The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2025/26 indoor season kicks off tonight at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the final one of Gustavo Dudamel’s tenure before he decamps for New York. The program includes the world premiere of Ellen Reid’s Earth Between Oceans and Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony (which of course is actually a tone poem, not a symphony, but I digress).

Frequent audience members will notice that the first two stands of first violins will look very different than they have for many years, with three musicians having left the orchestra. Longtime Principal Concertmaster Martin Chalifour retired at the end of the summer. First Associate Concertmaster Nathan Cole is now the Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony. His wife, Akiko Tarumoto, had been the Assistant Concertmaster, but she departed the orchestra as well.

The sole holdover is Associate Concertmaster Bing Wang, a 31-year veteran of the orchestra and an extremely capable leader. She’ll be in the first chair until a permanent replacement is named. Three things to note about that:

First, Ms. Wang is actually listed as “Acting Concertmaster” on the orchestra’s online roster. That’s rare. The LA Phil does not typically name acting players publicly. For example, Andrew Lowy (E-flat clarinet) has been Acting Associate Principal Clarinet since Burt Hara retired, though there has been no public acknowledgement as such. (More on that in part 2 tomorrow).

Second, as mentioned above, Mr. Chalifour’s title — and that of his predecessors Sidney Weiss and Sidney Harth — was “Principal Concertmaster,” unique among American orchestras. Before Mr. Cole joined the orchestra as First Associate Concertmaster, his immediate predecessors (Alexander Treger and Glenn Dicterow) in the 2nd chair of the first violins held the title of “Concertmaster.” Now, with a recent change in the LA Phil contract, Mr. Chalifour’s eventual replacement will be titled simply as “Concertmaster,” consistent with most other American orchestras.

Third, the orchestra actually held open auditions for a new Concertmaster this past April. Given Mr. Dudamel’s impending departure, that surprised observers and insiders alike. While concertmasters usually go through most of the same audition processes as other principal players, they are the only orchestral musician that holds their position at the pleasure of the Music Director (see Michael Tilson Thomas’s decision less than 3 years into his tenure to remove Raymond Kobler, an 18-year San Francisco Symphony veteran). Many had expected Mr. Dudamel and orchestra to defer a concertmaster search and leave it to the new Music Director rather than pick one in his last year in the position. For reference, the last time the LA Phil had to replace their Principal Concertmaster was when Mr. Weiss stepped down in 1994, at the end of the 2nd season of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s tenure as Music Director.

That said, Mr. Dudamel has paid more attention to the strings and the string sound than any other part of the orchestra during his tenure. And since there are no heirs apparent for LA Phil Music Director, it might be many years before another person would be able to select a Concertmaster if Mr. Dudamel doesn’t make a choice. Moreover, there are multiple section chairs open in the first violins on top of the titled players. Where a fully stocked first violin section would include 17 or 18 players, there are currently only 10 on the roster.

So the open auditions for concertmaster happened in April. And one candidate made it through the final rounds and was offered a trial with the orchestra:

Congratulations to Yoonshin Song for making it this far. Ms. Song is the current Concertmaster of the Houston Symphony, a position she’s held since 2019. Before that, the native of Korea was Concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony for 7 seasons. She has also been guest concertmaster of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and KBS Symphony Orchestra. She studied at the New England Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music.

The LA Phil has officially confirmed to All is Yar that Ms. Song will be playing as guest Concertmaster for the first three weeks of the season, which, in addition to the program this week of works by Reid and Strauss, will include the U.S. premiere of Frenzy: a short symphony by John Adams plus the 1919 version of the Firebird Suite and The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky next week, and Mahler’s 2nd Symphony two weeks hence. She will then join the orchestra on their 2 week of tour of Asia, with stops in Seoul, Tokyo, and Taipei performing each of the Adams/Stravinsky and Mahler programs. Sources who have heard her have described her playing as “confident,” “demonstrative,” and “worthy of the position.” I look forward to experiencing it for myself in the coming weeks.

After the trials, the orchestra would decide whether or not to “qualify” Ms. Song for the position. After that, it’s not clear if Mr. Dudamel must make a hire/no-hire decision based solely on her candidacy or if the orchestra’s collective bargaining agreement would allow them to invite other potential violinists for consideration. Reports have indicated that at least one concertmaster of an American orchestra considered to be at least on par with the LA Phil (and perhaps better, in some people’s opinion) has quietly expressed interest in throwing their hat in the ring for the LA Phil job, but wouldn’t/couldn’t participate in the open auditions for personal and professional reasons (read: it would’ve been reputational suicide had that person not gotten at least a trial, if not the job outright). Moreover, many in and around the orchestra lament losing Mr. Cole to Boston and would welcome any attempt to lure him back to Los Angeles. No matter what, I hope the orchestra — and Mr. Dudamel — has the chance to select the best possible candidate for this critical position.

In the meantime, Ms. Song may be the only current candidate for Concertmaster, but she is not the only musician to be offered a trial after the April auditions. Reliable sources have also confirmed that two other violinists who reached the finals of the auditions that day will be offered trials later in the season for the First Associate Concertmaster position: Marc Rovetti, Assistant Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Alan Snow, Associate Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra. Good luck to them both.

Elsewhere in the strings, Melody Ye Yuan was officially announced as the new Principal Second Violin earlier this year. She originally joined the orchestra’s first violin section in 2024. She studied at the New England Conservatory and Colburn Conservatory. (FWIW more than one friend of All is Yar has pointed to the coincidental and amusing symmetry of potentially having a Concertmaster named “Song” and a Principal 2nd named “Melody”). Also, Isabella Brown was named Assistant Principal 2nd Violin and Justin Woo was promoted from section 1st violin to 6th chair 1st violin.

The Principal Viola chair remains vacant, as it has been since Teng Li took the same job with the Chicago Symphony. Reports are that the former Toronto Symphony made the move for a combination of personal and professional reasons. No audition dates to attempt to fill the chair have been announced. In the meantime, Ben Ullery, the orchestra’s extremely capable Associate Principal Viola, will be Acting Principal (even if the online roster doesn’t acknowledge him as such).

Finally, auditions to fill the numerous section first violin vacancies will be held next week.

Part 2, coming tomorrow, will cover winds and percussion.

[Editors note: an earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that Sidney Weiss resigned as Principal Concertmaster after Esa-Pekka Salonen’s first season as Music Director.]

RELATED POSTS:

• EXCLUSIVE: Comparing new SFS and LA Phil contract numbers (and current contracts of other orchestras) (Sept 16, 2025)
• BREAKING: LA Phil musicians ratify new 4-year contract featuring significant pay raises and more (Sept 10, 2025)
• I was (mostly) right: LA Phil gives Salonen new title, answers some follow-up questions (Sept 8, 2025)
• Comings and goings at the LA Phil (Summer 2024 edition, pt. 1): which conductors new CEO Kim Noltemy could — and should — consider as Music Director candidates (July 9, 2024)
• Comings and goings at the LA Phil and beyond (July 2023 edition): Chicago & LA (& SF) may swap principals + much more (July 3, 2023)

—————

Photo credits:

• Bing Wang: courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
• Yoonshin Song: courtesy of the Houston Symphony