Conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to the position of Music Director for Ojai Festival in 2017.

One of North America's most acclaimed festivals, Ojai has been organized since 1947, each year under a different Music Director. Before Salonen's term, the festival will be hosted by Jeremy Denk (2014), Steven Schick (2015) and Peter Sellars (2016).

This is Esa-Pekka Salonen's third time as the Music Director. He made his Ojai debut in 1999 with composer-in-residence Magnus Lindberg in a program dedicated to Finnish music. Salonen, currently the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor for London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and Conductor Laureate for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was the Music Director for Ojai also in 2001.

“The Ojai Music Festival is deeply committed to adventure and exploration through the concentrated intersection of extraordinary artists, electrifying music and engaged audiences. The Festival could have no better music directors to frame the Festival’s upcoming 70th anniversary than Steven Schick, Peter Sellars, and Esa-Pekka Salonen”, The Artistic Directro of Ojai Festival, Thomas W. Morris states.