Earlier this year, when the Los Angeles Philharmonic announced auditions for Assistant Principal and Section Percussion, I thought two things were possible:

1. The auditions were for a single open position to replace Perry Dreiman, section percussionist who retired last year and who often played as acting principal.
2. The auditions were for two separate positions, meaning James Babor, section percussionist who joined the orchestra in 1993, would also be retiring soon.

After the auditions, sources had mentioned to me that the second was true. Last night, Principal Timpani Joe Pereira confirmed on social media that in addition to Wesley Sumpter winning the newly created position of Assistant Principal Percussion, one more new musician will be joining the LA Phil. . . . 

Andrés Pichardo-Rosenthal, a SoCal native and current Detroit Symphony Assistant Principal, will take over for Mr. Babor sometime after the LA Phil veteran retires in a few months.

As Mr. Pereira points out, once Mr. Pichardo-Rosenthal joins the orchestra officially, the whole section will have ties to the USC Thornton School of Music. Messrs. Pereira and Babor lead the percussion studio there, and taught all of the other four:

• Matt Howard, Principal Percussion: undergrad at USC Thornton, grad school at the New England Conservatory.
• David Riccobono, Assistant Principal Timpani and Section Percussion: undergrad at UCLA, grad school at USC Thornton.
• Wesley Sumpter, Assistant Principal Percussion (designate): undergrad at University of Georgia, grad school at USC Thornton.
• Andrés Pichardo-Rosenthal, Section Percussion: undergrad at Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, grad school at USC Thornton.

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A post shared by Joseph Pereira (@jpereiramusic)

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• Comings and goings at the LA Phil (Fall 2025 edition, pt. 2): a familiar face gets newly created percussion job, plus woodwind news (Sept 26, 2025)
• A chat with Matt Howard (part 2 of 2): more on the world premiere of Pereira’s percussion concerto “Naru”, Gustavo Dudamel’s upcoming final season, and more (May 30, 2025)
• A chat with Matt Howard (part 1 of 2): LA Phil Principal Percussion talks about how he got started in music, his awesome job, and starts to talk about the origin of “Naru” (May 30, 2025)

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Photo credit: courtesy of the Detroit Symphony