The Music Center's Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Music Center's Walt Disney Concert Hall

Designed by architect Frank Gehry, The Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall (Concert Hall) opened in 2003 as the newest of The Music Center’s four venues. The Concert Hall was conceived when Lillian B. Disney made an initial gift of $50 million to build an additional performance space on Los Angeles County land in honor of her late husband Walt Disney and his dedication to the arts. Home to LA Phil and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Walt Disney Concert Hall is one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world and provides both visual and aural intimacy through its exterior and interior design.   

More than 6,000 panels create the curving stainless steel skin of the Concert Hall’s exterior. Resembling silver sails, the Concert Hall’s design plays off the bowed cornice of The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, forging a link between the old and the new. 

The use of natural materials and skylights creates a bright and airy interior in the Concert Hall. Gehry’s team visualized the lobby as a transparent and light-filled “living room for the city.” Massive columns within the lobby structure evoke an image of tree trunks. They are clad in vertical grain Douglas fir and serve the functional purpose of housing the lighting, heating and air conditioning systems.  

The 2,265-seat auditorium is a concrete box that is structurally independent of the rest of the building. Gehry collaborated with renowned acoustician Dr. Yasuhisa Toyota to design the acoustics. The walls of the auditorium are vertical grain Douglas fir and the floor is red oak. The stage is Alaskan yellow cedar, the same wood often used on the backs of cellos and violas and can be configured to hold larger performing organizations by removing the first rows in Orchestra View. Natural light enhances daytime concerts with a large 36-foot-high rear window and skylights. 

The terraced vineyard style seating is designed to bring the audience close to the orchestra and provide an intimate view of the musicians and conductor from any seat. A focal point for the auditorium is the 50-foot organ that houses 6,134 pipes ranging in size from a pencil to a telephone pole. Only two percent of the pipes are visible. The organ weighs more than 40 metric tons and was designed by Los Angeles organ designer Manuel Rosales along with Frank Gehry.   

Gehry’s design includes details as specific as the carpet pattern used in the auditorium. Named “Lillian” in Mrs. Disney’s honor, the pattern was designed to bring Mrs. Disney’s garden into the Concert Hall and is featured in the seating upholstery as well. Foam padding, the material and the hollow underside of the seats mimic the human body in reflecting sound; in fact, the sound is the same no matter how full or how empty the auditorium. The only piece of art in the Concert Hall, “Blue”, was created by Los Angeles artist Peter Alexander. It is located above the Grand Avenue staircase between the Garden and Terrace levels. 

The Concert Hall includes BP Hall, which is an additional space for performances and can accommodate up to 350 people. Clad in vertical grain Douglas fir as well, the curved room posed an acoustical challenge. To avoid focusing sound in one area of the space, perforations were added to the wood paneling with special material placed behind the panels to give the room proper acoustics. 

Located on the second floor of the Concert Hall is the Library of Congress/Ira Gershwin Gallery. Designed by Hodgetts + Fung Design Associates, the gallery was made possible by a gift from the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trust for the Benefit of the Library of Congress and rotates its collection bi-annually.   

The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), named in honor of Walt Disney’s brother and partner Roy and Roy’s wife, Edna, is also housed within the Concert Hall. An interdisciplinary contemporary arts center, the theatre is programmed by CalArts, based in Valencia, California. REDCAT features a flexible 200-  to 270-seat multi-use theatre and a 3,000 square-foot exhibition space. Its entrance includes a marquee of curvilinear stainless steel and leads directly into an expansive multi-use space that includes a lobby and lounge for meetings, receptions and post-performance events. The REDCAT stage can be transformed into several configurations, from thrust and end stage to completely in the round. The performance space is lined with hinged panels, each with finished wood on one side and sound-absorbent material on the other. To quiet outside noise and prevent transmission of vibrations from the Concert Hall, REDCAT is built as a steel box-within-a box, with the interior box floating on 72 special rubber pads. 

