The Music Center - Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County is one of the largest and most highly regarded performing arts centers in the United States. Every year, almost 2 million people visit its four main venues - Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, and Walt Disney Concert Hall - along with its vibrant collection of outdoor theatres, plazas, and gardens. The Music Center produces a variety of programming including Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, Active Arts at the Music Center, and The Blue Ribbon Presents Global Pop, along with programming for children and families throughout the year. The Center also provides extensive services and leadership in support of K-12 arts education, and offers tours of all four venues. The Music Center is home to four internationally acclaimed resident companies: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Center Theatre Group, LA Opera and Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Mission

On behalf of the County of Los Angeles, the Music Center, a private, non-profit corporation, is committed to building civic vitality by strengthening community through the arts. It accomplishes this by bringing to life one of the world's premier performing arts centers and by providing distinctive leadership and diverse opportunities for life-long learning and engagement with arts and culture.

The mission is advanced through three core strategies:

• Operate and vitalize the Music Center through Resident Company relationships and services; present dance and unrepresented performing arts genres; create participatory arts engagement programs, and foster creative experiences and engagement in and through the arts.
• Create, develop and implement diverse educational and participatory arts programs for children, families and adults in schools, neighborhoods, and at the Music Center.
• Provide leadership to advance the arts as part of the core curriculum in K-12 schools and as part of the larger civic agenda, to underscore the essential value of creativity, and to highlight the role of the arts in society.

Arts Education

The Music Center supports the belief that the arts enhance the lives of all people and are crucial to the development of every child. The Center plays a vital leadership role in restoring the arts to the core curriculum in all K-12 schools in Los Angeles County and its educational programs are built around the unique role and expertise of the professional artist. The power and impact of the work comes from the interaction and collaborations of outstanding artists with students, teachers, and family audiences. The Music Center invests substantial resources in the identification, training and ongoing support of these performers and teaching artists. Millions of students have participated in Music Center arts education programs since their inception in 1979.

The Music Center Bravo Awards program was established in 1982 to recognize teachers and schools for innovation and excellence in arts education. It honors educators who incorporate the arts to revitalize teaching, enhance student achievement and foster self-esteem, teamwork, and cross-cultural communication.

The Music Center Spotlight Awards program is one of the nation's most acclaimed performing and visual arts education programs for teens, offering unique arts learning opportunities to over 2,000 high school students. It awards over $100,000 in scholarships each year.

Family Programs

The Music Center offers a wide range of free arts programming for children and families. Programs such as The Blue Ribbon Children's Festival, Very Special Arts Festival, and World City - featuring internationally renowned artists sharing their culture through dance, music, song and storytelling - invite the entire community to enjoy and celebrate the artistic and cultural richness of our region.

Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center

The Music Center's ambitious dance program began in 2000 with the sold-out presentation of the Bolshoi Ballet in its historic production of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet as well as a new interpretation of Don Quixote. Since then, Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center has established a distinguished reputation - locally, nationally and internationally - and has become one of the premier presenters of dance in Southern California. The Music Center is one of the only venues in Los Angeles offering a full season of dance programming, consistently featuring the world's most illustrious dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre, and Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The program provides learning opportunities at the Center and throughout the county for adults and children as well as free and low-cost tickets, open rehearsals, pre-and postperformance talks, school lecture and demonstrations, and community classes with visiting artists.

Active Arts at the Music Center

Active Arts at the Music Center, launched in July 2004, has become a national model for civic engagement via arts participation. Recreational artists of all skill levels sing, dance, play music and tell their stories at year-round, low-cost or free events. Active Arts invites participants to be active and engage in the art-making experience by learning to tap dance, or salsa dancing under the stars (A Taste of Dance and Dance Downtown), dusting off that high school saxophone and creating a makeshift jazz combo with other recreational players (Get Your Chops Back), creating and sharing through the spoken word (L.A. Storytellers), or belting out a raucous group rendition of a favorite tune (Friday Night Sing-Along). Active Arts events pulse with social interchange and everyday creative muscle, bringing together the diverse communities of Los Angeles by engaging them in meaningful, joyful participatory arts experiences.

The Blue Ribbon Presents Global Pop at the Music Center

Presented at the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Blue Ribbon Presents Global Pop at the Music Center features international pop music stars in a series that reflects the distinctly global character of Los Angeles. Global Pop showcases popular singing artists from the home countries of immigrants now settled in Southern California, welcoming a mostly firsttime audience to the Music Center. Often the performers themselves are marking their debut in the Concert Hall. Concerts in the first two seasons included artists from the Philippines, Korea and China.

History

The Music Center complex, designed by architect Welton Becket, was dedicated September 27, 1964 and opened December 6, 1964 as a public/private not-for-profit partnership with the County of Los Angeles. The Center was championed by Dorothy Buffum Chandler, who was named by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in April 1955 to head a citizens' committee to build a permanent home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She expanded the goal to include a performing arts center and raised $18.7 million in private donations at a total cost of $152,000.

The County provided the site and raised the remaining $14 million using mortgage revenue bonds. Construction on the original complex began March 12, 1962 and was completed in April 1967. The original complex was comprised of three venues: the 3,197-seat Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the 739-seat Mark Taper Forum, and Ahmanson Theatre (honoring Howard Ahmanson and the Ahmanson Foundation), which offers flexible seating for 1,600 to 2,000 as a result of its 1994 redesign by Ellerbe•Becket Architects.

On October 23, 2003, the Music Center opened the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, expanding the campus to 11 acres. The 2,265-seat Concert Hall is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Walt Disney Concert Hall includes the 266-seat Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), the 300-seat William M. Keck Foundation Children's Amphitheatre, and the 120-seat Nadine and Ed Carson Amphitheatre. The Walt Disney Concert Hall was built at a total cost of $286 million.

