Miscellany: Salonen, Ojai, etc.

Photo by Adam Crane.

Esa-Pekka Salonen, seen above on the Santa Monica beach in 2008, will be the subject of a Total Immersion program at the Barbican on Sunday. The day will culminate in BBC Symphony performances of Wing on Wing, Mimo II, and Karawane. On an episode of the BBC's Front Row (at 18:55), Salonen reflects on his Finnish identity, Finland having celebrated the centenary of its independence on Dec. 6th.... Happily, the University of Buffalo Music Library has received a grant to preserve recordings of more than six hundred works performed in Buffalo between 1964 and 1980, with emphasis on the legacy of the legendary Creative Associates collective. The trove includes more than a dozen documents of Julius Eastman.... The Torrance Art Museum, in Torrance, California, is launching a new series called TAM Activated. On Sunday it presents the virtuoso avant-trombonist Matt Barbier, in a program of Franzson, Czernowin, and Michelle Lou.... In The New Yorker, Hua Hsu writes beautifully about Björk's new album Utopia.... Anyone who loves the Ojai Music Festival will be relieved to know that the town has so far been spared destruction by the wildfires that engulfed parts of Southern California this week. However, many adjoining areas have been incinerated — including, I suspect, some of the auxiliary spaces where Ojai performances took place. Condolences to anyone who suffered losses in that preciously beautiful part of the world.