In what’s become an annual tradition at SF Classical Voice, we once again asked you, the readers, to sound off about the best performers and performances of the past season. As always, the Audience Choice Awards were completely reader-driven — you nominated the finalists, and you voted for the winners. This year’s response in Los Angeles was very heartening. With thousands of votes submitted, you proved there is an engaged and passionate audience that is just as interested in smaller groups and emerging talent as in big stars.
Plenty of categories came down to just a few votes, and the winners and nominees definitely reflect the diversity of programming and voices available in the Southland. We hope that the results of this year’s poll encourage even more risk-taking in upcoming seasons, as Los Angeles continues to show why a vibrant arts scene is indispensable to a great city.
Best Opera Singer: Anna Schubert
For the second year in a row, soprano Anna Schubert took top honors in this category where voters showed a lot of love for local talent. Keeping up the momentum of her tour-de-force performance in Long Beach Opera’s Ipsa Dixit, Schubert was unstoppable. Never mind the fact that she also sang solo parts with PARTCH Ensemble, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and in Huang Ruo’s Book of Mountain and Seas at Los Angeles Opera this season. The similarly versatile soprano Kathryn Shuman was runner-up.
Best Chamber Ensemble: Eclipse Quartet
The Eclipse Quartet is one of the big winners of this year’s awards. Not only did the Los Angeles-based group — violinists Sarah Thornblade and Sara Parkins, violist Alma Lisa Fernandez, and cellist Maggie Parkins — rank as your favorite chamber ensemble, the Quartet also snagged Best New Music Ensemble and two performance awards. Salastina took second in this category, with Brightwork newmusic following in third.
Best Choral Ensemble: Los Angeles Master Chorale
The Master Chorale’s grandly scaled season more than surpassed the competition, with the ensemble winning by a big margin over the other nominees. The choir’s dramatic presentation of Verdi’s Requiem in June (voted Best Choral Performance below) was simply the capstone to a busy year that also included the world premiere of Billy Childs’s In the Arms of the Beloved, a sacred program pairing the music of J.S. Bach and Margaret Bonds, and a couple of tour appearances in the Bay Area.
Best Early Music/Baroque Ensemble: Musica Angelica
The younger ensembles were no match this year for Los Angeles’ established Baroque orchestra, now in its 32nd season. Under the direction of conductor and organist Martin Haselböck, Musica Angelica retook the top prize in this category after placing runner-up in past awards cycles. Tesserae Baroque sustained the energy in second, and newcomer Musica Transalpina finished in third.
Best New Music Ensemble: Eclipse Quartet
Los Angeles has no shortage of specialists in contemporary music, and the competition was close here. The Eclipse Quartet, with its focus on composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, snuck out another win in the end. Not far behind was Wild Up, conductor Christopher Rountree’s collective of creatives, who have zeroed in on the music of Julius Eastman in recent seasons. Salastina came third, again by only a handful of votes.
Best Orchestra: Los Angeles Philharmonic
No surprise here. The LA Phil has set a programming standard for American orchestras in the 21st century, and each season is more ambitious than the last. The organization may be undergoing a major transition now (just see the next category), but one thing is certain: Audiences not just in Los Angeles but nationwide continue to look to the Phil as a pioneering example.
Best Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel
Gustavo Dudamel has become synonymous with the orchestra he’s led since 2009 — which has the LA Phil in something of a tricky spot. Last year, Dudamel announced that he would be departing as music and artistic director at the end of the 2025–2026 season, when he takes up the same post with the New York Philharmonic. There’s still plenty of fond feeling for the conductor, however, as evidenced by his win in this category for yet another year in a row.
Best Instrumental Soloist: Anne Akiko Meyers
When SFCV spoke with violinist Anne Akiko Meyers in February, she was coming off the success of star turns at the Hollywood Bowl (in Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1) and Walt Disney Concert Hall (with Billy Childs and the Los Angeles Master Chorale). She was also gearing up to lead the Laguna Beach Music Festival as artistic director. Readers noticed those various solo endeavors, voting Meyers their favorite instrumentalist of the past season. Pianist Vicki Ray made a strong showing in second.
Best Jazz Soloist: Billy Childs
Los Angeles audiences need no introduction to hometown pianist and composer Billy Childs, born and raised (and still occasionally gigging at clubs) in the Southland. The highlight of Childs’s year was undoubtedly taking home his sixth Grammy Award (for his 2023 quartet album The Winds of Change). But Childs had a major moment to celebrate in the classical world as well, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale premiering In the Arms of the Beloved, the pianist and composer’s third commission from the ensemble, this past November.
