Hilary Swank & Gustavo Dudamel
Photo Credit: Greg Grudt

Bryce Dallas Howard
Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew

Matthew Lillard & Heather Helm
Photo Credit: Greg Grudt

Herbie Hancock
Photo Credit: Greg Grudt

Amy Wakeland & Eric Garcetti
Photo Credit: Greg Grudt

Julie Andrews & Deborah Borda
Photo Credit: Ziva Santop

Frank Gehry
Photo Credit: Greg Grudt

Mia Maestro & Gael García Bernal
Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew

Christoph Waltz
Photo Credit: Greg Grudt

A Barak Ballet dancer.
Photo Credit: Greg Grudt

Dancers from Barak Ballet
Photo Credit: Greg Grudt

Photo Credit: Greg Grudt

Tuesday, September 29, the Los Angeles Philharmonic celebrated the launch of its new season and the Immortal Beethoven festival with a downtown gala held at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Music Director Gustavo Dudamel led two orchestras (the L.A. Phil and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela) in an all-Beethoven program culminating in the final movement, “Ode to Joy,” of the German composer’s rousing Symphony No. 9. Guests including Gael García Bernal, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Bryce Dallas Howard, Hilary Swank, Julie Andrews, Christoph Waltz, John Williams, Frank Gehry, and William Shatner were on hand to see the combination of what Dudamel called his “two families, the L.A. Phil and the Bolivars.”

After selections from Beethoven’s Egmont (incidental music for Goethe’s play) and The Creatures of Prometheus (a ballet), the combined orchestras, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and vocal soloists including soprano Mariana Ortiz, mezzo-soprano J’nai Bridges, tenor Joshua Guerrero, and bass Soloman Howard, all performed the final “Ode to Joy” movement before confetti (shaped to resemble a bust of the composer) floated from the ceiling of Disney Hall. “In a world where we build more borders, here we cross them with music,” said Dudamel.