Clark then selected Walter Henry Rothwell, former assistant to Gustav Mahler, as music director, and hired away several principal musicians from East Coast orchestras and others from the competing and soon-to-be defunct Los Angeles Symphony.

The orchestra responded well to his leadership, but Klemperer had a difficult time adjusting to Southern California, a situation exacerbated by repeated manic-depressive episodes.

[7] By the mid-1950s, department store heiress and wife of the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Dorothy Buffum Chandler became the de facto leader of the orchestra's board of directors.

Following Wallenstein's departure, Chandler led efforts to hire Eduard van Beinum, then principal conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, as the LAPO music director.

The Philharmonic's musicians, management and audience all held Beinum in high regard, but in 1959, he suffered a fatal heart attack while on the podium during a rehearsal of the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

[12] Solti was scheduled to officially begin his tenure in 1962, and the Philharmonic anticipated he would lead the orchestra when it moved into its new home at the then yet-to-be-completed Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

[13] However, in 1961, Solti abruptly resigned the before officially taking the post after claiming that the Philharmonic board of directors did not consult him before naming then 26-year-old Zubin Mehta to be assistant conductor of the orchestra.

These adjunct groups, composed of the orchestra's musicians, offered performance series separate and distinct from traditional Philharmonic concerts.

This concept, considered innovative for its time, stemmed from Fleischmann's philosophy, which he articulated in his May 16, 1987, commencement address at the Cleveland Institute of Music titled, "The Orchestra is Dead.

In 1985, Fleischmann turned to André Previn, hoping that his conducting credentials and experience at Hollywood Studios would bring a local flair and strengthen the connection between conductor, orchestra, and city.

While Previn's tenure was musically solid, other conductors including Kurt Sanderling, Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, achieved greater box office success.

Shortly after, in April 1989, Previn resigned, and four months later, Salonen was named Music Director Designate, officially assuming the post in October 1992.

Salonen's tenure began with a residency at the 1992 Salzburg Festival in concert performances and as the pit orchestra in a production of the opera Saint François d'Assise by Olivier Messiaen.

During the Paris residency, key Philharmonic board members heard the orchestra perform in improved acoustics, inspiring renewed fundraising efforts for the soon-to-be-built Walt Disney Concert Hall.

A recent performance of Adams's monumental California symphony "Naïve and Sentimental Music" in the orchestra's Casual Fridays series ... drew a nearly full house.

In the early days, it drew modest audiences, but in recent years attendance has risen to the point where as many as sixteen hundred people show up for a concert that in other cities might draw thirty or forty.

The Australian composer Brett Dean recently walked onstage for a Green Umbrella concert and did a double-take, saying that it was the largest new-music audience he'd ever seen.

[13][14][15] In 2007, two years before Dudamel's officially became music director, the LA Philharmonic established YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles).

"The model for YOLA – a nonprofit initiative that supplies underprivileged children with free instruments, instruction, and profound lessons about pride, community, and commitment – is El Sistema, Venezuela's national music training program which, 27 years ago, nurtured the talents of a 5-year-old violin prodigy named Gustavo.

"[21] Dudamel began his official tenure as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009 with concerts at both the Hollywood Bowl (¡Bienvenido Gustavo!)

The LA Philharmonic has played at least one concert a year in its sister city, Santa Barbara, presented by the Community Arts Music Association (CAMA), along with other regular concerts throughout various Southern California cities such as Costa Mesa as part of the Orange County Philharmonic Society's series, San Diego, Palm Springs, among many others.

[41] Before Salonen's last concert as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on April 19, 2009, the orchestra announced his appointment as its first ever Conductor Laureate "as acknowledgement of our profound gratitude to him and to signify our continuing connection.

[42]During the intermission of a concert on January 3, 2019, Simon Woods, CEO of the orchestra, announced that Zubin Mehta has been awarded the title of Conductor Emeritus.

He was responsible for hiring over 80 musicians during his tenure at the LA Philharmonic, and it was during this remarkable era that the orchestra rose to a position of international prominence and launched a commitment to deep community engagement that was truly ahead of its time.

Today's appointment is an acknowledgment of that incredible past and rich present, and a signal of our profound gratitude for the role he has played in shaping this orchestra.

In March 2008, Bramwell Tovey was named to the post for an initial two-year contract beginning Summer of 2008; he subsequently received a one-year extension.

Other conductors with whom the orchestra has had close ties include Sir John Barbirolli, Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, Albert Coates, Fritz Reiner, and Erich Leinsdorf;[47] more recently, others have included Kurt Sanderling, Pierre Boulez, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos.

These include Lawrence Foster, Calvin E. Simmons, and William Kraft under Mehta, Sidney Harth and Myung-whun Chung under Giulini, Heiichiro Ohyama and David Alan Miller under Previn, and Grant Gershon, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Kristjan Järvi, and Alexander Mickelthwate under Salonen.

A healthy discography continued to grow with Carlo Maria Giulini on Deutsche Grammophon and André Previn on both Philips and Telarc Records.

Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Bernstein, and Sir Simon Rattle also made several recordings with the orchestra in the 1980s, adding to their rising international profile.