Gustavo Dudamel was born in 1981 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela and acquired his musical education through the countrywide pedagogical network known as “El Sistema.” He began studying violin at the age of 10 and when he was 15 he took up instruction in conducting; soon thereafter he was already leading the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra. In 1999, the 18-year-old Dudamel was appointed Principal Conductor of the Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar, whose founder José Antonio Abreu continued to advise him as his career progressed further. Gustavo Dudamel came to international attention in 2004 when he won the first Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg. In the following seasons he made his first appearances with several leading orchestras, including the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. In 2007 he began his tenure as head of the Gothenburg Symphony, and in 2009 he additionally took on the position of Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His inaugural concert with the latter included the world premiere of John Adams’s City Noir and Mahler’s First Symphony and is available on DVD. Gustavo Dudamel has appeared with the Sinfónica Simón Bolívar at the Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms, and the Edinburgh Festival and in Berlin, Rome, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, and numerous American cities; he conducted the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Vatican in a concert commemorating the 80th birthday of Pope Benedict XVI. For his debut CD of two Beethoven symphonies, Gustavo Dudamel won the ECHO Klassik Award. In 2007 he was awarded the Premio de la Latindad, in 2008 the Harvard University “Q” Prize, and in 2009 The City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on March 24, 2007 with the Sinfónica de la Juventud Simón Bolívar in works by Gustav Mahler.
July 2010