Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, Princeton University Concerts’ first Artist-in-Residence and current music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will return to the Princeton University campus for the final leg of his residency, from Monday, April 22 through Sunday, April 28.
Events include a performance by and community jam session with members of the Berlin Philharmonic; a showcase by students from the El Sistema-inspired Harmony Program of New York City; conversations with Nobel Prize winner physicist Kip Thorne and Irish public intellectual Fintan O’Toole; a day of shared music-making by almost 300 students from El Sistema-inspired programs across the East Coast; a film screening at the Princeton Garden Theatre; and two concerts in which Dudamel conducts the Princeton University Orchestra and Glee Club — one of which is a free (but ticketed) community concert at the Trenton War Memorial. This most extended and diverse visit is the culmination of Maestro Dudamel’s residency and the perfect celebration of Princeton University Concerts’ 125th anniversary celebration.
Two concerts are at the heart of this residency visit:
On Tuesday, April 23, at 7 p.m., members of the Ensemble Berlin will present works by Franz Schubert, Richard Wagner and a world premiere by Princeton University faculty composer Steven Mackey in a program curated by Maestro Dudamel that celebrates the intersection of music and nature.
Ensemble Berlin is made up of five players from the Berlin Philharmonic. They are joined by another four players from KonstKnekt, the orchestra’s training program located in Norway. A post-concert discussion extending this topic to the intersection between art (broadly defined) and nature will follow with Maestro Dudamel and Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Kip Thorne (California Institute of Technology).
All ticketholders are also invited to hear a showcase performance by students from the El Sistema-inspired Harmony Program of New York City at 6 p.m. Full view tickets are sold out for this evening; obstructed view tickets may be purchased by calling University Ticketing at 609-258-9220.
Maestro Dudamel will conduct the Princeton University Orchestra and Princeton University Glee Club in a program of works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Schubert.
The program includes a narrated performance of Mendelssohn’s “Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” featuring actors from the Princeton University Lewis Center for the Arts Program in Theater: Victoria Davidjohn, Class of 2019; Jacy Duan, ’21; and Kateryn McReynolds, ’20.
The concert on Friday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall, is sold out. However, as part of Princeton University Concerts’ and Maestro Dudamel’s shared mission encouraging access to music for all, this program will be repeated in a free (but ticketed) community concert at the Patriots Theater at the Trenton War Memorial on Saturday, April 27, at 4 p.m.
This concert will also include atmospheric video projections by renowned Venezuelan film director Alberto Arvelo. Tickets are online at princetonuniversityconcerts.org, or by calling University Ticketing at 609-258-9220. In the event of a sellout, any turnback tickets will be released on Monday, April 22, at 12 p.m.
Maestro Dudamel will additionally participate in community-focused events beyond his curated concerts:
On Monday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m., he has selected “The Liberator,” a film by director Alberto Arvelo, to be screened at the Princeton Garden Theatre. The film, featuring original music composed and conducted by Maestro Dudamel, recounts Simón Bolívar’s struggle to liberate South America. A question-and-answer event will follow. Tickets are on sale at the Princeton Garden Theatre.
On Wednesday, April 24, at 8 p.m., the community is invited to participate in Princeton University Concerts’ annual Chamber Jam at Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall. This opportunity offers amateur players of orchestral instruments to jam with members of the Berlin Philharmonic, one of the world’s greatest orchestras, reading Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 “Pastoral.” This event is free, but registration is required to participate. The event is currently at capacity for participants, with a waiting list available online at princetonuniversityconcerts.org or by calling the Concert Office at 609-258-2800. Non-participants are welcome to attend as audience members.
The Princeton University Center for Human Values will host a conversation on Thursday, April 25, at 8 p.m. in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall between Maestro Dudamel and Ireland’s leading intellectual Fintan O’Toole on the subject of “The Artist in Society.” O’Toole is a columnist for “The Irish Times” and is the Leonard L. Milberg, Class of 1953, visiting lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University. The conversation will be chaired by Melissa Lane, ’43, professor of Politics and director of the University Center for Human Values. A reception will follow. This event is free and unticketed.
