Los Angeles Philharmonic Unveils 2024-25 Season Featuring Leslie Odom, Jr., Itzhak Perlman & More
The LA Phil presents 22 commissioned works during the 2024/25 season.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Mar. 05, 2024
Los Angeles Philharmonic has revealed details of the 2024/25 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The composer- and curator-forward season offers an expansive array of programs with a distinctly Los Angeles-centric perspective, illuminating the musical and creative threads unique to the region’s multifaceted cultural landscape. From the counterculture 1970s LA society of Mahler lovers, to music from the Golden Age of Hollywood, to the pulsating Korean influence across LA today, nearly every performance has a connection to the City of Angels.
The 2024/25 Walt Disney Concert Hall commences with the LA Phil Gala Concert featuring the return of pianist Lang Lang and the orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Major initiatives in the season include “Mahler Grooves,” an exploration into Gustav Mahler’s monumental and lesser known works and his inner world; the Seoul Festival, curated by Unsuk Chin, showcasing South Korea’s impact on the modern American musical landscape across genres from K-pop to Classical; the launch of a three-year collaboration with French conductor and LA Phil Artist-Collaborator Emmanuelle Haïm, beginning with The Handel Project; Arnold Schoenberg at 150, a celebration of the composer’s distinct avant-garde and Romantic compositions on the 150th anniversary of his birth; the completion of a two-year retrospective of film music curated by legendary composer John Williams; the world premiere of Carlos Simon’s Gospel Mass that reinterprets a traditional Catholic Mass and explores themes of struggle, joy, hope and the presence of the spiritual in human existence; the return of Noon to Midnight – the LA Phil’s day-long new music festival curated by Ellen Reid – as part of Getty’s 2024 PST ART: Art & Science Collide; and the continuation of the Pan-American Music Initiative curated by Gabriela Ortiz that will include the LA Phil touring to Bogota, Colombia and opening Carnegie Hall’s 2024/25 season in New York.
Gustavo Dudamel said, "The city of Los Angeles is like an orchestra: so many different people, sounds, cultures, and histories, all coming together in a beautiful harmony of life. This season, we celebrate the many vibrant communities of our beloved city, including – for the first time – a full week of concerts to celebrate the profound power of Día de los Muertos, an exploration of the extraordinary artists of Korea with our Seoul Festival, a Gospel Mass that pays tribute to the resilience and joy of the Black community, an 11-concert immersion in the music of Gustav and Alma Mahler, and so much more."
Los Angeles Philharmonic Interim CEO Daniel Song said, “Walt Disney Concert Hall audiences expect each season to raise the bar by introducing them to new composers, musicians, and commissioned works, new interpretations of classic and beloved compositions, and performances unlike any other they have experienced before, and this season does not disappoint. There is a palpable feeling of surprise and delight across all genres of music in our program, whether you are a first-time visitor to the Hall or a seasoned supporter.”
The LA Phil presents 22 commissioned works during the 2024/25 season. Among the compositions having their world premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall are works by Gabriela Ortiz, Joe Hisaishi, Nico Muhly, Carlos Simon, Julia Adolphe, Joseph Pereira, Yie Eun Chun, Dongjin Bae, Sunghyun Lee, Kay Kyurim Rhie, Texu Kim and Whan Ri-Ahn. Receiving their U.S. debuts this season are pieces by Anders Hillborg and the late Kaija Saariaho.
SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
Gustavo Dudamel
Gustavo Dudamel opens the 2024/25 season with the LA Phil Gala Concert: Dudamel & Lang Lang, featuring Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Ginastera’s Estancia* (October 1).
On October 3 & 4, Walt Disney Concert Hall transforms into Shakespeare’s magical forest when Dudamel leads the LA Phil and Los Angeles Master Chorale in Mendelssohn’s whimsical incidental music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Complete with video projections setting the scene, direction by Alberto Arvelo, and Spanish actress María Valverde narrating, the music offers drama, fairies, and more than a little comedy. Also on this program, Alisa Weilerstein performs the world premiere of the Mexican composer’s new Cello Concerto.
