Things Happening on The Music Center Campus Tickets & Free Events

Through breath, movement, sound and shared listening, Black Planetarium from Ethiopian American artist Kidus Hailesilassie invites audiences into a collective rehearsal for other worlds of Pan-African knowledge-making. Rooted in 6,000 years of African traditions, this new work transforms the Digital Arts Space at The Music Center into a living constellation of textiles, moving image, installation and virtual reality. More than an exhibition, Black Planetarium is a vessel for ancestral memory and a space for rest, connection and imagination. Guests are invited to step inside shaded textile environments, meditative soundscapes and a VR journey that brings centuries of language and dance to life.

At the LA Phil, we believe in the power of music to spark imaginations and shape young lives. Our Symphonies for Youth concerts invite children ages 5 to 11 to soak up the sounds of a world-class orchestra while experiencing the thrill of live performance.

Make sure to come an hour early, at 10am, for a range of exciting activities that change to fit the theme of each performance. Children and families enjoy self-guided art activities and fun for all ages throughout the space. Join us for a morning of musical celebration that will stay with children for a lifetime.

This concert is recommended for children ages 5 to 11.

"A delicious mix of fear and excitement!" —North West End

"Make sure you have someone’s hand to hold." —Yorkshire Times

James and Lou move from Chicago to London to escape their past...

An original story set in the world of the terrifying Paranormal Activity film franchise, this thrilling new play will haunt you long after the lights go out. We can’t say anything else.

A pair of Ravel’s impressionistic masterworks bookend this era spanning concert, led by the prodigious Matthias Pintscher. The enchanting Mother Goose Suite begins the evening amid magical pagodas and fairy gardens. The concert concludes with his dazzling and dizzying La Valse, a masterful juxtaposition of the elegance and violence of 19th-century imperial society.

In between the incomparable Emanuel Ax joins the LA Phil for Mozart’s sublime Piano Concerto No. 25. “I think there’s a grandeur about this piece,” says Ax, from its stately opening to its lyrical slow movement Ax describes as “pure magic” to the finger-twisting finale. Pintscher, one of the most exciting compositional voices of his generation, leads the LA premiere of his work neharot, a search for light in the midst of troubled times.

Concerts in the Thursday 2 subscription series are generously supported by The Otis Booth Foundation.

A speakeasy-style gathering designed to spark imagination to Angelenos with a range of reality-bending projects that showcase where performance and technology meet.

In the fall of 1975, Patti Smith gathered her band in Electric Lady Studios in New York City to record her debut album, Horses. Released on November 10th by Arista Records, it has come to be regarded as a seminal and landmark recording that continues to have resonance and relevance for succeeding generations of musicians and artists.

Horses clarion call was: “three chord rock merged with the power of the word.” A poet and visual artist, Patti had begun improvising her unique blend of song and hallucinatory imagery two years before, appearing on cabaret stages and small clubs with the support of guitarist Lenny Kaye and pianist Richard Sohl. She honed her songs in this live setting, allowing them to develop at will, garnering an ever-growing audience within the Manhattan underground. By the time she launched a seven-week residency at the relatively obscure Bowery club, CBGB, in winter of 1975, her band had grown, adding include guitarist Ivan Kral and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty. It was during this time that she was signed by Arista president Clive Davis. John Cale was chosen by the band to produce the album, and it was released on November 10, the death date of one of Patti’s most important influences, the poet Arthur Rimbaud.

Opening with an anthemic declaration of personal responsibility – “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine” – folded within Van Morrison’s classic “Gloria”, Horses was a return to rock’s primal instincts, seeking to awaken the spirit and promise of the music at a time when it seemed as if this sensibility was at risk of being forgotten. The album’s artistic reach took shape in the free-form flights of “Birdland” and “Land,” where the expansive soundscapes of free jazz and propulsive rhythms and incantatory lyrics intermingled to provide an expansive sonic landscape. “Redondo Beach,” “Free Money,” “Kimberly,” and “Break It Up” presented a worldview both idealistic and romantic. With the album’s final cut, “Elegie,” rock’s past and future were entwined within the “sea of possibilities” that became the present. Infused with poetry, Horses is an uncompromising exploration that helped lay the groundwork for what would become known as the upheaval of “punk,” though Smith and her band always attempted to avoid categorization: “beyond race gender baptism mathematics politricks,” as Patti wrote in the liner notes, adding “...as for me I am truly totally ready to go.”

Robert Mapplethorpe’s iconic front cover photograph of Patti with her jacket slung over her shoulder perfectly captured this moment of becoming, and indeed, Horses was the beginning of a long musical career that resonates even greater today. The album has achieved many notable recognitions over the years, notably The Charles Cros Award and included the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry. It has been followed by another nine albums the National Book Award winner, Just Kids; world tours and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Now, fifty years later, Smith will honor the longevity and lasting influence of the album with a series of special shows performing Horses in its entirety. She will be accompanied by two members of the original group, Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty, along with keyboardist/ bassist Tony Shanahan, a part of her Band for thirty years. Jackson Smith also joins on guitar. Special Horses concerts have been set for eight cities in Europe: Dublin, Madrid. Bergamo, London, Brussels, Oslo and Paris. Nine cities in the U.S.: Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. Please join us to help celebrate the final ride of our irreverent thoroughbred.

