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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000079.txt from 2007/04

From: "HAROLD" <harold@-----.br>
Subj: [DR-L] 'Contagious joy' of Los Angeles orchestra's newconductor
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:17:16 -0400


Joy about a conductor???Is this true??

'Contagious joy' of Los Angeles orchestra's new conductor

http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/story/0,,2054255,00.html

· 26-year-old Venezuelan promises a delicious time
· Another coup for system that teaches slum children

Rory Carroll in Caracas
Wednesday April 11, 2007
The Guardian

Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Sinfonica de la Juventud
Venezolana Simon Bolivar during the Lucerne festival last month. Photograph:
Urs Flueeler/Keystone/AP

The world of classical music acclaimed a new star yesterday after the Los
Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra named Gustavo Dudamel, a 26-year-old
Venezuelan
conductor who has electrified audiences, as its next music director.
The surprise announcement confirmed Dudamel's rapid rise from anonymity just
a
few years ago to a wunderkind who has been courted by European and US
orchestras in search of a fresh and passionate sound. It also marked another
success for a pioneering programme in Venezuela that offers children from
the
slums a route out of poverty and crime through a classical music education.

"I'm ecstatic about Gustavo. We've seen a million conductors, this was
different," one of the orchestra's violinists, Kristine Hedwall, 37, told
the
LA Times. "There's a joy in him that's really contagious."
Dudamel flashed evidence of that when the announcement was made at a press
conference. "LA is a combination of energies, and this is exciting. I feel
wonderful." To laughter, he shouted: "I love the hot dogs here."

He will inherit the baton at the end of the 2008-09 season when Esa-Pekka
Salonen, 48, steps down after 15 years as music director to concentrate on
composing. Under the Finn, who was also hailed as a wunderkind when he
started,
the orchestra has become known for its sense of adventure.

"This a joyous day. When I started to think about exiting some time ago, I
wanted it to be like this," Salonen told the press conference late on Monday
at
the Walt Disney Hall, the Philharmonic's Frank Gehry-designed home. "I
wanted to
be the one who hands over the baton to somebody wonderful, and the day has
come."

He became convinced the Venezuelan was the right successor after his US
debut in
2005 conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, followed
by
a return visit in January this year to conduct the orchestra at the Disney
Hall. "'This is the man,' I said to my wife," Salonen said. He will continue
to
conduct occasionally.

Members of the 106-strong orchestra expressed sadness that Salonen was
leaving
but there was no hiding the relief and excitement at the choice of
successor.
"Our great maestros tend to start their work here in their mid-20s," said
the
orchestra's president, Deborah Borda. "When Gustavo Dudamel took the
podium - I
know this is mixing metaphors - we had combustion. We knew something
remarkable
had happened."

A cellist, Gloria Lum, said the orchestra had been surprised by its
connection
with the Venezuelan. "There are many conductors who are technically perfect,
but they are taken with themselves, with their own ego as opposed to the
music.
With Dudamel, there is no artifice, no ego."

Amid the exaltations the only hint of dissonance came from commentators who
noted the prodigy's limited experience conducting a professional orchestra.
Next year he will have a two-week residency in LA and conduct several
concerts
in preparation for his inaugural season in 2009-10, when he will lead 10
weeks
of subscription concerts and summer performances at the Hollywood Bowl. It
is a
five-year contract.

Dudamel, who counts Simon Rattle and Daniel Barenboim among his influences,
started playing the violin aged 10 and conducting aged 12 as part of
Venezuela's youth orchestra system.

The conductor José Antonio Abreu started "el sistema" in 1975 with 11
children
in a garage. It expanded until there were centres across the country
auditioning and teaching thousands of children, most of them from slums,
which
are among South America's most violent.

The success of its graduates - one became the youngest ever bass player at
the
Berlin Philharmonic - is a source of national pride now funded by the
government. About 20 countries have studied and adopted elements of el
sistema,
which fuses discipline and hard work with a sense of exuberance.

Dudamel said he still needed to bone up on his English, which is less than
perfect. He promised that the orchestra would have a "delicious" time with
him.
"We will speak again with music, that is our language."

Career notes

Born in 1981 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela's music capital; started playing the
violin at 10. Began conducting at 12 and by 18 was appointed music director
of
the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, an ensemble
consisting mainly of children and teenagers from slums.

Created a stir in 2000 when touring Germany with the orchestra and grabbed
headlines in 2004 by winning the inaugural Bamberg Symphony Gustav Mahler
conducting competition. In 2005 he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra at
London's Royal Festival Hall as part of the International Conductors Academy
and signed a contract with Deutsche Grammophon.

His concerts in 2006 in Europe, the US and Israel were hailed as
inspirational.
A recording of Beethoven Symphonies 5 & 7 with the Simón Bolívar Youth
Orchestra of Venezuela was well received by critics. Returned to LA in
January
2007 as a guest conductor of the city's Philharmonic Orchestra.

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