THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ANNOUNCES

24/25 INSIGHT PROJECTS AND FESTIVAL CURATORS

LA PHIL INSIGHT WELCOMES GYOPO, TYREE BOYD-PATES, ELLEN REID, AND MORE INTO EXPLORATIONS OF DIASPORIC KOREAN CULTURE, HISTORICAL MILESTONES IN GOSPEL MUSIC, AND THE COUNTERCULTURAL EMBRACE OF GUSTAV MAHLER

LOS ANGELES (SEPTEMBER 30, 2024) - The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association today announced its 2024/25 Insight projects and festival curators. Formerly known as the LA Phil Humanities initiative, Insight is now in its sixth year of offering guest curator-driven festivals, multidisciplinary art projects, publications, and digital initiatives that explore the themes which emerge from the LA Phil’s concert programming.

Meghan Umber, the LA Phil’s Chief Content Officer, said, “Like the LA Phil Music Directors before him, Gustavo Dudamel has a distinct curatorial vision. His programs are exuberant, thoughtful, and inclusive—everyone is invited to the party. The beauty of Insight is that it takes Dudamel up on that invitation by bringing new curatorial voices into the fold, to expand on the meaning of the work taking place on the concert hall stage. Whether it’s the collective GYOPO bringing diasporic expressions into our Seoul Festival or independent curator Tyree Boyd-Pates looking at the history of Gospel music in Los Angeles, Insight is an expansion of Gustavo’s vision and a multi-faceted consideration of music’s importance in contemporary society. We’ve been able to continually build on this work thanks to an active community of donors, led by visionary philanthropists Linda and David Shaheen.”

Programming Director Julia Ward said, “One of the best ways to understand Insight is through the lens of its audience. Insight is for the intellectually curious regardless of who they are, where they come from, or whether they’ve ever set foot in Walt Disney Concert Hall before. Our goal is to connect new curatorial voices with adventurous people who want to go off on tangents in the best possible way. We take our concert programming as a starting point and then extend its meaning and impact through exhibits, small-scale performances, film series, participatory events, and discussions in venues throughout the city, as well as through online offerings and print publications. This season, we’re excited to explore everything from the art of listening through field recordings to Mahler’s reception in 1970s Los Angeles in ways that we hope are thoughtful, life-affirming, inclusive, and fun.”

Insight @ The Ford

Following a summer of Insight @ The Ford performances and artist residencies by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Saul Williams, Daniel Bernard-Roumain, and Michelle Dorrance; a film series featuring the work of Studio Ghibli; and podcast tapings of Vibe Check and Song Exploder, the series ends with the third concert in the Jazz Is Dead residency. The collective brought a series of concerts to The Ford showcasing their trademark explorations of soulful music culture, ranging from the jazz-funk masterpieces of the Mizell Brothers to the Brazilian Samba Soul with Marcos Valle and Azymuth. For more information, visit theford.com.

Insight @ Noon to Midnight: Field Recordings

On November 16, 2024, the LA Phil presents Noon to Midnight: Field Recordings, a 12-hour festival featuring live performances and art installations activating every corner of the Walt Disney Concert Hall campus. Curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid, this edition of the LA Phil’s beloved new-music marathon explores the intersections of art, technology, and nature through the theme of field recordings.

Insight joins the festivities with a series of conversations featuring N2M’s participating composers, acoustic ecologists, field recordists, and scientists, as well as interactive installations by artists Lachlan Turczan, Lily Clark, and Alexey Seliverstov among others. In the lead up to Noon to Midnight, Insight will publish a series of original audio programs featuring interviews with composers including John Luther Adams and Raven Chacon who are expanding how sound reflects and shapes the environment.

Noon to Midnight is part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide, presented by Getty. For more information, please visit pst.art.

Noon to Midnight is generously supported by the Contemporary Initiatives Fund.

Schoenberg 150: Gurrelieder

Closing out the 150th year of Schoenberg's birth, the LA Phil offers an exhibition spotlighting the composer’s rarely performed Gurrelieder with materials provided by the Arnold Schönberg Center and a mapping project focused on the composer’s residency in Los Angeles. The exhibition will be on view and the maps distributed in conjunction with the LA Phil’s performance of Gurrelieder on December 13 and 15, 2024.

Mahler Grooves

In the 1970s, a society of LA-based Mahler lovers created “Mahler Grooves” bumper stickers that became a countercultural symbol for the then-cult status of Gustav Mahler among symphonic fans. Insight celebrates these inspired DIY Angelenos with a recreation of the Mahler listening parties of the era at the historic Paramour Estate on February 19, 2025. With special guests playing their favorite Mahler recordings, the event also pays tribute to listening rooms like Shibuya’s Lion Cafe, where classical music recordings continue to be at the center of collective experience. Tickets will go sale later this year.

The Mahler Grooves Festival is generously supported by the Frank Gehry Fund for Creativity.

To the Fullest

As an extension of the March 4, 2025 Green Umbrella, To the Fullest: The Music of Julius Eastman and Arthur Russell, Wild Up and the LA Phil will co-present a series of ancillary projects further exploring the work of these two musical revolutionaries and highlighting how their intertwined legacies continue to provoke vital cultural conversations. 

Year One: Baroque Focus

In addition to LA Phil Artistic Collaborator Emmanuelle Haïm’s concert programming, Insight efforts will focus on the Baroque music and its cultural context over the conductor’s three-year residency. The collaboration begins with Baroque ensemble performances in several of the city’s outdoor venues. Programming will take place in late March with events to be announced later this year.

Gospel Mass

To celebrate the premiere of composer Carlos Simon’s Gospel Mass at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Insight program has tapped curator and historian Tyree Boyd-Pates, founder of NOMMO Cultural Strategies, to create a series of programs exploring Gospel music’s impact on contemporary society and upcoming milestones in Gospel music history. Programming will take place in mid-April 2025 with events to be announced early next year.

Seoul Festival

In conjunction with the LA Phil’s Seoul Festival, the arts non-profit GYOPO will curate a series of Insight programs highlighting diasporic Korean cultural expressions. Programming will take place in early June 2025 with events to be announced early next year.

Green Umbrella Echoes

Green Umbrella Echoes is a collection of multidimensional artistic responses to LA Phil’s Green Umbrella concerts. For each performance in the 2024-25 Green Umbrella series, LA Phil Insight invited a different artist to echo their concert hall experience through a visual artform of their choosing. The resulting, newly created works will be exhibited in BP Hall prior to Green Umbrella concerts during the 2024-25 season as well as featured in a digital gallery. Past participants have included Eamon Ore-Giron, Lily Stockman, and Peal Hsiung among others.

LA Phil Insight is generously supported by Linda and David Shaheen. 

ABOUT THE LA PHIL

Under the leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil offers live performances, media initiatives and learning programs that inspire and strengthen communities in Los Angeles and beyond. The Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra is the foundation of the LA Phil’s offerings, which also include a multi-genre, multidisciplinary presenting program and such youth development programs as YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). Performances are offered on three historic stages—Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and The Ford—as well as through a variety of media platforms. In all its endeavors, the LA Phil seeks to enrich the lives of individuals and communities through musical, artistic and learning experiences that resonate in our world today.