Symphonic Music Highlights

1920-1949

1922

Alfred Hertz conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the first official concert season of "Symphonies Under the Stars." Hertz conducts over 100 concerts between 1922 and 1934.

1925

First radio broadcasts from Hollywood Bowl. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is the first major symphony orchestra in the United States to broadcast an entire concert on the radio.

1928

West Coast premiere of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps, conducted by Eugene Goosens.

1937

Memorial concert for George Gershwin featuring Jose Iturbi, Oscar Levant, Lily Pons, Fred Astaire, Al Jolson, Anne Brown and Todd Duncan from the original cast of Porgy & Bess, conductors Otto Klemperer, Charles Previn, and others.

1942

Sergei Rachmaninoff performs his own Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Hollywood Bowl.

1946

Leopold Stokowski appointed Hollywood Bowl Symphony's first Music Director.

1948

West Coast premiere of Mahler's monumental Symphony No. 8 conducted by Eugene Ormandy.

1950-1989

1953

Otto Klemperer conducts the 1,000th concert at Hollywood Bowl, a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

1955

Festival of the Americas: Bernstein and Chavez conduct works by American composers, plus jazz, musical theater, and Martha Graham Dance Company.

1962

Stravinsky's 80th birthday celebrated at the Bowl.

1963

New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, presents three concerts at the Bowl with pianist André Watts in his Bowl debut, and the Brahms Double Concerto played by Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky.

1969

Fireworks synchronized with music begin at the Bowl with the Tchaikovsky Spectacular.

1970

"Marathon" concerts held at the Bowl throughout the 1970s attract younger and more diverse audiences to the Bowl. Six-hour events based on themes or composers, i.e. Baroque Marathon, Beethoven Marathon, Stravinsky Marathon.

1981

Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute founded by Leonard Bernstein and Ernest Fleischmann, to provide world-class training for young instrumentalists and conductors.

1984

Olympics Gala with Morton Gould, Michael Tilson Thomas conducting.

1990-

1991

Founding of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra with John Mauceri as principal conductor.

1992

Esa-Pekka Salonen becomes Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

1996

Valery Gergiev conducts the Kirov Orchestra in a one-week residency at the Bowl.

1999

Peter Sellars directs Ligeti's Clocks and Clouds, with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting.

2005

Leonard Slatkin appointed first Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Slatkin's father, Felix Slatkin, made his Bowl debut as a violinist in 1935 and conducted the Hollywood Bowl Symphony on many recordings in the 1950s.

2007

World premiere choreography for Esa-Pekka Salonen's Foreign Bodies.

2008

Bramwell Tovey appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Thomas Wilkins appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

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