best wine in our lives. We sampled libations from Penman Springs Winery in Paso Robles, and each one was better than the next, culminating in the Petite Sirah, which we had to buy. As is my penchant for scoping out eateries, we found the most delightful Tutti’s Off Main, an Italian restaurant on Main and Palm, from which we purchased some sweets to take back with us. I coveted the Tiramisú, which Michelle purchased. No worries, I would get mine soon.

After we sufficiently feasted, it was time to return to the hotel and take a walk to the beach and open that bottle of Petite Sirah. The sun was setting, and it created the most beautiful backdrop for our bacchanalia. We met up with dearest Laura Livingston, who was the au pair for the Joneses on tour, and the four of us climbed atop the empty lifeguard shack and had ourselves a taste of the delectable nectar of the Goddesses. Yum! After that we finally went our separate ways and headed to bed. Tomorrow would be a big day!

Friday, June 9

I spotted a Starbuck’s on the way in, and headed straight for it after my morning workout. My roommie was the incomparable Marcia Chandler, and she rocks. Well, Marcia got to stay in bed a little longer since I had rehearsal and she did not—damn it. I actually got onto the coach on time, and we finally arrived at the Libbey Bowl, after that driver took us to the wrong entrance. I’m beginning to think that it was me causing all that havoc. Anyway, rehearsal went smoothly. It was mostly a sound check, and we sounded real good. After rehearsal some of us hellions headed to a Mexican restaurant. For those of you that know us, it was Anne Marie Spalinger, Michelle Belle Isle, Kate Murray, Brenda Pruitt, Arietha Lockhart, and I. Okay, so one of us is not like the other. Guess which one. Psst, it’s the quiet one. As we perused the menu, woodwind players walked up, and we invited them over, resulting in a most festive lunch. We bonded over margaritas and Negro Modelos. Naturally I was already a bit intoxicated after one margarita, so a good time was had by all. It created the perfect afternoon for a nap.

After I finally awoke from my nap, it was time to rush and get ready for Ainadamar. The jam-packed audience loved it, and the way the instruments were miked and the shape of the Libbey Bowl allowed us to hear textures that were buried in Atlanta. It was like hearing a new piece, and the night was magical. Well, after a performance like that we simply could not go straight to bed. There was some hot tub relaxation with libations before we headed to snoozeland. By the way, you may already have detected a pattern—get up early, rehearse hard, perform hard, and party hard. Ahhh, life on tour. Please stay tuned for Part Deux.