Super John and LA Phil

Steve, Sebastian, Elias, and I flew out to Los Angeles at the end of January to visit Louisa for several days — fortuitously, our timing meant we missed most of the polar vortex — and on our second night in the "Entertainment Capital of the World," we had not one but TWO celebrity sightings. 

They occurred on the same evening, when we had tickets to hear and see the Los Angeles Philharmonic (known as LA Phil) present a concert of John Williams music at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

The view from the nosebleed seats at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Most tickets had been snapped up by the time we decided, shortly before leaving Minnesota, that it would be a fun thing to do. But Steve was able to buy five tickets through StubHub for Saturday, the third of four performances.

The concert program; how many songs do you recognize?

The first celebrity we spotted that evening was LA Phil music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel — although, I'm embarrassed to say, of the five of us, only Elias understood before the concert how much of a celebrity Dudamel is. I have since educated myself. The 38-year-old superstar conductor from Venezuela was the first classical musician to participate in the Super Bowl Halftime Show, has been the subject of a PBS special, and happens to be a longtime friend of 86-year-old superstar composer John Williams.

Before the concert started, Sebastian asked me if I thought Williams himself would attend. Without giving it too much thought, I said, "Probably not, since this is the third night." 

How wrong I was. We happily discovered at the end of the concert that Williams was indeed there, sitting in the front row. Dudamel invited him to come onstage and take a bow, and after the "Theme from Superman" encore, Williams took the baton and directed the orchestra in a Williams-arranged version of a popular tune he did not compose: "Happy Birthday."

Steve's photo of Dudamel, left, and Williams.

Williams turned to the audience and invited us to sing "Happy Birthday" to Dudamel, who turned 38 that day. So Steve, Louisa, Sebastian, Elias and I can now proudly say we've been conducted by John Williams!

The concert that night was recorded, and we hope to get a copy of it when it's released. In the meantime, if you want to hear examples of the marvelous LA Phil on this Super Bowl Sunday, check out Minnesota Public Radio's musical Super Showdown between the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The overtime matchup has each group performing Williams' Main Title from Star Wars. You can cast your vote and enter a drawing for a CD by the winning ensemble. 

I'm not going to tell you how to vote, but I'm rooting for Los Angeles!