Detailed Information

The original Music Center complex was designed by Welton Becket in the New Formalism style. Becket also designed Los Angeles’ Capitol Records Building, Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, and the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The Music Center complex was completed in 1967, although the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was open from 1964.

Becket was guided by his “total design” philosophy. He and his team engineered every aspect of the project, including master/site planning, all interior work, fixtures, finishes and furnishings, all with the goal of creating a unified and integrated look. At Dorothy Chandler’s personal request, internationally acclaimed artist and designer Tony Duquette joined the Becket team as Art Director.

The Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall was added to the complex in 2003, and the site now covers 12 acres.

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion – an Opera House – opened to much acclaim in December 1964 and was originally called the Memorial Pavilion. In December 1965 the City of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors announced that it would be renamed in honor of Dorothy Chandler, the major driving force behind the creation of the Music Center and one of its largest individual donors.

The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is the largest venue of the Music Center complex with a seating capacity of 3,156. It largely replaced the Philharmonic Auditorium, opened in 1906 as the Temple Auditorium, seating roughly 2,700 and located at northeastern corner of the intersection of 5th St and Olive St.

The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was originally home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic , however they are now based at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The venue remains home to LA Opera . The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is familiar to many throughout the world having hosted over 20 Academy Award (Oscars) ceremonies from 1969 through 1999.

According to L.A. Opera’s history of the Oscars at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion , perhaps the most notable moment of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s hosting of the Oscars occurred when Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin was given an Honorary Academy Award in 1972. Chaplin had moved to Switzerland in the early 1950s and severed all ties with Hollywood. His Honorary Oscar was an attempt by the Academy to make amends. It had been 20 years since Chaplin had set foot in the U.S. and he was hesitant to come back, but when he walked onto the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to receive his Oscar, he received a 12-minute standing ovation – the longest in Oscar history.

You can read more about the historic theatres which have hosted the Oscars, including the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, here.

The three chandeliers that hang in the Founders Lobby (now called Stern Grand Hall) measure 17ft high by 10ft in diameter (5.2m by 3m) and each weigh 1.5 tons. Each chandelier is comprised of approximately 27,500 individual glass pieces.

The Founders Room at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, reserved for donors who have contributed generously to the Music Center, boasts two chandeliers that were originally designed for the movie The Great Waltz (1938) . Designer Tony Duquette determined that the room required three chandeliers and commissioned a third to match the existing two chandeliers.

The theatre’s house curtain was designed by Tony Duquette and features a huge sunburst pattern, subtly executed in shades of gold lamé and appliques of iridescent metal cloth. Duquette was originally told his design was too difficult to manufacture and so he rented the Shrine Auditorium and hired his own seamstresses to create the 3,000 pound (1,361kg) curtain.

Opening night was 6th December 1964, with a gala concert given by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Ahmanson Theatre

Ahmanson Theatre

The Ahmanson, a large-scale traditional Broadway-style proscenium theatre, opened 12th April 1967 with a production of Man of La Mancha presented by the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Association.

The theatre was originally intended to be called the Center Theater, however in December 1965 the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors announced that it would be named for philanthropist Howard Ahmanson (Chairman of the Board of Home Savings and Loan Association) in recognition of his generous financial gift via the Ahmanson Foundation.

In the mid-1990s the Ahmanson underwent a major redesign by architectural firm Ellerbe Becket (the successor firm to the original architects Welton Becket and Associates), which saw the balcony and mezzanine levels moved closer to the stage, the width of the auditorium reduced by the addition of boxes on the side walls, flexible dividers installed at mezzanine and balcony levels, and the acoustics improved.

The $13 million project took 17 months and commenced after the final performance of The Phantom of the Opera on 29th August 1993. The redesigned theatre opened with the first national tour of Miss Saigon on 25th January 1995, having been officially dedicated at an exclusive reception in late December 1994 which was hosted on the theatre’s stage.

During the years when the Ahmanson Theatre hosted multi-year runs of The Phantom of the Opera (May 1989 to August 1993) and Miss Saigon (January 1995 to October 1995), and was under renovation between those productions (August 1993 to January 1995), the James A. Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood, now known as the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre, was home to Center Theatre Group’s productions, including Fences featuring James Earl Jones, Six Degrees of Separation featuring Marlo Thomas and Donald Sutherland, Jake’s Women featuring Alan Alda, Fool Moon featuring Bill Irwin, and Falsettos.

