Orchestra Scales Up Its Plans

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 83rd winter season, announced Tuesday at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, will feature major celebrations of the music of Mozart, Shostakovich and Schoenberg; a new arts residency program; tours to Japan and Europe with dates to be announced later; and two new concert series targeting young audiences.

The 2001-2002 winter season kicks off Oct. 4 with a gala salute to jazz master Duke Ellington, featuring mezzo-soprano Audra McDonald and conducted by Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The season continues through May 19, 2002. Visiting orchestras this season are the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony.

The season is the first designed primarily by Deborah Borda, former manager of the New York Philharmonic, who took over as managing director at the L.A. orchestra in January 1999.

The orchestra’s new emphasis on large-scale thematic programming shows in the announcement of the Schoenberg Prism series, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death, which continues the Philharmonic’s in-depth exploration of 20th century composers. Like the Stravinsky Festival (going on now), the four Schoenberg concerts will highlight the work of a Modernist composer who spent much of his career living and working here.

The same commitment is behind the announced launch of a five-year Shostakovich cycle--with three symphonies and string quartets each season, culminating in 2005-2006, the composer’s birth centennial--and the two-week Mozart Festival in April 2001, complemented by the Los Angeles Opera’s production of “The Magic Flute.�

The Philharmonic’s new annual residency program, titled “On Location,� begins in November with a three-week visit by hot young Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov, who made a recent splash in Stuttgart and Boston with his “La Pasion Segun San Marcos.� Golijov will work with the orchestra in preparing three of his works for performance: the Los Angeles premiere of “Lost Rounds� (Nov. 2-4), “Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind� for the Philharmonic’s chamber music series, and one work yet to be selected for the Green Umbrella new music series. The residency program will also host French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Borda also aims to repeat her audience-building success in New York with the new, user-friendly Friday Casual series, and a Sunday Brunch series. The three-concert Casual series invites patrons and orchestra members to dress casually; and slightly shorter (70-minute) programs will include commentary by Salonen. After the concert, patrons may mingle with Salonen and musicians at Otto’s Beer Bar and Grill at the Music Center. Patrons of the Sunday Brunch series may enjoy a pre-concert meal in the Chandler Pavilion’s Grand Hall.

The orchestra’s Art & Music partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art continues with concerts combining the art of late 20th century artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns with the music of George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and others.

The season will include several world premiere performances: Salonen conducts violinist Young Uck Kim and the orchestra in Leon Kirchner’s Violin Concerto No. 2 (April 4-7); guest conductor Andreas Delfs, music director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony who makes his debut with the Philharmonic during the Mozart Festival, leads Theodore Shapiro’s Chamber Symphony (April 11, 13 and 14).

Trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger will be the soloist in the U.S. premiere of H.K. Gruber’s “Aerial� Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra (March 8-10). Conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya will conduct the Los Angeles premiere of composer Golijov’s “Last Rounds.� Principal concertmaster Martin Chalifour is soloist in the first Los Angeles performances of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Violin Concerto, “Offertorium� (Feb. 21-23), with Alan Gilbert conducting.

Conductor James Conlon makes his winter season debut with the Philharmonic on April 26-28. Conlon, a champion of Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky, will include Zemlinsky’s “Die Seejungfrau� (The Mermaid) on the program. Also making her debut with the Philharmonic is soprano Hildegard Behrens, singing operatic excerpts by Strauss and Wagner with the orchestra Oct. 11, 12 and 14. Actor Mervan Mehta will make his first Philharmonic appearance as speaker in the orchestra’s performances of Beethoven’s complete incidental music to Goethe’s historical tragedy “Egmont� (Nov. 30, Dec. 1-2).

A quartet of vocalists--soprano Fiorenza Cedolins, mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick, tenor Stuart Neill and bass Calo Colombaro--make their Philharmonic debuts in Verdi’s “Requiem� Dec. 20-22, with visiting conductor Zubin Mehta and Los Angeles Master Chorale, during the centennial year of Verdi’s death. French pianist Helene Grimaud, who has performed at the Hollywood Bowl, makes her debut with the orchestra downtown Jan. 11-13 as part of the Schoenberg Prism, and London-born Andrew Shulman, who joined the Philharmonic as principal cellist in September 2000, will make his winter season debut Feb. 28, conducted by Franz Welser-Most.

For the full schedule, call (323) 850-2000.