When in Ojai expect the unusual. About a 20 minute drive from Ventura the hamlet community of Ojai is surrounded by the Topa Topa mountains, Lake Casitas and boasts a quaint downtown with chic and earthy stores and restaurants – all wrapped in an atmosphere where spiritual and cultural vibes seem transfixed in time. In other words, Ojai seems an ideal place to unwind and enjoy events at Ojai Playhouse (renovation is almost complete), Ojai Film Festival, Meditation Mount and Chamber On The Mountain chamber music series (COTM) in Logan Hall at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts.
“We are on a mountaintop on 500 acres of foundation land, surrounded by nature with our closest neighbors being beautiful ranches. From the moment people arrive they experience a shift in consciousness that being immersed in the natural world offers,” says COTM Director Kevin Wallace who is also Director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts. Founded a decade ago by renowned harpist Heidi Lehwalder this series may not be as high profile as Ojai Music Festival but programs feature quality artists and serious repertoire.
Take for example the current 2022/2023 season with upcoming concerts on December 11 with cellist Evgeny Tonkha and pianist Steven Vanhauwaert (featuring Debussy and Grieg sonatas) and the Neave Trio on February 26 (featuring trios by Smetana and Martin). Programs balance chamber music and solo players the likes of Zlatomir Fung, Amerigo Trio and Arianna String Quartet. “We have a custom made German Steinway grand that belonged to Budapest-born pianist Lili Kraus so we are always looking at presenting pianists and I believe you will see more of that.” Kraus was on the faculty of Texas Christian University for many years.
Wallace comments that COTM’s pre-pandemic concerts were sold out events and online performances are still being fine-tuned but now offer outdoor seating with many choosing that option. ‘I’ve noticed that even those who sit inside often close their eyes while listening.” He observes that the biggest challenge is funding, despite a loyal and supportive audience and in that regard mentions a kind of reinventive approach that would include an educational component.
COTM seems to have gained cultural inspiration from the ground upon which it sits, namely the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts. Wood, who was born in San Francisco in 1893 made her mark in New York, Paris and Ojai as a kind of renaissance cutting edge personality – in other words a brilliant, eccentric artist, sculptor, studio potter and Dadaism devote whose inner circle included Varese, Duchamp, Anais Nin and the Theosophical Society - which lasted in one form or another until she was 105. Her autobiography I Shock Myself could elicit the same effect on readers. She settled in Ojai in 1947 to continue exceptional ceramic artwork. As the story goes, her life was indirectly intertwined with James Cameron’s fictional character Rose in the film Titanic.
“Beatrice Wood’s hero was Annie Besant who created the Happy Valley Foundation in 1927 with its 500 acres. Education, the arts and cultural studies were central to Besant’s vision and in the original fundraising documents she noted that there would be a need for artists, actors and musicians to fulfill that vision. Beatrice Wood built her home on Happy Valley Foundation land in the spirit of this vision and left everything to the foundation.” It goes without saying but why not mention that Dr. Annie Besant was an intellectual activist who happened to visit Ojai in 1926 and acquire the acreage to establish a refuge for education, aesthetics and free thinkers like herself. According to Wallace, the Center is an historical society that provides information about Wood in addition to presenting displays of her ceramics and artwork, workshops and exhibitions of modern art and craft by local studio artists, American Ceramic Society, Handweavers and Spinners Guilds, among others - and hosts upcoming concerts like Brazilian Jazz Teka & Friends and West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio.
It’s probably apparent by now that Ojai has a special vibe to it which is probably what Wood and Besant realized as well as others such as Johnny Cash who lived for a time ‘down the road’ in Casitas Springs. “Once inside the Center people are surrounded by art and inspired by Beatrice Wood’s art and life, as the two can’t be separated; she lived her life as an art. The Chamber On The Mountain experience is intimate as chamber music has traditionally been experienced in a similar environment. We are one of the few programs that allows for this to happen.”