July 31, 2007
Gustavo Dudamel
Gustavo Dudamel is only 26, but he's already a conducting superstar. He tells Alice O'Keefe how Venezuela is building a national identity based on music
Published by The Independent

"Opposite Gustavo Dudamel's apartment, building works are in progress. For weeks, the drilling and banging has started every morning at 7am. 'I am preparing three concerts, two of which are completely new material, and it's impossible to concentrate,' says the world's most precocious conductor. 'I feel like I'm living on a building site!' This mild exasperation is as close as Dudamel gets to the stroppiness for

During a month of SBNYO concerts in Caracas, the symptoms of what the Venezuelan press refer to as 'Dudamelmania' are much in evidence. The concert halls are packed with a mixed crowd of all ages and social backgrounds. Dudamel's appearance is often greeted with the kind of screams more often associated with boy bands, and queues of well-wishers form at his table. As Venezuela goes through considerable political upheaval and social division, Dudamel is everybody's hero, and an important source of national pride.

But Dudamel still determinedly inhabits the real world. The apartment that he shares with his wife, Eloisa, a ballet dancer and journalist, is on the seventh floor of an unassuming tower block in a middle-class area of Caracas. The sitting room is sparsely furnished, decorated with wedding photos and a caricature cartoon of the couple. A baton on the coffee table is the only clue to his fame. 'It is actually a very beautiful responsibility,' he says of his status. 'It doesn't weigh on me at all. I hope that I can show young people that it is possible to achieve your dreams though working and studying.'

Famously, Dudamel is a product of 'El Sistema', the network of music schools that provides 250,000 children throughout Venezuela with a free classical education. It was founded in 1975 by Maestro José Antonio Abreu, who believed introducing kids to classical music could heal the 'spiritual poverty' that perpetuates social and economic inequality. In the three decades since, El Sistema has achieved remarkable social results, with children from deprived backgrounds building successful careers as performers and teachers. It has also produced true excellence in Dudamel, Edicson Ruiz, now a bassist with the Berlin Philharmonic, and the SBNYO, a world-class orchestra of 17- to 24-year-olds that is signed to Deutsche Grammophon.

Dudamel is evangelical about the project. Unlike many musical prodigies, he says, he never had to choose between music and social life: the two were one and the same. 'Conservatories in Europe focus on individual study. In Venezuela , the most important thing is the orchestra. You create a community, with a shared objective. That's why [the SBNYO] has such a special sound: we have learnt together, as a collective.'

The socially engaged nature of El Sistema has given Dudamel a keen sense of the role music plays in the wider world. 'In El Sistema we are not just creating musicians, we are constructing a country. Our musicians are not separated from what is happening in the world, but they are focused on contributing to the future.'

Dudamel has taken this cooperative philosophy with him to the different orchestras he conducts. 'I can be very firm, but I also believe that the conductor is just another musician in the orchestra. When you are clear about this, it creates a magical atmosphere where everyone feels they can contribute.'

Musicians respond to his openness. Gloria Lum, a cellist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, said: 'There are many composers 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.'

But with Venezuela fiercely polarised over the 'Bolivarian revolution' spearheaded by President Hugo Chávez, Dudamel's de facto position as an ambassador for his country is far from easy. Since the government refused to renew the licence for RCTV, the opposition television station, earlier this year, there is increasing unease by many about restrictions on the freedom of expression.

Dudamel himself was criticised when he conducted the SBNYO playing the national anthem at the launch of TVes, the state-controlled channel that replaced RCTV. One 'open letter' circulated on many blogs compared him to Wilhelm Furtwängler, the conductor accused of being a Nazi supporter. Dudamel is unapologetic. 'The launch of TVes was an emotional moment for the country. But if you look at the 30 years of the orchestra, we have recorded thousands of anthems, for both state and private TV and radio channels. The image of the orchestra is made for everyone. ...People ask me what position I take. My position is that I make music, and I am Venezuelan. I want to promote the name of my country - not one political party or another, but my whole country.'

He says he will always come back to Venezuela , an enduring source of inspiration and motivation for him, no matter what international offers come his way.

'We are a young country, and hard-working. I am very optimistic. I think we are on a path of growth, and that one day we will take off our blinkers and realise that we know how to solve our problems', he adds".

Gustavo Dudamel and the SBNYO
appear at the Proms on 19 August (020-7589 8212) http://tickets.royalalberthall.com/season/
production.aspx?id=9489&src=t&monthyear=8-2007