In its original run from the 1920s to the 1950s, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra worked primarily as a traditional ensemble, performing classical music under the baton of Leopold Stokowski, Felix Slatkin, Alfred Newman, and more, and releasing live albums on Capitol Records. Since returning to the stage under the baton of in 1991, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra has demonstrated remarkable fluidity, working with conductors from around the world and performing a truly staggering range of music at consistently high quality.  

In 2008, Thomas Wilkins began as Principal Guest Conductor, and starting in 2014, he became Principal Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, a title he holds to this day. Under his leadership, the orchestra has showcased its wide range of abilities, performing not only with stars of all kinds, but also live-scoring films and performing classical masterworks.  

One of the specialties of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra has been the live performance of film music, much of which previously had been heard only in recorded form on the original soundtracks. Since the early 1990s, the LA Phil / Hollywood Bowl has been exceptionally committed to restoring and performing lost or neglected film scores, many of which have then been performed in concert by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra – Max Steiner’s theme to Gone With the Wind, the “Dream Ballet” sequence from Oklahoma!, the “Born in a Trunk” sequence from A Star is Born (1954), in addition to dozens of others.