Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra

By the middle of the 2010s the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra had come to exemplify how a modern symphony ensemble might appear and operate within today’s cultural landscape while ranking among the foremost orchestras in the United States and abroad. Under the energetic direction of Gustavo Dudamel—music and artistic director and himself a graduate of Venezuela’s forward-looking El Sistema network of classical instruction—the ensemble balanced dedication to core repertoire with a readiness for daring new projects.

William Andrews Clark, Jr., a Los Angeles multi-millionaire and devoted amateur musician, established the orchestra in 1919. Its inaugural music director was Walter Henry Rothwell. The following year the ensemble took up residence in The Temple, a church constructed in 1907 and subsequently renamed Philharmonic Auditorium. Although the building’s name had changed, worship services continued, forcing the orchestra to schedule its performances around ecclesiastical use. Successive European-born conductors drawn to California included Georg Schnéevoigt (1927-1929), Artur Rodzinski (1929-1933), Otto Klemperer (1933-1939), Alfred Wallenstein (1943-1956), and Eduard van Beinum (1956-1959).

Leopold Stokowski created the Hollywood Bowl Symphony in 1945 to serve the summer series at the Hollywood Bowl, the striking art deco outdoor shell set within a scenic natural amphitheater. The Los Angeles Philharmonic soon assumed that role, becoming a cherished element of the city’s outdoor cultural life. Zubin Mehta began an extended and fruitful term as music director in 1962 that continued until 1978; Carlo Maria Giulini followed (1978-1984) and then André Previn (1985-1989). Esa-Pekka Salonen held the post from 1992 to 2009, shaping programs that juxtaposed landmark twentieth-century scores, newly composed pieces, and a firm selection of traditional works. Gustavo Dudamel took the podium in 2009.

The orchestra relocated in 1964 to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles, sharing the facility with the Civic Light Opera Association and additional performing groups—an arrangement that grew increasingly restrictive. Its permanent home, Walt Disney Hall, designed by Frank Gehry and clad in titanium and brushed stainless steel, opened in October 2003. Inspired by El Sistema’s achievements, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Dudamel launched the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles in 2007, supplying free musical training and instruments to local students.

The ensemble maintains a thirty-week winter season and presents or performs more than two hundred fifty concerts each year at Walt Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, offering a range and substance unmatched by most peer institutions. From its earliest seasons the orchestra has maintained an active commitment to contemporary music and continues to stand out for the exceptional quantity and variety of new works it commissions.