March 2, 2025 at Walt Disney Concert Hall

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LOS ANGELES (October 29, 2024) - The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association today announced Mahlerthon, a day celebrating the music of Gustav Mahler presented in collaboration with YOLA, Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA), Santa Monica High School (Samohi) Orchestras, UCLA Philharmonia, musicians from the USC Thornton Symphony and the Colburn Orchestra.  

The “Mahlerthon” moniker pays tribute to the series of the same name presented for decades by the Gustav Mahler Society of California, which played recordings of the composer’s ten symphonies and his Das Lied von der Erde in a single day in 1999. The LA Phil, in coordination with its partners, has reimagined this event as a day filled with live orchestral and chamber music, culminating in the presentation of Mahler’s Second and Sixth symphonies in full. 

The day’s programming will be presented in two parts. The first, beginning at 12 p.m., will include movements from Mahler’s First Symphony (performed by YOLA); Third Symphony (ICYOLA); Fourth Symphony, Totenfeier and selected Mahler arrangements (Santa Monica High School Symphony and Chamber Orchestra). 

The second part, which begins at 5 p.m., features the full Sixth and Second symphonies performed by the UCLA Philharmonia and Colburn Orchestra respectively. The Colburn Orchestra will be joined by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, soprano Madison Leonard, and mezzo-soprano Avery Amereau. Between the two works, chamber musicians from USC will present Mahler’s A-minor Piano Quartet and his Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) under the baton of Brent McMunn.  

From 3:30 to 5 p.m., Mahler's Universe, a series of short documentaries commissioned by the Mahler Foundation in collaboration with Het Concertgebouw will be on view in BP Hall. 

Mahlerthon is part of the LA Phil's larger Mahler Grooves festival, a three-week exploration led by Music and Artist Director Gustavo Dudamel of the work of Gustav and Alma Mahler from February 20 to March 9.

Tickets are available for purchase online at laphil.com or by phone at 323-850-2000. Programs, artists, dates, prices and availability are subject to change.

https:// laphil.com/events/festivals-highlights/93?stage=Stage

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PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE 

12PM – Part One

Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA)

MAHLER Movement 4 from Symphony No. 1

1PM

Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA)  

Charles Dickerson III, conductor  

MAHLER Movements 1 & 6 from Symphony No. 3

2:30PM

Santa Monica High School (Samohi)

Jason Aiello, conductor

Samohi Chamber Orchestra  

SCHUBERT (orch. Mahler) Movement 1 from String Quartet No. 14, “Death and the Maiden”

Samohi Symphony Orchestra  

MAHLER Movement 1 from Symphony No. 4

MAHLER Totenfeier   

5PM – PART 2  

UCLA Philharmonia  

Neal Stulberg, conductor  

MAHLER Symphony No. 6, “Tragic”

7PM

USC Thornton Symphony

Brent McMunn, conductor  

MAHLER Piano Quartet in A Minor

MAHLER (trans. Schoenberg) Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer)

8PM

Colburn Orchestra  

Earl Lee, conductor  

Madison Leonard, soprano  

Avery Amereau, mezzo-soprano  

Los Angeles Master Chorale  

              Grant Gershon, Artistic Director

              Jenny Wong, Associate Artistic Director

MAHLER Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”

ABOUT MAHLER GROOVES 

In the 1970s, a society of LA-based Mahler lovers created bumper stickers that became countercultural symbols for the then-cult status of Gustav Mahler among symphonic fans. With an eye to that Angeleno history, Gustavo Dudamel leads an exploration of Mahler’s monumental music and his inner world.

The Mahler Grooves Festival is generously supported by the Frank Gehry Fund for Creativity.

For more information, visit https://www.laphil.com/events/festivals-highlights/84.   

ABOUT THE LA PHIL 

Under the leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil offers live performances, media initiatives and learning programs that inspire and strengthen communities in Los Angeles and beyond. The Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra is the foundation of the LA Phil’s offerings, which also include a multi-genre, multidisciplinary presenting program and such youth development programs as YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). Performances are offered on three historic stages—Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and The Ford—as well as through a variety of media platforms. In all its endeavors, the LA Phil seeks to enrich the lives of individuals and communities through musical, artistic and learning experiences that resonate in our world today.  

