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New York (AFP) – Venezuelan star maestro Gustavo Dudamel will lead the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from 2026, the prestigious institution announced on Tuesday, a big blow to the musical transfer window.
“Today (Tuesday), I have the honor to be named as the future artistic and musical director of the New York Philharmonic, and to walk in the footsteps of Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini and Leonard Bernstein”, confirmed on Twitter the 42-year-old conductor.
One of the highest paid conductors in the world and one of the best known, Gustavo Dudamel today combines the musical direction of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2009) and the Paris Opera, where he arrived in 2021 on a six-year contract.
Fervent defender of wider access to music, Gustavo Dudamel, son of a trombonist and a singing teacher, is a pure product and one of the most illustrious representatives of “El Sistema”, the National Orchestra System for the youth of Venezuela, a famous popular education project in classical music founded in 1975.
As comfortable conducting a Mahler symphony as the music of Star Wars or the latest “West Side Story” by Steven Spielberg, he is considered one of the most talented conductors in the world.
Recognizable by his curly hair, he led the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra in a duet with Coldplay at the 2016 Super Bowl halftime concert, the most-watched annual event on television in the United States. .
With this recruit, the New York Philharmonic, the oldest American musical institution – it was created in 1842 – reaffirms its ambitions after the pharaonic $ 550 million renovation of its setting, David Geffen Hall, at Lincoln Center.
The room, which reopened this season, has a new design and much better acoustics.
Expected for the 2026-2027 season, on an initial five-year contract, as artistic and musical director, he will take up the duties of deputy musical director in New York in 2025, during his last season in Los Angeles.
Until then, he will conduct the New York Philharmonic as a guest for three dates in May.
The current musical director of “Phil”, the Dutchman Jaap van Zweden, had already announced his departure after the 2023-24 season.
© 2023 AFP