The John Williams Spotlight kicks off on October 25-27 with From Mexico to Hollywood: Golden Age of Cinema, an exciting program co-curated by John Williams and Gustavo Dudamel that pairs musical selections from the rich history of Mexican cinema with highlights from Hollywood’s silver screen.
Dudamel continues the Pan-American Music Initiative with a trio of Día de los Muertos celebrations that include the return of LA Phil commission Yanga by Gabriela Ortiz, and works by Villa-Lobos and Revueltas (Nov. 1-3).
Dudamel leads 11 performances in the Mahler Grooves Festival (February 20-23, February 27 – March 1, and March 6-9), followed by special performances with Yo-Yo Ma and John Williams (April 3) and with Yo-Yo-Ma (April 4) in an all-Williams program, and a final John Williams Spotlight program (TBA) (April 5-6). Later in April, Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, featuring violin soloist Randall Goosby, and Bernstein’s Divertimento will be paired with the world premiere of Carlos Simon’s Gospel Mass, an embodiment of Black joy inspired by the composer’s Sunday mornings in church with his family (April 17-18). The performance of Gospel Mass will be complemented by visuals, with creative direction by Melina Matsoukas.
Mahler Grooves Festival
Inspired by a 1970s “Mahler Grooves” bumper sticker created by LA Mahler enthusiasts, Dudamel’s love of Mahler is showcased by three programs that explore different aspects of the composer’s works.
Mahler has been a specialty and obsession throughout Gustavo Dudamel’s career, and in the opening weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Dudamel curates and conducts a selection of the composer’s music in “Mahler’s Journey.” He opens with two excerpts from Mahler’s First and Tenth symphonies that frame the composer’s life: Blumine, the second movement from Symphony No. 1, and the Adagio from Symphony No. 10. Concluding the program are musical poems from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn). Two dozen of the poems are set to music, featuring baritone Simon Keenlyside, that explores stories of love, loss and the supernatural. (Feb. 20-23)
In the second program, “Song of the Night” (February 27-March 1), Dudamel leads Mahler’s ambitious Symphony No. 7 for the first time with the LA Phil.
In the final weekend of the Mahler Grooves Festival, Gustavo Dudamel explores the relationship of Gustav and Alma Mahler through their music. Alma Mahler’s Five Songs, which were part of 14 of her 50 art songs that survive, are brought to life in this performance by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, paired with Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, which progresses from mourning to triumph, inspired in no small part by Gustav meeting and becoming enchanted by Alma. (Mar. 6 - 9)
The festival will also include events and performances inspired by the Los Angeles Mahler Society, including a day-long Mahler-thon featuring YOLA and Colburn School musicians and Mahler listening parties in historic spaces organized by the LA Phil Insight program.
Seoul Festival
Celebrating the many ways Korean culture has influenced American music, the LA Phil’s first-ever Seoul Festival, curated by South Korean composer Unsuk Chin, features fast-rising Korean performing talent, distinct composer voices and broad-reaching culture. The festival begins with a Green Umbrella program conducted by Soo-Yeoul Choi leading South Korea's Ensemble TIMF alongside the LA Phil New Music Group in performances of Juri Seo’s Concertino for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, Sun-Young Pahg’s L’autre moitie de Silence for Daegum and Ensemble, the world premieres of works by Yie Eun Chun and Dongjin Bae that were commissioned by the LA Phil and the West Coast premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Gougalon (June 3).
The festival continues with Hankyeol Yoon conducting the world premieres of three LA Phil commissions from Sunghyun Lee, Kay Kyurim Rhie and Texu Kim paired with Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with pianist Sunwook Kim and violinist Yura Lee (June 6).
Following, an LA Phil commission from Whan Ri-Ahn makes its world premiere alongside Unsuk Chin’s Clarinet Concerto and Brahms’ Double Concerto featuring clarinetist Han Kim, violinist Inmo Yang and cellist Jaemin Han (June 7-8).
