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Classical California at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL!
Classical California at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL!
…Join Classical California at the Hollywood Bowl this summer!
Since its opening in 1922, the Hollywood Bowl has been the premier destination for live music in Southern California, hosting everyone from Billie Holiday to The Beatles to Yo-Yo Ma under the iconic silhouette of its concentric-arched band shell. To win tickets to the sponsored concerts, be sure to check out Classical California's website every week for new performances. Join Classical California and the LA Phil for Seven nights of great musical performances, under the stars!
Wilkins Conducts Bernstein & Ellington
Sponsored Concert Date: Wednesday, July 8 2026
The Los Angeles Philharmonic performs an all-American program depicting scenes from the women’s suffrage movement, gentle lullabies, and vibrant city streets. New York City comes to life in both the dances from Leonard Bernstein’s beloved musical On the Town and Duke Ellington’s orchestral suite Harlem. Valerie Coleman’s Fanfare for Uncommon Times reflects our unsettled moment, “at once reflective and restless, uplifting and ominous” (The New York Times), while William Grant Still’s Mother and Child was inspired by Harlem Renaissance artist Sargent Johnson’s tender painting. At the center of the program is a newly arranged song cycle from Shaina Taub’s Broadway hit Suffs, centered around the movement for women's voting rights.
Sponsored Concert Date: Thursday, July 16 2026
The Spanish conductor with “more [charisma] than anybody else” (Bachtrack), reunites with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for his first-ever performance on the Hollywood Bowl stage. Roberto González-Monjas leads Brahms’ fourth and final symphony, a tragic yet profound piece that critic Eduard Hanslick compared to a dark well: “The longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back.” Also making his Bowl debut, 27-year-old pianist Mao Fujita performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19, which features what might be the most complex finale the composer ever wrote.
Rhapsody in Blue & Shostakovich
Sponsored Concert Date: Tuesday, July 28 2026
Dubbed a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times, Conrad Tao has been playing Gershwin’s 1924 rhapsody with orchestras across the country for nearly two decades. “It’s emblematic of the time and place, but it’s also timeless,” says Tao. “Improvisation is baked into Rhapsody in Blue. There are places in the score where the orchestra rests, and the pianist just takes off. That’s one of the reasons it continues to resonate with audiences today.” In the same vein, Marin Alsop says, “in a world where sound bites dominate and categorization abounds, Shostakovich presents a challenge to define.” She returns to the Hollywood Bowl stage with the composer’s power-packed Fifth Symphony as well as Anna Clyne’s short but sweet party piece.
Sponsored Concert Date: Thursday, August 6 2026
Louis Langrée, known for his “interpretations rich in specificity and color, to a degree that can impress even seasoned musicians” (The New York Times), returns to the Bowl with selections from Bizet’s lyrical L’Arlésienne and sensuous Carmen suites.Brahms wrote his only violin concerto for the greatest soloist of his time and filled it with dazzling passages, dramatic sweeps, and a Hungarian-themed flourish of a finale. Augustin Hadelich, a violinist of “silvery tone and pinpoint intonation” (Los Angeles Times), takes on the brilliant work, which was memorably featured in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. About his 2017 recording, Gramophone reported: “Hadelich’s performance of Brahms’s Violin Concerto abounds with subtle detail…he has a sure sense of that vital Brahmsian ebb and flow.” The evening begins on a confident note as Langrée leads Louise Farrenc’s First Overture. Equally graceful and energetic, the piece is driven by punchy brass and elegant woodwind melodies, setting the tone for a powerful program.
Sponsored Concert Date: Tuesday, August 11 2026
When Angela Hewitt performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22, Seen and Heard International raved that “Hewitt made [them] hear Mozart as if [they’ve] never heard Mozart before. Through her interpretation, she showed her audience how Mozart’s melodies reveal themselves to her and, combined with her refined taste and sense of humour, made for a very compelling performance.” Nicolas Ellis makes his Bowl debut, leading Hewitt and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in this elegant and noble concerto in between the composer’s dramatic Don Giovanni overture and Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter.” Posthumously nicknamed “Jupiter,” the symphony opens with a rollicking grand opening, celestial melodies from the strings and winds, and overflowing joy throughout makes it a piece perfectly suited for a starry night.
Sponsored Concert Date: Tuesday, August 25 2026
It only takes four notes to recognize Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony. It’s defiant, ferocious, and instantly unforgettable. Anna Handler, a former Dudamel Fellow and incoming Conductor-in-Residence, returns to the Hollywood Bowl to unleash its liberating forces, pairing one of classical music’s most legendary statements with one of Beethoven’s rarely heard gems: the Triple Concerto. Acting Concertmaster Bing Wang, Principal Cello Robert deMaine, and keyboardist Joanne Pearce Martin—a triple threat that has spent a combined 71 years with the Los Angeles Philharmonic—come together for the composer’s merging of symphonic and chamber music. The program opens with a short, woodwind-rich piece by Grace-Evangeline Mason, an up-and-coming composer from the UK, that represents her impression of the moon as “a flower of gold hanging in a dark sky.”
Los Angeles Ballet at the Bowl
Sponsored Concert Date: Tuesday, September 8 2026
Los Angeles Ballet makes its Hollywood Bowl debut, teaming up with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the first time ever, in a program of orchestral and dance delights. LAB’s Artistic Director Melissa Barak choreographs a new ballet set to Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari—a spiritual and celebratory piece about music’s power to heal, transform, and expose the intangible. LAB dancers also take on Balanchine’s jazzy choreography, described as “tap dance on pointe,” from the 1970 ballet of Gershwin songs titled Who Cares? Grammy-winning conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto leads the orchestra in rustic, riveting music inspired by the American West and Mexico’s landscapes. Copland’s symphonic story Rodeo pits a local cowgirl against visiting city girls, Moncayo’s Huapango elicits joy through lively Mexican folk rhythms, and Revueltas’ Janitzio kicks off the night with a musical postcard from Lake Pátzcuaro.
