Season 2024/2025

Read the full press release HERE

Plans are under way for a Pacific Jazz Orchestra hip hop extravaganza, featuring eminent artists in the field, curated by GRAMMY®-winning hip hop producer Om’Mas Keith (Dates and artists TBA.)

PJO “Jazz Exploration”
at The Aster

Feat. Eva Scow (mand) & Aaron Janik (trp), with Josh Nelson (p), Edwind Livingston (b), Peter Erskine (dr)

Fri, Mar 7, 2025 - 7:00 pm

The pacific jazz Orchestra®

Click “PLAY” to watch some excerpts of recent concerts.

The Pacific Jazz Orchestra® is LA’s new resident 40-piece ensemble for jazz and beyond, presenting an annual concert season consisting of 5 projects, each with different guest artists. Spread out over a select few venues in LA, the program reaches far beyond the boundaries of jazz, as it features music of a diverse range of styles, genres, and backgrounds.

The PJO is the only orchestra of its kind in the country, and with its talent pool of musicians, Los Angeles is the only city where an ensemble like this can be put together, representing jazz, the uniquely American art form. A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the members of the advisory board of the PJO include names like David Foster, Quincy Jones, Monica Mancini, Alan Bergman, Rickey Minor, Harvey Mason Jr., and Ledisi.

ARTISTIC
Director

CHRIS WALDEN, artistic director and conductor of the Pacific Jazz Orchestra, is a 7-time Grammy-nominated composer/arranger, who has worked with Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Paul McCartney, Diana Krall, Aretha Franklin, Rihanna, Seal, Barbra Streisand, John Legend, Herb Alpert, and many more. He has been the lead arranger at the Oscars, the Kennedy Center Honors, and has conducted the LA Phil, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Metropole Orkest, Boston Pops, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, WDR Big Band Cologne and many more.

His extensive experience in writing orchestral and big band arrangements in many different styles, and working with artists from different backgrounds, makes him uniquely qualified to serve as music director of the PJO. He draws from his many connections to artists he has worked with in attracting talent for the orchestra’s program.

THE VENUES

The PJO is working with several mid-size venues in Los Angeles to present the performances. Each concert season is spread out to a select few number of venues in order reach audiences from a wide range of demographics. The collaborating venues are:
The Wallis (Beverly Hills)
The Soraya (Northridge)
Alex Theatre (Glendale)
Segerstrom Center (Costa Mesa)
Barclay Theatre (Irvine)
McCallum Theatre (Palm Desert)
Granada Theatre (Santa Barbara)

education

In order to foster the next generation of musicians and artists, the PJO will establish a week-long summer seminar/workshop for young musicians. Participants will receive group lessons from orchestra members on their respective instruments and then rehearse together as an ensemble and at the end of the week perform a concert as the “Pacific Youth Jazz Orchestra”.

Under the guidance of the artistic director, the PJO will give guest conductors and arrangers the opportunity to lead concert projects in an effort to advance diversity in the field of music directors.

SPONSORS

The PJO is actively looking for private donors as well as corporate sponsors to help fulfill the vision of a resident jazz orchestra in LA with a program of performances that will entertain, enrich, and educate a diverse audience reaching far beyond LA.

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

— William Shakespeare

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