Unprompted, Dudamel conducts at the White House
mainGustavo Dudamel was due to to say a few words at the National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal ceremony at the White House yesterday.
Instead, he jumped up and conducted the Marine Chamber Orchestra in what appears to be the only little symphony in their repertory – the Mozart G minor (known as the one from Amadeus).
phone photo: Deborah Borda
Report here.
Perhaps now Obama knows what a conductor looks like, he’ll honour some of the American ones.
Gee….isn’t a person born in South America an American too? You use the term “American” as if it exclusively belongs to people living in the Unted States OF America. America is the name of a continent, not a single country. Canada is in America. Mexico is in America. Nicaragua is in America. Belize is in America. Should I go on?
None of those other countries have the word AMERICA in their name. “America” is shorthand for United States of America.
Good point Rodrigo!
Sorry Riccardo, this just doesn’t hold up. Much of the world refers to the USA as “America” and in English, the word means specifically the USA (in English the word “The Americas” is suitable to refer to the larger geographic region you refer to).
This has been hashed out in the US many times — and I can never understand what people are trying to accomplish by arguing your side of it. Just to show what chauvinists we are? C’mon.
Not dark enough.
I think he means United States of America – American. Like Leonard Bernstein (born in Boston). However, Dudamel has done much to revive a wider interest and excitement for classical music, both in Los Angeles, around the country, and internationally.
Not so good a point. Silly at best.
It’s so cool to see that Borda still remains marketing her criature. Even now that the hype is constantly disappering…
What is a criature? Perhaps the Concise Oxford Dictionary is remiss in its failure to include what must be a noun.
Do you need Oxford to indentify a mispelling? Really? Very interesting
While we’re being so very correct, it may interest you to know that it hasn’t been the “Concise Oxford Dictionary” for more than a decade and a half. It’s The Concise Oxford English Dictionary now.
Dear Sr. Dudamel not only conducted, he delivered the few words
I am not a fan of Gabriela Montero’s attacks on Dudamel for his decision to not denounce how Chavez first and now Maduro have destroyed Venezuela. I think that Dudamel, like any other person, has a right to have his own political opinions, and to either make them public or keep them private.
However, one does have to wonder how Maduro feels about his favorite conductor going to the White House to meet President Obama, who he constantly accuses of conspiring against Venezuela. I’d love to see a photo of the Dude and Obama embracing, and see how the chavistas react to it!