Additional performances and Insight events to be announced.
The Handel Project
An icon of Baroque and Early music, Emmanuelle Haïm begins her three-year term as the LA Phil’s Artist-Collaborator with The Handel Project, opening with Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Bach’s Magnificat, performed by the LA Phil and Le Concert d’Astrée choir, the instrumental and vocal Baroque ensemble she founded, with soloists Emöke Baráth, soprano, Eva Zaicik, soprano, Iestyn Davies, countertenor, Lunga Eric Hallam, tenor and Krešimir Stražanac, bass-baritone (March 21-23).
The Handel Project continues with Handel’s decorated Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day oratorio, performed by Le Concert d’Astrée led by Haïm, with soloists Elsa Benoît, soprano, and Eric Ferring, tenor. This program also includes selections by Rameau (Airs and Symphonies) (March 25).
Haïm then leads Le Concert d’Astrée in Handel’s first of many oratorios, the operatic Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno or “The Triumph of Time and Disillusion” with soloists Elsa Benoît, Julia Lezhneva, soprano, Iestyn Davies, countertenor, Ian Koziara, tenor.
Over the span of their illustrious 25-year career, Le Concert d’Astrée has become known as one of the foremost ensembles in the field of historically informed performance practice.
Haïm’s tenure as the LA Phil’s Artist-Collaborator will explore the complex beauty and evocative sophistication of the Baroque era with an annual residency by Concert d’Astree, performances with the LA Phil, and additional concerts and events curated by Haïm in collaboration with LA Phil Insight, bringing to life this vibrant era of music and culture.
John Williams Spotlight
The second year of a two-year retrospective dedicated to music of the cinema, curated by the legendary composer himself, commemorates Williams’ more than 45-year history with the LA Phil and close friendship and collaborations with Gustavo Dudamel.
Referencing the LA Phil’s unique history as being the first orchestra to perform Williams’ music from the iconic Star Wars films live in concert, the Spotlight series includes three landmark performances of Star Wars in Concert (November 21-24) with musical selections and specially edited clips from the franchise’s nine saga films. Anthony Daniels, who played the role of C-3P0, serves as host of the performances.
From Mexico to Hollywood: Golden Age Cinema (Oct. 25-27) is an exciting program that pairs musical selections from the rich history of Mexican cinema with highlights from Hollywood’s silver screen.
A collaboration and friendship forged through mutual artistic admiration and understanding, the epic trio of Yo-Yo Ma, John Williams, and Gustavo Dudamel comes together for an unforgettable night of Williams’ iconic music (April 3) and the following evening Yo-Yo Ma joins Dudamel for a program curated by Williams (April 4). Dudamel leads the LA Phil in both programs, showcasing the depth of their connection and the brilliance of Williams's compositions for both stage and screen.
Pan-American Music Initiative (PAMI)
Inspired by Gustavo Dudamel, the Pan-American Music Initiative (PAMI), curated by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, was created to build bridges of understanding between artists and audiences across the Americas.
Season four of PAMI begins with the world premiere of Ortiz’s new Cello Concerto (October 3 & 4) and the LA Phil’s tour to New York City’s Carnegie Hall in October 2024 and Bogota, Colombia in 2024.
After the tour, PAMI continues in L.A. with From Mexico to Hollywood: Golden Age Cinema (Oct. 25-27), and a festive exploration of Latin American music for Día de los Muertos featuring the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble and Los Angeles Master Chorale (November 1-3). Dudamel opens the program with Villa-Lobos’ progressive tour de force, Chôros No. 10, “Rasga o Coração,” followed by Gabriela Ortiz’s 2019 Yanga and Revueltas’ La Noche de los Mayas.
