Delirium Musicum: Los Angeles

In March 2026, touring chamber orchestra Delirium Musicum (DM) performed and rehearsed for two concerts in its hometown of Los Angeles. Consisting of bowed strings and a keyboard synthesizer, the ensemble features both local and traveling musicians. Each concert is curated by DM’s leader, violinist Etienne Gara, who also recently became a father. 

Over the course of a week, the players rehearsed at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz of Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles, then at Global Arts in Pico Union. On Saturday evening, they performed at Benjamin Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project, then repeated the program for the Sunday Morning Music series at Santa Monica College’s BroadStage. 

To DM, BroadStage has become a familiar performance space. According to Rob Bailis, BroadStage’s artistic and executive director, DM is among the venue’s most frequently presented ensembles. Citing the scope of the energy in their performances of classical music, Bailis called them the “next generation.” 

Violinist Etienne Gara rehearses with Delirium Musicum at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, watched in the audience by visiting students of Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles. “People love something new,” Gara said of music in Los Angeles. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

(L-R) Cellists Joo Lee, Javier Iglesias Martin, and principal Stella Cho rehearse Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

SuKyung Chun's double bass during Delirium Musicum rehearsal at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. Chun began the bass at 16 in Korea after only studying cello for a year at the age of seven. She asked to play the bass later, after seeing her younger brother take lessons. Chun said that from the start, the bass did not feel "weird" to her at all. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Chamber orchestra Delirium Musicum, led by violinist Etienne Gara, rehearses at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz of Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Delirium Musicum (DM) founder Etienne Gara at Theatre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, addresses young visiting students of Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles from the stage before rehearsing. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Violinist Etienne Gara rehearses Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Cellist Javier Iglesias Martin rehearses with Delirium Musicum at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

(L-R) Violinist Etienne Gara and violist Chris Broyles rehearse Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

(L-R) Cellists Joo Lee, Javier Iglesias Martin and principal Stella Cho rehearse at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Calif. on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. "There's always a twist or two," Lee said of interpreting music with Delirium Musicum. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Boston-based violinist Sophia Szokolay during rehearsal at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

(L-R) Violist Chris Broyles and violinist Evan Hjort rehearse Bach's Brandenburg concerto No. 3 at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. Hjort said, "Art arising from necessity is just a thing. It's like my mantra these days - every day. I don't ever want to make art that's automatic just because." (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Seattle-based violinist Evan Hjort listens and demonstrates from the audience during rehearsal at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. "The thing that that I can say bothers me most about just the classical world is the emphasis on achievement and on relatability and athleticism," said Hjort. "The performances I've been most affected by, both as a participant and an audience member, have rarely been the most perfect ones." (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)(Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

(L-R) Violinists Juchao Zhao and Misha Vayman rehearse at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. Zhao's violin was a gift from his parents after he graduated with his Master's Degree after six years studying at The Juilliard School. He currently pursues a Doctorate of Musical Arts at University of Southern California. Vayman is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and plays in his band Astral Mixtape, which blends instrumentals with electronics. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Etienne Gara feeds son Elian during a rehearsal break at Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz in Los Angeles, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. Elian was born in January, going on tour five weeks later with violinist parents Etienne Gara and YuEun Kim. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Baby Elian Gara (front), son of violinists Etienne Gara and YuEun Kim, during Delirium Musicum's (DM) rehearsal at Global Arts in Los Angeles, attended by philosophy professor Jay Conway (R), Friday, March 27, 2026. DM rehearsed Kodály's Intermezzo from Háry János Suite, arr. G. Bersanetti; and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, arr. Jacques Cohen, based on its 1922 orchestration by Ravel. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Bassist SooKyung Chun during rehearsal at Global Arts in Los Angeles, Friday, March 27, 2026. Chun originally moved from Korea to California to study with Los Angeles Philharmonic bassist David Allen Moore after obtaining her degree from Seoul National University. She had taken a lesson with him first when he came to Korea, translated by her father. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Delirium Musicum principal cellist Stella Cho dress rehearses Sunday, March 29, 2026, at BroadStage in Santa Monica, Calif. Cho also joins violinists Etienne Gara and YuEun Kim during their MusiKaravan series, a smaller satellite project created during the Covid pandemic and centering around a restored 1971 Volkswagen bus named Boris. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

(L-R) Delirium Musicum's cello section, Joo Lee, Javier Iglesias Martin, and principal Stella Cho, perform at BroadStage's Sunday Morning Series on Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Santa Monica, Calif. After the performance, Martin said they had had to "quickly get in the zone" for the morning concert, "but I thought it was normal. I thought people really enjoyed it." (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Violinists YuEun Kim (front), Yeonglee Kim (L) and Sophia Szokolay (R) dress rehearse at BroadStage for the Sunday Morning Music series, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Santa Monica, Calif. YuEun Kim, married to Etienne Gara, first met him when she relocated from Korea to California to study with Midori Goto at the University of Southern California. "I never wanted to date a violinist either," Kim said. "I succeded avoiding that until I met him." (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Violinist Sheng-Ching Hsu shares a smile during rehearsal at Global Arts in Los Angeles, Friday, March 27, 2026. (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

(Clockwise from top L) Delirium Musicum violinists Misha Vayman, Juchao Zhao, Evan Hjort and leader Etienne Gara perform Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition at BroadStage, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Santa Monica, Calif. Hjort said, "I don't want to walk away from a performance that makes an audience go, that was impressive. Like, okay, then you wake up tomorrow and your day is just like any other day. But if there's one thing I think is really cool about this Mussorgsky, it's just like, it ends on the most joyous, and deservedly joyous note. You go through all this stuff and then it's just music about sheer joy."  (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Delirium Musicum performs at BroadStage's Sunday Morning Music chamber series, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Santa Monica, Calif. Leader Etienne Gara said, "At the very beginning of curation, I think there's a desire to engage with an audience, to enter this kind of communion with their audience.... more like a human experience that's working together ... vibration, resilience, electricity in the air where you feel that all the players in the audience are leaving something very meaningful and strong together." (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)

Seattle-based violinist Evan Hjort at BroadStage in Santa Monica, Calif., just before performing with Delirium Musicum (DM) on Sunday, March 29, 2026. Hjort first began to work with DM in January 2022. He had suffered a nerve injury while at New England Conservatory in Boston, while he was feeling isolated and "thinking about just stepping away from music." That year, he spent 23 days recording DM's first album over the period of a month in Los Angeles. Hjort said before the BroadStage concert, “I hate recording, right? It's just this magnifying lens on all of your flaws. And I think to make it through that and feel good at the end of that passage, it’s just such a sense of family - and I was just in the dressing room thinking, it’s a cool life." (Elizabeth Bacher | The Corsair)