Music director? Who needs one?
That leadership position at the Los Angeles Philharmonic will be officially unoccupied in a few months, when Gustavo Dudamel heads for New York. But the vacancy hasn’t stopped the orchestra from announcing a 2026–2027 season that is stunning in its inventiveness, diversity, and star power.
Rather than focusing on one person’s artistic vision, the season seems to be more a product of the extended L.A. Phil community — a group of world-class musicians, most of them familiar, who will each bring their own interests and sensibilities to a wide-ranging season.
The list of luminaries includes the man widely considered the greatest living classical composer, John Adams; the veteran pianist Emanuel Ax, who was recently named Musical America’s Artist of the Year for 2025; the vibrant young conductor and composer Teddy Abrams, who recently was named artistic and executive director of the Ojai Festival; and pioneering visual artist Refik Anadol, who has gained international fame for his imaginative integration of high-tech tools, including artificial intelligence.
And those are just the “A”s.
Kim Noltemy, the orchestra’s President and CEO, called the season “an inspired exploration that celebrates the artistry, curiosity and collective spirit of the L.A. Phil musicians.” She added that it reaffirms “the enduring bond between Gustavo Dudamel, the L.A. Phil and our city,” noting that he will lead three weeks of concerts.
The season includes a new role for another former music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen, who assumes the title of Creative Director. Noltemy said his “bold and imaginative vision, especially in interdisciplinary work, is now integral to the L.A. Phil’s identity.”
To that point, Salonen will partner with Anadol on a project aimed to advance the relationship between music and cutting-edge technology. In addition, he will curate a season-long “Rituals” festival, which will “explore the idea of ritual through both sacred and everyday perspectives,” according to the orchestra.
Collaborating with director Yuval Sharon, whose Tristan and Isolde just opened at the Metropolitan Opera, Salonen will lead a Jan. 26, 2027 program focusing on the “mundane, repetitive and sometimes-obsessive behaviors that make up daily life.” In addition, a site-specific program exploring contemporary concepts of ritual will take place at Topanga Tower in the Santa Monica Mountains.
He will also conduct a program of vocal music by Gustav Mahler, Anton von Webern, and Arnold Schoenberg, directed by Peter Sellars and first staged at the Salzburg Festival, Feb. 5–7; and a pairing of the Requiems of Mozart and Ligeti, Feb. 11–14.
Dudamel’s three weeks of concerts with the orchestra are a bit more earthbound, but exciting, nevertheless. Over two weeks in December, he will join Rudolph Buchbinder to perform the first four Beethoven piano concertos, plus the composer’s iconic Third and Fifth Symphonies. (Buchbinder will complete the cycle in January with conductor Xian Zhang.) Dudamel returns in May to lead an L.A. Phil co-commission, a new work from Zosha Di Castri.
On the subject of new work, the season will include 15 world premieres and three U.S. premieres of commissioned works. There will also be an 80th birthday celebration of John Adams and 90th birthday celebrations of Steve Reich and Philip Glass. The latter, on March 12 and 13, will feature Glass’s most recent symphony, Lincoln, which he recently withdrew from the Kennedy Center to protest Donald Trump’s takeover of the facility. Davóne Tines will be the soloist, Anna Handler the conductor. Reich is scheduled to complete a newly LA Phil-commissioned work In All Your Ways for a March 7, 2027 premiere and composer Anna Clyne has created an orchestral arrangement of his Proverb, which will have its U.S. premiere.
The season kicks off with pianist Yuja Wang, who will play Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto Oct. 2–4 in an all-American program conducted by Kwamé Ryan. For those playing the “guess the next music director” game, Abrams, Elim Chan, and Daniel Harding will all conduct two programs next season, and Joana Mallwitz and Roberto González-Monjas return with notable concerts after recent well-received debuts with the orchestra. Other starry guest conductors will include Susanna Malkki, Gustavo Gimeno, , Philippe Jordan, Paavo Jarvi, and Emmanuelle Haim, continuing her three-year residency with two programs of Baroque music in December.
The lineup of celebrity recitals will include Lang Lang, Hilary Hahn, Helene Grimaud, Gil Shaham, Vikingur Olafsson and Daniil Trifonov. Ludovico Einaudi’s Oct. 9 recital, drawing from his new Solo Piano album, is already sold out. In addition, two visiting orchestras have been announced: Rafael Payare leading the Montreal Symphony in Samy Moussa’s sumptuous Elysium and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, on Oct. 27, and Antonio Pappano leading the London Symphony in that same composer’s Eighth Symphony, on Feb. 28, 2027.
Renewals and new subscriptions go on sale at 8 a.m. Tuesday, March 17. “Create Your Own” packages go on sale April 30; single tickets will be available Aug. 11. For more information, go to https://www.laphil.com/
