Disney Concert Hall

Disney Concert Hall, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is one of my favorite architectural works in Los Angeles (the other is Getty Center). Disney Hall was designed by Frank Gehry whose works include the Bilbao Museum in Spain. It was built in 1999, completed in 2003. The project was initiated by the $50 million gift from Lilian Disney in 1987 as a gift to the people of Los Angeles and as a tribute to her husband Walt Disney's devotion to the arts.

After the building was completed, as a subscriber to the LA Phil i was invited to tour the hall before it was opened to the public. Walking through the building with sculptural, slick, metalic exterior

















contrasting with the elegant, warm, intimate wood interior acoustically designed by the famed Yasuhisa Toyota and Minoru Nagata of Japan, i felt so fortunate to live in Los Angeles :-).















The imposing organ, with many of its 6134 pipes enclosed in wooden jackets, built by the Glatter-Götz Orgelbau company of Owingen, Germany, is itself a work of art, imho.





Even the fabrics used for the seats were beautiful and had a retro look


Benches in the orchestra-view section



I always tell out-of-town guests that this building is a must-see and the Los Angeles Philharmonic is a must-hear :-)

Since then i have been to so many concerts at the hall and the acoustic of the hall, no matter where i sat, never failed to impress me. I remember attending Handel's Messiah Christmas sing-a-long and the sound of turning pages were so crisp and clear it was amazing!

One of my favorite seats was in the orchestra view section, which you will see the back of the musicians in the orchestra but since it is so close to the stage you get to see the face of the conductor close-up, how he leads the orchestra, and it's great if the concert is a piano recital. The price is the cheapest in the house (shhhh) :-)

The gift shop is a good place to get unique music and non-music related gift in addition to a good selection of classical music CD, DVDs, and books (i got my lovely handmade evening purse by Bosart there :-) )

More pictures here