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The Music Center's Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Music Center's Walt Disney Concert Hall

Designed by architect Frank Gehry, The Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall (Concert Hall) opened in 2003 as the newest of The Music Center’s four venues. The Concert Hall was conceived when Lillian B. Disney made an initial gift of $50 million to build an additional performance space on Los Angeles County land in honor of her late husband Walt Disney and his dedication to the arts. Home to LA Phil and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Walt Disney Concert Hall is one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world and provides both visual and aural intimacy through its exterior and interior design.   

More than 6,000 panels create the curving stainless steel skin of the Concert Hall’s exterior. Resembling silver sails, the Concert Hall’s design plays off the bowed cornice of The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, forging a link between the old and the new. 

The use of natural materials and skylights creates a bright and airy interior in the Concert Hall. Gehry’s team visualized the lobby as a transparent and light-filled “living room for the city.” Massive columns within the lobby structure evoke an image of tree trunks. They are clad in vertical grain Douglas fir and serve the functional purpose of housing the lighting, heating and air conditioning systems.  

The 2,265-seat auditorium is a concrete box that is structurally independent of the rest of the building. Gehry collaborated with renowned acoustician Dr. Yasuhisa Toyota to design the acoustics. The walls of the auditorium are vertical grain Douglas fir and the floor is red oak. The stage is Alaskan yellow cedar, the same wood often used on the backs of cellos and violas and can be configured to hold larger performing organizations by removing the first rows in Orchestra View. Natural light enhances daytime concerts with a large 36-foot-high rear window and skylights. 

The terraced vineyard style seating is designed to bring the audience close to the orchestra and provide an intimate view of the musicians and conductor from any seat. A focal point for the auditorium is the 50-foot organ that houses 6,134 pipes ranging in size from a pencil to a telephone pole. Only two percent of the pipes are visible. The organ weighs more than 40 metric tons and was designed by Los Angeles organ designer Manuel Rosales along with Frank Gehry.   

Gehry’s design includes details as specific as the carpet pattern used in the auditorium. Named “Lillian” in Mrs. Disney’s honor, the pattern was designed to bring Mrs. Disney’s garden into the Concert Hall and is featured in the seating upholstery as well. Foam padding, the material and the hollow underside of the seats mimic the human body in reflecting sound; in fact, the sound is the same no matter how full or how empty the auditorium. The only piece of art in the Concert Hall, “Blue”, was created by Los Angeles artist Peter Alexander. It is located above the Grand Avenue staircase between the Garden and Terrace levels. 

The Concert Hall includes BP Hall, which is an additional space for performances and can accommodate up to 350 people. Clad in vertical grain Douglas fir as well, the curved room posed an acoustical challenge. To avoid focusing sound in one area of the space, perforations were added to the wood paneling with special material placed behind the panels to give the room proper acoustics. 

Located on the second floor of the Concert Hall is the Library of Congress/Ira Gershwin Gallery. Designed by Hodgetts + Fung Design Associates, the gallery was made possible by a gift from the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trust for the Benefit of the Library of Congress and rotates its collection bi-annually.   

The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), named in honor of Walt Disney’s brother and partner Roy and Roy’s wife, Edna, is also housed within the Concert Hall. An interdisciplinary contemporary arts center, the theatre is programmed by CalArts, based in Valencia, California. REDCAT features a flexible 200-  to 270-seat multi-use theatre and a 3,000 square-foot exhibition space. Its entrance includes a marquee of curvilinear stainless steel and leads directly into an expansive multi-use space that includes a lobby and lounge for meetings, receptions and post-performance events. The REDCAT stage can be transformed into several configurations, from thrust and end stage to completely in the round. The performance space is lined with hinged panels, each with finished wood on one side and sound-absorbent material on the other. To quiet outside noise and prevent transmission of vibrations from the Concert Hall, REDCAT is built as a steel box-within-a box, with the interior box floating on 72 special rubber pads. 

