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
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Fri Jan 24 8:00 PM
Sun Jan 26 2:00 PM
LA Phil Rachmaninoff & Muhly
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Eun Sun Kim, music director for the San Francisco Opera, leads the LA Phil through the spiraling passages of Rachmaninoff’s riveting Third Symphony and a brand-new concerto grosso that offers a spotlight to the orchestra by the forward-thinking co...Show More
Eun Sun Kim, music director for the San Francisco Opera, leads the LA Phil through the spiraling passages of Rachmaninoff’s riveting Third Symphony and a brand-new concerto grosso that offers a spotlight to the orchestra by the forward-thinking composer Nico Muhly. Then, an outstanding pianist “with an agile technique that allows him perfect clarity in the most complex textures, abundant sensitivity and refinement” (Gramophone) returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall. Alexandre Kantorow, winner of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, shows off his sensitive technique with Rachmaninoff’s ever-evolving Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
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Tue Jan 28 8:00 PM
LA Phil Elements and Energy with John Adams
Walt Disney Concert Hall
John and Samantha Williams Creative Chair John Adams returns for the second installment of the LA Phil Etudes. The project invites a wide range of leading composers to create new solo etudes, each performed by an LA Phil musician, which showcases ...Show More
John and Samantha Williams Creative Chair John Adams returns for the second installment of the LA Phil Etudes. The project invites a wide range of leading composers to create new solo etudes, each performed by an LA Phil musician, which showcases their distinct voices and the possibility of their chosen instrument. The theme of soloist spotlight continues with Donnacha Dennehy’s threshold-pushing piano concerto Limina and Missy Mazzoli’s bass concerto, Dark with Excessive Bright, which borrows its name from Milton’s Paradise Lost and slips between centuries with Mazzoli’s blend of new ideas and influences.
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Wed Jan 29 7:30 PM
LA Phil Music 101: The Art of Orchestration
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Composers paint with the colors of the orchestra. With a wide range of musical examples and vibrant visuals, Alan Chapman gives you a fascinating look at their compositional techniques and spotlights some of the greatest masters of orchestration.<...Show More
Composers paint with the colors of the orchestra. With a wide range of musical examples and vibrant visuals, Alan Chapman gives you a fascinating look at their compositional techniques and spotlights some of the greatest masters of orchestration.
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Thu Jan 30 8:00 PM
Sun Feb 02 2:00 PM
LA Phil Schubert, Strauss & Saariaho
Walt Disney Concert Hall
After becoming deeply drawn to "Liebestod" (Love-Death) from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde", Strauss composed his own musical exploration of what lies beyond life itself. Through stunning harmonies and masterful orchestration, "Death and Transfigur...Show More
After becoming deeply drawn to "Liebestod" (Love-Death) from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde", Strauss composed his own musical exploration of what lies beyond life itself. Through stunning harmonies and masterful orchestration, "Death and Transfiguration" illustrates a man’s physiological and psychological deterioration. In a similar vein, Kaija Saariaho completed "HUSH", her self-proclaimed "journey to silence," during her final months with terminal brain cancer. Dedicated to jazz trumpeter Veneri Pohjola, the concerto features the trumpet growling from its lowest register and gliding downward like a ghost amongst the orchestra. Susanna Mälkki takes the lead for the evening, conducting Schubert’s chilling yet charming two-movement symphony, nicknamed the "Unfinished."
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Sat Feb 01 8:00 PM
LA Phil Celebrating MTT
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Michael Tilson Thomas has been part of the LA Phil family for more than five decades, and the orchestra celebrates MTT's 80th birthday with a not-to-be-missed special night of music.Show More
Michael Tilson Thomas has been part of the LA Phil family for more than five decades, and the orchestra celebrates MTT's 80th birthday with a not-to-be-missed special night of music.
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Tue Feb 04 8:00 PM
LA Phil KODO
Walt Disney Concert Hall
For four decades, the Japanese group KODO has shown off the extraordinary emotional and artistic range of the traditional taiko drum on stages around the world. Their new program Warabe looks to the group’s classic repe...Show More
For four decades, the Japanese group KODO has shown off the extraordinary emotional and artistic range of the traditional taiko drum on stages around the world. Their new program Warabe looks to the group’s classic repertoire and aesthetics from their earliest days, blending simple forms of taiko expression that celebrate the unique sound, resonance, and physicality synonymous with KODO.
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Fri Feb 07 11:00 AM
Sun Feb 09 2:00 PM
LA Phil Tchaikovsky & The Mermaid
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Xian Zhang brings a special treat to LA Phil audiences, conducting Zemlinsky’s seldom performed symphonic fairytale inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. The 40-minute fantasy follows a sea creature’s dile...Show More
Xian Zhang brings a special treat to LA Phil audiences, conducting Zemlinsky’s seldom performed symphonic fairytale inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. The 40-minute fantasy follows a sea creature’s dilemma of longing and heartbreak, building upon winding, heartrending strings, and rich yet mysterious harmonies. George Li, a Silver medalist in the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, tugs even further on listeners’ heartstrings with the composer’s lyrical First Piano Concerto.
