LA Phil

The Music

...And Now It's Over

| Posted by LA Phil Staff in New York

LA Phil Music Director Gustavo Dudamel stands in front of the LA Phil's truck outside New York's Lincoln Center following the last performance of the LA Phil's 2013 Tour.

The stage platforms are struck, the instrument cases are packed and the big LA Phil truck is rolling back to Los Angeles.

Another tour is in the books and we think it's fair to say that this one has been successful. From London to Lucerne to Paris to New York, critics raved, audiences cheered and we at the LA Phil were once again reminded why we do what we do.

Led by our Music Director, we took a typically audacious set of programs on the road. We played programs that said, "This is who we are and this is what we think is important." And we brought the audiences along with us - audiences that may have been skeptical were won over, note by note, until they were standing at the end of the concerts. And, sometimes, even cheering DURING the concerts.

Read More…

Straight to the Top

| Posted by LA Phil Staff in New York

LA Phil Music Director Gustavo Dudamel flashes a quick smile as the doors close on the famed elevator to the stage at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall before Thursday's final performance of the 2013 Tour.

The reviews are coming in, and it's official - New York loves the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel. Enough, anyway, to break into spontaneous applause at unforeseen times during Thursday's performance of Stravinsky's The Firebird.

And why shouldn't the audience applaud when they might usually not? After all, New York Times writer Anthony Tomassini, in a combined review of the orchestra's two concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, writes:

It is exciting to hear this charismatic conductor taking risks and following a vision. Now in his fourth season as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he has galvanized the city and become for all conductors a model of community outreach and education. Not bad.

Read More…

The Tour According to the Other Mary

| Posted by Kelly O'Connor, Mary in "The Gospel According to the Other Mary" in New York

Kelley O'Connor, AKA Mary in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, is shown here during the dress rehearsal at Walt Disney Concert Hall with dancer Troy Ogilvie.

The end is finally here. New York. Our final show.

Read More…

The LA Phil Takes Manhattan

| Posted by LA Phil Staff in New York

You might have heard that the LA Phil played a concert in New York last night. Apparently, it went pretty well.

Thanks, everyone!

Read More…

New York, New York

| Posted by LA Phil Staff in New York

LA Phil bassists David Allen Moore, Peter Rofé, Christopher Hanulik and Oscar M. Meza pose with John Adams and Gustavo after the final rehearsal of The Gospel According to the Other Mary on the 2013 Tour.

Back on familiar shores and mere hours away from the East Coast premiere of John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the LA Phil's 2013 Tour is winding down. Sure, there's tonight's performance - not to mention tomorrow's - but the tour has entered its endgame.

Read More…

American in Paris

| Posted by Brian Cummings, countertenor in Paris

Countertenor Brian Cummings (third from right) and the rest of the cast of The Gospel According to the Other Mary, along with Gustavo Dudamel, director Peter Sellars and composer John Adams, take their bows in Paris after the piece's premiere in the City of Lights.

My love affair with the city of Paris began in 2001 when I participated in the world premiere of John Adams' oratorio El Niño. Barely 21 years old, I was astounded by the beauty of the city and the richness of French culture.

Read More…

March Madness

| Posted by LA Phil Staff in Paris

LA Phil crew member Jesse Kolouch twiddles the knobs on the Salle Pleyel soundboard before the orchestra's performance of The Gospel According to the Other Mary in Paris.

March 14 to March 28. Fourteen days. Two weeks.

Read More…

Pourqoui pas Paris?

| Posted by Barry Gold, LA Phil cellist in Paris

Barry Gold, LA Phil cellist, stands in front of the Arc de Triomphe in a city he knows well thanks in part to his tenure with the orchestra.

An American in Paris is, of course, an iconic and oh-so-familiar composition by Gershwin. But this magnificent city of lights and romance is currently being seduced by the magnificent musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the LA Master Chorale in what surely will be a overpowering performance of John Adams' new masterpiece: The Gospel According to the Other Mary.

Read More…

Paris, Je t'Aime

| Posted by LA Phil Staff in Paris

The orchestra is on to Paris!

It's the final European stop on the tour and penultimate stop of the whole darn thing, so spirits are high. They'll be playing The Gospel According to the Other Mary tonight at Paris' famed Salle Pleyel, home of the Orchestre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Read More…

Mountaintop Musings

| Posted by Nathan Medley, countertenor in "The Gospel According to the Other Mary" in Lucerne

Nathan Medley (far right) consoles Mary Magdalene (Kelley O'Connor) with his fellow countertenors (Daniel Bubeck and Brian Cummings) in a scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary

Who knew John Adams could sound so good with a little extra cheese in the belly?

That's a random observation about performing The Gospel According to the Other Mary in Switzerland, sure. But, after our Lucerne experience, I can honestly say that "those hills were alive with the sound of music."

As we round the half way point of our tour and head onward to the discerning French it is a perfect moment for this kind of reflection. Two wonderful observations come to mind: 

Read More…

Pages