Dudamel will fulfill his dream of directing the Vienna Philharmonic in Mexico
Twenty-two years after playing the violin with a children's orchestra at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Venezuelan music director Gustavo Dudamel returns to this emblematic Mexican audience, where he will fulfill his dream of directing the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
"I am infinitely excited and happy to be in Mexico. It's a dream come true, "said Dudamel, who will conduct three concerts this weekend and will participate in various musical activities. Tonight and tomorrow he will direct one of the most appreciated orchestras in the world at the Palace of Fine Arts, while on Sunday he will perform at the National Auditorium, at some recitals where works by Charles Ives, IIch Tchaikovsky, Johannes Brahms, Amadeus will be performed Mozart, Gustav Mahler and Hector Berlioz.
Also, sponsored by the Gustavo Dudamel Foundation, members of the Orchestra will give master classes and workshops to children from different Mexican music schools, as well as community music groups.
Dudamel, very aware of the importance of music for the development of children, wants to export the model of children's orchestras of Venezuela, thanks to which Venezuelan children without resources have free access to music education.
"What I try to do is give the children the opportunity to have what I experienced," said Dudamel, who was part of a humble children's orchestra when he was small and argues that music is vital for growth as human beings.
Asked about the institutional and economic crisis in Venezuela, the director assured that his country is wonderful and that it will get ahead of this complex situation.
"The beauty is the unifying power of music in situations of polarization," he said, and defined the system of Venezuelan children's orchestras as a garden that leads the country to hope.
Dudamel revealed that as a child he simulated at home that he was the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic; For this reason he celebrated the opportunity to fulfill that dream and, in addition, in the Palace of Fine Arts, where he already acted on one occasion. "A director without an orchestra is nobody. If they saw me moving their hands without music they would ask 'What is this crazy man doing?' "He said laughing when asked about the awards he has received, among which are the Grammy Award (2012) or the Prince of Asturias of the Arts (2008).
For his part, Daniel Froschauer, president of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1842, highlighted the special relationship between Austria and Mexico, the only country that opposed the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany (1938). .
He also highlighted the great musical experience of Dudamel, with whom he has maintained an excellent relationship since 2006.
Gustavo Dudamel (Barquisimeto, 1988) is the musical and artistic director of the Philharmonic of Los Angeles and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, with which he rehearses on Skype due to the large number of commitments that force him to spend long periods outside of his country.