Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) is a 40-member American chamber orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, considered by music critic Jim Svejda as "America's finest chamber orchestra".Jeffrey Kahane is the Music Director.

LACO was founded in 1968 as an artistic outlet for the local film and record studios' most gifted musicians to perform the classical music repertoire for a chamber orchestra of about 40-45 members. The orchestra’s artistic founder, cellist James Arkatov, envisioned an ensemble which would allow conservatory-trained players to balance studio work and teaching with artistic collaboration. With the financial backing of philanthropist Richard Colburn and management from attorney Joseph Troy (the orchestra’s first president), LACO presented its first performance in the fall of 1969. The LACO's first music director was Neville Marriner, and Marriner used the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields as a guiding model for the ensemble. As David Mermelstein wrote, "The idea was to create a group that would play works written expressly for chamber orchestra, many of them from the baroque era--music that the [Los Angeles] Philharmonic either wasn't interested in or suited to. The ensemble was never meant to compete with the Philharmonic; there was even a time when LACO's supporters hoped to see it take up permanent residence at the Music Center."

LACO's repertoire ranges from the Baroque to newly commissioned works (the latter presented through its patron-commissioning club, Sound Investment). The Orchestra is recognized for championing young artists at the beginning of their careers and working with leading artists. In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth (27 January 2006), the orchestra performed all 23 of Mozart's piano concerti over a 15-month period, which no other U.S. orchestra had attempted. All 23 were conducted by Jeffrey Kahane from the keyboard, as was the practice during Mozart's life. In April 2002 the orchestra made its Carnegie Hall debut, and in June 2005 LACO received the First Place Award for Programming of Contemporary Music from American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and the American Symphony Orchestra League. The orchestra has been honored with the Award for Adventurous Programming from ASCAP and the League of American Orchestras.

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