Gustavo Dudamel: I’m not leaving LA
NewsThe apparently departing music director has gone to great lengths to reassure the West Coast that, whatever happens in New York, home stays home. From an interview with Mark Swed of the LA Times:
“I was talking to a friend yesterday,” Dudamel told me, “and I said, ‘L.A. is home.’ I am going to New York, of course, but L.A. is home.”
In his first dozen years as music director of the L.A. Phil, he happily cruised L.A. in his Aston Martin convertible, delighting in its diversity of neighborhoods. He knows all the good restaurants. He has many Angeleno friends from many walks of life. He loves Hollywood and movies. Our climate reminds him of Caracas. His son was born here, and he learned L.A. as a father….
“It’s not like I have a relation with the orchestra and then say goodbye,” he said. “No, no, no. This is something that we have been building for 15 years.” And he has no intention of it not continuing well into the future.
“There has been an evolution, and maybe there can now be a space for creating new things. Of course, I am wishing that what is the best orchestra will find the best decision for a music director.”…
To that end, he is already making post-music director plans for L.A. in 2027 and 2028. He wants to return four weeks a year. including a week at the Bowl. He also has proposed joint projects between the L.A. Phil and the New York Philharmonic, just as he has united YOLA with young players around the world, creating a giant international family of future musicians.
I thought he lived in Barcelona.
Madrid, ¿no?
Thank you.
Indeed, the headline oversells it. The copy even spells it out: “He wants to return four weeks a year”.
He is a citizen of Spain. He owns a home in Madrid. He owns a home in Los Angeles. He’s giving up none of them. He loves attending Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games.
Follow the money.
Didn’t he have grand plans for joint projects between the LA Phil and the Paris Opera? How’s that coming along?
So he “wants,” wants, wants. He wants all kinds of things–Here’s a good one: To return to LAPhil four weeks a year–Heh, that’ll be more than he’s spent there in years! You have to laugh at the nerve of some of these people.
Why do these conductors feel a need to spread themselves so thin with multiple gigs all over the world. Mr. Dudamel you are a fine conductor but don’t feel you are doing the NY Phil a favor for agreeing to come here. There are many good conductors out there including several women who would be great here also. So if you really are more of a West Coast guy, stay there.
Money??
Who in the world actually WANTS to lead the NYP these days? At this point it’s a rag-tag collection of sometime principals, long-time subs, the most arrogant elitist orchestral players in the USA (maybe even the world), with a cold sterile hall, unimaginative programming ideas and pathetic commissions. Their glory days are long over. Dudamel is doing one of the biggest favors of his life going there, for his American Master, the big B. And I don’t mean Beethoven!!
This is all very disturbing, if true.
Salonen said that when he left LA he wouldn’t return as a guest until his successor had built up his own relationship with the orchestra and public. Will Dudamel’s hanging around have a negative effect on finding a new music director?
Judging from all potential candidates for his replacement, it’s slim picking at best. Maybe he can be Music Director of both LA and NY like the guy at the Met who has 3 jobs.
But both Yannick and Gustavo are real stars … and for the right reasons!
I would argue that Yannick is a star for the WRONG reasons.
Dudamel is certainly a great conductor and musician, but everyone is missing the point of the article.
It’s that he enjoys driving around LA in his convertible Aston Martin. That’s rich – and so Southern Calif! 🙂
I wonder how much he’s paying for repairs to the car’s suspension. The roads there are awful.
Maybe he covets a commercial pilot’s licence like Daniel Harding’s.
It seems like this could scare off some potential replacements. It’s tough enough to follow a popular conductor, but then to also have them regularly appearing with the orchestra too…
Joint projects are pure vanity. How does a partnership with an orchestra 2,500 miles away help serve and grow the audience at home?
I love Dudamel. I live in the DC area, and traveled one Sunday to LA and back to hear him conduct Dvorak no. 9. It was definitely worth it. One thing makes me upset, though: when he doesn’t make public statements about the burning issues of the day, whether the ongoing starvation and massacres in Gaza, the threat of a Trump victory, the authoritarian Maduro and his shenanigans. Truth be told, he ain’t no different than most superstar musicians who keep their mouth shut.
Surely you are referring to the starvation and subsequent massacre of six Israeli hostages in Gaza by Hamass, I trust.
You know, I can’t remember the last time I woke up wondering what Gustavo Dudamel thought about Donald Trump.
Npcello wrote (above): “Dudamel is certainly a great conductor and musician . . .”
I don’t really buy the “great conductor” line of thinking, because, as is often the case *for me* with musicians backed by ubiquitous and ecstatic publicity machines, I find it difficult to separate Dudamel the musician from Dude the image phenomenon. And I wonder how much we would have heard of either if there had not been a Borda in the picture.
Globe hoppers may be ambivalent about where they are or where they’re headed off to. Or when they’re there, they want to be here, and visa versa. When it comes to people’s jobs or career, the same thing.
Zubin Mehta left the LA Phil for the NY Phil, but he and his wife (who did acting gigs in 1960’s TV shows, including Star Trek) retained residential ties to LA. Not sure about Esa-Pekka Salonen.
In the 1940s, certain Europeans in the music profession had to flee Germany, etc, and they spent some time in LA. Same thing with standouts like Albert Einstein.
The look, weather and vibes of the US West Coast are different from those of the US East Coast, just as parts of Europe around the Mediterranean are different from areas like the UK or northern France.
NY may be the biggest mistake of his career! They love him in LA but they will be indifferent or loath him in The Big Apple. The manager who hired him won’t be around to protect him from the vultures. There are a hornet’s nest of political problems in the orchestra that he will be expected to mediate. Bad move!
I really enjoyed Mark’s article. Without question, the Dude did it the right way in LA. Upon his appointment, he relocated to Los Angeles where he lived and raised a family. For many years, he was active throughout the community as it clearly became their home. At a time when his popularity around the globe was skyrocketing, aside from a handful of guest performances, he purposely limited his long-term contracted responsibilities to the LA Phil and the Bolívar’s.
Logistically, the more recent musical appointments in NYC and Paris (however brief) were an inevitable outcome after remarrying and moving to Madrid in order to be closer to his wife’s family and the Spanish entertainment industry where she regularly works.
Professionally, he has tended to invest in long-term relationships of limited scope, instead of leveraging his fame for a considerable expansion of lucrative high-profile opportunities that have certainly been steered his way. One can only hope that we will be lucky enough to have a newly appointed MD who will choose to embrace the city in a comparable way.
L.A. phone home!
A leaving Music Director shouldn’t return to his/her former orchestra too often. By the way, this decision won’t be his own but his successor’s, who will be in charge of deciding programs and inviting guest conductors and soloists. Dudamel is a brilliant conductor and a considerable talent (probably the most remarkable talent around) with no depth and poor judgment. His advisers should be able to advise him better (look at the Paris debacle). NYP is perfect for him, but he should develop a personal style and make better programmatic choices.
Great; the N.Y. and L.A. Philharmonics can do a combined all John Williams program – with movies! – at the Hollywood Bowl! DG can make yet another all J.W. recording! (“A John Williams Celebration at the Hollywood Bowl” [how’s that for orginal?]). . . . Just remind me to be out of the state when they do.
Yeah, sounds like Dudamel is already making plans for a short tenure in NYC. Sounded good on paper initially, but you can’t have your fingers in so many pots.