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GUSTAVO DUDAMEL AND
THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC
ANNOUNCE 2018/19 SEASON
100 YEARS IN THE MAKING

CENTENNIAL PROGRAM LOOKS TO THE FUTURE WITH PREMIERES AND
GENRE-BENDING PERFORMANCES, 
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIONS,
COMMUNITY CELEBRATIONS, AND A MAJOR EXPANSION OF THE 
SIGNATURE YOLA PROGRAM


 

Los Angeles, CA (February 7, 2018) – Los Angeles Philharmonic Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and CEO Simon Woods announce the 2018/19 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall and beyond. The centerpiece of LA Phil 100, the Centennial program forges an exciting future for the orchestra, its music, its city, and audiences around the world with a forward-looking roster of globe-spanning artistic programs, educational and social-impact initiatives and public celebrations for all of L.A., from September 2018 through October 2019.

Highlights will include:

  • Premieres of over 50 commissions - the LA Phil’s greatest investment ever in music’s future
  • 20 programs conducted by Dudamel, ranging from the world premiere of John Adams’ piano concerto with Yuja Wang as soloist to a climactic performance of Mahler’s monumental “Symphony of a Thousand” in its Walt Disney Concert Hall premiere
  • Cross-disciplinary collaborations with Benjamin Millepied, L.A. Dance Project and American Ballet Theatre for Romeo and Juliet; LA Phil Artist-Collaborator and MacArthur Fellow Yuval Sharon for exceptional performances of Meredith Monk’s ATLAS and John Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2; composer-conductor Christopher Rountree and the Getty Research Institute for an ongoing Fluxus festival; and Barry Edelstein and The Old Globe for The Tempest
  • The return of former LA Phil Music Directors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Zubin Mehta, plus a new work by former Music Director André Previn, along with special programs by former Principal Guest Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas
  • Major events and focuses include the 11-day eclectic season kick-off LA Fest, a Fluxus Festival and a multi-part Stravinsky focus led by Esa-Pekka Salonen
  • Programs celebrating the relationship between movies and music, pairing the orchestra with screenings of excerpts from Stanley Kubrick’s masterpieces and a celebration of scores by John Williams
  • Appearances by internationally celebrated musicians, including Emanuel Ax, Daniel Barenboim, Andrew Bird, Yefim Bronfman, Lila Downs, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Hélène Grimaud, Marc-André Hamelin, LA Phil Creative Chair for Jazz Herbie Hancock, Lang Lang, La Santa Cecilia, Audra McDonald, Moby, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Murray Perahia, Bernadette Peters, Itzhak Perlman, Cécile McLorin Savant and many more

Gustavo Dudamel said: “I have been thrilled to help define and shape the LA Phil over the past decade of our great history, when we have worked with such enthusiasm to make ourselves more diverse, more inclusive, and more engaged with our community, while pushing ourselves every day to make music that is magnificent and courageous. This Centennial season, which focuses so strongly on artistic breakthroughs and inspired educational projects, is going to carry us forward with new momentum.”

Simon Woods said: “The LA Phil has earned the reputation of being the orchestra that dares to do more, whether it’s for the diverse range of today’s composers or for the fast-changing communities that we work within and serve. As I look ahead toward this Centennial season, I feel that Gustavo and the artistic team have not just stood by the wager they’ve made on boldness and innovation but have doubled down on it. LA Phil 100 is indeed a celebration of everything that has led us to this moment - but, more important, it is a new beginning for wonderful things to come for this great orchestra and those who are inspired by its music making.”

It all begins on September 27 with a festive opening night concert and gala, California Soul, directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, in which Gustavo Dudamel and the orchestra will celebrate the abundance of the Golden State’s creativity from John Adams to Frank Zappa. Signaling to all Angelenos that the Centennial has begun, award-winning artist Refik Anadol will illuminate the façade of Walt Disney Concert Hall with WDCH Dreams, a dynamic media installation that draws on imagery, video and audio from the LA Phil’s extensive archive of more than 15,000 concerts presented since 1919. From September through October, Anadol will also present Archives on Display in the Gershwin Gallery, showing the arc of the LA Phil’s first century as a grand visual sweep of art, architecture and music in dynamic relationship to the people of L.A.

The season kick-off continues on September 30 with a free, day-long Celebrate LA! event for the entire city. The day will have a CicLAvia, an open-air event that will feature performances by professionals and amateurs staged throughout the streets from Walt Disney Concert Hall to the Hollywood Bowl and culminating in a free Bowl concert featuring Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and a once-in-100-years roster of special guest artists. Additional details for the centennial launch events will be announced this summer.