 

Featured at Walt Disney Concert Hall

  • Fri Sep 27 8:00 PM

    Sat Sep 28 8:00 PM

    LA Phil ANOHNI and the Johnsons: It's Time To Feel What's Really Happening

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    In 2023, ANOHNI released My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross, her first album in seven years, and first with her band the Johnsons since 2010’s Swanlights. Following a series of performances in the UK and Europe, ANOHNI and the...Show More

    In 2023, ANOHNI released My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross, her first album in seven years, and first with her band the Johnsons since 2010’s Swanlights. Following a series of performances in the UK and Europe, ANOHNI and the Johnsons return to the US on their first tour in 14 years.

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  • Tue Oct 01 7:00 PM

    LA Phil LA Phil Gala Concert: Dudamel & Lang Lang

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    Kicking off the 2024/25 season with the LA Phil's annual gala concert, Gustavo Dudamel joins forces with legendary pianist Lang Lang for a glittering evening featuring Rachmaninoff's dramatic and lush Piano Concerto No. 2 as well as Alberto Ginast...Show More

    Kicking off the 2024/25 season with the LA Phil's annual gala concert, Gustavo Dudamel joins forces with legendary pianist Lang Lang for a glittering evening featuring Rachmaninoff's dramatic and lush Piano Concerto No. 2 as well as Alberto Ginastera's Estancia, which Dudamel and baritone Gustavo Castillo recorded with the LA Phil in a recent Grammy-nominated album.

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  • Thu Oct 03 8:00 PM

    Fri Oct 04 11:00 AM

    LA Phil A Midsummer Night's Dream with Dudamel

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    Walt Disney Concert Hall transforms into Shakespeare's magical forest when Gustavo Dudamel leads Mendelssohn's whimsical incidental music from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Complete with video projections setting the scene and Spanish actres...Show More

    Walt Disney Concert Hall transforms into Shakespeare's magical forest when Gustavo Dudamel leads Mendelssohn's whimsical incidental music from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Complete with video projections setting the scene and Spanish actress María Valverde narrating, the music offers drama, fairies, and more than a little comedy. Dudamel has called Gabriela Ortiz "one of the most important composers in the world' for her distinct use of rhythm and harmonic colors. Alisa Weilerstein performs the world premiere of the Mexican composer's new Cello Concerto.

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  • Fri Oct 04 8:00 PM

    LA Phil Wynonna Judd

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    Wynonna Judd is one of the most celebrated artists in country music history. Both as a solo musician and as one half of The Judds with her mother Naomi, she's scored hits that have resonated well beyond the country music world, including "Tell Me ...Show More

    Wynonna Judd is one of the most celebrated artists in country music history. Both as a solo musician and as one half of The Judds with her mother Naomi, she's scored hits that have resonated well beyond the country music world, including "Tell Me Why" and the timeless anthem "No One Else on Earth." Be there when the five-time Grammy winner who Rolling Stone once called "the greatest female country singer since Patsy Cline" makes her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut.

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  • Sun Oct 06 7:00 PM

    LA Master Chorale Sing Joyfully

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    The Los Angeles Master Chorale opens the 2024-2025 season with Sing Joyfully | 60th Anniversary Celebration Concert, which features a cappella pieces from the Renaissance to present day. The concert opens with William Byrd’s ebullient...Show More

    The Los Angeles Master Chorale opens the 2024-2025 season with Sing Joyfully | 60th Anniversary Celebration Concert, which features a cappella pieces from the Renaissance to present day. The concert opens with William Byrd’s ebullient Sing Joyfully, and the Chorale will take Byrd at his word by joyfully singing choral showpieces by Anton Bruckner, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla. The second half of the program celebrates the 30th anniversary of Morten Lauridsen’s classic O Magnum Mysterium (written for the Chorale), along with glorious music of Elinor Remick Warren, Moses Hogan and Leonard Bernstein among many others.

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  • Fri Oct 11 8:00 PM

    LA Phil Jason Moran & The Big Bandwagon

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    Pianist and composer Jason Moran is a risk-taker and trendsetter for new directions in jazz. In his program James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield, he reflects on the legacy of an often-forgo...Show More

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