In what’s become an annual tradition at SF Classical Voice, we once again asked you, the readers, to sound off about the best performers and performances of the past season. As always, the Audience Choice Awards were completely reader-driven — you nominated the finalists, and you voted for the winners. This year’s response in Los Angeles was very heartening. With thousands of votes submitted, you proved there is an engaged and passionate audience that is just as interested in smaller groups and emerging talent as in big stars.
Plenty of categories came down to just a few votes, and the winners and nominees definitely reflect the diversity of programming and voices available in the Southland. We hope that the results of this year’s poll encourage even more risk-taking in upcoming seasons, as Los Angeles continues to show why a vibrant arts scene is indispensable to a great city.
Favorite Opera Singer: Stacey Fraser
Stacey Fraser received over half the votes for this category, blowing the competition away. The soprano has been lauded for her masterful command of a variety of genres, as well as for her creative direction in opera and musical theater productions. Fraser is the vocalist for Brightwork newmusic’s Brightwork Ensemble, which performed a program of contemporary works at Monk Space (a winner in both the Favorite Small Venue and Favorite Club Venue categories) earlier this summer. She also teaches music at California State University, San Bernardino.
Favorite Chamber Ensemble: Delirium Musicum
In a category of big-name small ensembles, fans showed up for Delirium Musicum. Under the leadership of violinist Etienne Gara, the ensemble features a diverse group of musicians from around the world performing chamber music with an eclectic flair. Fans who have not yet had the opportunity to experience Delirium Musicum may be interested in its YouTube channel, which features well-produced recordings highlighting the ensemble's energy.
Favorite Choral Ensemble: Los Angeles Master Chorale
It would have been difficult to shake last year’s winner, Los Angeles Master Chorale, from the top spot in this category. The organization celebrated its 60th anniversary with a thrilling 2024–2025 season, and it shows no sign of slowing down. Led by Artistic Director Grant Gershon and Associate Artistic Director Jenny Wong, LA Master Chorale’s 2025–2026 season is slated to kick off with a dramatic program of works by Beethoven and Verdi on Oct. 6, with more exciting events to follow throughout the season.
Favorite Early Music/Baroque Ensemble: Los Angeles Baroque
Though itself a young ensemble (only in its ninth season in 2024–2025), Los Angeles Baroque features a mix of seasoned professional and community musicians who together perform exemplary Baroque music. Its 2024–2025 season included imaginative concerts of music from the court of Versailles, 18th-century music written for Dresden’s famous orchestra, and Water Music suites by both Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann. Its upcoming 2025–2026 season is slated to kick off Nov. 16. Tesserae Baroque secured second place, backed by strong support from fans.
Favorite New Music Ensemble: Delirium Musicum
In addition to a resounding victory in the Favorite Chamber Ensemble category, fans also crowned Delirium Musicum the winner of this category. The ensemble’s dedication to performing a wide range of classical music with a contemporary flair is evident both in its live performances — like an October 2024 concert at Santa Monica’s BroadStage, reviewed by SFCV’s Jim Farber, who wrote that he delighted in “the push-pull dynamic between classicism and modernism” fostered by the musicians — and its recordings. Delirium Musicum’s upcoming album Cabinet of Curiosities (releasing on Halloween) includes film scores alongside bold arrangements of Baroque pieces.
Favorite Orchestra: Los Angeles Philharmonic
Once again, fans recognized the Los Angeles Philharmonic as the favorite orchestra in Southern California — and beyond. Acclaimed Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel (also honored once again in this year’s Audience Choice Awards) led a jam-packed 2024–2025 season that culminated with the ambitious Seoul Festival. And it is ambition that separates the Phil from the pack. Although the 2025–2026 season will be Dudamel’s last with the orchestra before transferring to the New York Philharmonic, it’s clear that no matter what this transition brings, the LA Phil intends to stand resolute as a beacon for classical music.
Favorite Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel
Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s dynamic music director, has spent 16 years creating a relationship with the Southland from his powerful post. SFCV readers chose him overwhelmingly over the competition. Dudamel has shaped the orchestra’s sound, hiring many of its musicians. But he has also used his personal charisma to draw in audiences with his open communication style and excellent interpretations of both standard repertoire and new music. No wonder the New York Philharmonic wanted to hire him.