ABOUT COLBURN ORCHESTRA 

Now in its 21st season, the Colburn Orchestra is the flagship ensemble of the Colburn Conservatory of Music. Under the direction of Music Director Yehuda Gilad, the Colburn Orchestra performs for Southern California audiences at venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Ambassador Auditorium, Royce Hall, The Soraya, Soka Performing Arts Center, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, The Wallis, BroadStage and Segerstrom Concert Hall, as well as on the Colburn campus in Zipper Hall. Dedicated to serving the greater Los Angeles community, the Colburn Orchestra performs for schools in neighboring communities every year, giving five concerts in a one-week period to school children of all ages. 

Since its inception, Gilad and the esteemed Colburn faculty have invited leading guest artists to perform with the Colburn Orchestra to mirror a professional orchestral experience. Previous visiting conductors include James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Nicolas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, Michael Tilson Thomas and Colburn faculty member and head of the school’s Negaunee Conducting Program Esa-Pekka Salonen. Acclaimed artists such as Mstislav Rostropovich and Itzhak Perlman actively worked with the orchestra during its inaugural year. The ensemble made its UK debut at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2018, followed by a performance in Dublin.

Colburn Orchestra recordings include a live performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, led by guest conductor Gerard Schwarz (Yarlung Records); an album of works by Menachem Wiesenberg (Live Classics) featuring Ronald Leonard in Wiesenberg’s Cello Concerto; If You Love For Beauty (Yarlung), featuring works by John Adams, Chausson, Handel and Mahler with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke; and Paul Chihara: Viola Concert & Music for Viola (Bridge Records).

ABOUT EARL LEE 

Winner of the 2022 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, Earl Lee is a renowned Korean-Canadian conductor who has captivated audiences worldwide. Music Director of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra since 2022, he recently finished a successful three-year tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. 

In addition to a full season of concerts with the Ann Arbor Symphony, Earl’s 24/25 season includes debuts with the Atlanta, New World, Colorado, Sarasota and Victoria symphonies and the Juilliard Orchestra, and returns to the San Francisco Symphony and Royal Conservatory Orchestra Toronto.  

Earl’s 24/25 programs with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra include contemporary works by William Bolcom, György Kurtág, Jessie Montgomery, Andrea Casarrubios and Katherine Balch as well as standard repertoire from Mozart to Shostakovich. He leads the orchestra in its return to Detroit Orchestra Hall in January 2025 in a concert during the Sphinx Organization’s annual SphinxConnect convention. 

Earl’s 23/24 season included subscription concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston and at Tanglewood and guest conducting engagements with the Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, The Florida Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory Orchestra Toronto and Sejong Soloists at Carnegie Hall. Previous seasons have seen engagements with the Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Hawaii Symphony and Edmonton Symphony; leading the Lunar New Year galas of both the New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony; and concerts with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and with Sejong Soloists in both New York and Seoul. 

Earl previously held positions as Associate Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony and as the Resident Conductor of the Toronto Symphony. In 2022, he appeared with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam as a participant in the Ammodo masterclasses led by Fabio Luisi. 

He studied cello at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School and conducting at Manhattan School of Music and the New England Conservatory. He lives in New York City with his wife and their daughter. 

ABOUT AVERY AMEREAU 

Since making her professional debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2016 as the Madrigal Singer in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Avery Amereau has sung at numerous internationally acclaimed opera houses including the Bayerische Staatsoper, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra de Lyon, Grand Théâtre de Geneve and English National Opera along with the Glyndebourne and Salzburg Festivals. 

In high demand on the concert platform, highlights include her role debut as Marguerite in Damnation de Faust with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (Federico Cortese), Mozart Requiem with the Cleveland Orchestra (Franz Welser-Möst) and Barcelona Symphony (Trevor Pinnock), Christmas Oratorio with Montréal Symphony Orchestra (Leonardo García Alarcón), The Listeners by Caroline Shaw with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (Richard Egarr), Das Paradies und die Peri with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Daniel Harding) and her Tanglewood Festival debut singing Berlioz’s Les Nuits D’été with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Dmitri Slobodeniouk). A regular interpreter of Messiah, recent performances have included the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Bernard Labadie), the Handel & Haydn Society (Václav Luks) and for St Paul Chamber Orchestra (Paul McCreesh). 

