Seth MacFarlane Funds LA Chamber Orchestra Initiative for Film Composer Fanfares

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The fanfares will premiere throughout LACO's inaugural season at Colburn's Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

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Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) announced a new commissioning initiative supported by Grammy- and Academy Award-nominated artist Seth MacFarlane , bringing together several celebrated film composers. New fanfares by John Williams , Ludwig Göransson, Joel McNeely, Thomas Newman , James Newton Howard and John Powell will premiere throughout LACO's 2027-28 season.

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The fanfares will be featured as opening works for select concerts throughout the season and will also be performed at LACO concerts at The Wallis. The first premiere will be a fanfare by John Williams in fall 2027 at Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall.

The commissioning project was curated by MacFarlane, who personally selected the participating composers, guided by genuine admiration for each one's body of work.

Having collaborated with many of the industry's most celebrated composers and musicians, MacFarlane is a dedicated supporter of musical preservation and greater recognition of film music as a vital artistic discipline. The initiative reflects his belief that the work of today's film composers deserves a lasting place in the concert hall through the creation of new repertoire.

MacFarlane's initiative is a natural fit for LACO, whose history is deeply intertwined with the music of Hollywood. Founded in 1968 by L.A.'s leading studio musicians, LACO has continued that legacy for more than five decades, with its musicians performing on virtually all major Hollywood film scores.

'The influence and contributions of film composers are impossible to overstate,' said MacFarlane. 'Every one of us can probably recall or identify a theme from a film that became an indelible part of the soundtrack to our lives. To collaborate with LACO and composers of the caliber of John Williams , Joel McNeely, Thomas Newman , James Newton Howard, Ludwig Göransson, and John Powell, all of whom I genuinely admire, is a true gift.'

'As an ensemble and organization born from Hollywood studio musicians, this commissioning project is especially meaningful,' said Ben Cadwallader, Executive Director, LACO. 'We are deeply grateful to Seth MacFarlane , with whom we share equal reverence and fandom for these film composers and film music. To collaborate with Seth and this extraordinary roster of composers is a dream come true for this orchestra. This project is part of an exciting new chapter for LACO, as the works will be premiered during our inaugural 2027-28 season in our new home in downtown Los Angeles, Colburn's Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall.'

Each of the new fanfares will premiere during LACO's 2027-28 season, coinciding with LACO's inaugural performances in Colburn's Frank Gehry -designed Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall, opening fall 2027.

LACO will announce its 2027-28 season in spring 2027.

John Williams is a five-time Academy Award-winning composer and conductor widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in film music history, with a career spanning over 60 years and an astounding 54 Oscar nominations. He is best known for his legendary partnership with director Steven Spielberg , having scored classics including Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and Disclosure Day, a science-fiction thriller starring Emily Blunt , Josh O'Connor , and Colin Firth , released in June 2026 and marking their 30th collaboration together. In addition to his celebrated Spielberg collaborations, Williams has composed many of cinema's most iconic scores, including the nine-film Star Wars saga, Superman: The Movie, the first three Harry Potter films, Home Alone, JFK and Born on the Fourth of July. His very first Oscar win came for Norman Jewison 's Fiddler on the Roof (1971).

Ludwig Göransson is a sought-after Swedish composer and musical collaborator. A longtime musical partner and collaborator of director Ryan Coogler, Göransson has earned multiple awards and nominations for their work together, including his first Academy Award for Best Original Score for Black Panther. The pair have collaborated on five feature films, with Göransson scoring and producing soundtracks for Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and most recently reunited for Coogler's critically acclaimed Sinners. Sinners became the duo's fifth feature collaboration, and Göransson's first as EP, taking home the Oscar for Best Original Score at the 2026 Academy Awards. Göransson has also become one of Christopher Nolan 's key collaborators, composing the scores for Tenet, the 2023 Best Picture winner Oppenheimer, earning Ludwig his second Academy Award and his first Golden Globe, as well as Nolan's 2026 epic The Odyssey. Beyond film, Göransson has made a significant impact on popular music as a record producer and songwriter, working with a wide range of artists including HAIM, Rihanna, Travis Scott, Adele and Childish Gambino. His credits include producing Gambino's Grammy Award-winning single 'This Is America,' as well as composing the theme for two-time Emmy Award-winning score for The Mandalorian and its feature-film continuation The Mandalorian & Grogu.

