WIDE ARRAY OF MUSICAL STYLES AND STARS CELEBRATED AT WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL THROUGHOUT THE 2023/24 SEASON

LOS ANGELES, September 12, 2023 – Throughout Walt Disney Concert Hall’s 2023/24 Season, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association presents concerts featuring a wide array of musical styles and stars. 

For the first time at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the LA Phil teams up with tastemaker Los Angeles NPR affiliate KCRW for the KCRW Series, four concerts featuring an eclectic line-up including Grammy-nominated Japanese Breakfast (September 27 and 28, 2023), five-time Latin Grammy winner Marisa Monte (October 20, 2023), a celebration of gypsy flamenco music and dance, Flamenco! María Bermudez’ Sonidos Gitanos (November 25, 2023), and the whisper-soft tenor of singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad (February 16, 2024).

The LA Phil’s Jazz series, helmed by Creative Chair for Jazz Herbie Hancock, starts off with superstar Jamie Cullum (September 29, 2023), then continues with contemporary jazz great Brad Mehldau Trio (November 8, 2023), the legendary Dianne Reeves (March 3, 2024) and concludes with Herbie Hancock himself (April 20, 2024). 

The Songbook series celebrates excellence in songwriting with three concerts featuring the captivating Natalie Merchant (September 30, 2023), Canto en resistencia, a program of iconic protest music by Latina artists featuring special guests Lila Downs, Catalina García, Ely Guerra, and Ana Tijoux with the LA Phil led by Gustavo Dudamel (November 9, 2023), and the incredible pairing of Silvana Estrada and Cécile McLorin Salvant (May 31, 2024).

Single tickets for the entire Walt Disney Concert Hall 2023/24 season are currently on sale at laphil.com, by phone at 323.850.2000, or in-person at the Walt Disney Concert Hall box office.

CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING OF CONCERTS: 

Japanese Breakfast | Ichiko Aoba
KCRW Series
Wednesday, September 27 at 8 PM
Thursday, September 28 at 8 PM 

In her songs and in her celebrated memoir, Michelle Zauner has written eloquently about heartache, pain, and her identity as a Korean American woman. With her latest album, the Grammy-nominated Jubilee, she’s written about something even more difficult to tackle: joy. Taking a page from the bright lights and flapping rhythms of Björk’s Homogenic, she works in bold colors and big textures, “recalling the optimism of youth and applying it to adulthood,” as she says. Her band makes their Walt Disney Concert Hall debut with a set of massive songs that are grounded in Zauner's early days in the punk underground and girded by what she calls the “constant struggle we have with ourselves to be better people.”

Japanese singer, songwriter, and classical guitarist Ichiko Aoba creates a world of fantasy where the heart warmly beats.

Jamie Cullum
Jazz Series
Friday, September 29 at 8 PM

Jamie Cullum doesn’t sit still. That’s the case both when the British musician is on stage—you’ve never seen a pianist spend less time on their bench—and when he’s off stage. He made his name as a jazz singer and performer with the Grammy-nominated Twentysomething record twentysomething years ago, quickly becoming the best-selling jazz artist in UK history. He’s used that popularity to build a career like no other: You can find him improvising house music at EDM festivals, writing with Pharrell, duetting with Spinal Tap, and hooking up with orchestras around the world. He returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall for a night of intimate originals, jazz favorites, and re-imagined hits by some of his favorite artists.

Natalie Merchant
Songbook Series
Saturday, September 30 at 8 PM 

Natalie Merchant is a multi-platinum-selling American singer-songwriter and producer known for her distinctive voice and captivating literary-pop songs. She has released several critically acclaimed albums, including Tigerlily and Ophelia, and has received numerous awards and nominations for her work. Her music blends folk, rock, and influences from around the world, and she continues to be regarded as a groundbreaking figure in alternative music. Her newest record, Keep Your Courage (due April 14 via Nonesuch Records), finds Merchant in peak form with songs about love and human connection in its many iterations, sung with a voice that keeps you hanging on every word. 

Marisa Monte
KCRW Series
Friday, October 20 at 8 PM

In Brazil, Marisa Monte is both an icon and an iconoclast. She’s a brilliant artist and emotionally rich performer, breezily presenting her pop and samba songs from a sideways angle informed by her love of experimentation and curiosity about rhythm and sound. That approach has made her beloved worldwide and, in the words of Rolling Stone Brasil, the most important singer alive in the country today. She brings an all-star band for a career-spanning night of hits at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Brad Mehldau Trio
Jazz Series
Wednesday, November 8 at 8 PM 

Brad Mehldau blends jazz exploration, classical romanticism, and pop allure. The award-winning pianist has put his deft touch on songs by Radiohead, the Beatles, Paul Simon, and Nick Drake, treating them with reverence as he untangles and re-spins their melodies. Not surprisingly, he’s got a composer’s ear, too, having combined jazz and classical in original pieces and commissions for orchestra—including the LA Phil. It’s no wonder The New York Times has called him “the most influential jazz pianist of the last 20 years.” 

Canto en resistencia
Songbook Series
Thursday, November 9 at 8 PM 

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Lila Downs, special guest
Catalina García (Monsieur Periné), special guest
Ely Guerra, special guest
Ana Tijoux, special guest

Additional artists to be announced.

Special guest singers join Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil to celebrate iconic protest music by Latina artists that resonates across Latin America and the world.

Flamenco! Maria Bermudez’ Sonidos Gitanos
KCRW Series
Saturday, November 25 at 8 PM

María Bermúdez, Artistic Director, dancer
José Maya, dancer
Diego Amador, multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, composer
Diego Carrasco, performer, composer, guitarist
Pelé de Los Reyes, singer, composer
Ana de Los Reyes, singer
Carmen Grilo, singer
Curro Carrascosinger, composer, producer
Manuel Valencia, guitarist
Ané Carrasco, percussionist
Coral de Los Reyes, singer, composer

The elegance, majesty, and power of flamenco at its finest take Walt Disney Concert Hall on a journey to the farthest reaches of Spain, where the audience will witness an exceptional gypsy fiesta with traditional and present-day flamenco. This is a premier performance gathering some of the most revered gypsy artists currently showcased in Spain and around the world. A night not to be missed!

Prateek Kuhad
KCRW Series
Friday, February 16 at 8 PM 

Jaipur’s Prateek Kuhad has been called “one of the country’s leading singer-songwriters” by Rolling Stone India, and his song “cold/mess” was named among 2019’s best by Barack Obama. But he got his start on much more relatable ground: In the early 2010s, he was listening to Elliott Smith records, writing his own hushed melodies, and playing local shows in New York City as a college student. Now back in India, he’s developed an intricately layered singer-songwriter sound that highlights a whisper-soft tenor that’s won him comparisons to Sufjan Stevens and José González. He brings a set of folk-driven songs about love and desire in all their forms to the Walt Disney Concert Hall stage.

Dianne Reeves
Jazz Series
Sunday, March 3 at 7:30 PM

The LA Phil’s first-ever Creative Chair for Jazz—and the first person ever to sing on the Walt Disney Concert Hall stage—returns to bring down the house! The five-time Grammy winner is one of the greatest and most acclaimed jazz vocalists in the world, having recorded and performed with everyone from Wynton Marsalis to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her stunning voice and dynamic presence make this a deeply personal, intimate night of songs sung by a world-class interpreter.

Herbie Hancock
Jazz Series
Saturday, April 20 at 8 PM

One of the most inventive artists in the history of American music, the brilliant and always-innovating Herbie Hancock returns for a night of freewheeling, thought-provoking, mind-expanding, galactic-traveling jazz and funk.

Silvana Estrada | Cécile McLorin Salvant
Songbook Series
Friday, May 31 at 8 PM

It’s a night of brilliantly crafted songs delivered by two artists who know how to inhabit a story. Silvana Estrada sings from down deep, telling her soulful coming-of-age stories in a voice that embraces the legacy of Latin American song and carries into the 21st century. Playing the Venezuelan cuatro guitar, she sings iconoclastic tales that cut straight to the heart. She’s performed and recorded with artists including Natalia Lafourcade (who, like Silvana, grew up outside Veracruz) as well as Andrew Bird, Devendra Banhart, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Following the release of her 2022 debut Marchita, which Rolling Stone called “gorgeously understated, guided by her gauzy voice and rich, acoustic arrangements,” she was awarded the 2022 Latin Grammy for Best New Artist.

Cécile McLorin Salvant applies her passion for storytelling to find the connections between vaudeville, blues, folk traditions from around the world, theater, jazz, and baroque music. She’s an eclectic curator with an adventurous spirit, unearthing rarely recorded songs from the past: forgotten tales with strong narratives, interesting power dynamics, unexpected twists, and humor. Her albums The Window, Dreams and Daggers, and For One to Love won consecutive Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammys, and in 2020, she was awarded a MacArthur fellowship. Her 2022 album Ghost Song was hailed by Downbeat, who wrote in a 4.5-star review, “Her wordplay teases, taunts, and tests in a way that forces her to not just sing a lyric, but dive into roles with the zeal of a method actor.

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About the Los Angeles Philharmonic
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 multigenre, 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.