As a recording artist, Amereau appears as the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica for the Pentatone label and in Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra on their own label. Avery’s first solo album of Handel arias with Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, selected as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine, was released in 2020 to huge critical acclaim.

In seasons ahead, Amereau will make her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut.

ABOUT MADISON LEONARD 

Praised for her “silvery, ethereal-sounding Sophie” by Opera magazine and “lovely vocal delicacy” in The Telegraph, Madison Leonard returns to Dallas Opera as Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice and Garsington Opera as Adina in L’elisir d’amore in the 2024-25 season. She also sings her first performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Colburn Orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Last season, she sang her first performances of Musetta in La bohème with Atlanta Opera and returned to Garsington Opera in as Giulietta di Kelbar in Un giorno di regno, Utah Opera as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro as well as returned to Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Opera San Antonio. On the concert stage she sang Handel’s Messiah with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and returns to the Florida Orchestra for Fauré’s Requiem. 

Ms. Leonard is a 2018 winner of the Metropolitan National Council Auditions, at which she sang arias from Rigoletto and Hänsel und Gretel with Bertrand de Billy conducting. She is a previous first place winner of the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition. Additionally, she received the Women’s Voice Fellowship from the Luminarts Cultural Foundation and scholarships from the Lynn Harvey Foundation and the Musicians Club of Women. The soprano earned her Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and her Bachelor of Arts from Pepperdine University. She is a former participant of the Merola Opera Program in association with San Francisco Opera at which she sang Monica in Menotti’s The Medium and a former young artist of Des Moines Metro Opera. 

ABOUT LOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE 

The Grammy™ Award-winning Los Angeles Master Chorale is the “the finest-by-far major chorus in America” (Los Angeles Times) and a vibrant cultural treasure. Hailed for its powerful performances, technical precision and artistic daring, the Chorale is led by Grant Gershon, Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director; Associate Artistic Director Jenny Wong; and President & CEO Scott Altman. Its Swan Family Artist-in-Residence is Reena Esmail.    
 
Created by legendary conductor Roger Wagner in 1964, the Chorale is a founding resident company of The Music Center and choir-in-residence at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Chorale reaches over 175,000 people a year through its concert series at Walt Disney Concert Hall, its international touring of innovative works and its performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and others.    

ABOUT INNER CITY YOUTH ORCHESTRA OF LOS ANGELES (ICYOLA)

The Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA) is the nation's largest orchestra dedicated to empowering youth from underserved backgrounds through music.  It was formed in 2009 by its Conductor and Executive Director, Charles Dickerson, at the instance of nine young African-American instrumentalists for a youth orchestra to serve a community where none existed.  It now serves close to 300 youngsters of which about 125 will be on stage for the orchestra's participation in the LA Phil's March 2 Mahlerthon.  Its mission is to provide high-quality music education and performance opportunities, all while fostering essential life skills such as discipline, teamwork, and self-confidence. ICYOLA offers an annual concert season of about 12 concerts, serving as a creative haven for its young members, allowing them to express themselves artistically and develop both musical and life-enhancing skills and practices that will serve them throughout their lives. Dwayne Burrell serves as the orchestra's Assistant Conductor.

ABOUT Charles Dickerson III

Over his 40-plus years of conducting, Charles Dickerson has directed performances of many of the world's greatest orchestral and choral works throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa. He has prepared choruses for concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestras, including the Phil’s 2012 performance of the Mahler Eighth Symphony and performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the direction of Maestro Gustavo Dudamel. Chuck also holds important compositional and arranging credits. His best-known work, “I Have A Dream,” is a choral and orchestral setting of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s landmark speech.  It was performed for the unveiling ceremonies of the King Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC, and at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles for Los Angeles County’s official celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the speech. He has also arranged and conducted orchestral performances of the music of Duke Ellington, Stevie Wonder, Motown and others. He also serves as Director of Music at Rolling Hills United Methodist Church and as Professor of Orchestra Studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He served as Music Director and Conductor of the Southeast Symphony 2004-2011 and has held important public and civic leadership positions in Washington DC and Los Angeles. He proudly equates his love for the music of Mahler with his love for the Dodgers!