The 2018/19 Centennial season will celebrate the orchestra’s living history by welcoming towering figures such as Zubin MehtaEsa-Pekka Salonen, and Michael Tilson Thomas back to the podium, each with his own special focus; revisiting key moments in the past, such as the orchestra’s work in the 1930s with African-American composer William Grant Still; and publishing Past/Forward: The LA Phil at 100, a two-volume compilation of photographs, interviews, and essays, including conversations between Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Tim Page and Gustavo Dudamel, Zubin Mehta, André Previn and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Beginning in March 2019, the LA Phil will set off an unprecedented year of global touring, performing on three continents, including appearances in Seoul, Tokyo, Edinburgh, London, Mexico City, and New York City.

The celebrations will continue through the 2019 Hollywood Bowl season and come to a close with a once-in-a-lifetime gala featuring Dudamel, Mehta, and Salonen sharing the podium on October 24, 2019, 100 years to the day after the orchestra’s first concert. The LA Phil looks forward to marking the Bowl’s centennial in 2022.

Season subscription tickets are available now at laphil.com, 323.850.2000 or the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office. Single tickets will begin to go on sale Sunday, August 5, 2018. Information about the “100 for the 100” free ticket initiative will be announced later this summer.

Additional details can be found at the LA Phil’s newly launched website: laphil.com.

LA PHIL 100

In its Centennial year (September 2018 through October 2019) the LA Phil is inviting people from Los Angeles and around the world to join it in envisioning a future that music can help create. Major initiatives include presenting the orchestra’s most ambitious artistic season to date, featuring over 50 commissioned works and the LA Phil’s largest roster of artistic collaborations; investing in the future of young people by creating a permanent YOLA center, The Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center @ Inglewood, designed by Frank Gehry; establishing the LA Phil Resident Fellows Program, which will provide musicians representing or serving historically underrepresented populations opportunities for professional advancement; welcoming all of Los Angeles to a free, day-long, open-air festival, Celebrate LA!, featuring performances by professionals and amateurs stretching from Grand Avenue in front of Walt Disney Concert Hall all the way to the Hollywood Bowl, and concluding with a massive free concert at the Bowl; the “100 for the 100” Free Ticket Initiative, which will invite thousands of new listeners into Walt Disney Concert Hall; and a $500 Million Centennial Campaign to fund the future.

Season Highlights

 

NEW MUSIC



Over Fifty Commissions — Making the biggest commitment in its history to today’s music, and tomorrow’s, the LA Phil has commissioned more than 50 new works for performances during its Centennial season. Programs throughout 2018/2019 will feature world premieres and U.S. premieres, with all concerts in the Green Umbrella series devoted to LA Phil commissioned world premieres. At the culmination of the Centennial, the LA Phil will perform a new work by former Music Director André Previn. Other commissioned composers include John Adams, Thomas Adès, Julia Adolphe, Daniel Allas, Timo Andres, Louis Andriessen, Julianna Barwick, Eve Beglarian, Ethan Braun, Carolyn Chen, Anthony Cheung, Billy Childs, Unsuk Chin, Christopher Cerrone, Ann Cleare, Donnacha Dennehy, Paul Desenne, Natacha Diels, Bryce Dessner, Du Yun, Tan Dun, Francesco Filidei, Ashley Fure, Philip Glass, Adolphus Hailstork, Arnulf Herrmann, Anders Hillborg, Vijay Iyer, George Lewis, Michelle Lou, Dylan Mattingly, Nico Muhly, Jeffrey Mumford, Andrew Norman, Hitomi Oba, Gabriela Ortiz, Hermeto Pascoal, Steve Reich, Ellen Reid, Yann Robin, Christopher Rountree, Tyshawn Sorey, Miroslav Srnka, Christopher Stark, Steven Takasugi, Tina Tallon, Toivo Tulev, Pēteris Vasks, Freya Waley-Cohen, George Walker, Kamasi Washington, Lotta Wennäkoski, Julia Wolfe, and Pamela Z.
 

CROSS DISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIONS



Romeo and Juliet — Innovative choreographer and L.A. Dance Project Artistic Director Benjamin Millepied joins Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil, bringing to vivid life the famous balcony scene from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet -one of dance’s most evocative and vibrant scores – in collaboration with American Ballet Theatre and L.A. Dance Project.

The Tempest —  Barry Edelstein, Artistic Director of San Diego’s acclaimed Old Globe, comes to Walt Disney Concert Hall to direct an entrancing production of Shakespeare’s final work, The Tempest, with LA Phil Principal Guest Conductor Susanna Mälkki leading the orchestra in Sibelius’ incidental music for the play.

Adès & McGregor: A Dance Collaboration – Composer-conductor Thomas Adès leads the LA Phil and stellar soloists in his own music, with extraordinary choreography from Wayne McGregor, in a creative partnership between the LA Phil, Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, The Royal Ballet and Company Wayne McGregor. This unprecedented collaboration will feature both music and dance world premieres.

