GUSTAVO DUDAMEL'S appointment as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic probably surprised some classical music fans in Venezuela, but not because they didn't eventually expect such an achievement from the young conductor.
It was common knowledge in Venezuela's music circles that Dudamel had received standing ovations at concert halls in Milan, Florence, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Washington and Los Angeles, and that critics routinely described him as a charismatic prodigy. Dudamel, 26, is from Barquisimeto, a city of about 1 million in western Venezuela. He was the main director of the Swedish Gothenburg Symphony before landing the L.A. post, which he will start in 2009.
Although nobody from the Venezuelan media was in Los Angeles covering the April 9 announcement of Dudamel's appointment, news of the event blanketed the country's broadcast media that night and made the front page of most Venezuelan newspapers the next day.
Not a small achievement considering that April 11 is the anniversary date of the failed coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002, and both the government and opposition parties use the occasion to make political news in the deeply divided country.
Nevertheless, a huge photograph of Dudamel appeared on the front page of El Nacional, a leading newspaper, with the headline: "Dudamel, the laureate Venezuelan, will head the L.A. Phil."
The broadcast media portrayed the appointment as the internationalization of the phenomenon Venezuelans call Dudamelmania. "Dudamelmania," said one reporter, "keeps on growing, and now every time [Dudamel] gives a concert in Caracas, it's sold out, and you have to arrive well in advance [of the curtain] and be prepared to fight to keep your seat."
One newspaper, Tal Cual, celebrated its seventh year with an 80-page special supplement praising the glories of the 31-year-old Venezuelan music-education system that produced Dudamel.
The National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras was started by Jose Antonio Abreu, an economist by training who also plays the organ, piano and harpsichord. His dream, as recalled in the newspaper by his friend, violinist Jose Francisco del Castillo, was to assemble an orchestra of youngsters that would be able to play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
The first orchestra was assembled in the mid-1970s, and the two friends started raising money and widening their circle by adding music teachers and administrators whose love of music exceeded their need for money. A second young orchestra was formed in 1976, and what is now known as the "system" was born.