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Fri Feb 07 8:00 PM
LA Phil Samara Joy
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Twenty-four-year-old Bronx native Samara Joy sings with a young person’s passion and a more-experienced artist’s wisdom. “It’s spooky,” the great bassist Christian McBride has said of the 24-year-old musician. “She sounds and tells stories like an...Show More
Twenty-four-year-old Bronx native Samara Joy sings with a young person’s passion and a more-experienced artist’s wisdom. “It’s spooky,” the great bassist Christian McBride has said of the 24-year-old musician. “She sounds and tells stories like an elder.” Joy’s refined, distinctive style has been compared to Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald—all legendary singers who also recorded for Verve Records—but the perspective she shares on her Grammy-winning album Linger Awhile is all her own. She puts her spin on well-known standards like “Misty” and “Round Midnight,” but her deep curiosity takes her deeper into jazz history on “Sweet Pumpkin” and the Vaughan gem “Can’t Get Out of This Mood.”
In 2024, she won a third Grammy Award, for her take on the Betty Carter classic “Tight,” and is currently preparing new music for a full-length follow-up. The New York Times praised the “silky-voiced rising star” for “helping jazz take a youthful turn” while NPR's All Things Considered named her a “classic jazz singer from a new generation.” This is her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut—and she’s only going up from here.
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Fri Jan 24 8:00 PM
Sun Jan 26 2:00 PM
LA Phil Rachmaninoff & Muhly
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Eun Sun Kim, music director for the San Francisco Opera, leads the LA Phil through the spiraling passages of Rachmaninoff’s riveting Third Symphony and a brand-new concerto grosso that offers a spotlight to the orchestra by the forward-thinking co...Show More
Eun Sun Kim, music director for the San Francisco Opera, leads the LA Phil through the spiraling passages of Rachmaninoff’s riveting Third Symphony and a brand-new concerto grosso that offers a spotlight to the orchestra by the forward-thinking composer Nico Muhly. Then, an outstanding pianist “with an agile technique that allows him perfect clarity in the most complex textures, abundant sensitivity and refinement” (Gramophone) returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall. Alexandre Kantorow, winner of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, shows off his sensitive technique with Rachmaninoff’s ever-evolving Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
Show Less -
Fri Jan 24 8:00 PM
Sun Jan 26 2:00 PM
LA Phil Rachmaninoff & Muhly
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Eun Sun Kim, music director for the San Francisco Opera, leads the LA Phil through the spiraling passages of Rachmaninoff’s riveting Third Symphony and a brand-new concerto grosso that offers a spotlight to the orchestra by the forward-thinking co...Show More
Eun Sun Kim, music director for the San Francisco Opera, leads the LA Phil through the spiraling passages of Rachmaninoff’s riveting Third Symphony and a brand-new concerto grosso that offers a spotlight to the orchestra by the forward-thinking composer Nico Muhly. Then, an outstanding pianist “with an agile technique that allows him perfect clarity in the most complex textures, abundant sensitivity and refinement” (Gramophone) returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall. Alexandre Kantorow, winner of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, shows off his sensitive technique with Rachmaninoff’s ever-evolving Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
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Sat Nov 23 1:00 PM
Sun Feb 23 1:00 PM
A TMC Arts Program: Digital Innovation Initiative The Music Center Presents: IndieCade in Residence
Jerry Moss Plaza
Discover the vibrant world of IndieCade in Residence on Jerry Moss Plaza! Explore award-winning indie games, engage with captivating interactive experiences and immerse yourself in the creativity of independent developers.
Discover the vibrant world of IndieCade in Residence on Jerry Moss Plaza! Explore award-winning indie games, engage with captivating interactive experiences and immerse yourself in the creativity of independent developers.
Show LessFree
Learn MoreFree
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Sat Nov 23 1:00 PM
Sun Feb 23 1:00 PM
A TMC Arts Program: Digital Innovation Initiative The Music Center Presents: IndieCade in Residence
Jerry Moss Plaza
Discover the vibrant world of IndieCade in Residence on Jerry Moss Plaza! Explore award-winning indie games, engage with captivating interactive experiences and immerse yourself in the creativity of independent developers.
Discover the vibrant world of IndieCade in Residence on Jerry Moss Plaza! Explore award-winning indie games, engage with captivating interactive experiences and immerse yourself in the creativity of independent developers.
Show LessFree
Learn MoreFree
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