As Gustavo Dudamel says farewell to LA, he'll lead the LA Phil in a genre-busting Coachella set

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is set to make Coachella history as part of conductor Gustavo Dudamel’s farewell to Southern California.

The LA Phil will become the first major orchestra to perform its own set at the Indio music festival — and they'll do it with special guests Zedd, EDM DJ and Laufey. And on Saturday, Becky G and Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso will join them too.

So it's clearly not just any LA Phil performance.

Meghan Umber, LA Phil's chief programming officer, told LAist it’s more like “Gustavo’s mixtape.”

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“ He really believes that all music is great music, and that classical music belongs at a festival like Coachella,” she said. “So there's going to be iconic pieces of classical music, and then special surprise guests are gonna be popping up throughout the set, and they come from all different musical backgrounds.”

Why this moment matters

Coachella has been years in the making for the orchestra.

But it’s a particularly notable performance for Dudamel, who is in his final year as the LA Phil’s music and artistic director. He’s set to take over that role for the New York Philharmonic next September.

“When he made the decision to step down, we had one of those great conversations about bucket list — what are the things you'd love to do before you leave,” Umber said. “And Coachella was top of the list.”

She described it as the culmination of their 17 years together with the conductor.

The roster is ready 

When Ashley Park, who plays violin in the first section, found out about the LA Phil performance in November, she was just hoping to end up on the roster.

Now, her first Coachella experience will be from on stage.

“It's one thing to be on a big stage like Carnegie Hall and performing with someone like Yo-Yo Ma,” she said. “The music's different, the audience is different, the collaborations are different, the energy is different, and I think it's really a unique situation, a unique context, and probably not that many orchestras and conductors can pull it off. We're just excited to be a part of it.”

The orchestra started rehearsing to a mostly-empty Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday morning, just a few days before the first performance. But Kaelan Decman, the associate principal bass player, told LAist he’s been mentally preparing for a while longer.

It’ll also be Decman’s first time at the Indio music festival, but he’s already looking forward to a format that’s more casual than their usual concert hall.

“ Kind of makes me feel like I can loosen up a little bit,” he said. “ I feel like I can kind of breathe a little bit more, and that's exciting to me.”

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by conductor Gustavo Dudamel, rehearses their Coachella set at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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How to watch

The LA Phil, and their special guests, are set to perform both weekends of Coachella on Saturday, April 12 and 19.

They’ll perform at the Outdoor Theatre from 6:25 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.

If you can’t make it out to Indio, you can still tune into the YouTube livestream. You can also sign up to get an email update for when they hit the stage here.