Founded in 1842, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and has worked with leading conductors including Gustav Mahler and Leonard Bernstein. Now it’s the turn of the Venezuelan ‘wonder boy’ as he was previously called in the American press.
With his new appointment, the popular Venezuelan conductor says goodbye to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, where he has been successfully at the helm since 2009. With that orchestra he played the soundtrack of Steven Spielberg’s remake of the “West Side Story” in 2019. Later that year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The system
Dudamel, born in 1981, was raised musically by El sistema, a large music education project in Venezuela for poor children in particular to provide them with a means of existence. “I owe everything I am to El Sistema,” he once said.
His career became a success story, partly thanks to El Sistema.
In his statement yesterday, he said that he is looking forward to the new period: “Together we are convinced that culture creates a better world and that music is a fundamental right for everyone.”
The maestro has been artistic director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in his home country since 1999 and chief of Opéra National de Paris since 2021.