Governance and Administration

The Music Center is governed by a Board of Directors chaired by John B. Emerson (since 2003). The Center's President and Chief Executive Officer is Stephen D. Rountree (since 2002). The Music Center employs 225 full-time and 300 temporary and part-time staff. The County of Los Angeles owns the facility and contracts the Music Center to operate the campus, providing funding for its maintenance, operations, grounds keeping, security and ushers. Revenue from the operation of the Center garage offsets these expenses. The Music Center is responsible for managing, operating, maintaining and developing the campus. Along with its four resident companies, the Music Center produces and presents an outstanding array of programs.

Principals

Music Center Stephen D. Rountree, President and Chief Executive Officer Howard Sherman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer John B. Emerson, Board Chairman Music Center at a Glance Los Angeles Philharmonic Association Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director, Walt and Lilly Disney Chair Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor Laureate John Adams, Creative Chair Deborah Borda, President David C. Bohnett, Chairman Center Theatre Group Michael Ritchie, Artistic Director Charles Dillingham, Managing Director Martin Massman, Board President Richard Kagan, Board Chairman Los Angeles Opera Plácido Domingo, Eli and Edythe Broad General Director James Conlon, Richard Seaver Music Director Stephen D. Rountree, Chief Operating Officer Marc I. Stern, Board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Carol F. Henry, Board President Los Angeles Master Chorale Grant Gershon, Music Director Terry Knowles, Executive Director Mark Foster, Board Chairman Music Center Foundation Edward L. Rada, President Peter W. Mullin, Board Chairman

The Resident Companies

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, founded in 1919, is led by Music Director Gustavo Dudamel (from October 2009) and President Deborah Borda (since 2000). One of the world's outstanding orchestras - performing for more than one million people at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and on tour - the LA Phil presents and produces more than 100 non-classical concerts at both of its venues, including jazz, world music, holiday concerts, and numerous others. A central component of the LA Phil's mission is education and community. Every year, more than 100,000 children and adults connect with the orchestra - and with music-making in general - through programs run by the LA Phil that reach beyond the walls of the concert hall and into schools and communities. A notable recent addition is Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA). Inspired by Gustavo Dudamel, YOLA is the LA Phil's initiative to establish free youth orchestra programs in underserved communities throughout Los Angeles. (LAPhil.com)

Center Theatre Group (CTG), founded in 1967, is led by Artistic Director Michael Ritchie (since 2005) and Managing Director Charles Dillingham (since 1991). Gordon Davidson is the Founding Artistic Director. CTG is one of the largest and most active theatre companies in the nation, programming year-round at the 739-seat Mark Taper Forum and 1600- to 2000- seat Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center, and also at the new 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. The Taper, the Ahmanson and the Douglas have a combined subscription audience of more than 50,000 and a total audience exceeding 750,000 a year. CTG has won 34 Tony Awards and three Pulitzer Prizes, and numerous other local and national honors. A leader in arts education and outreach, CTG also serves teachers and more than 35,000 students annually through its audience engagement, youth development and school partnership programs. (CenterTheatreGroup.org)

Los Angeles Opera (LA Opera), founded in 1986, is the nation's fourth largest opera company and is internationally renowned for its productions of works from the classical and contemporary repertoires. Celebrated tenor Plácido Domingo has been the Eli and Edythe Broad General Director since 2003 (after previously serving as Artistic Director since 2000), and he regularly performs with the company as both conductor and singer. One of today's foremost conductors, James Conlon has been the company's Richard Seaver Music Director since 2006. The company has served nearly one million students, senior citizens, and other audiences through its internationally recognized education and community programs. Through its Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program, LA Opera is committed to developing the talents of exceptionally gifted young artists to become performers of international stature. (LAOpera.com)

Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC), founded in 1964, has presented nearly 500 concerts, including choral music from the earliest writings to the most recent contemporary compositions. The Chorale actively promotes diversity and fosters creativity in contemporary artists. Grant Gershon is Music Director (since 2001), and in 2003 LAMC became one of two resident companies in Walt Disney Concert Hall, launching a period of incredible growth. LAMC has commissioned 25 new works and premiered 63, has recorded 6 CDs and appeared on numerous movie soundtracks, and has twice won the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventuresome Programming. The Chorale's vibrant and comprehensive education programs include the award-winning Voices Within, a ten-week in school songwriting residency; an annual High School Choir Festival; and the LA Master Chorale Chamber Singers in-school assemblies, which are presented at Los Angeles elementary, middle and high schools. Since 1989, the Master Chorale's combined education programs have engaged over 200,000 children throughout Southern California. (lamc.org)

Patina Restaurant Group

The Patina Restaurant Group operates restaurant and catering facilities at the Music Center including Patina Restaurant at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Kendall's Brasserie on Grand Avenue, and Spotlight Café and Pinot Grill on the Music Center Plaza. 213-972-7565 or patinagroup.com.

Music Center Tours

Several tour options are offered at the Music Center. Walt Disney Concert Hall self-guided audio tours and guided tours led by Music Center staff are available. In addition, the docent-led Symphonian Tour takes visitors into all four Music Center venues and includes architectural highlights and a historical overview of the Center, its resident companies and programs. Thanks to the generous support of the County of Los Angeles, most daily tours are free to the public and special group reservation rates are available for parties of 15 or more.

General Information

The Music Center is located on Grand Avenue between 2nd Street and Temple Avenue. The central telephone number is 213-972-7211 and the website is musiccenter.org. To reach the access line for patrons with disabilities, telephone 213-972-0777.