LOS ANGELES, CA (August 21, 2025) — The LA Phil today announced a major addition to its 2025/26 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall: Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett will appear as narrator in four performances of Beethoven’s Egmont in February 2026 conducted by the LA Phil’s Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel. In a bold reimagining of the work, Blanchett will portray Egmont in a new adaptation, created in collaboration with acclaimed playwright Jeremy O. Harris, featuring soprano Elena Villalón.
Traditionally delivered by a male narrator, the role of Egmont has been reconceived for Blanchett as part of a powerful artistic vision that illuminates themes of resistance, freedom, and heroism.
This multidimensional program begins with the world premiere of Ricardo Lorenz’s Humboldt’s Nature, a dynamic work inspired by the South American expeditions of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary philosopher and naturalist who was a contemporary of Beethoven. At the center of the evening, pianist Yunchan Lim—winner of the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and a rising global sensation—performs Schumann’s masterful Piano Concerto.
Program:
Dudamel Conducts Beethoven and Lorenz
February 12–15, 2026
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Ricardo LORENZ — Humboldt’s Nature, World Premiere & LA Phil Commission
SCHUMANN — Piano Concerto
Yunchan Lim, piano
Intermission
BEETHOVEN — Incidental Music from Egmont
Adapted by Jeremy O. Harris
Cate Blanchett, narrator
Elena Villalón, soprano
Tickets for the 25/26 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall are now available online at laphil.com or via phone at 323-850-2000.
ABOUT CATE BLANCHETT
Cate Blanchett is a multi-award-winning actor and producer, acclaimed for her work on stage and screen. Her many diverse film credits include Elizabeth, The Aviator, Blue Jamine, Carol and Tár, in which she played conductor Lydia Tár and worked closely with the Dresdner Philharmonie, winning the BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Actress, along with nominations for the Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. Todd Field’s film received multiple nominations at all major ceremonies, including the Academy Awards, where it was recognised in six categories, including Best Picture. From 2008 to 2013, Blanchett served alongside Andrew Upton as co-Artistic Director and co-CEO of Sydney Theatre Company (STC), producing 16 shows annually across four stages, many of which toured internationally. Among her celebrated performances at the company were A Streetcar Named Desire, Uncle Vanya, The War of the Roses, The Maids, Gross und Klein and The Present, the latter earning her a Tony nomination. Other notable productions included Steven Soderbergh’s Tot Mom, The Secret River, works by Kip Williams, and Blackbird and The Year of Magical Thinking, both of which she directed. Blanchett was most recently on stage at London’s Barbican in The Seagull and has previously performed at the UK’s National Theatre in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other. She has since joined the National Theatre’s board. She also co-runs her own production company, Dirty Films, is a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, is a member of The Earthshot Prize Council, and Ambassador for the Wakehurst Millennium Seed Bank.
ABOUT JEREMY O. HARRIS
Jeremy O. Harris is the playwright and creator of the Broadway play, Slave Play, which received a historic 12 nominations at the Tony Awards in 2021. He was nominated for two 2023 Tony Awards for producing The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Ain’t No Mo’. His play Daddy opened to acclaim at its UK debut at Almeida Theatre in March 2022. In June 2022, Daddy opened at the Tokyo Globe Theatre. In addition, Slave Play had a sold out run on the West End at the Noel Coward Theatre last summer. Jeremy co-wrote A24’s critically-acclaimed Zola alongside director Janicza Bravo. His television credits include HBO’s Euphoria and Irma Vep. As an actor, Jeremy recently appeared on HBO Max’s Gossip Girl and returned as Grégory Duprée in Netflix’s Emily in Paris and is in The Sweet East which premiered at Cannes and Utopia released. Jeremy is currently the Artistic Director for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where his most recent play Spirit of the People premiered this Summer. He can next be seen on screen alongside Charli XCX in Pete Ohs' latest film Erupjca which will have its world premiere at TIFF in September. Jeremy co-wrote and also produced the film.
ABOUT GUSTAVO DUDAMEL
Gustavo Dudamel is committed to creating a better world through music. Guided by an unwavering belief in the power of art to inspire and transform lives, he has worked tirelessly to expand education and access for underserved communities around the world, and to broaden the impact of classical music to new and ever-larger audiences. His rise, from humble beginnings as a child in Venezuela to an unparalleled career of artistic and social achievements, offers living proof that culture can bring meaning to the life of an individual and greater harmony to the world at large. He currently serves as the Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and in 2026 he becomes the Music and Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic, continuing a legacy that includes Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini, and Leonard Bernstein. Throughout 2025, Dudamel will celebrate the 50th anniversary of El Sistema, honoring the global impact of Jose Antonio Abreu’s visionary education program across five generations, and acknowledging the vital importance of arts education.
Leah Price, leah.price@laphil.org