“Frank Gehry has already designed one of America’s best-loved concert halls, Walt Disney Concert Hall, for the Los Angeles Philharmonic,” writes Michael Cooper in Thursday’s (11/9) New York Times. “Now he is drawing up plans for a new home for the ensemble’s youth orchestra program, YOLA, which plans to double in size. The new YOLA project was revealed Thursday as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s plans to mark its centennial next season. It will also commission 50 new works, distribute 10,000 free tickets to audiences with limited access to concerts, collaborate with other arts groups and … perform at the 2019 Oscars.… Its board announced that … [the orchestra] has raised $300 million of a planned $500 million fund-raising campaign.… It is not only the mighty L.A. Phil that has brought in impressive amounts this year.” Other orchestras with recent gift announcements include the Cleveland Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra ($15 million each), and the Albany Symphony ($7 million), as well as the Kansas City Symphony’s successful $55 million endowment drive. “The rising stock market may be helping orchestras secure some of these gifts, Jesse Rosen, the president and chief executive officer of the League of American Orchestras, said … ‘Capacity to give is greater, and people really care—they want to support these organizations.’ ”
Posted November 10, 2017
Pictured: Gustavo Dudamel and Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA) musicians. Photo by Mathew Imaging
