Summer is the season of Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl this year, as the beloved conductor wraps up his 17-year run at the helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Audiences can bid him farewell during a trio of performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall in June, before the Bowl launches into a new season featuring a four-night Dudamel tribute titled “Celebrating Gustavo at the Bowl,” which includes a show featuring the Foo Fighters. That series opens Aug. 20 as part of the L.A. Phil’s jam-packed summer lineup, which the organization is expected to announce Wednesday.
The Dudamel love fest arrives as the Bowl dedicates its iconic stage to John Williams in celebration of the composer’s decades-long relationship with the venue. The newly christened John Williams Stage and the special Dudamel programming will pay tribute to two towering Bowl icons during a major moment of change for the L.A. Phil.
Dudamel conducted his very first concert as the L.A. Phil’s music director in 2009 at the Bowl. At “Bienvenido Gustavo,” the conductor introduced himself with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. and the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), the group to which he dedicated his heart and soul during his tenure.
“We kind of took that as our inspiration, and we said we have to bookend this grand adventure together,” said Meghan Umber, president of the Hollywood Bowl and chief programming officer at the L.A. Phil during a recent interview.
Umber said that both the symphony and youth orchestra will return in “Beethoven 9,” the kickoff to “Celebrating Gustavo at the Bowl.” That night, Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino will also debut a new orchestral piece featuring lyrics by Amanda Gorman, the youngest presidential inaugural poet in U.S. history.
Rounding out the four-day extravaganza are “Dudamel’s Playlist,” a Latin pop rock-led variety show hosted by the conductor, a joint concert with the Foo Fighters and a retrospective that Umber described as “Gustavo’s love letter to L.A.”
“The Hollywood Bowl is where my journey with the Los Angeles Philharmonic truly began, and it remains one of the most meaningful places for me to make music,” Dudamel said in a statement. “Together, we’ve challenged ourselves, expanded what an orchestra can be, and built a community rooted in curiosity and connection.”
“To share these performances in the place where I first stood before this orchestra, surrounded by the city and the stars, is an immense source of pride and gratitude,” the conductor said.
“We don’t look at this as a farewell for Gustavo,” Umber said. “He’s part of the family.”
Instead, she said, “this is a transition into a new era with him.”
This year, in lieu of a headline musical, the summer season at the Bowl will open with a Broadway-themed concert benefiting YOLA, capped by a monumental Bowl fireworks display.
Additional concert highlights include a Juneteenth celebration headlined by Chance the Rapper; the returning hip-hop night, “A Roots Picnic Experience,” featuring Nas; and a Fourth of July fireworks spectacular with the Beach Boys and special guest John Stamos.
Complementing the Bowl’s Independence Day program is a song cycle of Shaina Taub’s Tony-winning musical “Suffs,” which Umber said examines America’s 250th anniversary, “including that extraordinary female point of view.”
Film programming includes three major hits: a film music concert of Joe Hisaishi’s Studio Ghibli scores featuring clips from iconic films such as “Princess Mononoke,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Ponyo”; a celebration of music from the world of Wes Anderson; and a musical tribute to Williams featuring a 50-minute compilation of scenes from his most popular films.
“We all know what a jewel John is, and those nights that he curates at the Bowl are like family nights … in that you don’t have to have a family, but it feels like L.A. is your family, the film industry is your family,” Umber said. “Everybody grabs a light saber. You don’t have to take yourself too seriously — we all feel like kids again.”
On top of the new stage name, the Bowl this summer will debut several other cosmetic updates, including its new multipurpose building (the Terri and Jerry Kohl Artists Pavilion), a premium sound system that will boost sonic immersion while reducing sound leakage and a re-imagined permanent collection at the Hollywood Bowl Museum that will celebrate the venue’s 100-plus-year history as an L.A. culture and community hub. It will also mark the first time the collection has been revamped in the 30 years since the museum building‘s 1996 debut.
The new permanent exhibition, “Hollywood Bowl: Soul of a City,” consists of photos, audio and video recordings, original documents, maps and architectural drawings, 3D models, listening stations and artifacts pulled from the vast archives of the L.A. Phil and the Hollywood Bowl.
“There’s a wealth of riches of Hollywood Bowl history, so it’s impossible to decide what to put in,” Umber said. But the focus of the exhibition will generally be the public-private partnership that has enabled the Bowl to serve generations of Angelenos.
“We’re always talking about all the hard things in life,” Umber said. “We need to also celebrate the things that are going super well.”
Outside of the L.A. Phil’s summer programming, the Bowl in collaboration with promoter Live Nation-Hewitt Silva in the coming months will host Netflix Is a Joke shows from standouts John Mulaney and Marcello Hernández, plus a lineup of generational music acts from Santana and the Doobie Brothers to the Black Crowes and Tedeschi Trucks Band.
For the full 2026 Hollywood Bowl lineup, visit the venue’s website.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com ’
