Want to see the highly acclaimed Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra (where Dudamel got his start) perform for free? more ›

Any evening with Portland-based "little orchestra" Pink Martini is a party, and their two New Year's Eve shows at Walt Disney Concert Hall will be the perfect way to welcome 2012. Yesterday, LAist spoke with Pink Martini lead vocalist China Forbes to discuss her recent vocal cord surgery, why she loves L.A.'s music venues, and what to expect on New Year's Eve. more ›

Bob Mould may not be a household name but the artists he influenced and inspired during his time fronting bands Husker Du and Sugar as well as a later solo career are quite well known. more ›

When your duo gets mentioned in the same breath as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his sister Maria Anna (Nannerl) Mozart, you're kind of a big deal. Katia and Marielle Labèque are no strangers to Los Angeles and have performed at every major venue in L.A. in the last 25 years. more ›

Everyone likes to dress up and go to the theatre from time to time, and we encourage you to go all out and go to the Disney Hall tonight for their annual Halloween Silent Film. Costumes are not uncommon at the Disney Hall for this event, and add to a lively atmosphere. more ›

It's your last week to head up to Santa Barbara to listen to some talented young musicians at the 2011 Music Academy of the West festival. The final performance is next Saturday at 8 PM at the Granada Theatre conducted by Leonard Slatkin. more ›

Good news! LACO announced their 2011-2012 season and Jeffrey Kahane's contract has been renewed for two more seasons. Next season highlights include some Golijov, chef and music pairings, Ralph Kirshbaum, and some father-son collaborations with Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane (composer/vocalist). more ›

Here's the Balanchine version so you can talk about how the classic version was sooooo much better (Note: we haven't seen the Eifman choreography, just teasing). The Eifman Ballet comes to town (well, the OC) from St. Petersburg to put on a production of Don Quixote at OCPAC. Eifman is known as an innovative choreographer so you're sure to see some "new twists" to this classic ballet. more ›

If you can't make it to the LA Opera for Britten's Turn of the Screw, Alisa Weilerstein is making her return to the Disney Hall (you might remember her from last year's performance of the Dvorak Cello Concerto) with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in an all-Russian program. more ›

Local rockers Local Natives gave a stunning performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall last week. more ›

Although we're used to seeing newer and younger artists make their debut with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl, Gautier Capuçon is an exception. Capuçon is already an established musician (well, at least in Europe), and the demand for him has risen considerably stateside as evidenced by his upcoming solo performances with the LA Phil and the SF Symphony (with Charles Dutoit). more ›

Brad Mehldau has some great covers of Radiohead songs on youtube, go check them out. Or check him out this Friday at the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Radiohead not included). Also, now that you've seen Black Swan and want to talk about ballet all the time with your friends, you can take them to OCPAC this week to check out Reflections, a dance event featuring some top-notch dancers performing some classics and world premieres. more ›

Dudamel discusses Mahler's 9th Symphony, which you can hear this weekend at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. This is the last performance of January for Dudamel and the LA Phil before they kick off their European tour. Their next performance will beon February 12th with Leonard Slatkin, and their next performance with Dudamel will be on March 3rd, when Dudamel conducts Bruckner. more ›

As we mentioned last week, you can still catch Lohengrin this Sunday. It's a little quiet this week thanks to Thanksgiving, but it looks like a good week for opera lovers. The LA Times just profiled opera star Bryn Terfel, and you can check him out tomorrow night in the other music center, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The program is heavy on Schumann (we're a nostalgic bunch). more ›

If you haven't entered to win tickets to go see LACO perform Beethoven's 7th Symphony, click here. You can double your chances by entering on Facebook as well. Carl St. Clair is conducting, so you can see what all the fuss is about without driving all the way to the OC. more ›

Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Concert Series--dedicated to innovative contemporary music--opened last week with a concert featuring music from Bang on a Can composers: Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe. It seems fitting that Bang on a Can opened the series, because the collective is responsible for a lot of innovative contemporary music in the US. more ›

This is an excerpt from Messiaen's Turangalila, which you can catch this weekend at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, featured in this clip. No, there's no such thing as "Pianofest" in LA, but if you take a look at the schedule this week, you'll see why. Dudamel and Ax are still performing the Beethoven with a concert this afternoon at 2 PM (if you're reading this, you're probably too late for it). more ›