Joel McNeely is an Emmy Award-winning and Grammy-nominated composer and conductor with more than 100 motion picture, television, record production, and live concert conducting credits. A longtime collaborator of Seth MacFarlane , he currently scores Fox's American Dad! and Peacock's Ted, and previously scored Hulu's Emmy-winning The Orville and MacFarlane's film A Million Ways to Die in the West. He has also produced all nine of MacFarlane's studio albums, earning multiple Grammy nominations along the way, including for In Full Swing and No One Ever Tells You. As a film and television composer, McNeely has worked with directors James Cameron , Wolfgang Petersen, John Lasseter , and George Lucas , with additional credits including Air Force One, The Avengers, Mulan II, and Disney's Tinker Bell franchise. He won a Primetime Emmy for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album. As a conductor, he has led the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the Boston Pops.

Thomas Newman is an American composer widely regarded as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary film scoring, having composed music for more than 80 motion pictures and television series over a four-decade career. A member of Hollywood's storied Newman dynasty — son of Alfred Newman and cousin of Randy Newman — he has earned 15 Academy Award nominations, six Grammy Awards, and an Emmy for his theme to HBO's Six Feet Under, with frequent, longstanding collaborators including director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall, 1917) and Pixar (Finding Nemo, WALL-E, Elemental). His recent work includes the 2025 Netflix film The Thursday Murder Club and the true-crime series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the latter co-composed with his daughter, Julia Newman, as well as the 2026 Andrew Stanton film In the Blink of an Eye. He has upcoming projects including Marc Forster 's Anxious People, again alongside Julia Newman, and Shawn Levy 's Star Wars: Starfighter.

James Newton Howard is one of the film industry's most versatile and honored composers, with a career spanning more than three decades and encompassing over 140 film and television projects. A nine-time Academy Award nominee and Emmy and Grammy winner, he has scored franchises and films including The Hunger Games, Fantastic Beasts, King Kong, and M. Night Shyamalan's thrillers, and has also been honored with ASCAP's Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement and the BMI ICON Award. His recent work includes Paul Greengrass 's The Lost Bus, Netflix's Emmy-nominated All the Light We Cannot See, and he is returning to score The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the sixth installment in the franchise, for director Francis Lawrence , alongside Tony Gilroy's upcoming Behemoth!. Beyond film, Howard has composed acclaimed concert works, including a Concerto for Violin and Orchestra premiered by James Ehnes and a Concerto for Cello and Orchestra premiered by LACO, and has collaborated as a producer, arranger, and songwriter with artists such as Elton John , Barbra Streisand , and Chaka Khan .

John Powell is an English composer, based in Los Angeles since 1997, best known for his prolific and wide-ranging work in film scoring, having composed music for over 70 feature films across both live-action and animation. A two-time Academy Award nominee for How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and Wicked (2024), he is celebrated for scoring major franchises including the Bourne series, X-Men, Shrek, and Ice Age, and is widely noted as having written more music for animation than any other modern composer. His recent work includes Wicked: For Good (2025) and the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon (2025), both reuniting him with prior collaborators. He is set to score DreamWorks Animation's upcoming sequel Shrek 5, directed by Conrad Vernon and Walt Dohrn. He is also attached to Illumination's Minions & Monsters, continuing a partnership with the studio that includes Migration and The Lorax. Powell got his start in Hans Zimmer 's Remote Control Productions, where he built long-running creative partnerships with composers including Harry Gregson-Williams and Zimmer himself.

For information about LACO's upcoming 2026-27 season, visit laco.org . For more information about Colburn's campus expansion and Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall, visit colburnschool.edu/future .

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) ranks among the world's top musical ensembles. Beloved by audiences and praised by critics, the Orchestra is a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks and, with eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, a champion of contemporary composers. Headquartered in the heart of the country's cultural capital, LACO has been proclaimed 'America's finest chamber orchestra' (Public Radio International), 'LA's most unintimidating chamber music experience' (Los Angeles magazine), 'resplendent' (Los Angeles Times), and 'one of the world's great chamber orchestras' (KUSC Classical FM). Performing throughout greater Los Angeles, the Orchestra has made 33 recordings, toured Europe, South America, and Japan, and appeared in concert across North America. More information is available at laco.org .

Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2022, Spanish conductor Jaime Martín has been Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since 2019 and will become its Music Director Laureate from the 2027–28 season. He has also held the positions of Chief Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (2019–2024), Principal Guest Conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra (2022–2024), and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Gävle Symphony Orchestra (2013–2022). In 2024, Martín became Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Highlights of recent seasons include Martín's critically acclaimed conducting debut at the BBC Proms with BBC NOW and leading the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in an 11-day Beethoven Festival, conducting all nine symphonies, and on a UK and Europe tour including appearances at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Edinburgh International Festival , and concludi

_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/Seth-MacFarlane-to-Commission-Film-Composer-Fanfares-for-Los-Angeles-Chamber-Orchestra-20260925)._