“As the Los Angeles Philharmonic gets ready to celebrate its centennial in October, it’s cultivating the next generation of musicians through the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles,” reports Denver Frederick in a Friday (5/31) interview with Los Angeles Philharmonic CEO Simon Woods in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. “Q: You’ve been a leader in melding the artistic with social justice and education and other contemporary issues of concern. How do you embed that into these performances? Woods: … We commissioned 50 new works for the centennial. About one-third of them were by composers of color…. Los Angeles County is only about 30% white. The impetus to really think hard about these issues is stronger there than maybe anywhere. Q: The actual centennial day [of the LA Phil] is October 24th of this year. Woods: We have a big centennial gala [planned with] Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Zubin Mehta … all conducting together in a piece … by Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason.… We will always play Beethoven and Mahler and Shostakovich and Bach and Mozart…. But I think it is a completely false choice to think that we cannot, as we do that … really make sure that we are there for all the community.”
Posted June 4, 2019
In photo: The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Music Director Gustavo Dudamel in performance. Photo by Vern Evans
