Cate Blanchett to Narrate Beethoven's EGMONT With the LA Phil

The LA Phil has revealed 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