The 79th Hollywood Bowl Season Ushers in Big Firsts

The 79th annual summer music series at the Hollywood Bowl, announced Thursday by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn., kicks off with an opening night gala June 23 honoring composer John Williams--the first inductee into a newly created Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.

The first performance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s summer season at the Bowl will be a July 11 concert conducted by Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and bass Samuel Ramey in a program of Mozart and Copland. The July Fourth “Fireworks Spectacular” will feature Glen Campbell making his inaugural appearance at the venue. And an event celebrating the 200th concert of John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra includes the Bowl debut of three-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, who will be singing with Broadway veteran Patti LuPone.

Other highlights of this year’s programming: the West Coast conducting debut of Itzhak Perlman, in a concert featuring young violin sensation Ilya Gringolts; the first Bowl appearance by popular Korean soprano Sumi Jo; and, as part of the new Sunday Sunset Performances (a sampler series of opera, Broadway, dance and storytelling), a semi-staged production of “Carousel” starring Judy Kaye and Rodney Gilfrey, an evening with humorist Garrison Keillor, and “Madame Butterfly” in concert.

Alternating with this series on Sunday nights will be World Festival 2000, presenting six programs of dance and music, including “African Funk” featuring Maceo Parker; “World Blues Party,” with vocalist Koko Taylor; “Celtic Journeys,” headlined by violinist Natalie MacMaste; and “Global Divas,” one of whom is Miriam Makeba.

The Philharmonic is carrying a greater load than usual since no visiting orchestras are scheduled. The orchestra is also taking on more weekend pops concerts--predominantly the domain of Mauceri and the Bowl Orchestra. Among the artists presented in the pops programming are Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, Marvin Hamlisch, Rosemary Clooney, Michael Feinstein and country singer Randy Travis.

The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra will continue its Wednesday night concerts with tributes to Mel Torme and Louis Armstrong and performances by Cleo Laine, John Dankworth, Cassandra Wilson, Joshua Redman, Nancy Wilson and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. On the dance front, conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya will lead the orchestra in a program that features members of the highly regarded Ballet Nacional de Espan~a--a pairing that received rapturous reviews at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in February. In early September, the San Francisco Ballet will perform Act 2 of “Swan Lake” at the Bowl, as it did in 1997.

The Tuesday and Thursday Philharmonic classical offerings include pianist Robert Levin, a Mozart specialist, playing works by that composer and Strauss; St. Louis Symphony music director Hans Vonk making his Bowl debut, with pianist Jaime Laredo; veteran Andre Watts performing Lizst’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Franck’s Symphonic Variations; the Bowl debut of New Jersey Symphony Orchestra music director Zdenek Macal in two programs, one with Russian virtuoso Alexander Toradze and another with critically acclaimed violinist Pamela Frank; and Paul Daniel, the up-and-coming music director of the English National Opera, making his first appearance at the venue. Pianist Ursula Oppens, famed for her interpretations of contemporary works, will play Beethoven this time around--a reflection of the virtual absence of new music on the agenda.

For Latin music aficionados, guitarist Manuel Barrueco will appear in a program of works by Revueltas to Rodrigo, as well as Ravel’s “Bolero.” And Mexican conductor Enrique Diemecke, a finalist for the directorship of the Long Beach Symphony, will be presiding over one Latin program and another of Rachmaninoff.

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For a complete program guide, call (323) 850-2000 or go online at https://www.hollywoodbowl.org.