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  • LAPA
  • THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC APPOINTS YUVAL SHARON AS ARTIST-COLLABORATOR
  • Sep. 3, 2015
  • THE THREE-YEAR APPOINTMENT BEGINS IN THE 2016/17 SEASON

    Los Angeles, CA (SEPTEMBER 2, 2015)- Los Angeles Philharmonic Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and President and CEO Deborah Borda today announced the appointment of Yuval Sharon as the organization's Artist-Collaborator. The three-year appointment begins in the 2016/17 season, and continues through the LA Phil's Centennial season, in 2018/19.

    "Yuval is an extraordinary director and producer," said Dudamel. "His projects challenge us to think differently about how music and the arts can play a part in our lives, and they make us look at the world around us in different ways. We're giving him the platform of the LA Phil to work with creatively, and I can't wait to see the results."

    In this newly-created post, Sharon, with the support of his experimental opera company The Industry, will curate multiple projects for the LA Phil using his experience in developing new works and re-interpreting established works. These projects will cut across the LA Phil's various series and incorporate several performance genres. These varied performances will take place not only within Walt Disney Concert Hall, but also outside of the venue in diverse locations throughout Los Angeles. The collaboration marks the first multi-year association Sharon has entered into with a major U.S. orchestra.

    "Collaboration will be an essential component for thriving arts institutions in the 21st century. Their value in terms of creativity and outreach will be a key to the future and how we challenge ourselves to grow," said Borda. "Gustavo and I can't imagine a more gifted partner than Yuval as we search for new ways to stretch our boundaries. We are in for quite a ride!"

    Sharon's latest project with the company, Hopscotch, an opera performed in 24 moving cars, premieres October 31, 2015. The Chicago-born Sharon made Los Angeles his home after connecting with the city's open attitude toward artistic exploration. His first experience at Walt Disney Concert Hall was when he attended an LA Phil Green Umbrella series performance and was struck by the audience's engagement with the music and noted how pivotal the series is to the organization. It was after that and other equally inspirational experiences through his exposure to Los Angeles' arts scene that he founded The Industry in 2010. Sharon will continue, during his time as Artist-Collaborator, to also produce works independently with The Industry.

    "The invitation to play a role in the most innovative musical organization in the country is a profound honor, most importantly for the opportunity to develop a deep relationship over three years," said Sharon. "My hope is for a sustained exchange of ideas during this residency, where the sum total of the individual explorations we undertake add up to a complete disruption of a conventional trajectory for an organization and a director.

    About Yuval Sharon
    "LA's avant-garde opera darling" (Hollywood Reporter) Yuval Sharon has been creating an unconventional body of work exploring the interdisciplinary potential of opera. His productions have been described as "ingenious" (New York Times), "virtuosic" (Opernwelt), "dizzyingly spectacular" (New York Magazine), and "staggering" (Opera News). He is the recipient of the 2014 Götz Friedrich Prize in Germany for his acclaimed production of John Adams' Doctor Atomic, originally produced at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Sharon founded and serves as Artistic Director of The Industry, an experimental opera company in Los Angeles, where his inaugural production of Anne LeBaron's hyperopera Crescent City was praised by the Los Angeles Times as "groundbreaking" and "reshaping LA opera." His second production with The Industry, Christopher Cerrone's Invisible Cities, took place among the everyday life of Union Station, with audiences hearing the live performance on wireless headphones. The production, hailed as "the opera of the future" by Wired Magazine, was a runaway success, with nine performances added by popular demand and numerous international awards. Yuval also directed a landmark production of John Cage's Song Books at the San Francisco Symphony and Carnegie Hall with Joan La Barbara, Meredith Monk, and Jessye Norman. Yuval was Project Director for four years of New York City Opera's VOX, an annual workshop of new American opera, which became the most important crucible for new opera in the country under his direction. He was assistant director to Achim Freyer on the Los Angeles Opera Ring Cycle and Associate Director of the world premiere of Stockhausen's Mittwoch aus Licht for the London 2012 Cultural Olympics. Upcoming projects include Three Sisters for the Vienna Staatsoper, Die Walküre for Staatstheater Karlsruhe, and Pelléas et Mélisande at the Cleveland Orchestra. 

    About the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
    The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under the vibrant leadership of Music Director & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, presents an inspiring array of music from all genres - orchestral, chamber and Baroque music, organ and celebrity recitals, new music, jazz, world music and pop - at two of L.A.'s iconic venues, Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. The LA Phil's season at Walt Disney Concert Hall extends from September through May, and throughout the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. With the preeminent Los Angeles Philharmonic at the foundation of its offerings, the LA Phil aims to enrich and transform lives through music, with a robust mix of artistic, education and community programs.

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  • Contact:

    Sophie Jefferies, sjefferies@laphil.org, 213.972.3422
    Lisa White, lwhite@laphil.org, 213.972.3408