The final event of Dudamel’s residency centers around an initiative very close to his heart: young people making music together. On Sunday, April 28, in the spirit of an El Sistema “Seminario,” young people from Trenton Music Makers and their guests from the El Sistema NJ Alliance, plus Play on, Philly! and OrchKids of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, will gather on the Princeton campus for a day of shared music making. The long-standing tradition in the El Sistema movement of bringing students together for a large-scale, communal experience will include Maestro Dudamel meeting the children and working with the programs’ instructors, and sharing his philosophy and invaluable experience. The seminario will culminate in a public concert with an orchestra of some 300 players and singers, performing at 3 p.m. in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall.
In addition to these public events, Maestro Dudamel will visit Princeton University student classrooms to participate in discussions about the history of great conductors, the music of Giuseppe Verdi, and the social, political and aesthetic impact of the human voice. He will be a guest at the Human Values Forum in a discussion with Princeton University students and at the Institute for Advanced Studies.
A complete residency schedule of public events is available and continually updated at princetonuniversityconcerts.org.
About Gustavo Dudamel
Driven by an unwavering belief in the power of music to heal, unite and inspire, Dudamel is one of the most distinguished conductors of our day. From the great concert halls to classrooms, video screens and movie theaters, Dudamel’s career of musical achievements and championing of access to the arts for young people around the world demonstrates music’s extraordinary capacity to transform lives.
Dudamel’s 2018-19 season centered around the centennial celebration of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and his 10th year as their music and artistic director. Other highlights of the season include his debut at the Metropolitan Opera conducting Verdi’s “Otello”; tours with the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic and Mahler Chamber Orchestra; and his first extended academic residency at Princeton University.
A lifelong advocate for music education and social development through art, Dudamel himself was shaped by his childhood experience with El Sistema, the extraordinary program of immersive musical training initiated in 1975 by José Antonio Abreu. Entering his 19th year as music director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel also carries on the work of his late mentor with his ongoing commitment to El Sistema in Venezuela, and by supporting numerous Sistema-inspired projects around the world, including Big Noise in Scotland, Vienna’s Superar program, SerHacerin Boston and El Sistema Sweden.
One of the few classical musicians to truly reach mainstream audiences while maintaining the highest musical integrity, Gustavo Dudamel has been featured three times on CBS’ “60 Minutes” and was the subject of a PBS special, “Dudamel: Conducting a Life.” He has been interviewed by Christiane Amanpour on CNN, Conan O’Brian on “Conan,” Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” and Elmo on “Sesame Street.” He had a cameo role in Amazon Studio’s award-winning series “Mozart in the Jungle” and, together with members of YOLA, became the first classical musician to participate in the Super Bowl Halftime Show, appearing alongside pop stars Coldplay, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars.
In 2017, he was the youngest-ever conductor to lead the Vienna Philharmonic’s famous New Year’s Day Concert, watched annually by more than 60 million people in 90 countries. At John Williams’ personal request, Dudamel guest-conducted on the soundtrack for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”; he also recorded James Newton Howard’s soundtrack to Disney’s holiday blockbuster “The Nutcracker,” in which he makes an onscreen cameo.
Dudamel is one of the most decorated conductors of his generation. In recognition of his advocacy for the proliferation of the arts in the Americas, he received the 2018 Paez Medal of Art and the Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit, the Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award in 2016 and the 2014 Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society from the Longy School of Music. In 2013, he was named Musical America’s Musician of the Year and was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame. He was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2009.
Dudamel was born in 1981 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. He achieved international attention by winning the inaugural Bamberger Symphoniker Gustav Mahler Competition in 2004. He, then, went on to become music director of the Gothenburg Symphony (2007-12), where he currently holds the title honorary conductor.
Inspired by Dudamel’s early musical and mentoring experiences, the Gustavo Dudamel Foundation, a registered charity, was created in 2012 with the goal of promoting access to music as a human right and a catalyst for learning, integration, and social change.
For more information about Gustavo Dudamel, visit his official website: gustavodudamel.com. You can find more about the Gustavo Dudamel Foundation at dudamelfoundation.org.
