Four years can be an eternity in music, but Pacific Jazz Orchestra has come remarkably far in a short time. Founded in 2022 by composer, arranger and conductor Chris Walden, the Los Angeles-based ensemble is still young enough to qualify as a relative newcomer. Yet its distinctive 40-piece combination of jazz big band and string orchestra has already established a growing presence across Southern California while giving Walden an unusually versatile canvas for collaborations that stretch well beyond the traditional boundaries of jazz.
On October 10th, PJO will celebrate both how far it has come and the man largely responsible for getting it there. The orchestra’s annual benefit takes place on Walden’s 60th birthday at a historic private estate in Southern California, where an evening under the stars will begin with a sweet and savory buffet reception and hosted bar before moving into an intimate concert, live auction and dancing.
Walden has assembled quite a birthday guest list. Sixteen-time Grammy-winning producer and songwriter David Foster will be joined by singer and actress Katharine McPhee, Grammy-winning singer and Broadway performer Joanna “JoJo” Levesque, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, jazz vocalist Veronica Swift, pianists Emmet Cohen and Shelly Berg, and R&B/soul singer Adam “AeJaye” Jackson. Rather than simply placing those disparate musical voices alongside one another, Walden is creating original arrangements for a program spanning jazz, swing, Latin, R&B, pop and musical theater. The full PJO will eventually give way to its 17-piece Big Band Ensemble, carrying the celebration into its final stretch.
It is a fitting showcase for a musician whose own career has audaciously crossed genre boundaries. The German-born Walden has earned seven Grammy nominations, scored more than 40 film and television projects and written more than 1,500 orchestral and big-band arrangements for artists including Aretha Franklin, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Rihanna and Barbra Streisand. He has also become a fixture behind the scenes at the Academy Awards, where he has served as lead arranger, overseeing upward of 120 pieces of music for a single ceremony, from winner and presenter walk-ons to musical transitions and featured performances. Long before PJO, meanwhile, Walden’s earlier big band helped bring him to the attention of Foster, beginning a professional relationship that would prove pivotal in the course of his career.
If October 10th provides an opportunity to look back, PJO’s next chapter gives Walden plenty of reason to look forward. The benefit arrives during the orchestra’s fourth season, dubbed “Four & More,” with a slate that demonstrates just how broad its musical reach has become. The 2026–27 lineup begins with two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster at The Soraya and continues with a tribute to Quincy Jones, a holiday program featuring Brenna Whitaker, Sy Smith and Billy Valentine, singer-pianist Kandace Springs at The Wallis and a May finale at Irvine Barclay Theatre celebrating the music of Charlie Brown and Peanuts with acclaimed pianist and composer David Benoit.
For an orchestra founded only in 2022, it is an impressive ascent, and the timing gives this year’s benefit significance beyond a milestone birthday. It offers a snapshot of an ensemble that has grown quickly without settling into a narrow musical identity, just as another ambitious season begins to unfold. With 60 years to reflect upon, PJO now in its fourth season and considerably more ahead, Walden has reached a natural moment to consider both journeys. Ahead of Walden’s birthday celebration, LAexcites spoke with him about the personal and professional milestone, bringing such varied musical voices together, Foster’s early influence on his career, PJO’s evolution and which part of its new season he is most eager to bring to life.
The October 10th benefit falls on your 60th birthday. What does it mean to celebrate that milestone onstage with PJO and so many artists who have been part of your musical life?
Walden: I can’t think of a better way to mark sixty than surrounded by this orchestra and by artists who’ve shaped so much of my musical life. PJO has become the most meaningful project of my career, and having that milestone birthday land on the same night as our benefit feels less like a coincidence and more like a full-circle moment. It’s a chance to celebrate not just a birthday, but everything this ensemble has built in four years — and to do it with people I’ve collaborated with, learned from, and in some cases known for decades.
The benefit brings together artists as varied as David Foster, Katharine McPhee, Joanna “JoJo” Levesque, Anne Akiko Meyers, Veronica Swift and Emmet Cohen. How do you approach creating arrangements for such different musical voices while making the evening feel cohesive?
Walden: Part of the fun — and the challenge — of arranging for artists as different as David, Katharine, JoJo, Anne Akiko, Veronica, and Emmet is finding the thread that connects them without flattening what makes each of them distinct. I try to let the orchestration serve the artist rather than impose a single sound on everyone, but I also think about pacing and contrast across the whole night: where the strings should carry the emotional weight, where the band needs to swing hard, where a soloist like Emmet needs space to just play.
David Foster played an important role early in your career and will be joining you for the benefit. Looking back, how did his support help shape the direction your career ultimately took?
Walden: David’s support came at a point when I was still finding my footing, and it mattered enormously. He believed in what I could do before I’d fully proven it, and he opened doors — creatively and professionally — that gave me the confidence to take on bigger work. That kind of early trust from someone whose ear and instincts you respect shapes how you approach everything after. Having him join us on October 10th, decades later, feels like a real acknowledgment of how far that relationship has carried both of us.
When you founded Pacific Jazz Orchestra in 2022, what did you envision it becoming, and four years later, what about its evolution has surprised or gratified you most?
Walden: When I started PJO four years ago, I wanted to build something that treated jazz orchestration with the same ambition and care you’d bring to a symphony program — a place where a 40-piece big band could tackle serious, large-scale work and still feel alive and immediate. What’s surprised and gratified me most is how quickly the community around it has grown — donors, audiences, and now artists at the level of our advisory board, who’ve stepped in because they believe in what we’re doing. Four seasons in, it’s exceeded what I let myself imagine at the start.
PJO’s 2026–27 season ranges from Sutton Foster and a Quincy Jones tribute to Kandace Springs and the music of Peanuts with David Benoit. Which upcoming program are you personally most excited about, and why?
Walden: It’s hard to pick just one, but I’ll admit I’m especially looking forward to the Quincy Jones tribute. Quincy was on our advisory board until he passed in 2024, and this program is our chance to honor not just his music but what he meant to this orchestra directly. That said, David Benoit and the music of Peanuts is going to be pure joy for audiences of every age, and Sutton Foster brings a theatricality to the stage that I think will surprise people who only know PJO from our more traditional jazz programming. That range is really the point of this season.
Cover image caption: Seven-time Grammy-nominated composer, arranger and conductor Chris Walden has written more than 1,500 orchestral and big-band arrangements over the course of his career. Photo courtesy of Pacific Jazz Orchestra.
Pacific Jazz Orchestra’s annual benefit concert takes place Saturday, October 10th at a historic private estate in Southern California. The evening begins at 7 p.m. with a sweet-and-savory reception and hosted bar, followed by the PJO concert at 8 p.m. and its 17-piece Big Band Ensemble and dancing under the stars at 9 p.m. The celebration also includes a live auction. Tickets are $325 and include complimentary valet parking, with cocktail attire suggested. The estate address will be provided upon confirmed reservation. For further information about the benefit, tickets and Pacific Jazz Orchestra’s 2026–27 season, visit pacificjazz.org.
