L.A. Phil

When a 14-Year-Old in South Central Wants to Learn the Cello

When her son Jacob was barely a year old, Teresa Esquivel noticed that music powerfully affected his demeanor. Certain tunes would even make him cry. In particular, if Pokémon was on, Jigglypuff's leitmotif would reduce him to wails, even if Jacob hadn't been previously focused on the TV. Jac ... More >>

The Tears of Nature

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, December 7 Black Mambas THE REDWOOD The Black Mambas -- along with The Neumans and The Hurricanes -- are L.A. label Wild Records' newest signees. But instead of building into the label's Sun Records-style sound of '56, the Mambas stagger into 1976 with gutter-glam songs and dawn-of-punk vel ... More >>

Opera's Baddest Boy

Bowing Up a Sweat

5 Gustavo Dudamel TV Cameos We'd Like to See

Floppy-haired conductor Gustavo Dudamel made an appearance on Sesame Street last week to teach Elmo a musical thing or two about a musical thing or two -- including the definition of the word stupendous. You know what would be truly stupendous? For the affable maestro to show up on some other TV sho ... More >>

Top 10 Live Music Venues in L.A.: The Complete List

Timothy Norris​California knows how to party. -"California Love" It's the unofficial state motto. But not only do we know how, we know where. Los Angeles is home to a wide spectrum of live music venues, from the teeniest Echo Park hole-in-the-wall only you and five friends know, to grand ol' ... More >>

Top 10 Best Live Music Venues in L.A.: #5-1

For all the best of L.A. music, download our free Best Of Mobile app. See also: Top Ten Best Live Music Venues in L.A.: #10 - #6 5. Music Box See also: R.I.P. the Music Box? Legendary Hollywood Venue Shuttered [UPDATE: Short-term?] News of the Music Box's overnight shuttering this month was met wi ... More >>

Make Mine Mahler

The Classical Music Concerts We're Most Looking Forward to in 2012

5. Cage 2012 Southwest Chamber Music, Japanese American National Museum, March 3-4 Hey L.A., where's the love for your native son, John Cage? It's the 100th anniversary of his birth next year, and the only party in town is being thrown by Southwest Chamber Music. The opening Cage 2012 concert sho ... More >>

Music Picks: Overdoz, The Cure, Lucinda Williams

Also, K. Flay, The Civil Wars, Bob Mould tribute

Music Picks: Esperanza Spalding, Elbow, Toro Y Moi, Blink-182

Also, Glen Campbell, the Smashing Pumpkins, Lanie Lane and others

TV On The Radio, Arctic Monkeys, Panda Bear, Warpaint and Smith Westerns - The Hollywood Bowl - September 25, 2011

Andrea DomanickArctic Monkeys stole the show​TV On The Radio, Arctic Monkeys, Panda Bear, Warpaint and Smith Westerns The Hollywood Bowl September 25, 2011 See also Warpaint: Back From The Road, Ready For The Bowl Better than... any of these acts sound on record. Not quite a festival, Sun ... More >>

Hot Pianist Has Classical Folks Hot and Bothered

​By Christian Hertzog At the L.A. Phil's performance of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony last week at the Hollywood Bowl, a lot of people had a hard time keeping their minds on the, um, crescendos. The problem -- if you can call it that -- was 24-year-old Chinese pianist Yuja Wang, who kicked t ... More >>

Timur Bekbosunov: The Reform Tenor

Music Picks: Coachella, Girls in Trouble, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Paul Simon

Also, Mary Anne Hobbs, Yoni Wolf, Emmylou Harris and others

Music Picks: Liz Phair, DeVotchKa, Peter Murphy, Fergus & Geronimo

Also Whitechapel, Motorhead, Juanes and others

Brick's Picks: Esperanza's Victory Lap

Gustavo 'The Dude' Dudamel And The L.A. Phil Make Live Concertos Hip By Silver-Screening Them Across U.S. And Canada

Anna Hult courtesy Gothenburg SymphonyChicks dig Dudamel's Shirley Temple 'fro​The youth is starting to change -- and year-old L.A. Philharmonic conductor Gustavo "The Dude" Dudamel is making sure the symphony changes with it. Last fall, LA Weekly wrote about the youth-ification of the Philha ... More >>

Gustavo 'The Dude' Dudamel And The L.A. Phil Make Live Concertos Hip By Silver-Screening Them Across U.S. And Canada

