Dudamel honoured for ‘artistic and humanitarian achievement’

Dudamel honoured for ‘artistic and humanitarian achievement’

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norman lebrecht

March 15, 2016

From the press release:

New York, March 14. The Americas Society presented its Cultural Achievement Award to Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel for his many outstanding artistic and humanitarian accomplishments. One of the most celebrated conductors of his generation, Dudamel, 35, is the music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and music director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. As a humanitarian, he is globally recognized for his dedication and commitment to transform the lives of thousands of young people by sparking in them a passion for music. Dudamel received the Cultural Achievement Award at a special ceremony on Saturday, March 12… from Council of the Americas President and CEO Susan Segal.

‘Maestro Gustavo Dudamel,’ said Segal, ‘brings together in one person extraordinary musical talent, a passion for education, and a new vision for achievement and advancement that have touched the lives of thousands of young people around the world.’

“On behalf of all the people who believe and engage in the vision that music and the arts can be a vehicle for social change, I am very honored to accept this award,’ said Dudamel. ‘In our extremely complex world, it is my hope that music will continue to inspire and heal people. This has been and remains my goal.’

GustavoDudamel_Susan

Comments

  • Milka says:

    We all need a morning laugh

  • enemigopublico says:

    Ha ha ha! What a hoot! God forbid that any journalist should, you know, have a peek behind the PR curtain. No no, much better just to copy and paste the press releases.

  • NYMike says:

    And here in NY, Dudamel conducted a pretty good Mahler 3rd Sunday afternoon with his LA Phil.

    • M2N2K says:

      And that is certainly much more important than the number of awards given and received.

    • MWnyc says:

      On Monday evening, they gave a marvelous performance of John Williams, a new Andrew Norman piece (I didn’t much care for it), Ginastera’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (a real knockout), and Copland’s Appalachina Spring.

      • M2N2K says:

        You failed to mention that in response to enthusiastic reception after that full menu, a few hundred calories of super-Romantic Bernard Herrmann were added as a dessert aka an encore.

    • M2N2K says:

      According to NYTimes review published yesterday, “Mr. Dudamel delivered interpretations of remarkable restraint and maturity, particularly in the Mahler. Its sprawling first movement built with relaxed confidence, and the third had a joyfulness that wasn’t tight or driven. The symphony simply unfolded, unpressed”, with “smooth ease”.
      According to NY Classical Review from last Monday, it was a “truly memorable performance” by Gustavo and LA Phil “who gave a mature intense reading of Mahler’s” Third, “never once flagging in Dudamel’s masterfully paced reading”. The way every one of the symphony’s six movements was performed is praised in this review, including the finale in which “there was no saccharine crooning in Didamel’s rendition; the playing here was reverent and loving, not oversold in the slightest”. It’s “beaming glorious resolution earned a deafening ovation”.
      Apparently, both the critics and the audience (at least the overwhelming majority of it) thought that it was much better than “pretty good”.

    • M2N2K says:

      By the way: according to several published reviews that I have seen (Zachary Woolfe in NYTimes, Eric Simpson in NYClassicalReview, Lewis Smoley in ClassicalSource, Paul Pelkonen in SuperConductor), all of these critics and reportedly the overwhelming majority of the audience thought that GD’s interpretation of Mahler’s Third with LA Phil in NY last Sunday was much better than “pretty good”.

  • Milka says:

    It is the human condition that evokes laughter .This latest nonsense being an example .

    • Holly Golightly says:

      Nobody talks to you in the real world so you have to troll on the net to get attention. How sad is that? There is no shortage of internet losers like yourself, but the rest of us should treat you as though you had Bubonic Plague. You certainly have the intellectual equivalent.

  • JMB says:

    Why don’t they give that award to Valery Gergiev while they’re at it?

    • Eddie Mars says:

      If you have a postage stamp knocking around at home, you could use the back of it to write down everything you know about Gergiev. And there’d still be space for your artistic biography too.

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