Fluxus Festival — Uncontainable and unpredictable, the mid-20th-century Fluxus current was as fluid as its name implied, transcending all barriers between art and life. In collaboration with the Getty Research Institute, composer and conductor Christopher Rountree curates a season-long series of the often-humorous, frequently provocative music of Fluxus, with performances appearing on and off-site including an orchestral subscription concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall. 

Yuval Sharon Directs — LA Phil Artist-Collaborator Yuval Sharon, recently named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, directs exceptional non-subscription performances of two of the towering monuments of contemporary music. With the LA Phil New Music Group, Sharon will present Meredith Monk’s full-length opera, ATLAS, conducted by Francisco  J. Núñez. In a remarkable off-site production, Sharon and the LA Phil New Music Group will also present John Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2, co-produced with The Industry. In addition, Sharon is curating a special installation that will begin in 2019: an augmented reality sound-walk around Walt Disney Concert Hall, created by Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, to be experienced on specially provided iPads.
 

MAJOR EVENTS & FOCUSES



LA Fest — The LA Phil will inaugurate the Centennial season with a dual commitment to the spectrum of new music and the diversity of Los Angeles. The festival will begin with Gustavo Dudamel exploring the virtuosity of the LA Phil and its own composers, Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen and Andrew Norman, Director of the Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program. Later in the festival, the Green Umbrella program, curated by Andrew Norman, will begin with Gustavo Dudamel leading the LA Phil New Music Group in a performance of new music from Southern California. The LA Phil’s World Music, Jazz, and Songbook series will also begin during the festival, with programs that include a performance from Creative Chair for Jazz Herbie Hancock and a Songbook event with Andrew Bird in Bird’s WDCH debut (both conducted by Gustavo Dudamel with the LA Phil) a World Music evening with Los Angeles’ premier bi-cultural Latin Alternative quartet La Santa Cecilia, and a special non-subscription concert featuring the orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel with the revolutionary L.A. artist/musician Moby. 

Celebrate Chinese New Year — The LA Phil will mark the Chinese New Year in February 2019 with two outstanding programs. Elim Chan, a former Dudamel Fellow, will lead the first, conducting an East-West slate of music that will include the world premiere of an LA Phil commission from Du Yun, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for music. In the second New Year concert, Gustavo Dudamel will lead the U.S. premiere of another LA Phil commission: Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion, inspired by paintings from the Dunhuang Cave Temples and accompanied by video projections of the paintings.

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Stravinsky Festival — Over the course of nine remarkable days in April, Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen will explore three major themes in the work of Igor Stravinsky, with programs devoted to Rituals (including The Rite of Spring), Faith (including the Requiem Canticles, Mass, and Cantata), and Myths. For the final program, Peter Sellars will stage Stravinsky’s narrated ballet Perséphone.
 

MUSIC AND FILM



Stanley Kubrick’s Sound Odyssey — Whether he was using the lilt of Strauss’ beautiful The Blue Danube in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the brooding power of Krzysztof Penderecki’s compositions in The Shining, or the uncanny synthesizer transcription of Purcell’s stately Funeral Music for Queen Mary in A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick drew unerringly throughout his career on classical music from all periods, creating a precise sonic atmosphere for each visionary scene. The LA Phil will pay tribute to the great director with clips from his films, accompanied by live performances of the music. 

Celebrating John Williams — From Star Wars and E.T. the Extraterrestrial through Schindler’s List and Harry Potter, John Williams’ music has helped many of the most popular movies of our era attain the status of emotionally charged cultural touchstones. Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil will salute Williams with an evening-long program of some of his best-loved compositions.

91st Academy Awards — A three-year partnership between the LA Phil and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences® culminates in February 2019, when Gustavo Dudamel leads the LA Phil live at the Oscars® telecast.

IN-DEPTH EXPLORATIONS



William Grant Still and the Harlem Renaissance — Composer William Grant Still relocated from New York’s Harlem to Los Angeles in the 1930s, becoming one of the few African-Americans to work as an arranger in the movie industry and taking up the baton for the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl. Under the direction of Thomas Wilkins, the LA Phil will present two concerts with Still’s music - his Symphonies No. 1 and No. 4 - putting them into the context of contemporaneous works by Duke Ellington and George Gershwin. Also on the program will be the world premiere of an LA Phil commission by Adolphus Hailstork.

Dudamel’s Mahler — Gustavo Dudamel’s widely acclaimed interpretations of the music of Gustav Mahler will be heard in three programs during the season: performances of Symphony No. 9 and Symphony No. 1 in February and March, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall premiere of Symphony No. 8 (“Symphony of a Thousand”) in late May and early June.

Dudamel’s Haydn and Lang Lang’s Beethoven — In a series of five concerts, Gustavo Dudamel will pair Beethoven with late symphonies by Haydn (Nos. 101-104), traversing all five of the piano concertos with powerhouse superstar soloist Lang Lang. In a sixth and final program, Gustavo Dudamel will lead the orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale in performances of Beethoven’s Mass in C and Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” Mass.

