Los Mirlos to Headline "Live at The Music Center"

Los Mirlos will headline the fifth annual Live at The Music Center, a free summer concert open to all on Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center in Downtown L.A. As the founding architects of cumbia amazónica and one of the most storied bands in Latin American music history, Los Mirlos will play under the summer sky on Saturday, August 15, 2026, at 8:00 P.M.

The announcement marks a historic convergence. Los Mirlos, 53 years into a career that invented a genre and quietly shaped a cadre of artists worldwide, takes one of Los Angeles' most beloved outdoor stages just weeks after the global release of its landmark collaborative album THE WORLD MEETS LOS MIRLOS (Revancha Records / BMG, May 15, 2026). It is the kind of moment Los Angeles was made for, with communities as musically and culturally diverse as the band itself, gathering freely under the summer sky. For those discovering Los Mirlos for the first time, Live at The Music Center is the perfect opportunity to experience the acclaimed band at no cost and become lifetime fans.

Los Mirlos was born in the Peruvian Amazon in 1973, when founder Jorge Rodríguez Grández brought together electric guitar, Andean pentatonic melody, Afro-Caribbean percussion, and the psychedelic spirit of the jungle into something the world had never heard. They called it cumbia amazónica. Over the next five decades, cumbia amazónica would travel the world.

In 2025, Los Mirlos became the first Peruvian band to perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. In 2026, Peru's Ministry of Culture recognized the group as a Personalidad Meritoria de la Cultura. And, on May 15, 2026, Los Mirlos released THE WORLD MEETS LOS MIRLOS—the first collaborative album in the band’s history, featuring 12 tracks with Juanes, Bomba Estéreo, 311, Guaynaa, Los Bunkers, Monsieur Periné, Los Bitchos, LA LOM, Chicha Libre, La Coreañera, Mireya Ramos, Funky Munchies, Big Sempa, and Toy Selectah.

The band’s Live at The Music Center performance on August 15, 2026, brings this historic moment to Los Angeles—a place whose own Latin American communities have long known what the world is only now discovering.
 

— Jorge Luis Rodríguez Pérez, Musical Director, Los Mirlos

Live at The Music Center is a free annual outdoor concert held on Jerry Moss Plaza — a stunning 35,000-square-foot outdoor urban oasis at the heart of The Music Center's 22-acre campus in Downtown L.A., with views of Gloria Molina Grand Park and L.A. City Hall.

The concert is generously supported by the Moss Foundation. In October 2020, Jerry and Tina Moss provided The Music Center with $25 million—the largest single contribution for programming in the organization’s history—to support the expansion of free, high-quality, and culturally reflective public arts programming for all of Los Angeles. Past headliners have reflected the series' commitment to artistic excellence and community relevance:

• 2022: GRAMMY® and Latin GRAMMY®-winning band Ozomatli headlined the inaugural free concert.
   
• 2023: GRAMMY®-winning artists La Marisoul and Eliades Ochoa performed a medley of Latin, bolero, and big-band jazz.
   
• 2024: GRAMMY®-nominated family vocal group Sister Sledge, joined by additional members of the Sledge dynasty known as Sledgendary®, brought disco and dance hits to the Plaza.
   
• 2025: Five-time GRAMMY®-winning artist esperanza spalding, with performances by students enrolled in spalding’s brainchild Songwrights Apothecary Lab, crooned jazz music lovers.

The free Live at The Music Center series is open to all and designed to bring the full breadth and diversity of Los Angeles' communities together through world-class live performance.

“We invite all Angelenos to dance, celebrate and savor the final days of summer together with Los Mirlos, whose electrifying blend of psychedelic cumbia and Amazonian rhythms will bring audiences to their feet,” said Rachel S. Moore, president and CEO of The Music Center. “At The Music Center, we believe the performing arts have the power to bring communities together across cultures and generations, and this free concert will transform Downtown L.A. into a joyful gathering place filled with music, movement and shared connection.”

EVENT DETAILS
 

WHAT:            Live at The Music Center featuring Los Mirlos (Free Outdoor Concert)

DAT:               Saturday, August 15, 2026

TIME:              8:00 PM

WHERE:         Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center

                       135 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012

TICKETS:       Free and open to all. No ticket required.

MORE INFO:  musiccenter.org/live

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