Thomas Ades, Samara Joy and Silvana Estrada Join LA Phil Team

By Marcus Bennett

Three new appointments place British composer Thomas Ades, vocalist Samara Joy and singer-songwriter Silvana Estrada on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s expanded artistic leadership team under Daniel Harding. President and CEO Kim Noltemy announced the moves. Harding is the incoming Music Director.

Ades becomes Creative Chair for New Music. He succeeds John Adams, who steps down after 17 years. Samara Joy takes the Creative Chair for Jazz from retiring Herbie Hancock. Silvana Estrada joins as Creative Chair for Latin Music. That chair is new.

Esa-Pekka Salonen serves as Creative Director. Gustavo Dudamel is Artistic and Cultural Laureate. Anna Handler is Conductor-in-Residence. They join Ades, Joy and Estrada around Harding.

What does this change for the LA Phil?

Noltemy described the plan to SFCV in May. She foresaw prominent artists who would provide Harding with a superb “supporting cast.” The announcement now makes that plan concrete. It also places new music, jazz and Latin music around the incoming Music Director.

Noltemy’s announcement specifies no dates, commissions or budgets. Its immediate effect concerns leadership rather than concert plans. The practical test will come through the new team’s work with the orchestra.

Ades brings a decades-long relationship with the orchestra. The announcement records his debut in 1997, during a Green Umbrella new music concert. Dudamel conducted Ades’s ballet “Dante” in 2022. He released a recording the following year. It won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.

Ades tied that history to his new appointment. “Some of the most thrilling nights of my musical life have included conducing the LA Phil in Walt Disney Concert Hall, and hearing the orchestra bring ‘Dante’ to life,” the composer said in a statement.

He continued: “These experiences showed me that nothing is too ambitious here, and that the audience comes ready to be surprised. I’m honored to join Daniel, Esa-Pekka, Gustavo and this remarkable group of artists in imagining a wildly creative musical future that could only happen in Los Angeles.”

Harding put the leadership model in direct terms. “The breadth of knowledge, talent, curiosity and creativity in this team is astounding and thrilling,” he said in a statement.

“The LA Phil has a remarkable history of questioning conventions, exploring new ideas, and finding new ways to connect music with people. With this creative team and our wonderful orchestra, we will build on that spirit together, respecting the extraordinary traditions we have inherited, but never allowing ourselves to be limited by them,” Harding said.

Noltemy tied the appointments to Los Angeles itself. “This team will amplify the wide range of voices, cultures and genres in Los Angeles,” she said. She added: “Our new artistic leadership team brings us a remarkable breadth of perspectives and strengths across disciplines, allowing us to imagine new forms of presentation, build unexpected collaborations, and create experiences that challenge, inspired and engage audiences.”

The announcement adds two younger artists to the leadership roster. Samara Joy was born in the Bronx in 1999. She has won six Grammy Awards. Her move follows Hancock’s retirement and gives the LA Phil’s jazz leadership a generational shift.

Estrada was born in Mexico in 1997. She is a singer-songwriter and the same generation as Joy. Her Latin Grammy for Best New Artist came in 2022. The Latin Music chair has no predecessor, making it the clearest new element in Noltemy’s roster.

Practically, the roster places new music, jazz and Latin music inside the leadership structure around Harding. Noltemy has promised broader representation, new forms of presentation and unexpected collaborations. The announcement leaves the test for later: whether those relationships produce sustained, specific work under the incoming Music Director.