ABOUT MAHLER FOUNDATION 

Founded by the composer's granddaughter Marina Mahler, the Mahler Foundation works to promote and preserve the music and ideas of Gustav Mahler. 

ABOUT UCLA PHILHARMONIA 

UCLA PHILHARMONIA is the flagship orchestra of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and one of Southern California’s premiere training orchestras. Since 2005, Philharmonia has been led by Professor and Director of Orchestral Studies Neal Stulberg. Highlights of his tenure have included performances of Mahler, Bruckner, Nielsen, Honegger, Lutosławski and Dutilleux symphonies; Duke Ellington’s Harlem; a concert/lecture co-sponsored by the UCLA Departments of Music and Evolutionary Biology titled Messiaen’s Birds: The Greatest Musicians featuring Grammy Award-winner and UCLA faculty pianist Gloria Cheng; a gala performance of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus at Los Angeles’ historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple; Royce Hall birthday tributes to famed guitarist Kenny Burrell; biennial Schoenberg Hall concerts in collaboration with the Hear Now festival featuring programs of works by Los Angeles-area composers; annual appearances on the Sundays Live series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater; a Getty Center revival of Edward Curtis’ ground-breaking 1914 silent film In the Land of the Head Hunters with its restored original score, annual productions with Opera UCLA and three commercial CDs: a Yarlung Records release of previously-unrecorded orchestral works by Viennese émigré composer Eric Zeisl; a world-premiere Sono Luminus recording of Mohammed Fairouz’s Symphony no. 2 (Poems and Prayers) and his clarinet concerto, Tahrir; and a Naxos CD of Ian Krouse’s Armenian Requiem.

UCLA Philharmonia’s CDs are available on iTunes, amazon.com and Naxos Music Library.

If you wish to receive information about Philharmonia’s activities, please contact us by email at uclaorch@gmail.com, or visit us at www.uclaorchestras.com.

ABOUT NEAL STULBERG 

NEAL STULBERG has conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta, Houston, Saint Louis and San Francisco Symphonies, Netherlands Radio Symphony, West German Radio Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and Moscow Chamber Orchestra.  He has appeared as opera and ballet conductor with New York City, San Francisco and Netherlands Ballets, Long Beach Opera, Norwegian National Ballet and Hollands Diep Opera Company.  For West German Radio, he has recorded orchestral and solo piano works of Lazare Saminsky, Alexander Veprik, Mikhail Gnessin and Charles Griffes.  His performances of Mozart concertos conducted from the keyboard have been uniformly praised for their buoyant virtuosity.  

Formerly assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Carlo Maria Giulini and music director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, he is a recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, America's most coveted conducting prize. 

Since 2005, he has served as Professor and Director of Orchestral Studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.  From 2014 to 2018, he served as Chair of the UCLA Department of Music, and currently serves as Artistic Director of UCLA’s Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience.

A native of Detroit, Mr. Stulberg is a graduate of Harvard College, the University of Michigan, the Juilliard School and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. 
 

ABOUT USC THORNTON SYMPHONY 

Since its founding in 1884, the USC Thornton School of Music has become the center of higher education in music in the western United States and is among the top schools of music in the nation. Situated in the heart of the vital musical life of Los Angeles, USC Thornton brings together a distinguished faculty and gifted students from around the world.  

The USC Thornton Symphony, Chamber Choir, Concert Choir, Opera, Wind Ensemble, Popular Music Ensembles, Songwriter Showcases, Jazz Orchestra, Contemporary Music Ensemble, Early Music Ensemble and a wide variety of large and small choral and instrumental ensembles offer students a broad performing experience.  

ABOUT BRENT MCMUNN 

Brent McMunn, the conductor and music director of Opera at USC’s Thornton School of Music, is nationally known and admired as both a conductor and pianist. In the field of opera, he has served as an assistant and cover conductor for over 100 productions in his years at Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, Dallas Opera and Santa Fe Opera. His conducting debut was in 1998 at the New York City Opera, where he continued to conduct for the following five seasons. Guest conducting followed, with appearances at Arizona Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Saratoga, Calgary Opera and others. His long-standing affiliation with the Pittsburgh Festival Opera included a highly successful series of five Strauss operas.