Best Opera Performance: Los Angeles Opera, Turandot
Los Angeles was booming with opera in June, what with Opera America’s annual conference coming to the city for the first week of the month. But amid the lineup of intriguing performances, one production stood out. LA Opera’s staging of Puccini’s Turandot, with sets designed by British artist David Hockney, opened in May and was still the talk of the town weeks later. The Industry’s The Comet / Poppea came in second place in this category, with Pacific Opera Project’s Madama Butterfly following in third.
Best Chamber Performance: Eclipse Quartet, Program for Tuesdays @ Monk Space
It’s fitting that a milestone concert should be honored twice. The Eclipse Quartet was celebrating its 20th season with this program for Tuesdays @ Monk Space in December, a performance that won not just here but also in the new music category further down. With three premieres on the bill, plus a couple of contemporary favorites, this was a concert to be cherished.
Best Choral Performance: Los Angeles Master Chorale, Verdi’s Requiem
Scores of musicians came together for this season-ending program at Walt Disney Concert Hall, with Grant Gershon conducting a quartet of soloists, a 100-person chorus, and a full orchestra. Perhaps the smaller organizations never stood a chance. All the same, VOX Femina Los Angeles (for its “Mosaics From the Middle East” concert) and Great Music at St. James (for its presentation of Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles, conducted by Maura Tuffy) made strong showings in second and third, respectively.
Best Dance Performance: Martha Graham Dance Company, “American Legacies” at The Soraya
The Graham company’s early centennial celebration at The Soraya (the troupe doesn’t officially turn 100 until 2026) showed how one choreographer’s legacy can reverberate through generations. Funnily enough, this was also a major theme for the performance that placed runner-up: Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring at The Music Center, as danced by a pan-African cast that brought new energy to the classic work.
Best New Music Performance: Eclipse Quartet, Program for Tuesdays @ Monk Space
New pieces by composer-kamancheh player Niloufar Shiri and composer-guitarist Fred Frith were among the premieres on this December concert by the Eclipse Quartet. Violinist-composer Ali Can Puskulcu heard the West Coast premiere of his String Quartet No. 1 as well. You know a classical performance is contemporary when Kaijia Saariaho’s Terra Memoria (2006) is the oldest composition on the program.
Best Orchestral Performance: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mahler’s Sixth With Dudamel
Gustav Mahler is one of those rare composers who appeals to specialists and newcomers alike, so it’s to be expected that audiences were blown away by Gustavo Dudamel’s latest rendition of the composer’s powerful and tragic Sixth Symphony. These performances were recorded for future release, contributing to the music and artistic director’s storied legacy in Los Angeles.
Best Recital: Vicki Ray, “Nacht und Träume” at Piano Spheres
The history of fiercely experimental music in Los Angeles leads back to Arnold Schoenberg, whose disciple Leonard Stein founded Piano Spheres in 1994, with Vicky Ray among Stein’s mentees. In “Nacht und Träume,” Ray used prepared piano, synthesizer, video, and electronics and premiered works by four Los Angeles composers alongside nocturnal compositions by John Cage and Alban Berg.
Best Jazz Performance: Pacific Jazz Orchestra With Aaron Tveit at The Soraya
Equally at home on Broadway or in Hollywood, Tony Award-winning singer Aaron Tveit brought his signature mesmerizing style to The Soraya for the first time with a newly formed 40-piece ensemble directed by Hollywood veteran Chris Walden. The close runner-up, hosted by the same venue, was Booker T. Jones’s appearance with young keyboardist Matthew Whitaker, the venerable master of the Hammond B-3 organ passing the torch to the next generation.
Best Large Venue: Walt Disney Concert Hall
It’s no shock that the iconic Frank Gehry-designed hall, home to the LA Phil and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, kept its title as Best Large Venue. But this year, The Soraya passed the Hollywood Bowl to earn second place, a testament to the variety and breadth of music on offer in Los Angeles.
Best Small Venue: Zipper Hall
Though almost unseated by Descanso Gardens, Zipper Hall at the Colburn School impressively held down this category for the fourth consecutive year. A hub of chamber music activity, Zipper Hall gives audiences the chance to hear world-class performances by students and professionals alike, including Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
Best Festival: Jazz at Naz at The Soraya
In its third annual iteration, this winter jazz festival brought forth some distinguished musical luminaries, notably in a 50th anniversary concert from Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, which kicked things off in golden style. Booker T. Jones and Delfeayo Marsalis were among the other headliners. The Ojai Music Festival, last year’s winner in this category, took second place, only a handful of votes behind.
