Gustavo Dudamel

From Philosopedia

Gustavo Dudamel (26 January 1961 - )

Dudamel, a world-famous conductor and violinist, was born in Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela. His parents were a trombonist father and a mother who was a voice teacher.

He studied his country's El Sistema music education program, learning to play the violin when 10. In 1999 he was appointed the music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolivar, after which he toured in other countries.

Dudamel's career as a conductor includes the Simón Bolívar Orchestra in Venezuela; the Gothenburg Symphony; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra; the San Francisco Symphony; and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

He is featured in the documentary film Tocar y Luchar and received the WQXR Gramophone Special Recognition Award in New York City in November 2007. Another US television news feature on Dudamel was on 60 Minutes in February 2008, entitled "Gustavo the Great."

(See Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music by Tricia Turnstall.).

In 2006, Dudamel married fellow Venezuelan Eloísa Knife Maturén, a classically trained ballet dancer and a journalist. The wedding took place in the cathedral at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Montalbán, a suburb of Caracas. They have a son, Martín Dudamel Maturén, a U.S. citizen