 

Featured at Walt Disney Concert Hall

  • Fri Mar 21 8:00 PM

    Sun Mar 23 2:00 PM

    LA Phil Haïm Leads Handel & Bach

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée, which she founded, are celebrated as some of the most respected performers of Baroque music. In the first season of her three-year role as Artist Collaborator, Haïm and her ensemble join the LA Phil for two...Show More

    Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée, which she founded, are celebrated as some of the most respected performers of Baroque music. In the first season of her three-year role as Artist Collaborator, Haïm and her ensemble join the LA Phil for two magnificent choral tapestries by Bach and Handel. The Guardian wrote that Haïm conducts Handel with “balance between spiritual joy and humane sensuality,” and Gramophone praised her recording of both works with Le Concert d’Astrée saying Haïm “harnesses and molds the solos with a kaleidoscopic scheme of voice-types, hand-picked for each movement and irradiated by sensuous, soft-grained textures and open vowels.” With the help of a celebrated cast of soloists, Haïm sculpts the divine chorales and exalted architecture of Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Bach’s Magnificat.

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  • Tue Mar 25 8:00 PM

    LA Phil Le Concert d’Astrée Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    Over the span of their illustrious 25-year career, Le Concert d’Astrée has become known as one of the foremost ensembles in the field of historically informed performance practice. Led by Baroque music champion Emmanuelle Haïm, the ensemble perfor...Show More

    Over the span of their illustrious 25-year career, Le Concert d’Astrée has become known as one of the foremost ensembles in the field of historically informed performance practice. Led by Baroque music champion Emmanuelle Haïm, the ensemble performs music by two of the most pivotal composers of the era—Handel’s decorated Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day oratorio with soprano Erin Morley, Bach’s French-inspired suites, and works by Rameau.

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  • Thu Mar 27 8:00 PM

    LA Phil Le Concert d’Astrée The Triumph of Time and Disillusion

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    Over the span of their illustrious 25-year career, Le Concert d’Astrée has become known as one of the foremost ensembles in the field of historically informed performance practice. Led by Baroque music champion Emmanuelle Haïm, the ensemble perfor...Show More

    Over the span of their illustrious 25-year career, Le Concert d’Astrée has become known as one of the foremost ensembles in the field of historically informed performance practice. Led by Baroque music champion Emmanuelle Haïm, the ensemble performs Handel’s first of many oratorios, the operatic Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno or “The Triumph of Time and Disillusion.”

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  • Fri Mar 28 7:00 PM

    A TMC Arts Program The Music Center's Dance DTLA: Special Edition

    Walt Disney Concert Hall - BP Hall and The Blue Ribbon Garden

    Be a part of The Music Center’s Dance DTLA: Special Edition! This FREE, one-night-only dance party is an open invitation to all Angelenos to connect with one another through the universal language of dance and music, particul...Show More

    Be a part of The Music Center’s Dance DTLA: Special Edition! This FREE, one-night-only dance party is an open invitation to all Angelenos to connect with one another through the universal language of dance and music, particularly in the wake of the devastating wildfires. Bring your dancing shoes to The Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and enjoy dancing with live music, DJs and follow-along beginner lessons. The Music Center’s Dance DTLA: Special Edition highlights L.A.'s strength, unity and resilience and is a space for everyone to rebuild connections and enjoy moments of joy and renewal. No dance experience necessary!

    Let us know you're coming!

    No outside furniture.

    Food/Coolers will not be allowed in BP Hall. There will be a coat check available.

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    Free

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    Free

  • Sat Mar 29 8:00 PM

    LA Phil Gregory Alan Isakov with the LA Phil

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    Since making his debut in 2007 with That Sea, The Gambler, Grammy-nominee Gregory Alan Isakov has cast an impressive presence on the indie-rock and folk worlds. His latest record, Appaloosa Bones, led MOJO to ca...Show More

    Since making his debut in 2007 with That Sea, The Gambler, Grammy-nominee Gregory Alan Isakov has cast an impressive presence on the indie-rock and folk worlds. His latest record, Appaloosa Bones, led MOJO to call it "Prime Isakov" for the way “his velvet baritone glides over elegant and shimmering Wild West mirages.” Joined by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he’ll perform the “utterly evocative” songs that demonstrate his “magical ability to convey both urgency and grandeur at the same time” (Associated Press).

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  • Sun Mar 30 7:30 PM

    LA Phil Herbie Hancock

    Walt Disney Concert Hall

    One of the most inventive artists in the history of American music, the brilliant and always-innovating Herbie Hancock returns for a night of freewheeling, thought-provoking, mind-expanding, galactic-traveling jazz and funk.

    One of the most inventive artists in the history of American music, the brilliant and always-innovating Herbie Hancock returns for a night of freewheeling, thought-provoking, mind-expanding, galactic-traveling jazz and funk.

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Free tours are available of all The Music Center's theaters.

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