As a pianist, McMunn has collaborated with many eminent musicians, including members of the Juilliard String Quartet, cellist Lynn Harrell and ECM recording artist Michelle Makarski. He has appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall and at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and for many years has been the official pianist for the Western Region of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition.

McMunn has worked extensively with young and emerging singers in the major companies he has worked for and as a faculty coach at the Juilliard School and the Aspen Music Festival. He is most proud of his 20 years with the singers and players of USC Thornton.

ABOUT SANTA MONICA HIGH SCHOOL (SAMOHI) ORCHESTRA(S) 

The Santa Monica High School (Samohi) Symphony, founded in 1903, has earned a reputation as one of the premier public high school orchestras in the United States over the course of its long history.  

The Santa Monica High School Symphony Orchestra was chosen in 1999 to perform at the 53^rd Annual Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. In 2005, the Samohi Symphony received the Grand Champion Award at the American String Teachers Association competition in Reno, Nevada. 

In 2006, as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Sounds About Town” series, the Samohi Symphony Orchestra became the first public high school to perform at Walt Disney Concert Hall.  In the following years, the orchestra returned twice to Walt Disney Concert Hall, through a partnership with the Los Angeles Music Center. When a scheduled European tour was cancelled due to the 2016 bombings in Brussels, the Samohi Symphony Orchestra held a benefit concert for the International Red Cross, using its fourth performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall to raise funds for victims of terrorism and violence. 

The orchestra owes much of its success to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and Santa Monica High School leadership for their continued support of music education, the city of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Orchestra Parents Association for its financial support and the volunteer work of so many dedicated parents. 

The Samohi Chamber Orchestra is a string ensemble composed of the top orchestra students at Santa Monica High School. In addition to public concerts, the ensemble regularly performs at community and private events throughout Santa Monica. The orchestra will tour Boston in spring 2025, performing at Boston Symphony Hall and participating in a master class with Charles Peltz of the New England Conservatory.  

ABOUT JASON AIELLO 

Jason Aiello began teaching orchestra at Santa Monica High School in 2006 after graduating with honors from UCLA as the recipient of the Joyce Fahlman Fellowship. While at UCLA, he studied music education with Dr. Frank Heuser and cello with Antonio Lysy.  In addition to his work at Santa Monica High School, Mr. Aiello teaches cello sectionals and conducts the Sinfonia Orchestra for Elemental Strings, a youth orchestra program for elementary school students in Santa Monica. In past summers, Mr. Aiello has served as the Senior Camp Orchestra Director at the La Honda Music Camp in Northern California. 

As a guest conductor, Mr. Aiello has worked with honor orchestras across California sponsored by the California Music Educators Association and the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association. Currently, he serves on the board of the California Orchestra Directors Association, where his primary responsibilities have included creating and maintaining the CODA website and auditioning junior high and high school cellists for various CODA-sponsored honor orchestras. 

ABOUT YOLA 

Through Gustavo Dudamel’s YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) program, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its community partners provide transformational and equitable access to music education​ for young people from marginalized communities ​to support their personal development, ​their communities, and beyond. YOLA gives each student, from 6 to 18, a strong musical and social foundation through free participation in up to 18 hours of programming each week.  

With YOLA program hubs across Los Angeles, YOLA engages students from more than 200 schools in L.A. County. Music study is complemented by leadership development opportunities, college access programming, and performances. YOLA’s young musicians have performed on great stages all over the world, including the LA Phil’s iconic Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall, in many other locations throughout Southern California, on national and international television broadcasts, and alongside the greatest artists.  

In addition to YOLA’s local programs, YOLA National provides an ever-growing number of opportunities for young musicians, teaching artists, program administrators, and other stakeholders to learn from and create community with one another. 

On October 15, 2021, the Los Angeles Philharmonic opened the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center at Inglewood, designed by Gehry Partners, LLC, the first permanent, purpose-built facility for YOLA.  

For more information, please visit laphil.com/yola.