Summer 2008 brings Gustavo Dudamel to his Berliner Philharmoniker debut, Filarmonica della Scala and the Gothenburg Symphony. He tours Europe with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra with performances in Helsinki, Salzburg, Lucerne, Berlin, Frankfurt and Baden-Baden. In August 2008, Mr. Dudamel brings the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra to concerts at London’s BBC Proms, the Festpiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Wiesbaden Kurhaus, Aldeburgh and the Edinburgh Music Festival.

Gustavo Dudamel’s 2008-09 season opens in October with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra tour of Europe, including performances in Cologne, Essen, Luxembourg, Munich, Vienna, Barcelona, Valencia, San Sebastian and Valladolid. In November 2008, he tours the US with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, bringing it to New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washingon DC, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and to Disney Hall in Los Angeles. This is followed by two weeks of subscription concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. December brings Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra on a debut Asian tour to Japan, China, and Korea. Additional appearances this season are with Staatskapelle Berlin, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and a return engagement with the Berliner Philharmoniker, among others.

In the 2007-08 season, Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela embarked on a European tour with performances at the Edinburgh Festival and the BBC Proms in the UK, and five German venues, including Schleswig Holstein Festival, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Semperoper, Bonn Beethovenfest, and Frankfurt Alte Oper, followed by a US tour to rave reclaim in October, with performances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and in New York’s Carnegie Hall. He made his debut with the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and returned for performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony.

Gustavo Dudamel has been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2005. His debut recording, Beethoven 5&7 with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra was released worldwide in September 2006, and he has received the 2007 Echo Award (Germany) for “New Artist of the Year.” His second recording with the Orchestra, Mahler 5, was released in May 2007, and was chosen as the only classical album on iTunes’ “Next Big Thing.” His third album with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, FIESTA, was released in May 2008 and it is in essence, as the title suggests, a “fiesta” of Latin-American works, such as Revueltas’ Sensemayá, Carreño’s Margariteña, and Estévez’s Melodia en el Llano, as well as Bernstein’s Mambo, among others.

News of Gustavo Dudamel’s talent spread worldwide after his triumph at the inaugural Bamberger Symphoniker Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in May 2004. Born in 1981 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, he studied violin at the Jacinto Lara Conservatory with José Luis Jiménez and later, with José Francisco del Castillo, at the Latin American Academy of Violin. In 1996, he began his conducting studies with Rodolfo Saglimbeni and during the same year was named Music Director of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra. In 1999, along with assuming the Music Director position of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, he began conducting studies with José Antonio Abreu, the Orchestra’s founder. In May 2007, Dudamel was awarded the Premio de la Latindad by the Union Latina, an honor, given for outstanding contributions to Latin cultural life, which is presented by the 37 Latin American and African member states of the Union Latina organization. In 2008, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra was granted Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, given annually by the Principal Foundation of Asturias in Spain. Most recently, Dudamel was awarded the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Young Artists.