When Teddy Abrams conducted a well-received concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in May, speculation arose that he might become the orchestra’s next music director. Instead, he has accepted a leadership position with another venerable Southern California institution.
The Ojai Music Festival has announced that the 38-year-old Berkeley native, who is also an accomplished composer and pianist, will become its next artistic and executive director. He will assume the position on Sept. 1, 2026. Abrams’s will then oversee the 81st Ojai Festival in June, 2027.
Abrams succeeds Ara Guzelimian, who took over the position in 2020. Guzelimian’s final Ojai Festival will be in June of next year, when Esa-Pekka Salonen is slated to return as the company’s music director.
The Ojai Festival, which primarily focuses on new and contemporary classical music, has a different music director each year. The artistic and executive director provides vision and continuity, working with the music directors on artists and programming. Others in the role have included Ernest Fleischmann, Lawrence Morton, and Thomas W. Morris.
In a statement, Abrams called the appointment “an overwhelming honor,” adding that he “can’t wait to continue Ojai’s legacy of dreaming big.”
“The festival has always seemed like a magical and mythical beacon for me,” Abrams added. “This was where my mentor, Michael Tilson Thomas, conducted in his early career (in addition to his own mentor, Ingolf Dahl); it is where Copland and Stravinsky shared their work; and it is the place that brought to life the dreams of many of the greatest musicians of the past 80 years.”
Abrams, who was named Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, has been music director of the Louisville Orchestra since 2014. Last month, he signed a three-year contract extension with the ensemble, which extends through the 2027-2028 season.
Over the course of his career, Abrams has commissioned and/or premiered works by more than 40 composers, including Caroline Shaw, Andrew Norman, Tyshawn Sorey, and Mason Bates. Among his many notable compositions is a piano concerto he wrote for Yuja Wang. Currently, he is writing music for an upcoming Broadway musical about boxer Muhammad Ali.
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Abrams began studying conducting at age 12 under the tutelage of Tilson Thomas. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music at age 18 before going on to study conducting at the Curtis Institute and the Aspen Music Festival and School.
His eclectic tastes are reflected in his upcoming Louisville programming. This month, he is taking the orchestra on a tour of Southern Kentucky, where the program will include music of Aaron Copland and John Adams, as well as arrangements of traditional folk songs from the region. Then in November, back home in Louisville, he will reunite with Wang for a modernist masterpiece: György Ligeti’s Piano Concerto.
Jerry Eberhardt, the Ojai Festival’s Board Chairman, called Abrams “one of today’s most striking ambassadors for the impact the arts can have on building community,” adding that the new artistic and executive director “will help advance the Festival’s commitment to reach across generations.”
