Susanna Mälkki launches her second season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic with the world premiere of Steve Reich’s Music for Ensemble and Orchestra and Mahler’s Symphony No.5, with performances on 2, 3 and 4 November at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. 

The Reich premiere represents one of over 50 new works specially commissioned by the orchestra as part of their LA Phil 100 project, which celebrates the orchestra’s centenary; in the Green Umbrella concert on 13 November, Mälkki conducts Wennäkoski’s Hele, Srnka’s Overheating and Robin’s Übergang II in a programme entirely composed of world premieres.

LA Phil 100 also takes in cross-disciplinary collaborations, and on 8, 9 and 10 November Barry Edelstein and The Old Globe join forces with Mälkki and the LA Phil to perform Shakespeare’s The Tempest, set to music by Sibelius and featuring a cast of 27 actors, singers and dancers.

Mälkki returns to Los Angeles in January 2019 to conduct the US premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Trans for harp and orchestra and Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony (featuring Jean-Yves Thibaudet) on 18, 19 and 20 January.