Anna Hult courtesy Gothenburg SymphonyChicks dig Dudamel's Shirley Temple 'fro​ Last fall, LA Weekly wrote about the youth-ification of the Philharmonic by the Venezuelan boy wonder. Top suits at the Phil contracted Dudamel for his kinetic approach to leading the orchestra, which they hoped m ... More >>

Music Picks: Laurie Anderson, Onibaba, Superchunk

Also, Hoodoo Gurus, Die Antwoord, Jonsi and others

More Fun With The 99 Cent Chef: Pink's Hot Dogs Gustavo Dudamel

Thanks to Billy Vasquez, also known as The 99 Cent Chef, for finding a way to combine two of L.A.'s current obsessions -- Pink's Hot Dogs and Gustavo Dudamel -- into one neat hybrid, happily scored to Gershwin for good measure. Vasquez, who does post-production effects for film, tv and commericials ... More >>

SOUTHPAW STRATEGY

Tonight: Lost in the Trees, Brahms and Smetana, The Joy Formidable

​"This young North Carolina-based outfit recently signed with L.A.'s Anti- label, which just yesterday released a newly reworked version of Lost in the Trees' 2008 debut, All Alone in an Empty House. Full of dramatic string arrangements and folky acoustic guitar, Empty House belongs to the sam ... More >>

BUT WILL IT PASS MUSTER AT UNCLE MORRIE'S FUNERAL?

L.A. Philharmonic's Ernest Fleischmann, (1924-2010)

Obituary: LA Philharmonic's Ernest Fleischmann (1924-2010)

​[Ernest Fleischmann, the former head of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, died last Sunday at 85.] "The U.S. is the only country in the world today where the fortunes of most symphony orchestras depend on the generosity, the wisdom, the enthusiasm, indeed the musical tastes and policies of banke ... More >>

Last Night: Only a Neck Injury Can Stop Gustavo "Electrico!" Dudamel (Also, Alisa Weilerstein with the L.A. Phil)

Mathew Imaging​Last night at Disney Hall, while conducting Dvorák's Cello Concerto in B minor with soloist Alisa Weilerstein, Gustavo Dudamel pulled a muscle in his neck and was unable to return for the second half of the program. Deborah Borda, president of the L.A. Philharmonic Association, ... More >>

YOU HAVE FOUND IT!

Sounds of the Skin of a Rabbit

And other West Coasty musical predilections

Dudamel; Modine: Saving Classical — and the Alpacas?

Dudamel: The Great Brown Hope

L.A. Phil conductor must inspire Latinos, if it's not too late

L.A. Phil's Gustavo Dudamel: Being a Brilliant and Inspiring Conductor Isn't Enough

Not when you're tasked with saving classical music

Bravo, Gustavo!

A new era dawns with outsized expectation

Rock Picks: Riot Girl Carnival, Miniature Tigers, Death Cab for Cutie, Deer Tick

Also, Vieux Farka Touré, John Fogerty, Stacey Q, Watts Ensemble and others

Two Worlds Collide: M83 Meets L.A. Phil at Disney Hall

Musical entities team up for electronics, acoustics, Arvo Pärt and Claude Debussy

Bramwell's Bowl Bow

Rock Picks: Spindrift, Randy Newman, The Gutter Twins

Also, Zola Moon, David Banner, Naïm Amor, and more

Brick's Picks: Blues Cruise

From the South Bay to the West Valley, jazz abounds

Rock Picks: Cat Power, Mountain Goats, Chapin Sisters

And other Feb. 28-March 6 shows

Grizzly Bear teams with the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Great news from the L.A. Phil just arrived. Anyone who was at the recent Songs of the City series at Walt Disney Concert Hall and heard Daniel Rossen's voice echo through the room will understand: Don't miss this show. LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC AND INDIE ROCK BAND GRIZZLY BEAR CO-HEADLINE FOR ONE-N ... More >>

Music Picks: Black Heart Procession, Vandelles, Minnie Driver, Ronnie Mack

For the week of Jan. 11 - 17

L.A. Phil Contemplates the Sound of the City

"Frequency" Response

Conor Vs. Phil

Is laying a ton of L.A. Philharmonic strings and horns on top of Bright Eyes’ insistent beat going to turn it into a big soft pile of adult-oriented mush?

Rock Picks

For the week of July 5 - 11

Back in the USSR

“Pravda” at Disney Concert Hall

Music Picks

For the week of July 6 -13

Letters

Letters