Grant Gershon, conductor
Tal Rosner, video
20 singers, Bang on a Can All-Stars

Grammy Award®-winner, Oscar®-nominee, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang’s before and after nature is a meditation on the natural world, both before human existence and after humans are gone. Lang met closely with scholars, faculty, and students in Stanford's Doerr School of Sustainability and with the Doerr-affiliated Environmental Justice Working Group to gain insight and inspiration. He combined what he learned with his own readings from the past 50 years of environmental thinking, and wrote his own texts that explore the different ways we define and understand nature. He set these texts for voices and the groundbreaking musical ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars, and enlisted video pioneer Tal Rosner to invent a way to visualize the meanings of the music in video and projection. before and after nature received its world premiere performance in February 2025 at Stanford University with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Grant Gershon and Master Chorale singers.

Through breath, movement, sound and shared listening, Black Planetarium from Ethiopian American artist Kidus Hailesilassie invites audiences into a collective rehearsal for other worlds of Pan-African knowledge-making. Rooted in 6,000 years of African traditions, this new work transforms the Digital Arts Space at The Music Center into a living constellation of textiles, moving image, installation and virtual reality. More than an exhibition, Black Planetarium is a vessel for ancestral memory and a space for rest, connection and imagination. Guests are invited to step inside shaded textile environments, meditative soundscapes and a VR journey that brings centuries of language and dance to life.

"A delicious mix of fear and excitement!" —North West End

"Make sure you have someone’s hand to hold." —Yorkshire Times

James and Lou move from Chicago to London to escape their past...

An original story set in the world of the terrifying Paranormal Activity film franchise, this thrilling new play will haunt you long after the lights go out. We can’t say anything else.

A true holiday favorite, this beloved comedy classic features renowned composer John Williams' charming and delightful score performed live to picture, conducted by David Newman. Macaulay Culkin stars as Kevin McCallister, an 8-year-old boy who's accidentally left behind when his family leaves for Christmas vacation, and who must defend his home against two bungling thieves. Hilarious and heart-warming, Home Alone is holiday fun for the entire family!

This holiday season, the magic comes early in Los Angeles, join Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award winner Ben Platt for an electric, new two-week residency at the Ahmanson Theatre!

For 10 performances only, from December 12–21, Ben and a star-studded set of special guests join forces to perform a dazzling new concert of some of his greatest hits, as well as a set of timeless Broadway favorites. We can’t reveal who’ll share the stage, but his 2024 Broadway residency was a veritable who’s who of Broadway and Pop music royalty, including Cynthia Erivo, Nicole Scherzinger, Jennifer Hudson, Kacey Musgraves, Sam Smith, Micaela Diamond, and Shoshana Bean, among many others. And this time—Ben's upping the ante, with even more incredible surprise guests joining the fun each night.

Originally directed by Tony Award winner Michael Arden (Parade), Ben Platt: Live at the Ahmanson marks a homecoming for Ben, as he returns to the very stage and city that launched his theatrical career (Dead End; Caroline, or Change).

Ring in the season at Walt Disney Concert Hall! Join in song with hundreds of fellow revelers—plus a jazz combo, a choir, and the pipe organ—for this joyous annual tradition. A jolly good time for the whole family!

Immerse yourself in this one-of-a-kind celebration of Latino artistry and culture. Following the matinee performance of Puccini's La Bohème, join LA Opera Connects and Hispanics for LA Opera on Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center to enjoy music and dance, a vibrant marketplace featuring local artisans, and curated food and drinks.

Through breath, movement, sound and shared listening, Black Planetarium from Ethiopian American artist Kidus Hailesilassie invites audiences into a collective rehearsal for other worlds of Pan-African knowledge-making. Rooted in 6,000 years of African traditions, this new work transforms the Digital Arts Space at The Music Center into a living constellation of textiles, moving image, installation and virtual reality. More than an exhibition, Black Planetarium is a vessel for ancestral memory and a space for rest, connection and imagination. Guests are invited to step inside shaded textile environments, meditative soundscapes and a VR journey that brings centuries of language and dance to life.

A violinist of “velvety tone and...a high degree of elegance” (Los Angeles Times), Renaud Capuçon brings these ideal qualities to Mozart’s sublime Third Violin Concerto. Albert Einstein claimed that its Adagio “seems to have fallen straight from heaven,” before culminating in a lively Alsatian dance.   

Finland's greatest symphonist, Jean Sibelius modeled his first contribution to the genre on Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony, layering it with his trademark soaring themes and thrilling drama. The work quickly became a point of national pride, performed by the Helsinki Orchestra across Europe on its first tour. 

Rodolfo is a struggling poet burning his manuscripts to keep out the winter chill. Mimi is a fellow tenant with big dreams and a deadly illness. A chance meeting has them falling in love, but when you’re at the bottom of Parisian society, every day could be your last. 

Puccini’s blockbuster opera returns to the stage starring Janai Brugger as the sweet but suffering Mimi and Oreste Cosimo as the lovestruck Rodolfo, with Gihoon Kim and Erica Petrocelli as the on-again-off-again lovers Marcello and Musetta. 

Resident Conductor Lina González-Granados leads Puccini’s transcendent score, awash in lavish Romanticism and gorgeous melodies. Director Brenna Corner helms a timeless production from Herbert Ross that the LA Times calls a “warm, nostalgic evocation of Paris in Puccini’s time.”