Los Angeles Times: How Gustavo Dudamel is preparing 106 musicians from 22 countries for a monumental Bowl debut

Excerpt by Mark Swed for The Los Angeles Times published August 1, 2022

Gustavo Dudamel leads rehearsal at the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center for his upcoming performance at the Hollywood Bowl. (Justin Katigbak / For The Times)

“On Saturday morning, Gustavo Dudamel stood before a large orchestra of young musicians, along with a handful of eminent mentors seated among them, ready to give the downbeat. “Be careful of the level of volume you give me,” he said with a sly smile, before launching into a rehearsal of a raucous new piece. The exuberant orchestra clearly knew he didn’t mean hold back, just make it glorious.

“The orchestra, created by the conductor and his wife, Spanish actress María Valverde, contains players ages 18 to 26 from 22 countries. It is called Encuentros. The jazzy new piece they were rehearsing, an L.A. Phil commission by Venezuelan composer Giancarlo Castro D’Addona, is titled “Encuentro Obertura Festiva.” It will open a concert by the Encuentros Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl Tuesday night.

“Encuentro is Spanish for encounter. This encounter, Dudamel told me two days earlier in an encounter with him and Valverde following an L.A. Phil rehearsal at the Bowl, had been a dream since creating his Dudamel Foundation a decade ago, when he was in his early 30s. The modest operation, which he and Valverde co-chair, has the immodest goal of pursuing the dream of his mentor, José Antonio Abreu, founder of Venezuela’s El Sistema extensive music education program, which was the model for the L.A. Phil’s YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). The first Encuentros program was four years ago in Mexico City.

“For both Dudamel and Valverde, making music has to be something more than just making music. “They have to play in tune,” Dudamel explains. “They have to play the notes.” For that, the level of training is very high. The players work with 11 members of the L.A. Phil and famed members of other orchestras including Sarah Willis, the Berlin Philharmonic’s star French horn player, and Vienna Philharmonic concertmaster Rainer Honeck.

“But encounters must go beyond that, Dudamel insists. “We sometimes forget that, you know, it’s another thing, the human connection.”

“For Valverde, providing a sense of wellness is essential to making music together, and before the musicians played the first note, she arranged for a session with members from the Love Button Global Movement to create a family atmosphere. “They were coming from 22 different parts of the world. Some of them don’t speak English. Some don’t speak Spanish. One player from Japan doesn’t speak either English or Spanish,” she says, referring to the two languages in which the sessions are held.

“It’s not enough that they all speak the same language of music,” she continues. “We have to find ways for them to connect. And it is important that they don’t just know each other but also know themselves.”

“The mission of the foundation, Dudamel adds, is to provide the process — through encounters musical and, like the Chumash ceremony, beyond — that can lead to personal empowerment.

“I tell them, look, when you are walking on the street,” he explains, “you are normal people like everybody else. But you cannot imagine the power you have in your hands when you take an instrument and you play. You can transform the feeling of that person. People cry. People laugh. You are magicians.”

“Even so, it takes a magician to make a magician. The orchestra has been together for 10 days before Saturday’s rehearsal, preparing for Tuesday’s concert. The more than 100 (106 to be exact) young musicians will cap Dudamel’s three-week celebration of 100 seasons at the Bowl with a major new piece, “Gaia,” which the L.A. Phil has commissioned from jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter (bassist Esperanza Spalding is featured soloist) and Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, along with the “Encuentro” overture.

'Encuentros Orchestra'
Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave.
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Tickets: $1-$130
Info: (323) 850-2000, hollywoodbowl.com