Favorite Instrumental Soloist: Anne Akiko Meyers
Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers wins this category for the second year in a row, edging out fellow violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock and pianist Aron Kallay. The San Diego-born star has been seen a lot in L.A. and has ongoing relationships with the LA Phil, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and LA Master Chorale. Last year, her recording with the LA Phil of Arturo Márquez’s concerto, Fandango, won two Latin Grammy Awards, and on Sept. 2, she returns to play it with the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, where she premiered it in 2021. She also played it with the LA Phil at Carnegie Hall in 2022.
Favorite Jazz Soloist: Herbie Hancock
The LA Phil’s Creative Chair for Jazz won our reader poll for the third time. But he may be more excited about his selection last March as a Polar Music Prize laureate. Hancock’s career is the stuff of legends, and his playing, at age 85, is still captivating, as his reunion concert reprising his epochal Head Hunters album at the Hollywood Bowl last August showed. SFCV’s critic noted that “they nailed [the numbers] with a mastery that wiped away the decades.”
Favorite Opera Performance: Pacific Opera Project, H.M.S. Pinafore
Pacific Opera Project scores another win (its fourth in five years) for H.M.S. Pinafore, also the fourth time the company has won with a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Besides dedicated voters, however, POP has cultivated an imaginative, often zany, production style with colorful sets and costumes that suits a predominantly lighter repertoire. POP also scores with strong casts, drawn from the pool of excellent L.A.-based singers. LA Opera was the strong runner-up with its production of Verdi’s Rigoletto.
Favorite Chamber Performance: Delirium Musicum, “Voices of L.A. — Korea”
Another favorite Southland group, Delirium Musicum, gets into the winner’s circle again with its innovative concert “Voices of L.A. — Korea.” This new creative initiative, produced in collaboration with the Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles (KCCLA), was inaugurated in May, timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of Korea’s independence. The project featured violinist Yoo Eun Kim, violist Sung Jin Lee, and cellist Ju Lee, along with performers on traditional Korean instruments and composer Jisoo Lee’s Jindo Arirang (2023).
Favorite Choral Performance: Baroque Music Festival, Corona del Mar, Vivaldi’s Gloria
In a two-way race, Baroque Music Festival, Corona del Mar pulled out the victory for its performance of Vivaldi's Gloria. Performed with soloists Estelí Gomez, soprano, and Cecilia Duarte, mezzo-soprano, a chorus of just eight, and an orchestra of early music veterans led by the festival's artistic director, Elizabeth Blumenstock, the work crowned a well-programmed week of concerts devoted mostly to the music of the famous Venetian composer. The runner-up and only other finalist was HEX Vocal Ensemble performing at the Hear Now Festival.
Favorite Dance Performance: The Soraya, Ballet BC, Chamber and Silent Tides
One of this season’s most electrifying dance nights came when Ballet BC returned to The Soraya last fall. The Vancouver troupe’s Artistic Director Medhi Walerski put forth two signature creations: Chamber, his 2013 homage to the centennial of the Rite of Spring, and Silent Tides, a haunting post-pandemic duet. The company’s Los Angeles fans were treated to ritualistic intensity one moment and tender intimacy the next, and SFCV readers recognized this by giving the performance 60 percent of the vote in this category.
Favorite Early Music/Baroque Performance: Baroque Music Festival, Corona del Mar, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons
Summer in SoCal means Baroque music by the beach, and this year’s Corona del Mar festival opened in grand style with Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Leading from the concertmaster chair on her 1660 Guarneri violin, Artistic Director Elizabeth Blumenstock guided the festival orchestra through every sparkling bird song and thunderclap in the beloved concertos. Selling out Newport Beach’s St. Mark Presbyterian Church, this was a fitting opener for the festival’s 45th season and for the work’s 300th-anniversary year.
Favorite New Music Performance: Delirium Musicum, “Noon to Midnight” at Walt Disney Concert Hall
In their Walt Disney Concert Hall debut, the conductorless string orchestra impressed audiences with a fearless contemporary program, including Andrew Norman’s kinetic Companion Guide to Rome, the world premiere of Andrew Yee’s The Trees of Green-Wood (with soprano Laurel Irene), and Gabriella Smith’s Desert Ecology. The boundary-pushing performance clearly struck a chord with new-music lovers who rewarded them with a clear majority.
