| Music Center | |
|---|---|
 TheWalt Disney Concert Hall, with theDorothy Chandler Pavilion to the right | |
| Background | |
| Location: | 135 NorthGrand Avenue Los Angeles,California,U.S. |
| Visitors: | 1.3 million per year |
| Established: | 1964; 61 years ago (1964) |
| Resident Companies: | |
| Venues |
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| Performances: |
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| Also Called: | The Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County |
| Information | |
| Website: | Official website |
| Public transit: |     Civic Ctr  Grand Av |
TheLos Angeles Music Center (officially thePerforming Arts Center of Los Angeles County) is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States.[1] Located in downtownLos Angeles, The Music Center is composed of theDorothy Chandler Pavilion,Ahmanson Theatre,Mark Taper Forum,Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theatre (REDCAT), andWalt Disney Concert Hall.
Each year, The Music Center welcomes more than 1.3 million people to performances by its four internationally renowned resident companies:Los Angeles Philharmonic,Los Angeles Opera,Los Angeles Master Chorale, andCenter Theatre Group (CTG) as well as performances by the dance series Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center. The center is home to on-going community events, arts festivals, outdoor concerts, participatory arts activities and workshops, and educational programs.
In April 1955,Dorothy Chandler, wife of Los Angeles Times publisher Norman Chandler, began fundraising toward a permanent home for the Philharmonic. Ultimately Mrs. Chandler raised almost $20 million in private donations; the County provided the site and raised the remaining $14 million using mortgage revenue bonds.
The rest of the complex was completed in April 1967. The additional venues, the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre, were dedicated on April 9 and 12, 1967, respectively.[2][3]
When the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion opened its doors on December 6, 1964, the twenty-eight-year-oldZubin Mehta led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a program that included violinistJascha Heifetz and performances ofStrauss'Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare andBeethoven'sViolin Concerto in D Major. The Mark Taper Forum, "scandalizing the power structure of Los Angeles," according to its artistic director Gordon Davidson, with its provocative opening production ofJohn Whiting'sThe Devils.[further explanation needed] The Ahmanson Theatre opened with a performance of theMan of La Mancha by theCivic Light Opera. The first dramatic season at the Ahmanson featuredIngrid Bergman inO'Neill'sMore Stately Mansions, signaling its intent to marry big-name playwrights with big-name stars.[citation needed]
Since its opening in 1964, The Music Center has seen the American debuts ofSimon Rattle andEsa-Pekka Salonen, the world premieres ofThe Shadow Box,Zoot Suit,Children of a Lesser God, andAngels in America at the Taper, and performances byJessica Tandy,Hume Cronyn,Katharine Hepburn, andMaggie Smith at the Ahmanson.[citation needed] The Philharmonic and L.A. Master Chorale joined forces to provide the accompaniment toEisenstein's restored silent film classicAlexander Nevsky. While the Civic Light Opera's last season at The Music Center was in 1987, the Los Angeles Music Center Opera was formed in 1986. Its productions have includedWagner'sTristan and Isolde directed byJonathan Miller and designed byDavid Hockney.[citation needed]
The Music Center hosts the annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration on Christmas Eve since 1960 with performances from singers, dance groups and musicians. The event is free to everyone and it is televised onPBS SoCal.
On October 23, 2003, The Music Center opened theFrank-Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, expanding the campus to 11 acres (45,000 m2). The 2,265-seat Concert Hall is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Walt Disney Concert Hall includes the 266-seat Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) and outdoor program areas including theW. M. Keck Foundation Children's Amphitheatre, seating 250-300 and the Nadine and Ed Carson amphitheatre seating 120.[4]
Themain plaza underwent a $40 million renovation in July 2018,[5] which doubled the plaza's capacity from 2,500 to 5,000 people.[6]
The main venues of the complex (which also includes some outdoor amphitheaters) are:
The 10-ton, 29-foot bronze sculpturePeace on Earth (1969 byJacques Lipchitz, a Cubist sculptor who fled the Nazi occupation of Paris, was dedicated on May 4, 1969, and originally installed as the focal point of the Music Center plaza. His mammoth bronze sculpture shows a dove descending to Earth as a spirit of peace, further symbolized by a Madonna standing inside a tear-shaped canopy, supported by reclining lambs.[7] Lawrence E. Deutsch andLloyd Rigler donated $250,000 to commission a work for the fountain. The architects of The Music Center,Welton Becket and Associates, opposed placing sculpture in the plaza between the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Mark Taper Forum. However, after a two-year search, the Art Committee of The Music Center commissioned Lipchitz.[5][8] In 2019, the sculpture was re-installed 100 feet west to accommodate a major Plaza renovation to improve accessibility.[9]
Three years after thePeace on Earth installation in 1982, Frederick and Marcia Weisman donated the bronze sculptureDance Door (1978) byRobert Graham to the Music Center. It consists of an ornamented hollow-centered bronze door hinged on a bronze frame in an open position. The door is constructed of approximately seven welded case panels on each side, containing low relief abstracted figures of dancers.[10]
The complex has four resident companies:
Since its inception in 1979, The Music Center and its family programs has served more than 16 million and currently serves nearly 1 million students and teachers each year. The Music Center believes the arts enhance the lives of all people and are crucial to the development of every child. The Music Center-designed curriculum materials are included in art textbooks published by McGraw Hill in use across the country and are also available on The Music Center's website.
Education and family programs include "World City", the "Blue Ribbon Children's Festival", the "Very Special Arts Festival" and the "Spotlight Awards".
Launched in July 2004 and designed to expand the public's experience associated with the performing arts, Active Arts at The Music Center extends beyond the more formal experience associated with performing arts centers. Active Arts programs engage people from diverse backgrounds and experiences and establishes an ongoing series of admission-free or low-cost recreational art-making events that encourage people to sing, dance, play music and tell stories together just for the sheer enjoyment and love of it.
Active Arts programs cut across cross-cultural boundaries and encourage people to participate for the sole purpose of art-making and include "Dance Downtown", "Drum Downtown", "A Taste of Dance", "Public Practice", "Friday Night Sing-Along" and "The Music Center Holiday Sing-Along".
Over the past ten years, The Music Center has developed an ambitious dance presentation program, which has established a distinguished reputation – locally, nationally, and internationally. The endeavor began in 2000 with The Music Center's sold-out presentation of theBolshoi Ballet in its historic production ofProkofiev'sRomeo and Juliet as well as new interpretation ofDon Quixote.
Since then, The Music Center has presented a broad array of ensembles, includingNew York City Ballet,San Francisco Ballet,American Ballet Theatre,Dance Theatre of Harlem,Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater,Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Beijing Modern Dance Company,Merce Cunningham Dance Company,Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre, Nuevo Ballet Español,Miami City Ballet and Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg.
The Music Center is governed by a Board of Directors chaired byRobert J. Abernethy.[11] The Music Center president and chief executive officer is Rachel S. Moore (2015). The County of Los Angeles owns The Music Center venues and provides funding for the maintenance, operations, grounds-keeping, security and ushers. Revenue from the operation of The Music Center garages offsets these expenses. The Music Center and the four resident companies are responsible for the productions presented in the theatres. The Music Center maintains and operates the buildings and the grounds and oversees occupancy of the theatres, restaurant facilities and The Music Center Archives.
The Music Center has a number of organized membership groups:
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34°03′29″N118°14′49″W / 34.058°N 118.247°W /34.058; -118.247
