[1] The initial vision for the series was to allow top musicians to program and perform according to their artistic interests without concern about audiences and financial matters; however, at the same time, the attitude to the public was open and welcoming.
Bach, Béla Bartók, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferruccio Busoni, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Charles Ives, Ernst Krenek, Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Schubert, and Igor Stravinsky.
Modernist composers with works presented included Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, Ferruccio Busoni, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Carlos Chavez, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel, Dane Rudhyar, Dimitri Shostakovich, Gerald Strang, Igor Stravinsky,[7] Ernst Toch, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Anton Webern,[6] Distinguished performers during this era included Sol Babitz, Richard Bühlig, John Cage, Robert Craft, Ingolf Dahl, Marni Nixon, Eudice Shapiro, Felix Slatkin, Leonard Stein, Josef Szigeti, and Paul Wittgenstein.
[9] His close friendships with Igor Stravinsky and Pierre Boulez (who made his US conducting debut with MEC in 1957) shaped many of the aesthetic principles that guided Monday Evening Concerts during his directorship.
[9] Portrait Concerts during this era included: Béla Bartók, Lou Harrison, Joseph Haydn, Claudio Monteverdi, Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Hugo Wolf.
With 34 years in post, the composer Dorrance Stalvey had the longest tenure as music director of Monday Evening Concerts at the Los Angeles Museum of Art.
Modern music was also represented with Harold Budd, Sylvano Bussotti, Joan La Barbara, Helmut Lachenmann, Conlon Nancarrow, Olga Neuwirth, Wadada Leo Smith, Kaija Saariaho, and Iannis Xenakis.
[17][18][19][20] Distinguished soloists, conductors and visiting artists from this era included Magnus Andersson, Nicholas Isherwood, Ursula Oppens, Richard Stoltzman, Charles Wuorinen, and Frank Zappa.
MEC reorganized its operations, re-emerging as an independent organization led by arts administrator and amateur pianist Justin Urcis, and a board of fifteen members, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic executive director Ernest Fleischmann.
[21][22] Portrait Concerts during this era included: Hans Abrahamsen, Frank Denyer, Mauricio Kagel,[23] Lewis Nielson, Charlemagne Palestine,[24] and Galina Ustvolskaya.
[17] Other composers significantly represented included Harrison Birtwistle, György Kurtág, Jo Kondo, Jose Maceda, Salvatore Sciarrino,[25] Horatiu Radulescu, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, and Jakob Ullmann.