The world-renowned Los Angeles Philharmonic is famous for testing the bounds of an orchestra’s ability and redefining the power of live music. The orchestra, along with Director Gustavo Dudamel, recently announced the 2020/21 LA Phil season that will celebrate the music of the Americas. With more than two dozen commissions and exciting collaborations, LA Phil will feature music that represents vibrant cultures all over. From modern-day Mexico City to Seoul, Korea, the new season does not disappoint, continuing to foster artistic growth and creative spirit.

The upcoming season features several new projects: 

Pan-American Music Initiative 

This five-year venture, under the direction of Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, will celebrate the unquestionable creativity of the Americas. The project will include 30 commissions, recordings of major repertoire, and residencies. It will also feature partnerships with Pan-American cultural institutions and collaborations with artists from Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. The first collaboration performance occurs October 1-4, with Gustavo Dudamel conducting Alberto Ginastera’s Estancia, along with a full-length ballet by Brazilian dance troupe Grupo Corpo. Lina Gonzalez-Granados will also conduct a Green Umbrella program featuring works with leading artists from Latin America.

America: The Stories We Tell

Led by Dudamel, this series from November 13-15 consists of two works from Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Divertimento: a series of marches by John Philip Sousa collaborating with marches commissioned from contemporary composers Saad Haddad, Viet Cuong, Clarice Assad and Jonathan Bailey Holland. You can also look forward to Dudamel’s lead on Nixon in China, an evening with Mexican indie-pop singer Julia Bullock and John Adams’ conducting of the opera, Girls of the Golden West in this series. The series finale will be conducted by Dudamel, joined by young pianist-composer Aaron Diehl. Diehl joins as a soloist and is known for his range of mastery with different genres of music. 

Seoul Festival

The Walt Disney Concert Hall will be joined by composer Unsuk Chin from April 27-May 4. She will be curating the LA Phil’s first week-long Seoul Festival, which links South Korea’s contemporary arts to Los Angeles. LA is home to the largest Korean population in the United States, influencing the artistic culture greatly. This 10-day festival will bring together Korean composers, conductors, and leading performers such as pianist Sunwook Kim and conductor Shi-Yeon Sung. Sung will be conducting three symphony concerts during her return to the LA Phil. You can also look forward to first-time US performances with iconic works by Isang Yun, Sukhi Kang and Byungdong Paik.

More Events

Some other highlights of the new LA Phil season include The Labèques, and the return of The Tristan Project. The Labèques, consisting of guest pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque bring three creative programs to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. They are joined by soprano Barbara Hannigan in October for a one-night-only multimedia and interactive staged concert. They return in the spring of 2021 to perform their two following programs joined by conductor Gustavo Gimeno for one, and Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin on guitars for Don’t Fear the Light. The latter is to be a performance of minimalist and electronica-influenced works Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Timo Andres, Meredith Monk, Dessner, and Chalmin. 

The Tristan Project by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Phil returns after its iconic launch in 2004. The iconic production returns for the new season with only four performances and an all-star cast featuring Nina Stemme, Stephen Gould, Michelle DeYoung, and Franz Josef Selig. 

Celebrate the magic of music and remarkable talent from all over the world with LA Phil. Tickets will be available Sunday, August 23, 2020. Don’t miss out!

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