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The 2018 classical season at the Hollywood Bowl kicked off in fine fashion this week when Gustavo Dudamel conducted the LA Phil in a program of music by Mr. Classical Music himself, Leonard Bernstein. Dudamel’s summer residency continues this weekend when he leads a concert performance of Verdi’s great Shakespearean opera Otello. In a conversation backstage at the Hollywood Bowl, Dudamel told KUSC’s Brian Lauritzen about the time he accidentally broke one of Bernstein’s batons, how he’s looking forward to making his Metropolitan Opera debut later this year (conducting Otello), and the ongoing impact in his life of his late mentor, the founder of El Sistema Maestro José Antonio Abreu.

This Saturday marks the Gala concert for iPalpiti Festival of International Laureates at Walt Disney Concert Hall. For over 21 years the festival has been a labor of love for its founders Eduard and Laura Schmieder, bringing together emerging musical talent from around the world. Both are accomplished musicians with a life time committed to the belief that music has the power to open hearts and heal souls, and to summon the better angels of our nature. John Van Driel spoke with Eduard and Laura about I Palpiti and the power of music.

This weekend, composer and conductor Craig Hella Johnson brings his Austin, Texas-based choral ensemble Conspirare Company of Voices to Los Angeles for two performances of his evening-length work Considering Matthew Shepard under the stars at the Ford Amphitheatre. It’s a fitting venue for the work, which is a meditation on the life and legacy of Mathew Shepard, a young gay student at the University of Wyoming who, in October 1998, was kidnapped, beaten, tied to a fencepost, and left to die under a blanket of stars in a field outside the town of Laramie. In a wide-ranging conversation with KUSC’s Brian Lauritzen, Craig Hella Johnson discusses his inspiration for Considering Matthew Shepard, his use of many different musical styles in the work, how society has progressed and regressed in the 20 years since the murder of Matthew Shepard, Johnson’s own journey through conversion therapy to eventually finding and accepting himself for who he is, and the search for hope among the pain of Shepard’s story.

The Ojai Music Festival almost here (June 7 – 10) and Alan Chapman tells us about one of the composers whose music is being featured.

There’s a new Star Wars movie out about young Han Solo. The actor who plays the famous smuggler, Alden Ehrenreich, had some enormous shoes to fill… playing the part that Harrison Ford made iconic. But there was another colossal pair of shoes to fill: the ones belonging to John Williams. To listen to the full interview, check out the Music for Moving Pictures podcast.

The LA Phil’s “Schumann Focus” continues this weekend with performances of Robert Schumann’s third and fourth symphonies alongside his Cello Concerto. Gustavo Dudamel conducts and the soloist is the Argentina-born cellist Sol Gabetta.

LA Opera Artist-in-Residence Matthew Aucoin is currently conducting the run of Verdi’s Rigoletto on stage through June 3rd at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. However, right smack in the middle of the run of Verdi’s middle-period masterpiece, Aucoin will take a couple of days to conduct two concert performances of his opera, based on the story of Walt Whitman tending to wounded soldiers during the Civil War, called Crossing. For today’s edition of KUSC’s Out and About, Brian Lauritzen spoke with Aucoin about balancing both of Aucoin’s identities, the composer and the conductor.

Listen to our extended interview with 24th Street Theatre Artistic Director Debbie Devine and Executive Director Jay McAdams discussing “ICE” and their theatre with KUSC’s Alan Chapman.

ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE is also the title of the production currently on stage at 24th Street Theatre in Los Angeles. It’s a bilingual play that addresses the subject of immigration. The founders and guiding forces of the theatre are a husband and wife team: Artistic Director Debbie Devine and Executive Director Jay McAdams. Alan Chapman talked with them about the play and the theatre.

KUSC Film Critic Kenneth Turan reports from the Cannes Film Festival to discuss Cold Power and Black Klansman.

Verdi’s opera Rigoletto has opened to raves at LA Opera. On the podium in the pit for this production is the young conductor and composer who is LA Opera’s artist in residence, Matthew Aucoin. He says Giuseppe Verdi was not only a master composer, but also really good at understanding his audience and knowing what they’d like while also growing the art form of opera.

Listen to the extended interview featuring Paul Schrader and Ethan Hawke discussing “First Reformed”.

Paul Schrader was raised in a strict, conservative Christian home in Michigan—his parents wouldn’t even let him see a movie until he was 17—and in college, he minored in theology. There’s been a fascination with religion and morality throughout his work—most blatantly in his controversial script for Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. Now, with First Reformed, the 71-year-old filmmaker is telling a story he’s been waiting to tell most of his life.

Listen to our extended interview with composer Ellen Reid.

Ellen Reid is busy. This year, she’s had new music premiered by the LA Chamber Orchestra, performances of her music at the Hear Now Festival, a premiere coming up this fall with LA Opera, a new sound installation and composition for the LA Phil’s 100th anniversary season, and on Sunday the biggest piece ever commissioned by the LA Master Chorale. She’s basically like a composer-in-residence for the city of Los Angeles. She visited the KUSC Studios to discuss her new work dreams of the new world and more.

Did you know that there are about a dozen festivals all over Europe that celebrate film music? Spain, Vienna, Krakow, Croatia, Ghent. Thousands of people flock to hear concerts of movie music, and to meet film composers from different countries—but often especially from Hollywood. Film Music Prague, now in its seventh year, was the brainchild of Nikola Bojčev—a fellow film score aficionado who, by day, is an editor at the Czech Republic’s major national public radio company. For the extended version of the interview, check out the Music for Moving Pictures podcast.

Founding President of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art sat down with KUSC Contributing Reporter Sheila Tepper to talk about how the museum found it’s way to Los Angeles and what it has in store for visitors. The museum just recently broke ground in exposition park, across the street from George Lucas’ alma mater, USC.

Ground has officially broken on Exposition Park’s newest addition. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is, as legendary filmmaker George Lucas has said, not just an art museum, but an anthropological museum. We asked the museum’s founding president, Don Bacigalupi, what that means and why the museum is coming to LA.

If you’re looking for an interesting movie to check out this weekend, we’ve got you covered. Here’s LA Times and KUSC film critic Kenneth Turan talking to KUSC’s Brian Lauritzen for a Friday Film Chat.

Learn more about what it takes to send Pacific Symphony to China with Pacific Symphony’s Vice President of Artistic and Orchestra Operations Eileen Jeanette.