Grammy-Winner in Free Outdoor Concert at the Music Center Aug. 2, 2025

Five-time Grammy-winning artist esperanza spalding will perform a free outdoor summer concert downtown L.A. on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025, at 8:00 p.m., at the Music Center’s Jerry Moss Plaza.

Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center

Esperanza spalding’s work interweaves various combinations of instrumental music, bass playing, improvisation, singing, composition, poetry, dance, therapeutic research, storytelling, teaching, regenerative agriculture, and urban land & artist-sanctuary custodianship.

She founded and co-directs Prismid Sanctuary, a non-profit organization that creates and stewards free artist residency, performance and workshop space in her hometown of Portland, OR.

Spalding has released eight full-length albums, including 2024’s “Milton + esperanza”—a collaborative album with Brazilian jazz singer-songwriter Milton Nascimento—which earned a GRAMMY^® nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

In addition to working with her heroes, which include Nascimento and Wayne Shorter, spalding has collaborated with Q-Tip, Janelle Monae, Robert Glasper, Terri Lyne Carrington and many others. She is a 2024 recipient of the Doris Duke Foundation Artist Award and a 2016 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellow.

This summer, spalding has partnered with The Music Center, UCLA Jane & Jerry Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, the Office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell and Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation to lead an iteration of her brainchild Songwrights Apothecary Lab (SAL), a six-week course offered through UCLA.

The hands-on, community-engaged SAL provides structure for musicians, music students, arts-based therapeutic practitioners and students in fields relating to sound, healing and cognition to develop music with enhanced therapeutic potential.

As part of SAL, The Music Center will offer several public engagement sessions where audiences can hear and discuss the music being created. For more information about SAL, visit musiccenter.org/sal.

Live at The Music Center is supported by Moss Foundation.  The free series is open to all and held annually outdoors on Jerry Moss Plaza.

No outside alcohol will be allowed. Beverages and food will be available for purchase on-site. Guests may bring their own picnic and outdoor chairs (no higher than 18 inches off the ground). For a list of prohibited items, visit musiccenter.org/prohibited.

$10 self-parking is available at The Music Center Main Campus Garage, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles (cash only), and at The Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall Garage, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles (cash or credit).  Valet parking will be available for $23 at the Hope Street entrances to the Music Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall, beginning two hours before the concert’s start time.

Guests are encouraged to take public transportation. The Music Center is located across the street from Gloria Molina Grand Park, which is home to the Civic Center/Grand Park station along the Metro B Line (Red) and Metro D Line (Purple). Additionally, Jerry Moss Plaza is easily accessible by taking Metro’s Regional Connector to the Grand Av Arts/Bunker Hill station along the Metro A Line (Blue) and E Line (Expo).

The Music Center welcomes all visitors, for those in need of vision, aural or mobility assistance, contact Guest Services at general@musiccenter.org

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