INTERNATIONAL SERIES
at The Granada Theatre

Gustavo Dudamel
Courtesy of Los Angeles Philharmonic Association

FRIDAY,OCTOBER 3, 2025, 7:00PM

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL, Music & Artistic Director

PROGRAM:

ADAMS: Frenzy (LA Phil Commission)
STRAVINSKY: Suite from L’Oiseau de feu (The Firebird) (1919 version)
STRAVINSKY: Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the dynamic leadership of Gustavo Dudamel in his 17th and final season as Music & Artistic Director of the orchestra, opens CAMA’s 107th season with a program of explosive energy and groundbreaking masterpieces. The concert begins with the West Coast premiere of John Adams’s Frenzy, a work described by the composer as exploring “agitation or disorder of the mind, likened to madness,” reflecting the tumultuous nature of the modern world. This LA Phil commission promises a thrilling start to the evening. The program then delves into the revolutionary world of Igor Stravinsky with the magic of the 1919 Suite from The Firebird, a work that catapulted Stravinsky to international fame, and culminates with the composer’s The Rite of Spring, a ballet score so radical in its rhythmic complexity and primal force that it caused a riot at its 1913 premiere.

“The most important orchestra in America—period.”
–Los Angeles Times

Santtu-Matias Rouvali
© Mark Allan

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2025, 7:30PM

PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA, LONDON

SANTTU-MATIAS ROUVALI, Principal Conductor

PROGRAM:

SIBELIUS: Finlandia, Op. 26
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47

The renowned Philharmonia Orchestra, London returns to CAMA for the first time since 2019, under the baton of its dynamic new Principal Conductor, Finnish Maestro Santtu-Matias Rouvali for an epic program of powerful national voices and symphonic masterpieces. The concert opens with Sibelius’s Finlandia, a stirring anthem of Finnish national pride and resilience, followed by the composer’s Symphony No. 5, a work of majestic beauty and profound emotional depth, culminating in its iconic “swan hymn” finale. The second half of the program features Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. Written in response to political pressure in Soviet Russia, the symphony was a “triumphal success” at its 1937 premiere, receiving an ovation that lasted over half an hour. The symphony’s dramatic arc continues to resonate with audiences today, raising questions about artistic freedom and the role of the artist in society.

“The conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who is often drawn to Strauss’s orchestral epics in concert, doubled down in this blast of a performance. What a sound he drew from the Philharmonia—the strings were a blaze of scorching sunlight, the woodwind and brass bold and gleaming.”
–The Times (London)

Riccardo Muti
© Todd Rosenberg Photography

FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2026, 7:30PM

CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra returns to Santa Barbara once again under the baton of its esteemed Music Director Emeritus for Life, Riccardo Muti. For more than five decades, Maestro Muti has been a commanding presence on the world’s concert stages, shaping the sound of leading orchestras and opera houses as one of the last of the great Italian maestros in the tradition of Toscanini. The program features two pinnacle masterworks, Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 and then Maurice Ravel’s Boléro with its mesmerizing orchestral crescendo that builds from a quiet whisper to perhaps the most most thrilling climax of the symphonic repertoire.

“Under Maestro Muti, the Chicago Symphony plays with a grandeur that is mighty yet grounded, with a unified sweep from the first row of strings to the back of the brass.”
–Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times

Hélène Grimaud
© Mat Hennek

Fabio Luisi
© Sylvia Elzafon

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2026, 7:30PM

DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

FABIO LUISI, Music Director
HÉLÈNE GRIMAUD, piano
SOFIA FOMINA, soprano

PROGRAM:

SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54
MAHLER: Symphony No. 4 in G Major

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, led by Music Director Fabio Luisi, concludes CAMA’s International Series with a program of Romantic masterpieces. The concert features the renowned pianist (and local favorite) Hélène Grimaud performing Schumann’s Piano Concerto, a work of passionate lyricism and dramatic intensity. Grimaud’s “energetic performance calls to mind the heroic days of late 19th- and early 20th-century recitals” (The New York Sun).

The program concludes with Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, a work that journeys from earthly concerns to celestial visions. Soprano Sofia Fomina joins the orchestra for the final movement, a setting of a poem from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn). This performance promises a powerful and uplifting conclusion to CAMA’s 107th concert season!