The Los Angeles Philharmonic is turning 100, and frankly, Phil doesn't look a day over 45. Seriously, the way the Philharmonic is partying this year and next in L.A., you'd think it was a marching band.
The 2018/2019 centennial birthday season kicks off on September 27 with an opening night concert and gala at Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown L.A. Coldplay's Chris Martin performs with the Phil's orchestra led by curlicued Music and Artistic Director, Gustavo Dudamel. Singer Corinne Bailey Rae and violinist Tracy Silverman are also on the schedule. It's an eclectic program that befits the evening's title, California Soul, and stretches from the Love Theme from Chinatown to Frank Zappa's G Spot Tornado.
Outside, the Disney Hall itself gets its groovy party shirt on. Lighted by 42 projectors, Refik Anadol's three-dimensional "data sculptures" cast dreamy digitized color splashes onto Frank Gehry's steel facade. The installation is as meaningful as it is trippy: Anadol, based in L.A. and Istanbul, worked with machine intelligence engineers from Google to turn an astounding 45 terabytes of data from the orchestra's digital archives into undulating patterns that move along with music. If I say more, your brain will implode. Just go see it. The exhibition is free and open to the public, with nightly performances scheduled every half hour, beginning at 7:30 p.m. until 11:30 p.m., September 28 to October 6.
The real blowout happens September 30 with a day-long event starting with an eight-mile, automobile-free street festival--in partnership with my favorite "open streets" advocates, CicLAvia. The event extends from Walt Disney Concert Hall to the Hollywood Bowl. You can walk, jog, bike, bunny hop, floss-dance or pogo-stick the entire route. All kinds of performers play along the way, including Pink Martini (love them), Poncho Sanchez, the USC Trojan Band and Jeff Goldblum and his Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. Yes, Jeff Goldblum now has an orchestra.
That night, Katy Perry headlines a free concert at the Bowl alongside Dudamel and the Philharmonic, and guests, including Herbie Hancock, Kali Uchis, and Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. Note that tickets already went out to randomly selected winners who participated in an online sweepstakes, but I'm guessing you might know someone who knows someone who needs a plus one. Ask around. You might find a miracle.
This fall's events usher in a year of centennial celebrations for the Phil that include appearances by Itzhak Perlman, Moby, Emanuel Ax, Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Zubin Mehta, among many others.
The spectacles culminate in a baton-waving super-battle of sorts at the Bowl with Dudamel, Mehta and Salonen sharing the podium on October 24, 2019, a century to the day after the orchestra’s first concert.
We should all look so good at 100.
