Among those featured at the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2020-21 (top row, from left): composer Unsuk Chin, soprano Julia Bullock, composer Julia Adolphe. Bottom row, from left: conductor Shi-yeon Sung, composer Angelica Negron, composer Gabriela Ortiz
“The Los Angeles Philharmonic announced a 2020-21 Walt Disney Concert Hall season lineup that spotlights Pan-American artists as well as issues such as slavery and incarceration, 1970s U.S.-China relations and the representation of female composers,” writes Deborah Vankin in Wednesday’s (2/5) Los Angeles Times. “About half the featured artists will be women or people of color.” The season also includes a wide range of canonic works and guest artists. “The 2020-21 season will kick off a five-year Pan-American Music Initiative that will include … new commissions, recording projects and collaborations with individuals and cultural institutions from across the Americas. The inaugural year will be curated by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz…. The new series ‘America: The Stories We Tell’ … opens with the world premiere of a commissioned orchestral piece by Puerto Rican composer Angelica Negron and later explores the music of the late American experimental composer Pauline Oliveros…. Julia Bullock’s mixed-media concert ‘History’s Persistent Voice’ will close the series. The performance weaves slave narratives from the 1860s, Jim Crow-era stories and modern-day incarceration experiences, and it features newly commissioned music by American women of color. The L.A. Phil will host a weeklong ‘Seoul Festival,’ curated by composer Unsuk Chin…. The season’s 27 commissions include a new violin concerto by Andrew Norman.”
