Cate Blanchett to Narrate Egmont with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC TO APPEAR AT MCCALLUM
PRESENTED BY PALM SPRINGS FRIENDS OF PHILHARMONIC
CATE BLANCHETT TO NARRATE BEETHOVEN’S EGMONT
(Palm Springs, CA) December 4, 2025… Palm Springs Friends of Philharmonic is honored and thrilled to announce that internationally acclaimed actor, producer and humanitarian Cate Blanchett has been added to the program as Narrator for Beethoven’s Egmont as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s concert Tuesday, February 17, 2026 at 7:30 pm with Gustavo Dudamel as Music Director.
Screen acting credits include roles in Tár, Nightmare Alley, Don’t Look Up, Ocean’s 8, Thor: Ragnorok, Carol, Blue Jasmine, I’m Not There, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Notes on a Scandal, The Life Aquatic, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skull, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit, The Good German, The Aviator, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Elizabeth. Blanchett has won numerous awards including two Academy Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild awards.
She is the Co-Founder and Principal of production company Dirty Films, (alongside partners Andrew Upton and Coco Francini), which recently delivered Proof of Concept, a program offering financial support, mentorship, and exhibition opportunities to women, trans and non-binary filmmakers.
For the company, Blanchett produced and appeared in Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy. She also produced Christos Nikou’s Apple Original Films feature Fingernails, with Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Allen White, and Noora Niasari’s debut feature Shayda, starring Zar Amir Ebrahimi. With Dirty Films, other producing credits include Todd Haynes’ Carol and Todd Field’s Tár, Christos Nikou’s Apples, the 10-time EMMY nominated Mrs. America for FX and producing and co-creating the 13-time AACTA-winning series Stateless for Netflix. She created and produced the award-winning Audible Original podcast Climate of Change, and produced Evolver, a VR interactive experience, which was, selected for the first ever Immersive Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
Blanchett served alongside Andrew Upton as co-Artistic Director and co-CEO of Sydney Theatre Company between 2008-2013, producing 16 shows a year across 4 stages. Productions for STC in which she also performed include Andrew Upton’s The Present directed by John Crowley for which she earned a Tony Award nomination on Broadway; Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Liv Ullman; Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya directed by Tamás Ascher; and Benedict Andrews’ productions of The War of The Roses, Genet’s The Maids and Botho Strauss’ Gross und Klein. Other notable productions included Steven Soderbergh’s Tot Mom, an adaptation of Kate Grenville’s The Secret River directed by Neil Armfield, Sam West’s True West directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, productions by director Kip Williams and David Harrower’s Blackbird and Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, both of which Blanchett directed. Among numerous awards at STC, Blanchett and Upton received the Green Globe Award for having transformed the company into one of the world’s greenest arts organizations.
Earlier this year Blanchett performed in Thomas Ostermeier’s production of The Seagull in London and has previously appeared at the UK’s National Theatre in Martin Crimp’s When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other directed by Katie Mitchell.
Blanchett has presided over festival juries in Cannes, Venice and Poland’s Camerimage, and the Venice Film Festival has twice awarded her The Volpi Cup for Best Performance.
She holds a BFI Fellowship from the BFI London Film Festival, has received the Stanley Kubrick Award for Excellence in Film and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Numerous other accolades include the Honorary Cesar, International Goya, Chaplin and Donostia Awards. She has been appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, named a Companion of the Order of Australia, presented with a Centenary Medal for service to Australian Society, and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney and Macquarie University.
Blanchett is a Global Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and is a member of the Earthshot Prize Council. She serves as a board member of the National Theatre (UK) and is the inaugural Ambassador for Wakehurst and the Millennium Seed Bank, is a lifetime member of the Australian Conservation Foundation, a strong supporter of the Actors Benevolent Fund, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, an AFI Ambassador and is Patron of the Sydney Film Festival and the NIDA Foundation, the drama school at which she trained.
Photo Credit: Renato Campora
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Tuesday, February 17, 2026 at 7:30 pm
Pre-Concert Talk at 6:30 pm
Gustavo Dudamel, Music & Artistic Director
Yunchan Lim, piano
Elena Villalón, soprano
Cate Blanchett, Narrator
Ricardo Lorenz: Humboldt’s Nature (LA Phil Commission)
Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto
Ludwig van Beethoven: Incidental Music from Egmont
Sponsored by Kathleen & Jerry Eberhardt,
Douglas G. Stewart, and JoAnn G. Wellner
Note: The Los Angeles Philharmonic concert is sold out, but you can be added to the wait list, as tickets sometimes do become available.
Redefining what an orchestra can be, the LA Phil is as vibrant as Los Angeles, one of the world's most open and dynamic cities. Led by Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, this internationally renowned orchestra harnesses the transformative power of live music to build community, foster intellectual and artistic growth, and nurture the creative spirit.
Tickets are sold by subscription, and the Board of Directors asks that every subscriber become a member of the Philharmonic by making an annual donation. It is only through the generosity of our patrons that we can bring the world’s finest orchestras to the Coachella Valley.
Programs and artists are subject to change without notice and all concerts are held at the beautiful McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, CA.
For more information and ways to support Palm Springs Friends of Philharmonic, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, call 760-341-1013 or visit www.PSPhil.org.
