Mark Swed has been the classical music critic of the Los Angeles Times since 1996. Before that, he was a music critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the Wall Street Journal and has written extensively for international publications. Swed is the author of the book-length text to the best-selling iPad app, “The Orchestra,” and is a former editor of the Musical Quarterly. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist in criticism, honored in 2021 and 2007.
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This week’s offerings arrive at the peak of summer with all manner of live, outdoor fun to guide you through the city.
July 18, 2024
Famed video artist Bill Viola, who died Friday, was influenced by, and made a significant contribution to, music — all with a little help from L.A.
July 16, 2024
The L.A. Phil Hollywood Bowl season opens with rising conductor Elim Chan conducting Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto with Agustin Hadelich and ‘Scheherazade.’
July 11, 2024
We’ve got another fresh crop of weekend recommendations that encompasses romantic movies about moon landings and artwork that appears to be from another planet.
July 11, 2024
Fireworks, holiday museum openings, Rolling Stones and the best of L.A.’s art and culture this week.
While there are plenty of reasons to go outside today and look up at the fireworks, there’s just as many reasons to go out and enjoy the freedom of expression created by L.A.’s most amazing creative minds.
July 4, 2024
Concerts by the New Hollywood String Quartet and Tesserae Baroque show how Hollywood studio musicians can be uniquely qualified for chamber music.
July 3, 2024
A seismic shift in San Francisco’s classical music mirrors change afoot in L.A. With leadership turnover, could existential changes alter the city’s cultural life?
June 27, 2024
This week’s guide to the best things to see and do that will hopefully be enough to make you feel a little better after watching the presidential debate.
June 27, 2024
Yuval Sharon’s ‘The Comet / Poppea’ is as an experimental dialogue with history in a way that only opera, with its capacity to worm its way inside the minds of characters, might attempt.
June 20, 2024
With summer officially upon us, we break down the best, the brightest and the hottest of what L.A. culture has to offer this week
June 20, 2024