Schoenberg at 150
Arnold Schoenberg’s inventive approach to harmony left a lasting influence on the 20th century. Marking the 150th anniversary of his birth, the LA Phil explores the work of the Austrian-turned-Angeleno composer throughout the season highlighted by two performances of Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder conducted by LA Phil Conductor Emeritus Zubin Mehta featuring soprano Christin Goerke (Tove), mezzo Violeta Urmana (Waldtaube), tenors Brandon Jovanovich (Waldemar) and Gerhard Siegel (Klaus-Narr), and speaker Dietrich Henschel (December 13 and 15).
The celebration continues with Schoenberg’s arrangement of Brahms’ Piano Quartet, part of the Ravel & Brahms series (February 13-16) that also includes Bacewicz’s Concerto for String Orchestra and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, and a chamber music program (December 3). The LA Phil is additionally working with the Arnold Schoenberg Center and the Schoenberg family to produce a temporary exhibit in BP Hall and print piece exploring the composer’s life in Los Angeles.
Carlos Simon’s Gospel Mass
The LA Phil presents the world premiere of Carlos Simon’s Gospel Mass (April 17-18), a groundbreaking 30-minute, multimedia piece that reimagines the traditional Catholic Mass and is both a celebration of Black joy and an homage to the resilience of the Black community, drawing on the rich tapestry of gospel music, spirituals, and classical forms to offer a new perspective on the Mass’s traditional liturgy. The performance of Gospel Mass will be complemented by visuals, with creative direction by Melina Matsoukas.
Conducted by Dudamel, Gospel Mass features soloist tenor Zebulon Ellis, and is further enriched by the Sunday Service Collective under the direction of Choir Master Jason White.
PST ART: Art & Science Collide
The LA Phil will join more than 70 cultural institutions across Southern California participating in PST ART: Art & Science Collide presented by Getty, exploring the intersections between art and science. Noon to Midnight, the LA Phil’s day-long new musical festival, returns with a focus on field recordings. Curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid, Noon to Midnight will feature live performances and sound-based installations will fill the expanse of Walt Disney Concert Hall campus, highlighting groundbreaking new music by artists from Los Angeles and around the world who are exploring how sound connects us with the natural world. The festivities will be capped off with the world premiere of Lightscape, an innovative multimedia collaboration between the artist Doug Aitken, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by Artistic Director Grant Gershon. At the core of the work is a feature-length film and a multi-screen fine art installation that combines fiction, graphic storytelling, surrealism, and modern mythology. The project is anchored by a song cycle that speaks to the future—a portrait of a culture in flux, flashing like a mirage from the liminal space between natural and synthetic environments where modern mythologies meet age-old truths. Nearly dialogue-free, mesmerizing images are propelled by a rich sonic tapestry, blending Aitken’s original compositions sung by the Los Angeles Master Chorale with iconic minimalist works by Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich and others performed by the LA Phil New Music Group.
Wild Up and Gerard & Kelly present Julius Eastman’s Femenine
Artists and choreographers Gerard & Kelly and chamber orchestra Wild Up continue their exploration of the music and legacy of Julius Eastman with the world premiere staging of the composer’s ecstatic 1974 minimalist masterpiece Femenine (March 4), conducted by music director Christopher Rountree.
A co-production of the LA Phil, Philharmonie de Paris, La Villette, and Festival d’Automne à Paris, and produced in collaboration with Wild Up, this startlingly original staging of Femenine brings together musicians, dancers, singers, and a cosmic clamoring of bells in an immersive performance installation that provides a continuous conversation among Eastman, individual performers, and the group as a whole.
Guest Conductors
Walt Disney Concert Hall’s 2024-25 season showcases a line-up of international renowned conductors including Teddy Abrams, Ryan Bancroft, Gustavo Gimeno, Sarah Hicks, Joe Hisaishi, Paavo Järvi, Philippe Jordan, Eun Sun Kim, Susanna Mälkki, Joana Mallwitz, Ludovic Morlot, Nathalie Stutzmann, Robin Ticciati, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Lorenzo Viotti, Hankyeol Yoon and Xian Zhang, among others.
