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It should be VERY interesting as reportedly, it is a great orchestra!!!!

NEC to Present Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra, Brilliant Young Conductor Gustavo Dudamel in 3-day Residency, Nov. 6--9

The Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, under its brilliant young maestro Gustavo Dudamel, will participate in a three-day Boston residency Nov. 6—9, as part of its first American tour. The visit will feature the orchestra’s debut concert at Boston’s Symphony Hall, Nov. 6, followed by a day-long chamber music seminar and a joint orchestral concert with New England Conservatory students. The Conservatory is presenting the orchestra in association with the Celebrity Series of Boston and the Boston Symphony Orchestra—-a first-time collaboration between these three musical institutions.

At its Symphony Hall concert, the SBNYO will perform the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and a selection of Music from Latin America. Program details for remaining performances will be announced at a later date.

Tickets for the Symphony Hall concert will be available for purchase by subscribers to the Celebrity Series and BSO beginning this spring and will go on sale later in the summer for individual purchase at the Symphony Hall and NEC Jordan Hall box offices and through the Celebrity Series. To receive a season brochure from the Celebrity Series, visit the website. To receive the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s season brochure, visit the BSO website To contact the NEC Box Office, visit the NEC website or call 617-585-1260.

The SBNYO is the flagship ensemble of Venezuela’s 31-year old National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras, a monumental program of music education that serves over 250,000 children and young adults, most of whom live in impoverished conditions. It was founded by José Antonio Abreu, an economist, organist and politician, who saw in the discipline of musical training and the communal spirit of the orchestral an opportunity to transform children’s lives.

From a start of 11 children rehearsing in a parking garage, the program has grown exponentially. Today, El Sistema, as it is familiarly known, is budgeted by the federal government at $29 million, employs 15,000 music teachers, operates 90 music schools, and feeds into 30 professional symphony orchestras within Venezuela alone. Some of its alumni have made international careers, like Dudamel—who won the 2004 Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition, regularly leads the world’s major orchestras, and was recently named successor to Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For many years, New England Conservatory has been informally supporting El Sistema and in 2005 signed a friendship agreement celebrating the relationship. The school regularly sends faculty—including violinist Donald Weilerstein, pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, violinist Marylou Speaker Churchill, Preparatory School Dean Mark Churchill--to coach the young musicians. NEC has also has organized two tours of Venezuela by its Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, and jointly created the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, which enlists young instrumentalists from throughout the North and South American continents to rehearse, play and tour together.

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