Zubin Mehta Conducts the Brahms Cycle — Former LA Phil Music Director Zubin Mehta, one of the world’s most respected interpreters of Brahms, comes to Walt Disney Concert Hall to lead performances of masterpieces of the classical canon: Brahms’s four symphonies and four concertos. Mehta is joined for the performances by powerhouse soloists: pianist Yefim Bronfman, violinist Pinchas Zukerman, and cellist Amanda Forsyth.
 

DISTINGUISHED GUEST ARTISTS



Esa-Pekka Salonen, Audra McDonald and The Weimar Republic — Soprano Audra McDonald will be the special guest in a program curated by Esa-Pekka Salonen, exploring the works of Kurt Weill and other composers who participated in the extraordinary cultural and political ferment of Weimar-era Germany, with its brilliant crossover between avant-garde expressions and popular music forms.

Late Mozart, Early Beethoven, and Emanuel Ax — In another of his intriguing programs for the Centennial season, Esa-Pekka Salonen pairs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, K. 482, featuring distinguished soloist Emanuel Ax, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1. Sharing the sonic world with the two masters is composer Louis Andriessen, whose propulsive new work for orchestra, a Centennial commission, will have its world premiere on the program.

Michael Tilson Thomas — Los Angeles favorite MTT presents a series of specially curated programs during the Centennial season. Programs will include his own composition Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind paired with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique" and an evening of beloved works by Tchaikovsky (Romeo and Juliet and Variations on a Rococo Theme), matched with Charles Ives’ mighty New England Holidays symphony.

Susanna Mälkki — One of the grandest landmarks in the modern orchestral repertoire, Messiaen’s vast Turangalîla Symphony, will be paired with the U.S. premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Trans, Concerto for Harp in a program led by Principal Guest Conductor Susanna Mälkki, featuring guest artists Jean-Yves Thibaudet on piano and Cynthia Millar on the electronic ondes martenot in Turangalîla and harpist Xavier de Maistre as soloist in Trans.

Bringuier & Grimaud — Maurice Ravel and George Gershwin met for just one shining moment, in 1928, encountering one another at a party in New York and sharing their mutual admiration and passion for jazz. The LA Phil will revisit, that meeting with a program conducted by Lionel Bringuier, performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with Hélène Grimaud as piano soloist, and Valses nobles et sentimentales, alongside Gershwin’s Cuban Overture and (naturally) An American in Paris.

JAZZ, WORLD MUSIC AND SONGBOOK SERIES



Jazz — In addition to its opening concert at LA Fest, featuring Herbie Hancock, Hancock’s curated series for 2018/19 will feature three exciting evenings of jazz. Three-time Grammy® winners Snarky Puppy will make their debut with the LA Phil, playing works that include the U.S. premieres of some of their best-loved compositions with fresh orchestral arrangements. An all-star line-up including Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron, Benny Green and Renee Rosnes will pay tribute to piano legend Oscar Peterson, performing compositions from their album Oscar, With Love. And the Monterey Jazz Festival’s touring band, featuring the brilliant young vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant as guest star, will share an evening with the stellar SF Jazz Collective playing their original arrangements of bossa novas by Antônio Carlos Jobim.

World Music — The series kicks off with La Santa Cecilia during LA Fest. The Japanese ensemble Kodo returns to WDCH with a new production, Evolution, infusing fresh lyrical rhythms into the age-old art form of taiko. German pianist-composer Nils Frahm makes his WDCH debut in the wake of the release of his highly anticipated new album, All Melody. And Mexican-American singer-songwriter Lila Downs presents an evening of music that interweaves textures, melodies and rhythms from Mesoamerica, Mexico and the U.S.

Songbook — Andrew Bird makes his WDCH debut with the LA Phil, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Bernadette Peters returns to WDCH for the first time in a decade to perform highlights from her illustrious stage, film and television career, accompanied by a small ensemble. And one of the world’s finest songwriters, New Zealand’s Neil Finn, brings his intimate lyrics and epic melodies to WDCH, where he will be backed by a chamber orchestra.

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About the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association - The LA Phil, under the vibrant leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, presents an inspiring array of music from all genres - orchestral, chamber and Baroque music, organ and celebrity recitals, new music, jazz, world music and pop - at two of L.A.'s iconic venues, Walt Disney Concert Hall ( www.laphil.com ) and the Hollywood Bowl ( www.hollywoodbowl.com ). The LA Phil’s season at Walt Disney Concert Hall extends from September through May, and throughout the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. With the preeminent Los Angeles Philharmonic at the foundation of its offerings, the LA Phil aims to enrich and transform lives through music, with a robust mix of artistic, education and community programs.