Download Presenting the Best: World-Class Programming at The Music Center

Backgrounder
Presenting the Best: World-Class Programming at The Music Center
Over the past 50 years, The Music Center has become one of the largest and most highly regarded
performing arts centers in the country. A place to experience the most innovative and critically-acclaimed
performing arts in the nation, The Music Center is a cultural hub that is central to L.A.’s status as the
“creative capital” of the world. With four world-class resident companies and its renowned dance
programming, The Music Center welcomes more than two million people each year to enjoy live
performances as well as free arts events at its campus and at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles.
The Music Center Presents
Led by Music Center Vice President of Programming Renae Williams Niles, The Music Center Presents
provides audiences with compelling arts encounters, through a wide range of dynamic, engaging and
interactive programs.
Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center (Dance at The Music Center) is a national
leader in presenting significant works by prestigious ballet and contemporary dance artists from around
the world. Dance at The Music Center continues to be a powerful commissioning force, supporting new
works and artists-in-residence projects by today’s most influential companies and choreographers.
Active Arts™ is a national model for experiences in which people participate directly, offering
recreational artists of all skill levels the opportunity for creative expression through music-making, dance,
song and more at a variety of settings at The Music Center and in Grand Park. These programs connect
people to the arts, bringing together the diverse communities of Los Angeles by engaging them in
interactive activities.
From dance and music to puppetry and spoken word, World City® gives people the chance to learn more
about the cultures that comprise the “world city” of Los Angeles through captivating performances and
art-making workshops. A dynamic intersection of art and culture, World City introduces audiences to
performers from across the globe and their traditions through eclectic, admission-free performances for all
ages. To date, it has celebrated 77 different cultures and featured more than 140 extraordinary companies
of musicians, dancers, and theatre artists.
For more information, visit http://www.musiccenter.org/
The Music Center’s Resident Companies
Four of the world’s finest performing arts companies – Center Theatre Group, LA Opera, the LA Phil and
the Los Angeles Master Chorale – call Los Angeles, and The Music Center, home.
Center Theatre Group
One of the nation’s preeminent non-profit theatre companies, Center Theatre Group (CTG) is recognized
for its high-quality productions, diverse programming and critically acclaimed
performances that cover the broadest range of theatre. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael
Ritchie, CTG presents performances at The Music Center’s Ahmanson Theater and the Mark Taper
Forum. With a focus on theatre as a medium and its ability to connect artists and audiences in a
singularly powerful experience, CTG produces some of the most engaging and compelling theatre
anywhere in the world. Performances include ground-breaking new works, explosive productions of the
classics and hit Broadway plays and musicals.
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In 1967, then CTG Artistic Director Gordon Davidson began creating new work at the Taper, opening the
theatre with the controversial play, The Devils. Since that time, the Taper has developed an impressive
number of Pulitzer Prize-winning plays including Mark Medoff’s Children of a Lesser God, Michael
Cristofer’s The Shadow Box, and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Part One. The Taper has also
earned a number of distinguished honors including a Tony Award for Theatrical Excellence.