You might not be going to the LA Phil's opening night concert and gala, but there's a way you can be there somewhat vicariously. KUSC 91.5 FM will carry the "celebración" live tonight at 7 p.m. Conductor Gustavo Dudaml and his friend Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez have put together a "special program of bel canto arias and popular Latin American canciones." more ›

Simon Rattle conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance of Strauss' Ein Heldenleben. It's harder than it looks. The LA Opera has announced it's 2010/11 season which is a little toned down this year (it's hard to top the Ring Cycle anyways) more ›

"It's like a Spaceland lineup from 2007," quipped The Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett in October the week before CMJ at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, about 20 minutes north of Albany. "Short of being at Spaceland in LA a few years ago, I'm pleasantly shocked that I'm getting to see a lineup like that," observed the East Coast-based indie music blog Between Love and Like. The Airborne Toxic Event was in the midst of their second cross-country tour -- their first since signing with major label Island Def Jam -- with openers The Henry Clay People and Red Cortez, but for that night, they were joined by The Parson Red Heads, who were coincidentally in New York for their first-ever East Coast tour. more ›

This is the first video from Matmos' new album, and you can catch them this Saturday at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. You knew it would happen. After countless collaborations and performances with the LA Phil, John Adams has signed on as the orchestra's creative chair and is in charge of the first festival under Dudamel: West Coast, Left Coast... more ›

Music in film is one of the most important devices used in cinema today; this music has been ingrained in popular culture, to the point that most people could recognize the tunes. Also sprach Zarathustra, Ride of the Valkyries, Beethoven's 5th, are a few of the major works that come to mind. This week, you can hear a few of these tunes and more at several venues. more ›

Erich Korngold was an Academy Award winning film composer. He made his permanent residence in California and is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. He is most famous for his collaborations with Errol Flynn and adaptations of other compositions for the big screen. For other film composers check out Johnny Greenwood (lead guitarist of Radiohead), Clint Mansell, Bernard Hermann, Henry Mancini, and Miklos Rosza. This week's classical pick also features the work of a film composer, Paul Chihara. This video contains a recording of Jascha Heifetz performing Korngold's famous Violin Concerto. more ›

The clip above is an excerpt from an opera by John Adams. This opera will be one of the pieces performed this week in Los Angeles. It's interesting to see the progression of music from the Baroque period into the 21st century. These concerts this week allow you to see this progression first-hand (although the jump might be so drastic that you might find it difficult to make any connections, if at all). more ›

LAist found several classical music-affiliated groups/organizations on Twitter this weekend and would like to share them with you. KUSC just joined the fray, and LACO has been tweeting for quite a while now. For pages that update you with the latest in classical music news and old performances, check out ClassicalTV and Classical_Music. You can also find the NY Phil, the London Symphony, Hillary Hahn (and her violin case), and Emmanuel Ax. Feel free to add any pages (yours too) we might have left out in the comments section. LAist is also on twitter, for those that were unaware. more ›

Tonight and tomorrow at 8 pm famed conductor Zubin Mehta takes to the Walt Disney Concert Hall stage to lead the Vienna Philharmonic. On the program are Angela Maria Blasi, soprano, Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 9,” Wolf’s “Italian Serenade” and Marx’s “Selected Songs.” more ›

The Cal Phil is the next local cultural institution to be hit hard enough by the economy that they've canceled the rest of their season, even though they say the two previous shows were "nearly sold-out." more ›

With Christmas rapidly approaching, we are taking this opportunity to inform you about ALL of the upcoming holiday concerts. Although you'll be hard-pressed to find any high quality freebies these days, you can always count on some free concerts to keep your family/date entertained for a few hours. All the free concerts are listed in bold. We will list them in chronological order, after a few updates. If there is an event you feel is missing, please feel free to add them in the comments section. more ›

In the last few years, Los Angeles has taken a risk in hiring brilliant (but young) conductors who gained recognition due to their potential and their interpretations of the Mahler symphonies (see Salonen). This new conductor has a craze to call his own, "Dudamania" (chronicled by the LA Times ). The announcement of Gustavo Dudamel's appointment as the next music director of the LA Phil has created a phenomenon here and abroad, with comparisons to the great Leonard Bernstein, and sold out shows across the globe. more ›