"I feel privileged to work for this incredibly exciting symphonic organization, where there is unlimited potential for invention," Salonen said. "We are witnessing a sociological phenomenon, a completely new music culture being born in Los Angeles. New and diverse audiences are flocking to Walt Disney Concert Hall."
The season schedule includes a previously announced, season-long cycle of Beethoven symphonies, in which each of the nine symphonies will be paired with a contemporary work; extended residencies by composer Thomas Ads and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes; and a six-day guitar festival.
The orchestra will perform four world premieres: a commissioned orchestral work by Magnus Lindberg, to be performed as part of the Beethoven cycle; a suite of music from Ads' opera The Tempest; and commissioned works by Roger Reynolds and Anders Hillborg. The orchestra will also give the American premieres of several pieces, including a new work by Salonen and two works by Ads.
Other season highlights include Shostakovich's Symphonies Nos. 13, 14, and 15, concluding a five-year cycle of the composer's symphonies and string quartets; concert performances of Adams' El Niê±o, with Dawn Upshaw, Michelle de Young, and Willard White; and three all-Mozart programs, including a performance of the Requiem led by Christoph von Dohnšnyi, which mark the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth.
Among the guest conductors on the schedule are Marin Alsop, former music director Zubin Mehta, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, David Robertson, and pianist and conductor Andršs Schiff. Soloists include pianists Evgeny Kissen, Lang Lang, Yefim Bronfman, and Martha Argerich and violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Hilary Hahn.