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),
Edwin 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® (PJO) is Los Angeles' premier 40-piece ensemble for jazz and beyond, redefining the orchestral jazz experience. With an annual concert season featuring five distinct projects and an impressive lineup of guest artists, the PJO transcends genres to present a vibrant array of musical styles. Performances take place across select LA venues, showcasing the city’s rich cultural and musical diversity.

As the only orchestra of its kind in the United States, the PJO epitomizes the spirit of jazz—America’s original art form—brought to life by the unmatched talent of LA’s finest musicians. A 501(c)(3) non-profit, the PJO boasts an advisory board that includes legends 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 serves as 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.

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

Donors

Jim & Penny Coulter
Susan McCaw
Howard Stern
Katharine McPhee

Carole Gaba
Charles Ortner
Gary Oakland

Bob & Randi Fisher
Don & Betsy Dixon
Matt Serletic

Michael Lazarus
Dale & Don Franzen
Jonathan Fryd

Robert Reeder & Marcie Maxwell
Dr. Ron Karlsberg
Shelly Berg

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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