The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July until September. Gustavo Dudamel is the current music director, while Esa-Pekka Salonen serves as conductor laureate, and Zubin Mehta as conductor emeritus. Daniel Harding will serve as Music Director starting in the 27/28 season. John Adams is the orchestra’s current composer-in-residence, holding the title of "creative chair."
Since the opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall on October 23, 2003, the Los Angeles Philharmonic has presented 57 world premieres, one North American premiere, and 26 U.S. premieres, and has commissioned or co-commissioned 63 new works. The orchestra's former chief executive officer, Deborah Borda, has said, "Our intention has been to integrate 21st-century music into the orchestra's everyday activity, especially since we moved into the new hall".
History
1919–1933: Founding the Philharmonic
thumb|Walter H. Rothwell, first conductor, and W. A. Clark Jr., founder of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
thumb|Los Angeles Philharmonic performing at the [[Hollywood Bowl on August 28, 1921]]
The orchestra was founded and single-handedly financed in 1919 by William Andrews Clark, Jr., a copper baron, arts enthusiast, and part-time violinist. He originally asked Sergei Rachmaninoff to be the Philharmonic's first music director; however, Rachmaninoff had only recently moved to New York, and he did not wish to move again. Clark then selected Walter Henry Rothwell, former assistant to Gustav Mahler, as music director, and hired away several principal musicians from East Coast orchestras and others from the competing and soon-to-be defunct Los Angeles Symphony. The orchestra played its first concert in the Trinity Auditorium in the same year, eleven days after its first rehearsal. Clark himself would sometimes sit and play with the second violin section.
After Rothwell's death in 1927, subsequent Music Directors in the decade of the 1920s included Georg Schnéevoigt and Artur Rodziński.
1933–1950: Harvey Mudd rescues orchestra
Otto Klemperer became music director in 1933, part of the large group of German emigrants fleeing Nazi Germany. He conducted many LA Phil premieres, and introduced Los Angeles audiences to new works by Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. The orchestra responded well to his leadership, but Klemperer had a difficult time adjusting to Southern California, a situation exacerbated by repeated manic-depressive episodes.
left|thumb|Hollywood Bowl
The situation grew more challenging when founder William Andrews Clark died without leaving the orchestra an endowment. The newly formed Southern California Symphony Association was created with the goal of stabilizing the orchestra's funding, with the association's president, Harvey Mudd, stepping up to personally guarantee Klemperer's salary. The Philharmonic's concerts at the Hollywood Bowl also brought in much needed revenue. As a result, the orchestra navigated the challenges of the Great Depression and remained intact.
After completing the 1939 summer season at the Hollywood Bowl, Klemperer visited Boston, where he was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma. Brain surgery left him partially paralyzed in the face and with impaired hearing in his right ear. He went into a depressive state and was institutionalized. When he escaped, The New York Times ran a cover story declaring him missing. After he was found in New Jersey, a picture of him behind bars was printed in the New York Herald Tribune. He subsequently lost the post of Music Director, though he still would occasionally conduct the Philharmonic. He led some notable concerts, including the orchestra's premiere performance of Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements in 1946.
John Barbirolli was offered the position of Music Director after his contract with the New York Philharmonic expired in 1942. He declined the offer and chose to return to England instead. The following year, Alfred Wallenstein was chosen by Mudd to lead the orchestra. The former principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, he had been the youngest member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic when it was founded in 1919. He turned to conducting at the suggestion of Arturo Toscanini. He had conducted the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on a number of occasions and, in 1943, took over as Music Director. Among the highlights of Wallenstein's tenure were recordings of concertos with fellow Angelenos, Jascha Heifetz and Arthur Rubinstein. Solti was scheduled to officially begin his tenure in 1962, and the Philharmonic anticipated he would lead the orchestra when it moved into its new home at the then yet-to-be-completed Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. He had even begun appointing musicians to the orchestra. However, in 1961, Solti abruptly resigned before officially taking the post after claiming that the Philharmonic board of directors did not consult him before naming then 26-year-old Zubin Mehta to be assistant conductor of the orchestra. Mehta was subsequently named to replace Solti.
1969–1997: Ernest Fleischmann's tenure
<!--Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group redirects directly here.-->
In 1969, the orchestra hired Ernest Fleischmann to be Executive Vice President and General Manager. During his tenure, the Philharmonic instituted several ideas, including the creation of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society and the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group and its "Green Umbrella" concerts. These adjunct groups, composed of the orchestra's musicians, offered performance series separate and distinct from traditional Philharmonic concerts. These initiatives were later adopted by other orchestras worldwide. This concept, considered innovative for its time, stemmed from Fleischmann's philosophy, which he articulated in his May 16, 1987, commencement address at the Cleveland Institute of Music titled, "The Orchestra is Dead. Long Live the Community of Musicians."
When Zubin Mehta left for the New York Philharmonic in 1978, Fleischmann convinced Carlo Maria Giulini to take over as music director. Giulini's tenure with the orchestra was well regarded, but he resigned after his wife became ill and returned to Italy.
In 1985, Fleischmann turned to André Previn, hoping that his conducting credentials and experience at Hollywood Studios would bring a local flair and strengthen the connection between conductor, orchestra, and city. While Previn's tenure was musically solid, other conductors including Kurt Sanderling, Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, achieved greater box office success. Previn frequently clashed with Fleischmann, notably over Fleischmann’s decision to name Salonen as "principal guest conductor" without consulting Previn. This mirrored the earlier Solti/Mehta controversy. Due to Previn's objections, the offer of the position and an accompanying Japan tour to Salonen was withdrawn. Shortly after, in April 1989, Previn resigned, and four months later, Salonen was named music director designate, officially assuming the post in October 1992. Salonen's U.S. conducting debut with the orchestra took place in 1984.
Salonen's tenure began with a residency at the 1992 Salzburg Festival in concert performances and as the pit orchestra in a production of the opera Saint François d'Assise by Olivier Messiaen. This marked the first time an American orchestra was given that opportunity. Salonen later led the orchestra on numerous tours across the United States, Europe, and Asia, as well as residencies at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, The Proms in London, a festival in Cologne dedicated to Salonen's own works, and in 1996 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris for an Stravinsky festival conducted by Salonen and Pierre Boulez. During the Paris residency, key Philharmonic board members heard the orchestra perform in improved acoustics, inspiring renewed fundraising efforts for the soon-to-be-built Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Under Salonen's leadership, the Philharmonic became known as a highly innovative and respected orchestra. Alex Ross of The New Yorker said: