Behind the Scenes: the LA Phil Goes to Coachella
LA Phil Associate Concertmaster Bing Wang said she'd never been to Coachella - until now.
On Saturday, Wang and the entire Los Angeles Philharmonic loaded into a bus at the Hollywood Bowl and traveled four hours to Indio, Calif. - the desert town where the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival takes place, about 150 miles east of Los Angeles. Once there, they gave an hour-long show - led by Gustavo Dudamel - that meshed classical with a huge range of genres and guest artists.
Gustavo Dudamel conducts the LA Phil at Coachella - with hip-hop artist LL Cool J. Photo by Timothy Norris, courtesy of the LA Phil.
What did Wang think of it? She loved it - they all did.
"For me to experience that kind of excitement, it's unforgettable," Wang said, "There was just so much energy, it was so powerful. The crowd definitely was bigger than I expected. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced."
It was the first time the LA Phil had ever performed at Coachella. I wasn't there - I tuned in to the livestream for what I thought would be just a few minutes, but I was riveted for the entire show. Beyond the energetic, high-quality musical collaboration, the show was an hour of sweeping cinema - filmed from so many camera angles that I lost track.
The LA Phil will give another performance - featuring different artists this time - at Coachella next Saturday, April 19 - 6:25 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. PT, and you can watch the livestream on Youtube. Check here for a link to watch it - certainly I'll watch again! (You can go to the direct link of the Coachella Livestream here)
"They called this 'Gustavo's Mixtape,'" Wang said. "It went classical to pop, pop to classical - moving back and forth almost non-stop." The show interspersed classical music with pop, country, Latin rap, EDM, hip-hop...
It's entirely possible that classical music fans couldn't identify many (or any) of the popular artists that joined the LA Phil on stage - Laufey, Maren Morris, Becky G, Ca7riel Paco & Amoroso, Zedd, LL Cool J.... Likewise, music fans at Coachella might not have been able to identify all the classical music excerpts that were weaved into and between the music - Richard Wagner’s "Ride of the Valkyries," Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Vivaldi Recomposed, Stravinsky's Firebird, Bach's Toccata and Fugue...
But together - it worked.
"I have to say, when we first read it, some of us thought, 'Oh, it's going to be so strange!' But it actually worked, these are iconic musical themes that resonated with this crowd," Wang said. "They were chanting, they were exuberant when we played Beethoven 5, because they've heard Beethoven 5! They were shouting and screaming - and none of that bothered anyone, it was a different setting. They were moving, they were chanting 'Gustavo, Gustavo,' and at the end they were shouting 'L-A-Phil! L-A-Phil!'"
From the stage at Coachella - the crowd watching the LA Phil's show on April 12. Photo by Timothy Norris, courtesy of the LA Phil.
The musicians had been warned that they'd better finish on time - if they didn't, the crowd would migrate; everyone would walk away to the next stage. "But none of that happened," Wang said. "We finished a few minutes late, and everyone stayed with us. This huge crowd, they were just taking it all in. It was so energetic."
The end of the show was truly an apotheosis of cross-genre musical convergence - who knew that LL Cool J's 1985 hip hop classic "Rock the Bells" would work so well over the primordial opening tones of Stravinsky's "Firebird"? But it was a serious highlight.
Earlier in the week, Dudamel had told the Los Angeles Times that the performance represented "a journey of making music accessible to everybody, but also creating a culture where people don’t feel that classical music is far away, not part of their lives. What we want is for that old music to embrace this moment."
LA Phil Music Director Gustavo Dudamel (center) and the LA Phil first violin section, backstage at Coachella. Photo by Kahler Suzuki, courtesy Bing Wang.
It took a lot to make that happen - and to make it all a big surprise.
Before the concert, the orchestra had three rehearsals at the Hollywood Bowl - two on Tuesday, so that they could build the stage, per Dudamel's intention, Wang said. "Some of our colleagues were on very high risers," she said. "Gustavo wanted them as high possible as possible."
They built the stage set at the Hollywood Bowl, then "I saw them taking it down late Tuesday - breaking it down like pieces of puzzle - in preparation for trucking it to Coachella on Wednesday. It took them two and half hours!"
Then on Wednesday, the orchestra was bussed out to Coachella for a rehearsal on site - in the desert. The bus left at 1 p.m., the rehearsal was from five to 7:30.
"On the day of the rehearsal, we dealt with a temperature of 95 degrees," Wang said. "We were expecting that, but we did not expect to be in the sun." The stage has a cover, high above, but nothing covers it from the side. At 5 p.m., the sun was coming in from the side - it hit Wang on the back, but it was right in the faces of the second violin section. "So between five and six it was very tough, but after six, somehow temperature dropped, and it was okay."
They had another rehearsal on Friday, to rehearse with all the different artists who would be appearing with them, on both weekends. (With the exception of Laufey, all the artists will be different for the second performance this weekend!)
"A lot was kept in secrecy," Wang said. When it came to the music, a lot of changes took place at the last minute.
"Usually, with our orchestra, we require that the music be presented for us at least two weeks before the concert," Wang said. For Coachella, "I think the last arrangement happened maybe two days before we had to play!"
"We had the most amazing arranger, Derrick Hodge - he was turning out these arrangements around the clock," Wang said. "There were literally last-minute changes in pieces, in arrangements and in artists. We were making cuts, replacing pieces..."
On Saturday, the set for the act before them had to go down, and theirs had to go up in the 30 minutes between sets. "They hired a huge team of crews to to build the set behind the stage, so they could push it all onto stage in that amount of time," Wang said.
For Wang, "it's been a surreal experience." In addition to her role as Concertmaster, Wang performed as a soloist in a segment of the show featuring "Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons."
Wang performing "Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons" with the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel on the Coachella stage April 12. Photo by Timothy Norris, courtesy of the LA Phil.
Wang has also been involved with a documentary they are making about the LA Phil, Gustavo Dudamel and this performance at Coachella. "I've been miked for every one of these performance and rehearsals," she said. "That's a first-time experience, being miked and filmed at all times, including the bus ride!"
She just enjoyed "Feeling the power of music - seeing this huge crowd that is bigger than I've ever seen, and playing music and sharing music with them," Wang said. "For us music is music, whether it is pops or classical. It could be Beethoven, it could be LL Cool J. It was so exciting to share that moment with that audience."
LA Phil Concertmaster Bing Wang with Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey. Photo courtesy Bing Wang. Laufey's mother is the Chinese violinist Wei Lin, and her grandfather is the violin pedagogue Yaoji Lin
And Gustavo Dudamel? The "Dude" was clearly happy.
"He was so excited and giddy - I've never seen him like that," Wang said. Wang said that while she herself was not familiar with all the artists, Gustavo absolutely was. "He was so thrilled, so happy. He would turn around and say, 'Wow, can you believe it!' "
Gustavo Dudamel and LL Cool J salute a roaring crowd, after their Coachella performance with the LA Phil. Photo screen grab from the Coachella Livestream.
"I feel like it was dream-come-true kind of moment for him," Wang said. "It was his hope and his vision for us, it was something he always wanted to do."
You might also like:
- Gustavo Dudamel's Final Season: LA Phil Announces 2025-26 Concerts
- Review: LA Phil's Triumphant 'Organ Symphony'
- Laurie Plays in the LA Phil: Second Violinist Faces Fear of Heights
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Replies
Coachella - much better, lol, Maurice!
Great reporting indeed! For true symphonic listening, I would always want the undistracting and contemplative setting of a formal concert hall, but if this kind of performance creates interest and new listeners, then I can only applaud such orchestral evangelism. I think Recomposed was an excellent choice for this concert, a mix of familiar and newness, a composition I was quite surprised to like so much when I heard it, enough that I listen to my CD of it from time to time.
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April 15, 2025 at 09:49 PM · Next stop FYRE Festival 2! Great reporting Laurie.