Since its inception, CTG has presented a wide variety of dramas, musicals, comedies and classic revivals
at The Ahmanson Theater. A co-producer of award-winning productions on Broadway including Smokey
Joe’s Café, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson and Two Trains Running, and Frank Loesser’s The Most
Happy Fella, CTG also presents Broadway hits such as the exclusive Los Angeles engagements of the
Tony Award-winning productions of Doubt, Jersey Boys and My Fair Lady. CTG has been honored with
more than 50 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for excellence in all phases of production. For
more information, visit http://www.centertheatregroup.org/
LA Opera
One of America’s most exciting and ambitious opera companies, LA Opera brings together worldrenowned singers, designers, directors and conductors for performances that attract the attention of
international audiences and critics. Now the nation’s fourth largest opera company, LA Opera is a
renowned producer of works from classical and contemporary repertoires. Its mission is to serve the
public by producing world-class opera that preserves, promotes and advances the art form, while
embodying the diversity, pioneering spirit and artistic sensibility that is unique to Los Angeles. Essential
to LA Opera’s achievement of this mission are the vision and energy of its general director, superstar
tenor Plácido Domingo, and its music director, James Conlon. The opera performs at The Music Center’s
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
LA Opera’s recent seasons have included the 2010 world premiere of Daniel Catán’s Il Postino, the Los
Angeles premiere of Einstein on the Beach by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, LA Opera’s first complete
performance of Richard Wagner’s epic Ring cycle, along with the first major U.S. production in four
decades of Verdi’s The Two Foscari. In 2007, LA Opera became the only major opera company in the
world to regularly program works of composers affected by the Holocaust through the series Recovered
Voices. For more information, visit http://www.laopera.org/
LA Phil
One of The Music Center’s founding resident companies, the LA Phil is acknowledged around the globe
as one of the world’s finest orchestras. Under the leadership of Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil makes its
home base at The Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. The orchestra is leading the way in
innovative programming and re-defining the musical experience, both at home and abroad. Performing or
presenting nearly 300 concerts throughout the year, the LA Phil demonstrates a breadth and depth of
programming unrivaled by other orchestras and cultural institutions.
Focusing on programming that remains faithful to tradition, the orchestra also seeks new ground, new
audiences and new ways to enhance the symphonic music experience. During its winter season, the LA
Phil creates festivals and produces concerts featuring distinguished artists in recital, jazz, world music,
songbook, and visiting orchestra performances, in addition to special holiday concerts and a series of
chamber music, organ recitals and Baroque music.
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The LA Phil garnered a 2012 Emmy nomination for the telecast of its Rhapsody in Blue: Opening Night
Concert and Gala as part of the PBS performing arts series Great Performances. In 2011, the orchestra
and Gustavo Dudamel won a Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance for its recording of the Brahms
Symphony No. 4. In addition, the orchestra, under the baton of Zubin Mehta, won an Academy Award in
1974 for The Bolero, a 30-minute short subject featuring Maurice Ravel’s famous orchestral work.
Past seasons included performances of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, the second installment of the
three-year Mozart opera project; an international tour of Creative Chair John Adams’ oratorio The Gospel
According to the Other Mary; and Oliver Knussen’s one-act opera Where the Wild Things Are. Looking
ahead, the LA Phil looks to combine traditional presentations with a rich array of collaborations and
initiative designed for an evolving audience. For more information, visit http://www.laphil.com/
Los Angeles Master Chorale
The Los Angeles Master Chorale (Chorale) is recognized as one of the city’s cultural treasures
and one of the world’s premier choruses. Currently celebrating its 50th season as a Music Center resident
company, and its 11th season in The Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Chorale is led by
Music Director Grant Gershon. Considered a national leader for its innovative and dynamic
programming and its commitment to commissioning new works, the Chorale has played a leading role in
the ongoing resurgence in interest in choral music.
Presenting its own concert series each season, the Chorale performs choral music from the earliest
writings to the most recent contemporary compositions. To date, the choir has commissioned 42 and
premiered 88 new works, of which 57 were world premieres. Its discography includes five CDs under
Gershon’s baton. The latest, released in 2012 on Decca, features three works by Polish composer Henryk
Górecki. The Chorale previously released three CDs under Music Director Emeritus Paul Salamunovich
on RCM, including the Grammy-nominated Lauridsen-Lux Aeterna. The Chorale is also featured with
Gershon on the soundtracks of such major motion pictures as Lady in the Water and License to Wed.
The Grammy-nominated Chorale has been awarded the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous
Programming three times as well as Chorus America’s prestigious 2012 Margaret Hills Award for Choral
Excellence, the nation’s highest choral music award. The Chorale celebrates the fact that it has built an
ensemble and an audience that thrives on the full panorama of great music for voices. For more
information, visit http://www.lamc.org/
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Contact:
Bonnie Goodman
For The Music Center
213-308-9539
[email protected]