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Los Angeles Philharmonic

Wednesdays at 8:00 pm

Each year since its founding in 1919, the Los Angeles Philharmonic has been hailed as Southern California’s leading performing arts institution. Today, under the dynamic leadership of 28-year-old Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, who became the orchestra’s eleventh music director in October 2009, the Philharmonic is still recognized as one of the world’s outstanding orchestras. When he inaugurated his Philharmonic tenure at the Hollywood Bowl, a crowd of eighteen thousand people greeted him with a hollering and stamping pop-star ovation.

There are three main elements behind Gustavo Dudamel’s appeal. The first is his astonishing natural command of the art of conducting. Advance notice of his talent spread not through PR departments but via awestruck reports from such illustrious colleagues as Claudio Abbado and Sir Simon Rattle, who encountered him on visits to Venezuela. Second, Maestro Dudamel has an infectious emotional energy that tends to win over jaded souls in audiences and orchestras alike. He does not have the stone-faced mask of seriousness; his bright eyes suggest that he revels in what he does. Finally, his Latino background puts a new face on an art that is widely viewed as an all-European affair. He is a product of El Sistema, Venezuela’s legendary network of youth orchestras, which draws talent from the poorest sections of the country, and his perspective is bracingly different from that of the staid conservatory graduate.

The orchestra’s involvement with Los Angeles extends far beyond regular symphony concerts in a concert hall. It embraces the schools, churches, and neighborhood centers of a huge and vastly diverse community. In fact, the Los Angeles Philharmonic devotes much of its energy and resources to ensuring that its presence is felt in every corner of Los Angeles. Each year, there is a 30-week winter subscription season at the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a 12-week summer festival at the world-famous Hollywood Bowl, where Music Under the Stars has been a popular tradition since 1922.

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