Christopher Martin, principal trumpeter for the New York Philharmonic and spokesman, said that in a group as diverse as an orchestra, it's hard to get unanimity on anything. But on this occasion, "the unanimity was total." The object of this collective fervor is called Gustavo Dudamel, the charismatic 42-year-old maestro of the baton, who will be the next musical director of the so-called NY Phil starting in the 2026-27 season, for five years.
"Life has been generous to me," he responded this Monday at the press conference to present Dudamel, a native of Barquisimeto (Venezuela) in what will be his new home at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, one of the great world summits. “I hadn't thought about it, but I am proud to be the first Hispanic to become the director of the New York Philharmonic,” he confessed.
“I don't take it individually and I don't say that with false modesty. I always feel that what I represent involves so many people, including boys and girls, young people who are building their lives through music,” she continued.
“Here is that boy from Barquisimeto who has had the opportunity to make this wonderful journey and arrives at one of the most renowned art institutions in the world. This makes me proud and that it is a reference for children and young people to have the certainty along the way that dreams can always be achieved. You have to work, have a lot of discipline, love for what you do, but dreams are achieved, ”he stressed.
His appointment is considered a seismic movement for the scene. Gifted and energetic, he has been described in The New York Times as "a rare classical artist disrupting mainstream culture."
Up to now, Dudamel has held the positions of musical and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2009, musical director of the Paris National Opera since 2021, and musical director of the Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela since 1999, of which he recognized that Given problems in his country, he has not been able to work directly with them since 2017, although they remain in full contact.
In the history of the New York orchestra, he will be the 27th conductor and will become part of a legacy that includes Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini and Leonard Bernstein.
A superstar like Dudamel, chosen to succeed Jaap van Zweden, precise in driving but light in weight, has immediately drawn comparison to Bernstein for his Hollywood scent and civic stature. The composer of 'West Side Story is the great reference of the New York Philharmonic, the baton that in the sixties of the last century turned this orchestra into a myth. On Dudamel falls the weight of recovering the splendor of that time.
“If I think objectively, everything has been very natural, I have never felt that nobody has pushed me to do things. However, to be honest, it's a dream come true, to be in a place like the New York Philharmonic. Great names have passed through here, Bernstein, Mahler, Toscanini…, but, after all, it is about the orchestra and what this artistic community is, ”he stressed.
And he specified that “the conductor is nothing without the orchestra”. Since he has already conducted it 26 times, he knows that he has a group that he described as exceptional, and of which he praised his spiritual involvement in making music, which allows "the performances to be special."
Dudamel recalled that it was in 2007 when he took charge of the New York orchestra for the first time, when he had black hair, a hair that is now abundant with gray.
On his fame for taking risks, which has led him to make albums with the best orchestras in the world, to give voice to an animated character from 'Trolls World Tour', to inspire the popular television series in which the Mexican actor Gael García Bernal brought it to life, alternating between a Mahler symphony and a 'Star Wars' soundtrack, between a Johnn Adamas premiere and the Super Bowl halftime show, or taking part in pop musical adventures with Billie Ellish. or jazz with Herbie Hancock, Dudamel replied emphatically: "Every step we take has that delicious sensation of risk"
He recalled that when he was 23, 24 years old he was crazy, "a wild animal" and not only because of his thick hair. “At that age it is time to exaggerate everything. When I look back I tell myself that this was good, that it was necessary, it was the way to learn, ”he said. “At 42 I am no longer a promising youngster, but I am still young and I remain willing to let that wild animal out,” he said.
Dudamel praised his great teacher, maestro José Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema (of national orchestras) in Venezuela and a key figure in his career. He evoked that since he was a child he wanted to be a musician, but salsa. His father played the trombone in a band like that and he longed to be in the Fania All Stars. Until Abreu, his other father, appeared and entered El Sistema and found his other family. "At the age of 9 I was already directing the band at home, making recordings, for my parents and my stuffed animals," he recalled.
He will fly to New York from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where Dudamel has helped build a musical empire and helped make the Californian orchestra one of the most innovative and financially successful in the United States.
Over the past six years, the New York organization has reshaped itself in the image and likeness of Los Angeles, the most ambitious and progressive orchestra of the 21st century. In 2017, the Big Apple signed Deborah Borde, executive head of the orchestra of the Los Angeles institution. She took him to Los Angeles, when Dudamel was a prodigy in his early twenties, and she's the one who has now stolen from the teacher. This Monday she was radiant next to her.
You don't just live on music. Dudamel remarked that he is very committed to education. In the Californian city he founded YOLA, the youth school, and a journalist already proposed the name for the one in New York: YONY. “Sounds good,” he joked.
“It is part of my DNA to work with young people, to take the orchestra to the community. It is not about waiting for people, but about going. Music is a tool for social transformation,” she said.
"Artistic institutions have to be the identity of the community, it is not just entertainment, we cannot limit the dimension of what we do to just entertaining, there is also an aspect of transformation," he reiterated. Speaking in English, she recalled a phrase by Miguel de Unamuno, "freedom is in culture."
Dudalmel maintained that "we have a mission as artists, especially in our time." One of the most significant transformations involves ending the fear of classical music among young people, because it seems to them something old when in reality, it is current every time it is performed, he stressed. “We have to educate people, but not by putting art on a pedestal without access. We have to change that mentality and the only ones who can do it are us with what we do ”, he clarified.
He praised the energy and cultural vibes of the city that will be his new home. "New York is an opportunity and it's going to change me, but I have to live it to know it."
They asked him a very New York question: about the Yankees or the Mets? The two baseball teams from the Big Apple. "From the Cardinals of Barquisimeto," he replied first. He had played and claimed that he was doing well. Then he quoted the Los Angeles Dodgers, a non-political response that he tried to fix, remembering that this team was born in Brooklyn, "there's a bridge there." And almost in a whisper he opted for the Yankees, the Bronx bombers.
