The Los Angeles Philharmonic Announces 2019-20 Season

In 2017, The New York Times classical music editor, Zachary Woolfe praised the Los Angeles Philharmonic as "the most important orchestra in America. Period." As the acclaimed orchestra celebrates its 100th anniversary in October, the LA Phil has announced its 2019-20 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The exciting season will include premieres of 22 LA Phil commissions, as well as six LA Phil commissions from past seasons, solidifying their place in today’s orchestral repertoire.

LA Phil Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel will conduct 17 different programs throughout the 2019-20 season, in a musical spectrum that ranges from Mozart, Adams, and Ginastera to Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder and a fully staged version of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George.

Gustavo Dudamel said: "As the LA Phil begins its second century, and me, my second decade, you can see that we have reaffirmed our commitment to recognizing and respecting the past and redefining the future of classical music. I couldn’t be prouder of this season, which is as beautiful, diverse, inclusive, and eclectic as Los Angeles itself."

From the spectacular Centennial Concert to the Power to the People! festival, Jazz, World Music and more, read on for highlights of the 2019-20 season of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Taking place on the actual 100th anniversary of the LA Phil's very first performance, the once-in-a-lifetime Centennial Concert & Gala will feature three music directors, past and present, sharing the stage: Conductor Emeritus Zubin Mehta, Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel. Each will lead a specialty of his own, and then, for the grand finale, a newly commissioned work from Daníel Bjarnason, From Space I Saw Earth will feature all three conductors at once!

The celebration will continue for three additional days, with each music director leading his own program of music closely connected to him. Zubin Mehta leads Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”; Salonen leads a program of Sibelius and his own latest work; and Dudamel tops it all off with Beethoven’s towering Ninth Symphony, plus a world premiere by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz.

It's "Horror in the Hall" with The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), screening on Halloween Night. Organ virtuoso Clark Wilson will provide an eerie, atmospheric soundtrack on the Hall’s magnificent pipe organ to accompany one of the most influential horror films of the silent era, directed by Wallace Worsley and starring the legendary Lon Chaney in the title role.

A beloved LA holiday tradition, Deck the Hall features a wide range of concerts for the entire family, including A Chanticleer Christmas (Dec. 17), Dianne Reeves: Christmas Time is Here (Dec. 20), the Holiday Sing-Along (Dec. 21), and the perennial favorite, White Christmas Sing-Along (Dec. 22).

For years, Vienna has delighted the world with its New Year’s celebrations - filled with the lively, nostalgic music of the Strauss family and their contemporaries. Conductor Emeritus Zubin Mehta, who honed his craft in Vienna and is an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera, will lead the LA Phil's first Viennese-style New Year's Day concert, joined by acclaimed Israeli soprano Chen Reiss.

One of the season’s most ambitious and exciting initiatives, Power to the People! is a two-week festival curated by Dudamel and jazz legend Herbie Hancock, taking place from March 5-24, 2020. Bringing together composers, performers, and poets representing a wide range of musical streams and social-justice movements, whose creativity spans the humanitarian convictions of a half-century ago and today, the festival will present The Movie Music of Spike Lee & Terence Blanchard; superstar vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant with her song cycle Ogresse; pianist Conrad Tao, composer Ted Hearne with his staged oratorio Place (an LA Phil commission, co-produced by Beth Morrison Productions); and a special Symphonies for Youth program for families. Additional programs TBA.

In celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday, the LA Phil will mount a fully staged new production of one of the greatest musicals of all time, Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Focusing on the French pointillist painter Georges Seurat, the musical delves deeply into the challenges of being an artist, merging past and present into beautiful, poignant truths about life, love, and the creative process. Directed by Zak Winokur, the production will be performed May 7-10 and May 14-15.

Ravi Shankar was one of the most influential artists in Indian history, a musician who introduced countless western audiences to his country’s native sounds and proved the versatility of his instrument in collaborations with everyone from rock legends to symphony orchestras. On May 19, the Shankar family invites you to an evening dedicated to the life and legacy of a 20th-century icon, featuring Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones.

Other World Music programs range from British duo The Cinematic Orchestra (November 23) and Tune-Yards (January 31) to The Chieftains in their Irish Goodbye Tour on March 1.

Guided by Creative Chair John Adams, the LA Phil will present six Green Umbrella concerts in the 2019-20 season, with the final program coinciding with the annual Noon to Midnight marathon. Now the longest-running series of its type anywhere, Green Umbrella is devoted this season to creative collaborations. Program pairings include:

• John Adams with cellist Jay Campbell (Nov. 5), featuring works by Sky Macklay (world premiere), Marc Sabat (world premiere), Eric Wubbels, Tristan Perich, and Gabriella Smith.
• Susanna Mälkki with violinist Leila Josefowicz (Dec. 10), in tribute to Oliver Knussen, featuring music by Knussen, Jonathan Harvey, Huw Watkins, Colin Matthews and Helen Grime.
• Daníel Bjarnason with pianist Vikingur Ólafsson (Feb. 4), with Bjarnason conducting the U.S. premieres of his own LA Phil-commissioned song cycle and an LA Phil-commissioned work new work by Thuridur Jonsdottir, a U.S. premiere by Bent Sørensen, and pieces by Saariaho and Takemitsu.
• Ted Hearne with poet Saul Williams and director Patricia McGregor (March 24) in the West Coast premiere of Place (also part of the Power to the People! festival)
• David Bloom with composer Du Yun (April 21), with works that include new world premieres (LA Phil commissions) by Mazz Swift, Du Yun, and Rajna Swaminathan, plus existing works by Vicente Alexim, Carlos Gutiérrez Quiroga, and Aida Shirazi.

The anchoring concert for the concluding Noon to Midnight festival on June 6 will be a program of music by Steve Reich, culminating in the West Coast premiere of the composer’s collaboration with painter Gerhard Richter. Working with filmmaker Corinna Belz, Richter has created an animated stream of images based on his abstract painting 946-3, which interprets Reich’s music and is interpreted by it in turn. Noon to Midnight features pop-up performances by many of LA’s finest ensembles – inside, outside, and all around Walt Disney Concert Hall, with local food trucks and craft beer fueling the party. Performers and more details TBA.

For more information and the complete 2019-20 performance schedule, visit the LA Phil website.