Someone needs to get Zigs on the phone and tell him that he has a doppelganger and it's the new Venezuelan LA Phil conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
But this post is not about that snippity salamander but rather about beautiful Gustavo. I very rarely post LA Weekly stuff on here other than my own but I must share, if you have not picked up this weeks LA Weekly, do so, now. Gustavo Dudamel the twenty-eight year old new conductor taking over for Esa Pekka Salonen is on the cover and the adjoining article is wonderful! Aside from being a total babe the Dude, as he is called, le sigh, is also one of the first successful alumnae of Venezuela's famous El Sistena orchestra started in the early eighties to change the lives of poor and marginalized youths in that country. The program has had overwhelming success and many of its first students and graduates- as you would cal them- are now in their late twenties. Many our now going into philharmonics around the world and energizing classical music with zest and youth. Something that is transforming the way the music is heard and received critically. Gustavo is the most visually available of these working musicians. And taking over our philharmonic!
I grew up not surprisingly in a house with music, around music lovers, my mom liked Paul Simon, Enya, Credence Clearwater, Tina Turner, Cream, Los Lobos, Bob Marly, et cetera, my dad only listened to Jazz but he was a fiend and the short while I lived with him it was always on in the house, my sister was into Goth and listened to the normal nineteen eighties bag of The Cure, Cocteu Twins and the odd Prince song. But classical I was not exposed to until school. I was lucky enough o be in schools with amazing music programs my entire life, even if I couldn't play I developed a taste for classical, and now I love it very much, although I wish I had a deeper knowledge of it. In any event I will definitely be heading to the Disney Center and the Hollywood Bowl next summer to see the Dude.
click here to read the entire article
