That tradition will continue this weekend, first on Saturday with an evening of country music performed by Vince Gill, then on Sunday with the first concert in the jazz series, featuring the legendary Dave Brubeck Quartet. The world music series will kick off Wednesday with a concert of Brazilian bossa nova performed by Milton Nascimento and the Jobim Trio.

Moving into Disney Hall was one thing, says Laura Connelly, director of presentations. Learning to adapt jazz, pop and world music to the hall was quite another.

"The initial issue was the sound - the problem of putting non-acoustic music in a space that was built principally for the orchestra," Connelly says.

Anyone who attended those early concerts can attest to the hit and miss nature of the amplified acoustics.

"That first year," Connelly concedes, "there were a lot of `oops moments.' We did pretty well. We definitely understood we were facing a challenge. We just didn't understand how big a challenge it was going to be."

Those days are over.

"Since then, there's been a lot of tweaking and fine-tuning," she says. "In the beginning I would hear from a lot of bands, `Wow, it sounds really weird up here,' or `Wow, it sounds really great up here.' The conundrum, we discovered, is to make what these musicians do fit in the hall. In those first years there were nights when we found ourselves standing around scratching our heads saying, `Well, not much we can do about that.' "

According to Johanna Rees, who is in charge of booking the hall's alternative rock concerts (like the New Year's Eve celebrations with Pink Martini), there's a real back-and-forth exchange of program ideas at the philharmonic.

"It's a testament to the philharmonic's vision," Rees says. "If it's really creative musically, we're up for it."

And guess who's been providing some of those creative ideas ... conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen.

"He's very hip," Rees says. "So's his daughter. She gives him lots of ideas. I try to bring him things, and he tries to turn us onto things. It works both ways."

Like Connelly, Rees says she has run into problems making the philharmonic's wish list for booking new bands work out.

"We've custom-built our own sound system," she explains. "But it's a precarious space. There's some stuff we'd love to book, but it just won't work sonically."

On the flip side, Connelly says creative chairman Christian McBride has been a driving force for the jazz programs at Disney Hall.

"He really wanted to get Brubeck," she says. "He's been trying for years. He also was determined to present a tribute to Ray Brown, and we're going to do that Jan. 28 with a whole bunch of musicians that played with him over the years including John Clayton, Benny Green and Russell Malone."

It was Connelly, along with KCRW-FM celeb Tom Schnabel, who brought world music to the Hollywood Bowl beginning in 1999. And while the bowl is great, Connelly says, there's something really special about world music nights at Disney Hall.

"Disney Hall's intimacy offers a chance to present more traditional world music," she says. "It's more like a party atmosphere. And it's great to see all the different communities in Los Angeles having the chance to see these artists.

"This year we've got Brazil (with Nascimento); Japan (the taiko drumming of Kodo, Feb. 8); Argentina (`Tango Fire' with Estampas Portenas, March 1); and Portugal (fado singer Mariza, March 18)."