Expectations are challenged, sound is reimagined, and curious, open-minded music lovers get to witness outstanding compositions being born. Since its establishment in 1987, Green Umbrella has elevated works by John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Philip Glass, John Cage, Unsuk Chin, Gabriella Smith, and countless other composers who have and are continuing to shape the future of music. 

Creative Producer Mark McNeill, who plays a large role in programming the series, says, “For most folks, this is a rare experience to be able to come into a real space of intentional listening…. People can dismiss new music as this chin-scratching academic exercise, but really, the composers that I’m blown away by and drawn to—there’s so much joy in what they do.” 

Anything is possible at a Green Umbrella concert: Dylan Mattingly and Thomas Bartscherer’s world-premiere opera Stranger Love combined about six hours’ worth of music, dance, and theater with a dinner intermission and a shower of confetti in May 2023. Angélica Negrón played tropical fruits as instruments during this season’s Recovecos program centered around Latin American and Caribbean joy, healing, and heritage. In October 2013, Esa-Pekka Salonen brought the world premiere of Frank Zappa’s completed orchestral-rock experiment 200 Motels to life, fulfilling a dream project first attempted in 1970 by Zappa and then-Music Director Zubin Mehta. 

The Los Angeles Times described Green Umbrella as “a news outlet for new music, a place for discovery.” It was intentionally built to welcome people into that discovery. McNeill’s guiding question is, “How do we open up space to new voices from a performance and composing perspective, but also for audiences to see themselves reflected in the work and in the Hall?” 

That ongoing question traces back to the 1981/82 season, when Principal Timpanist William Kraft and LA Phil Executive Director Ernest Fleischmann founded the LA Phil New Music Group (LAPNMG). Fleischmann believed that “audiences must be provoked and excited to become active participants, and not just passive listeners. It is our goal to create an environment that is open to every type of musical creativity.”  

Over the next few years, Fleischmann, Kraft, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison—who became the LA Phil’s New Music Advisor, composer-in-residence, and LAPNMG director in 1985—laid the groundwork for Green Umbrella’s debut in 1987.

As for the series’ puzzling name, Fleishmann noted: “Green Umbrella means absolutely nothing; it was something I pulled out of the air. There was a slight relationship with CalArts [California Institute of the Arts], and I thought, ‘There’s contemporary music being created at CalArts, we are creating contemporary music downtown, and this ‘green umbrella’ stretches from downtown to Valencia.’” That was that—the name stuck. 

The addition of Steven Stucky as composer-in-residence in 1988 and the appointment of composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen as Music Director in 1992 boosted the LA Phil as the most prolific commissioner of new music of any American orchestra, establishing Green Umbrella as a leading series for cutting-edge talent.

By the time Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in 2003, Green Umbrella had presented 26 world premieres and 18 US premieres. 

That trend would only amplify in the new venue, which, The Violinist wrote, “with its modern Frank Gehry design, inspires a sense of the new and makes a composer want to reach into the future.”  When Green Umbrella celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2007, LAist deemed it “the best Los Angeles Philharmonic series there is.” 

Under the leadership of Creative Chair John Adams (who took on his role in 2009, the same year Gustavo Dudamel was appointed Music & Artistic Director), Green Umbrella continues to push classical music into new sonic territories and uplift the next generation of composers. 

“My experiences with the Los Angeles Philharmonic are never anything short of astonishing,” Adams says.

With at least 193 premieres and 160 commissions to date and ongoing projects like the Adams-curated LA Phil Etudes—a collection of solo pieces commissioned for the orchestra’s principals and written by today’s sharpest composers—the spirit of experimentation and collaboration is alive and well in Los Angeles.