Gustavo Dudamel Conducts on the Next Classical Showcase

Friday at 7 pm on Classical 101, hear a prime example of the power of art to do good.  Gustavo Dudamel will lead the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra on the next Classical Showcase.  Venezuela's most famous musician will conduct a concert at Carnegie Hall with music by Carlos Chavez, Julian Orbon, and Silvestre Revueltas. Dudamel, who is now the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has conducted the group from his homeland since he was 17, and on Friday's program will lead them in music of Latin America with an orchestra that is to the manner (and not to the manor) born. Gustavo Dudamel is the most famous graduate of El Sistema, the Venezuelan music education system founded by Dr. Jose Antonio Abreau that has been so successful in taking children and adolescents out of dire poverty and crime-ridden streets, and by giving them a sound musical education, has in many cases transformed their lives.  The orchestra you'll hear Friday evening is the crown jewel of El Sistema, and the quality of the playing is remarkable.  Formerly called the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, "youth" has been dropped from the name, since the average age of the players in now in the 20's. Sinfonia India by Mexican composer Carlos Chavez will be heard as well as Cuban composer Julian Orbon's Tres Varsiones Sinfonicas.  Also featured is music of Silvestre Revueltas, whom Dudamel has called the "Latin American Stravinsky."  La noces de los Mayas (The Night of the Mayas) is a 30 minute suite, a musical portrait of a traditional Mayan tribe that has the energy of The Rite of Spring. Join us for the next Classical Showcase Friday at 7 on Classical 101 http://youtu.be/a1hhiIRGJg4