The Music Center's Walt Disney Concert Hall

This concert is recommended for children ages 5 to 11.

John Adams’ powerful new opera, Girls of the Golden West, is a rejection of the whitewashed romantic view of California in the early days of the Gold Rush. Director Peter Sellars drew from historical texts when he created the libretto, particularly from the memoirs of a woman who called herself Dame Shirley. As Sellars has said, “These true stories of the Forty-Niners are overwhelming in their heroism, passion, and cruelty, telling tales of racial conflicts, colorful and humorous exploits, political strife and struggles to build new life.” Responding to these incidents, Adams’ propulsive music captures all the conflicting emotions with his characteristic insight. “There should be no doubt that Girls of the Golden West is the most powerful opera of the moment.” – Los Angeles Times

Regarded as the world’s leading contemporary music group, Ensemble Intercontemporain, make a rare appearance to present Olga Neuwirth’s score for the 1924 silent film Die Stadt ohne Juden. Under their music director Matthias Pintscher, the French musicians will accompany the movie directed by Hans Karl Breslauer for which Neuwirth wrote music “both touching and harsh, warm-hearted and open, amusing and furious, involved and distanced, humorous and sad all at once.”

For four decades, the Japanese group Kodo has shown off the extraordinary emotional and artistic range of the traditional taiko drum on stages around the world. Their new program Tsuzumi commemorates this incredible legacy, featuring pieces that trace their music back to the group’s origins.

The acclaimed Emanuel Ax performs an evening of quintessentially Romantic-period selections by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann with his accustomed warmth and humanity in a must-see event.

The brilliant Ray Chen—called “one of the finest violinists of his generation” by the Los Angeles Times for his palpable joy and confident playing—gives his take on the beloved Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Matthias Pintscher illuminates Brahms’ chamber masterpiece redressed in colorful and clarifying orchestral garb by Schoenberg.

“A pianist and composer of panoramic interests” (The New York Times), Courtney Bryan is a pianist, organist, and composer whose music is in conversation with jazz, experimental music, gospel, spirituals, and hymns. Mexican-born composer and violinist Erika Vega is currently studying the connection between the elements of poetry and those of music. Katherine Balch captures the magic of everyday sounds, becoming in the process a veritable “musical Thomas Edison – you can just hear her tinkering around in her workshop, putting together new sounds and textural ideas” (San Francisco Chronicle). All the women have numerous awards and each presents a world premiere on this fascinating program.

The showstopping Yuja Wang joins Gustavo Dudamel for the first of all four Rachmaninoff concertos across two weekends. The First Concerto reveals a young, ambitious composer defining his style and honing his voice. Completed when he was 18 and a student at the Moscow Conservatory, and then revised 26 years later once the composer had become a worldly, refined artist, the First offers Rachmaninoff’s characteristic Romantic style with the unabashed showmanship you might expect from a youthful virtuoso eager to flex his muscles.

In the second half, Dudamel moves from one of Rachmaninoff’s very first pieces to one of his last. Composed while living in the United States, Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances was the composer’s final orchestral work and drew on his life’s work with nods to sacred chants and his own earlier music while looking forward to the new harmonic language of the 20th century.

Concerts in the Thursday 2 subscription series are generously supported by the Otis Booth Foundation.

Regarded as the world’s leading contemporary music group, Ensemble Intercontemporain, make a rare appearance to present Olga Neuwirth’s score for the 1924 silent film Die Stadt ohne Juden. Under their music director Matthias Pintscher, the French musicians will accompany the movie directed by Hans Karl Breslauer for which Neuwirth wrote music “both touching and harsh, warm-hearted and open, amusing and furious, involved and distanced, humorous and sad all at once.”

This concert is recommended for children ages 5 to 11.

This concert is recommended for children ages 5 to 11.

Experience the arts in your local community! Our Arts Grown L.A. program brings Music Center Performing Artists to communities and libraries all over L.A. County.

Something old, something new, something borrowed and something… threatening to throw Figaro’s wedding plans into disarray. Count Almaviva's wandering eye has landed on his wife's maid Susanna, who's about to marry his own manservant Figaro. Racing against the clock, Figaro quickly concocts a plan to outwit his master. Will the wily duo outwit the Count in time to save the day?

Mozart's greatest comedy sparkles with disguises, wit, trickery and humanity, all under the masterful baton of Music Director James Conlon. We're taking the magic even further with an enchanting new production directed by acclaimed filmmaker James Gray, with costumes designed by celebrated fashion designer Christian Lacroix. (Yes, that's a shameless name drop.)

A brilliant cast of company favorites brings the leading couples to life: Craig Colclough and Janai Brugger as the ever-resourceful Figaro and Susanna, with Lucas Meachem and Ana María Martínez as the Count and Countess. Rihab Chaieb makes her company debut as Cherubino, the lovable scamp who always shows up in the middle of all the schemes—at the absolutely worst time.

The brilliant Ray Chen—called “one of the finest violinists of his generation” by the Los Angeles Times for his palpable joy and confident playing—gives his take on the beloved Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Matthias Pintscher illuminates Brahms’ chamber masterpiece redressed in colorful and clarifying orchestral garb by Schoenberg.