Disney Hall conductors

Zubin Mehta, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s music director from 1962-78, returns to conduct the Phil at a 50th anniversary concert on Dec. 13, 2012.   (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

The New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert, makes a belated Walt Disney Concert Hall debut on May 9, 2012.   (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Grant Gershon, music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, leads his group in a March 6, 2011, performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall.   (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s music director since 2009, leads the Phil in Tchaikovsky’s three Shakespeare concert pieces -- “Hamlet,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Tempest” -- on March 10, 2011.   (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony visit Walt Disney Concert Hall on Jan. 26, 2009. Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony closes their program.   (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Christoph Eschenbach leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Nov. 11, 2004. On the program is Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” (Songs on the Death of Children) with bass-baritone soloist Thomas Quasthoff.   (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

James Conlon visits in October 2004 to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic in concerts devoted to the work of composers who perished in Nazi concentration camps. Shortly before, he was named to succeed Kent Nagano as music director of Los Angeles Opera.  (Damon Winter / Los Angeles Times)

Marin Alsop, rising through the ranks of conductors, leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic on April 8, 2004. Lang Lang is piano soloist.   (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Franz Welser-Most, the Austrian conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, visits on Feb. 19, 2004, to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Radu Lupu is piano soloist.   (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Russian conductor Valery Gergiev makes his Disney Hall debut on Feb. 14, 2004, leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a program of Prokofiev, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.   (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Simon Rattle conducts the Berlin Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Nov. 21, 2003. The program’s pinnacle is Schubert’s C-Major Symphony (“The Great”).   (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic dive into the second night of Walt Disney Concert Hall’s gala openings on Oct. 24, 2003. John Adams’ “The Dharma at Big Sur” anchors the program, which also includes Salonen’s “LA Variations,” Witold Lutoslawski’s Cello Concerto and Silvestre Revueltas’ “Sensemaya.” Yo-Yo Ma is cello soloist.   (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)