The 1994-95 redesign project added the ability to reconfigure the seating capacity from 2,103 to 1,700, and even down to 1,300, using acoustic dividers mid-Mezzanine and mid-Balcony. As of 2019 the dividers are still serving their purpose after more than 25 years.

The theatre’s original décor featured rich reds and pewter gray tones. Purples and golds, alongside natural light-colored wooden tones, were introduced as part of the redesign project in the mid-1990s.

In 2004 the need was identified for an expanded Founders Room, and in 2006 the new Founders Room opened at Orchestra level on the house right side of the theatre, in what had previously been identified by a stagehand as “an old storage room used by MCOC (Music Center Operating Co.)”. The 2,500 sq ft Founders Room, as opened in 2006, enjoys direct connections from Grand Avenue as well as the center’s subterranean parking structure, and connects directly to the theatre’s Orchestra (house right) lobby. Companies which worked on the project include BA Collective  and Archello .

In 2011 the theatre received several upgrades in order for it to better accommodate the sets and technical requirements of modern visiting productions. The theatre’s proscenium was widened and augmented with mesh curtains capable of hiding technical equipment. A unique, removable, and storable proscenium header was added. Other improvements included a new ceiling, fire curtain, structural rigging beams and curtain and lighting platforms.

The Ahmanson is currently home to Center Theatre Group  who present a wide range of productions throughout their season, including direct-from-Broadway one-time transfers.

Mark Taper Forum

Mark Taper Forum

The Mark Taper Forum opened in April 1967 and is the smallest of the Music Center’s venues. It was named for S. Mark Taper, a prominent real estate developer, banker, and philanthropist, and the largest single donor to the Music Center project.

Opening night was 9th April 1967 with a special presentation by the Center Theater Group of John Whiting’s “The Devils”, a play based on the book by Aldous Huxley.

With a seating capacity of 738 in a 180-degree semicircular amphitheatre arrangement around its thrust stage, the Taper is the smallest of the four major performance spaces at the Music Center. The thrust stage and amphitheatre-style seating is particularly successful at creating an intimate relationship between actor and audience.

The building’s exterior is the most stunning of the three buildings comprising the original Music Center complex, being a cylindrical drum wrapped in relief-sculpture concrete murals and surrounded by reflecting pools.

The mural wrapping around the Taper is an abstract pattern suggesting the movements of the performing arts and was designed by sculptor Jacques Overhoff. The mural is seven panels wide, repeated seven times around the circumference of the building. The artist chose seven panels for the width as the eye would never be able to see a wider mural from a single vantage point, given the circular shape of the building.

The Taper underwent a major $30 million renovation in 2007-08, led by Rios Clementi Hale Studios, to upgrade its technical capabilities and audience amenities.

One of the most successful productions to be staged at the Taper was Zoot Suit in 1978, telling the story of the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial and the Zoot Suit Riots. The production went on to be the first Chicano production on Broadway and was made into a film. Center Theatre Group revived the play for their 50th anniversary in 2018, where it again played to sellout audiences at the Taper with its run being extended three times.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall was added to the Music Center complex in 2003, a direct result of Lillian B. Disney donating $50 million for a new performance space in honor of her late husband Walt Disney and his dedication to the Arts and the City of Los Angeles.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall is home to the Los Angeles Master Chorale , and the Los Angeles Philharmonic  who transferred their home here from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion upon the concert hall’s opening.

Seating capacity is 2,252 with seats on all four sides of the vast Douglas Fir-lined concert hall. The interior is a concrete box which is structurally independent from the rest of the building. Acoustics have been greatly praised and there is no bad seat in the house.

The concert hall’s organ was designed by Gehry and Manuel Rosales and was nicknamed “Hurricane Mama”. The arrangement and style of the organ pipes visible in the concert hall was a design by Gehry. The organ has 6,125 individual pipes ranging from a few inches to 32ft in length.

The concert hall building also incorporates the 266-seat Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), named in honor of Walt Disney’s brother and partner, Roy, and Roy’s wife, Edna; the 350-seat BP Hall; the 300-seat William M. Keck Foundation Children’s Amphitheatre, and the 120-seat Nadine and Ed Carson Amphitheatre.

The major venues of the Los Angeles Music Center are managed and programmed by LA Opera , the LA Philharmonic , and Center Theatre Group .