Gustavo Dudamel delivers his 'love letter to L.A.' in his final summer at the Hollywood Bowl

Summer is the play of Gustavo Dudamel astatine the Hollywood Bowl this year, arsenic the beloved conductor wraps up his 17-year tally astatine the helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Audiences tin bid him farewell during a trio of performances astatine Walt Disney Concert Hall successful June, earlier the Bowl launches into a caller play featuring a four-night Dudamel tribute titled “Celebrating Gustavo astatine the Bowl.” That bid opens Aug. 20 arsenic portion of the L.A. Phil’s jam-packed summertime lineup, which the enactment is expected to denote Wednesday.

The Dudamel emotion fest arrives arsenic the Bowl dedicates its iconic signifier to John Williams successful solemnisation of the composer’s decades-long narration with the venue. The recently christened John Williams Stage and the peculiar Dudamel programming volition wage tribute to 2 towering Bowl icons during a large infinitesimal of alteration for the L.A. Phil.

Dudamel conducted his precise archetypal performance arsenic the L.A. Phil’s euphony manager successful 2009 astatine the Bowl. At “Bienvenido Gustavo,” the conductor introduced himself with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. and the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), the radical to which helium dedicated his bosom and psyche during his tenure.

“We benignant of took that arsenic our inspiration, and we said we person to bookend this expansive escapade together,” said Meghan Umber, president of the Hollywood Bowl and main programming serviceman astatine the L.A. Phil during a caller interview.

Umber said that some the symphony and younker orchestra volition instrumentality successful “Beethoven 9,” the kickoff to “Celebrating Gustavo astatine the Bowl.” That night, Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino volition besides debut a caller orchestral portion featuring lyrics by Amanda Gorman, the youngest statesmanlike inaugural writer successful U.S. history.

Rounding retired the four-day extravaganza are “Dudamel’s Playlist,” a Latin popular rock-led assortment amusement hosted by the conductor, a associated performance with the Foo Fighters and a retrospective that Umber described arsenic “Gustavo’s emotion missive to L.A.”

“The Hollywood Bowl is wherever my travel with the Los Angeles Philharmonic genuinely began, and it remains 1 of the astir meaningful places for maine to marque music,” Dudamel said successful a statement. “Together, we’ve challenged ourselves, expanded what an orchestra tin be, and built a assemblage rooted successful curiosity and connection.”

“To stock these performances successful the spot wherever I archetypal stood earlier this orchestra, surrounded by the metropolis and the stars, is an immense root of pridefulness and gratitude,” the conductor said.

“We don’t look astatine this arsenic a farewell for Gustavo,” Umber said. “He’s portion of the family.”

Instead, she said, “this is simply a modulation into a caller epoch with him.”

This year, successful lieu of a header musical, the summertime play astatine the Bowl volition unfastened with a Broadway-themed performance benefiting YOLA, capped by a monumental Bowl fireworks display.

Additional performance highlights see a Juneteenth solemnisation 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 peculiar impermanent John Stamos.

Complementing the Bowl’s Independence Day programme is simply a opus rhythm of Shaina Taub’s Tony-winning philharmonic “Suffs,” which Umber said examines America’s 250th anniversary, “including that bonzer pistillate constituent of view.”

Film programming includes 3 large hits: a movie euphony performance of Joe Hisaishi’s Studio Ghibli scores featuring clips from iconic films specified arsenic “Princess Mononoke,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Ponyo”; a solemnisation of euphony from the satellite of Wes Anderson; and a philharmonic tribute to Williams featuring a 50-minute compilation of scenes from his astir fashionable films.

“We each cognize what a jewel John is, and those nights that helium curates astatine the Bowl are similar household nights ... successful that you don’t person to person a family, but it feels similar L.A. is your family, the movie manufacture is your family,” Umber said. “Everybody grabs a airy saber. You don’t person to instrumentality yourself excessively earnestly — we each consciousness similar kids again.”

On apical of the caller signifier name, the Bowl this summertime volition debut respective different cosmetic updates, including its caller multipurpose gathering (the Terri and Jerry Kohl Artists Pavilion), a premium dependable strategy that volition boost sonic immersion portion reducing dependable leakage and a re-imagined imperishable postulation astatine the Hollywood Bowl Museum that volition observe the venue’s 100-plus-year past arsenic an L.A. civilization and assemblage hub. It volition besides people the archetypal clip the postulation has been revamped successful the 30 years since the depository building‘s 1996 debut.

The caller imperishable exhibition, “Hollywood Bowl: Soul of a City,” consists of photos, audio and video recordings, archetypal documents, maps and architectural drawings, 3D models, listening stations and artifacts pulled from the immense archives of the L.A. Phil and the Hollywood Bowl.

“There’s a wealthiness of riches of Hollywood Bowl history, truthful it’s intolerable to determine what to enactment in,” Umber said. But the absorption of the accumulation volition mostly beryllium the public-private concern that has enabled the Bowl to service generations of Angelenos.

“We’re ever talking astir each the hard things successful life,” Umber said. “We request to besides observe the things that are going ace well.”

Outside of the L.A. Phil’s summertime programming, the Bowl successful collaboration with promoter Live Nation-Hewitt Silva successful the coming months volition big Netflix Is a Joke shows from standouts John Mulaney and Marcello Hernández, positive a lineup of generational euphony acts from Santana and the Doobie Brothers to the Black Crowes and Tedeschi Trucks Band.

For the afloat 2026 Hollywood Bowl lineup, sojourn the venue’s website.