EL PAÍS: Dudamel and the miracle of the ephemeral orchestra

Photo by Francis Tsang.

“To understand the catharsis of that night, you have to travel 30 years back, when the child Dudamel sits with his violin in one of the Encuentros of El Sistema in Venezuela, the prodigious artifact of social integration and music education copied in more than 100 countries. There he grew up; he continues to be the director of his main formation, the Simón Bolívar Orchestra, now fractured, with the musicians in exile.

“‘The most important thing is to create spaces so that these young people who come from such diverse realities can meet and enrich themselves,’ says [Gustavo Dudamel] in his dressing room, minutes before the concert, together with [María] Valverde, her eyes still red. ‘That is what I experienced as a child. After a week and a half, they are absolutely musically transformed. And how? Through the challenge. I remember that my teacher [José Antonio Abreu, the creator of the System in 1975 and discoverer of Dudamel], in times of crisis, did not lower his guard, but said: 'Now we are going to touch the most complex work'. Because what he provoked was desire, inspiration, motivation, he immersed us in the challenge, in beauty, which is what music is.’”

by Ana Alfageme for El País