In addition, LA Phil Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the LA Phil in a trio of performances (May 2-4) featuring Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Bryce Dessner’s Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.” The following week he returns to lead the LA Phil through selections from Debussy and Boulez (May 8-11) featuring pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
Further, in addition to the performances of Gurrelieder, LA Phil Conductor Emeritus Zubin Mehta leads the LA Phil and violinist Leonidas Kavakos in Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 2 (December 6-8).
Organ Recitals
Five organists join WDCH this season: Clark Wilson performs a chilling score to the 1922 silent film Nosferatu (October 31); Paul Jacobs performs selections from Bach and Liszt (January 5); Hector Olivera returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall (February 16); Canadian organist Rachel Mahon makes her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut (April 13); and Cameron Carpenter returns (May 18).
Green Umbrella
The LA Phil’s Green Umbrella series, overseen by LA Phil creative chair John Adams, was designed to challenge assumptions of music and expand the field through exploratory and boundary-pushing works that often are world or U.S. premieres of works commissioned by the LA Phil. The 2024/25 Green Umbrella series consists of five performances including a concert curated by Adams who will conduct the LA Phil New Music Group in the world premiere of Noah Jenkins' new work for ensemble, an LA Phil commission, as well as Missy Mazzoli’s GRAMMY-nominated Dark with Excessive Bright and Donnacha Dennehy’s Limina, featuring pianist Eliza McCarthy and bassist Chris Hanulik, plus a continuation of the LA Phil Etudes series featuring solo pieces written for LA Phil players by today's top new music composers (January 28).
In addition, the series features the aforementioned Doug Aitken’s Lightscape (November 16), Wild Up and Gerard & Kelly’s presentation of Julius Eastman’s Femenine (March 4), and New Voices from Korea, part of the Seoul Festival (June 3). Rounding out the program is Vocal Dimensions with Daniel Bjarnason (April 29) conducting the LA Phil New Music Group in the world premiere of the LA Phil commission NO! by Chaya Czernowin and the U.S. premiere of Bjarnason’s Snow Songs, A Song Cycle for Soprano and Ensemble, co-commissioned by the LA Phil and Dublin's Crash Ensemble.
Songbook, Jazz and KCRW Series
The 2024/25 Songbook, Jazz and KCRW series features performances from some of the most celebrated artists in the world.
The Songbook series includes Country Music Hall of Famer Wynonna Judd making her WDCH debut (October 4), singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Cody Fry with orchestra (January 10), and a special solo acoustic performance from six-time Grammy winner Jason Isbell (March 14).
Jazz performances feature the boundary-pushing Jason Moran & The Big Bandwagon performing their acclaimed program James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (October 11), 2023 Best New Artist Grammy-winner Samara Joy (February 7), one of the most inventive artists in the history of American music, LA Phil's Creative Chair for Jazz Herbie Hancock (March 30), and trailblazing jazz and R&B star Patrice Rushen (May 2).
The KCRW Series at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the LA Phil’s partnership with the LA public radio station, presents Portuguese icon and global fado superstar Mariza (October 19), winner of the UK’s prestigious Mercury Prize Arlo Parks (January 17), revolutionary drummers of the traditional taiko Japanese discipline KODO (February 4), and celebrated composer of music for stage, opera, studio albums, ballet, and cinema and television Max Richter (May 9).
Perennial Audience Favorite Holiday Programs Return to WDCH
Leslie Odom, Jr. kicks off the annual Deck the Hall series (December 1). Holiday favorites return to WDCH with Melissa Peterman hosting two beloved Holiday Sing-Alongs (December 14), Chanticleer performs a cappella arrangements of the most moving Christmas music throughout the centuries (December 17), David Newman leads the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in four performances of John Williams’ score for Home Alone in Concert (December 20-22), and multiple-Grammy-Winning Arturo Sandoval returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall for a jumping, jiving, jingling night of holiday favorites (December 23). The holiday programs will culminate with a special New Year’s Eve concert to be announced at a later date.
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