One of today’s uniquely gifted conductors, Gustavo Dudamel continues to thrill international audiences and bring the highest level of musicianship to orchestras worldwide. His remarkable ability to communicate and become one with the orchestra takes musicians and listeners alike on a memorable journey. He is currently Music Director of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, has recently been appointed the Music Director of Los Angeles Philharmonic, effective 2009-10, and enters his tenth year as Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.

Gustavo Dudamel’s 2007-08 season officially opens with his first concert as Music Director of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. In September 2007, he returns to the Lucerne Festival for his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic with piano soloist Daniel Barenboim, and later in the season debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the Berliner Philharmoniker, and Berlin Staatskapelle.  In August 2007, Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela embark 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 in October, with performances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and in New York’s Carnegie Hall. Gustavo Dudamel returns to work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducts the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Dudamel also debuts this season with the San Francisco Symphony and returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra in London in June 2008. Other highlights include a performance at Berlin Staatsoper with La Bohème and a return to La Scala, also with La Bohème, along with concerts at Madrid’s Orquestra Nacional de España, Filarmonica della Scala and Orquestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Italy.

In the 2006-07 season, Gustavo Dudamel made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, among others.  The season also marked his debut at the Lucerne Festival Easter, where his performances with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela brought ovations “not seen before” at the KKL, the festival’s concert hall. Additional engagements included performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bamberger Symphoniker, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, and Gothenburg Symphony.

Gustavo Dudamel is an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist and his debut recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and 7 with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra was released worldwide in September 2006. His second recording with the Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, was released in May 2007.

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.