Favorite Orchestra Performance: Delirium Musicum, “Noon to Midnight” at Walt Disney Concert Hall
Even without a conductor, violinist Etienne Gara’s adventurous chamber orchestra proved its versatility by earning a clear victory not only for New Music Performance, but for Orchestra Performance as well. The LA Phil’s appearance at Coachella with Gustavo Dudamel took second place, but this win shows that the nimble ensemble can keep up with the big players in L.A.’s music scene.
Favorite Instrumental Recital: Seong-Jin Cho
Pianist Seong-Jin Cho celebrated Maurice Ravel’s 150th birthday by performing the composer’s entire solo piano oeuvre in one evening. Across nearly three hours at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the 2015 Chopin Competition champion took the audience on a journey through the composer’s demanding works, all performed from memory in a triumph of stamina and artistry. In a tight three-way race, Cho’s recital edged out Aron Kallay at Piano Spheres and Alyssa Park at Monk Space.
Favorite Vocal Recital: Stacey Fraser and Molly Pease, “Pop Songs” at Monk Space
At Monk Space, soprano Stacey Fraser and vocalist-composer Molly Pease joined the Brightwork Ensemble for a genre-blending program aptly titled “Pop Songs.” Juxtaposing the singers’ classical and jazz vocal backgrounds, the program paired cutting-edge new compositions (including works by Richard An and Anthony Davis) with cheeky arrangements of pop tunes, including a Baroque-inspired medley of Beatles songs, harpsichord and all.
Favorite Jazz Performance: Blue Note Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl
Blue Note Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl wins Favorite Jazz Performance. The festival was headlined by funk legends the Isley Brothers and hip-hop gamechangers De La Soul on June 14, and by disco queen Grace Jones and next-generation talent WILLOW on June 15. Known as the “summer’s biggest party” since 1979, the two-day festival featured rousing improv and performances by Grammy-winning artists.
Favorite Large Venue: Walt Disney Concert Hall
Once again, the iconic Frank Gehry-designed concert hall claims its title as Favorite Large Venue. Home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, highlights of Walt Disney Concert Hall’s 2024–2025 season included the Mahler Grooves Festival led by Gustavo Dudamel and a celebration of Arnold Schoenberg’s 150th birthday.
Favorite Small Venue: Zipper Hall and Monk Space
For the fifth consecutive year, Zipper Hall has won this category. This year, however, the accolade is shared! In a perfect tie, Monk Space also receives the award for Favorite Small Venue. Monk Space boasts two warehouse-like stages and is known as a playground for creativity across the media of film, theater, and new music. Monk Space is also named SFCV‘s Favorite Club Venue. Zipper Hall, situated across the street from The Broad Museum and Walt Disney Concert Hall, is a 400-seat theater that hosts world-class performances by students and faculty at the Colburn School. Zipper Hall also hosted the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra this year.
Favorite Club Venue: Monk Space
In addition to Favorite Small Venue, Monk Space is the winner of Favorite Club Venue! Founded in 2007, Monk Space is now home to one of the most dynamic and engaged music and arts communities in Los Angeles. Boasting both recording studios and warehouse-like performance spaces, Monk Space was built to empower collaboration and is known as a playground for creativity. This year, Monk Space notably hosted the Brightwork Ensemble and Rachel Beetz’s “Self Portrait” concert. Highland Park Ebell Club came in a close second.
Favorite Festival: Ojai Music Festival
Ojai Music Festival wins SFCV’s Favorite Festival! During the organization’s 79th summer season, four memorable days of concerts were led by virtuoso flutist Claire Chase, this year’s music director, and Ara Guzelimian, Ojai’s artistic and executive director. Chase chose to program works by international female composers, including New Zealand’s Annea Lockwood, Iceland’s Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Cuba’s Tania León. Collectively, their music relayed a message that the natural world is fragile and in danger. In this category last year, Ojai Music Festival came in a close second to Jazz at the Naz. This year, Corona del Mar’s Baroque Music Festival came in an extremely close second for Favorite Festival by a margin of just half a percentage point.