Rolex Presents the Los Angeles Philharmonic 2016/2017 Season

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew and Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

The Los Angeles Philharmonic opened its 2016/17 season, presenting Gershwin and the Jazz Age, conducted by Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel on Tuesday evening with a black-tie event at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Joining Dudamel at the gala were guests including Mayor Eric Garcetti, Rosanna Arquette, Larry David, Carly Hughes, Don Johnson, Neil Lane, Matthew Lillard, Alex Meneses, Benjamin Millepied, Amanda Peet, John C. Reilly, William Shatner, Christoph Waltz, Eric Whitacre, Eli & Edyth Broad, Jane & Michael Eisner,Frank Gehry, Gigi & Herbie Hancock, Sherry Lansing and William Friedkin.

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew and Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

The special evening presented a concert featuring music by George Gershwin and contemporaries Duke Ellington, Cole Porter and Leonard Bernstein. Brian Stokes Mitchell and Megan Hilty lent their powerhouse vocal talents to the program singing classic solos and duets by Porter, Ellington and Gershwin. The two Broadway stars joined together for Porter’s “So in Love” from Kiss Me Kate, a musical for which Mitchell earned Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards, as well as Gershwin’s “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” from Shall We Dance. Twenty-year-old piano sensation George Li opened the program with Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” Variations.

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew and Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

Also on the program were Ellington’s “Night Creature: Stalking Monster,” and Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, featuring LA Phil Principal Clarinet Boris Allakhverdyan. The orchestra and Dudamel concluded the program with Gershwin’s An American in Paris.

The elegant and glamorous evening was made possible with the support of Rolex, the official timepiece of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew and Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging