Gustavo Dudamel faces human rights protest in New York
OrchestrasThe incoming music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra is not receiving a unanimous welcome.
The Human Rights Foundation has been running poster trucks through Manhattan, highlighting Dudamel’s connections with the military regime in his home country, Venezuela.
The HRF says: ‘Dudamel gently criticizes the dictatorship in public while, in private, serving as an unofficial ambassador for Venezuela’s tyranny. He has been silent in the face of years and years of repression and violence in Venezuela. He refuses to condemn Maduro. Dudamel refuses to call out the human rights violations of the regime. Dudamel says nothing about the stolen election of July 28, 2024.’
Doubt the new Amerikkka will care about this.
They don’t even know where Venezuela is, though in NYC there is a robust Venezuelan community, which is presumably awaiting the roundup……
It has indeed a robust Venezuelan community which despises Maduro more than Trump.
There will not be a roundup, except for gangs. The public opinion is now for deportation, but once the mass media shows pictures of deported people, this opinion will immediately change.
Indeed. Americans are concerned with Venezuelan gangs taking over American communities and hijacking residential areas.
Those of us who didn’t vote for the incoming fascist Trump regime – which includes a majority of music-world folks – certainly do not feel this way. Of course, I could say the same thing about Brits and the constant panic over a few row boats arriving from France.
And eating the dogs and cats.
I’m more concerned with the packs of old white “Christian” males in the US. I qualify, so I know from where I speak.
True, but I can’t see any connection with Maduro/Chavez. There are M13 and Mara Salvatrucha, and before them every immigrant ethnicity formed their own criminal gangs or organizations. There was/were Irish, Italian, Ukrainian and even Jewish mafias in the US (pardon me for failing to mention anyone else).
Russian mafiosi in the US, yes, but what makes you label them Ukrainian?
Obviously, you’ve heard of “Odessa mafia”. Or maybe you de facto recognize that Odessa is a Russian city?
Only in your fevered imagination.
You should move somewhere that you feel safe.
How much did it cost to rent these trucks to run at night when no one can see it and where no one knows who Dudamel is outside of upper Manhattan?
Wouldn’t it be cheaper, and much for effective, to buy two balcony tickets for opening night, unfurl a banner and make some noise in the middle of some second movement, and post the video on Instagram?
When this happened during a performance I attended in Berlin in 2023 it did not generate sympathy for the protester. Instead the audience gave a standing ovation to the soprano when she resumed. The singer was Anna Netrebko.
Maduro stole which election?
All of them
All of them, when they decide to have them.
Where are the cancellations like the ones Gergiev & co has faced?
I agree it’s hypocritical. But the solution is not to cancel Dudamel, but to reverse the ban on state musicians from Russia and the 25+ other countries under US sanctions. Surely the West now sees how little that achieved, and how much it set us back in terms of soft power and diplomatic dialogue. Do we now also want to cut off one of the only cultural channels by which Americans and Venezuelans can still communicate? We musicians have duty to unite humanity where politicians fail to do so. Let’s not race each other to the bottom!
Perhaps you have not noticed that the Empire is in precipitous decline. Maestro Gergiev chose not to be a traitor to Russia, for the people of Russia would have seen a denunciation of Putin as treachery. The same goes for Venezuela. The United States is at war with the people of Venezuela.
the people of Russia – those who are allowed any access to information – see “Maestro” Gergiev as a traitor to truth and liberty. Not to denounce Putin or Maduro is shameful. It’s nothing to do with an Empire in decline.
Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels and David Oistrakh were state musicians from USSR. And somehow they were not banned after 1968 or 1979.
Venezuela for over 20 years has never triggered reactions the way that Russia and Ukraine have done. Or Israel and Hamas-Palestine.
Nicolas Maduro and before him, Hugo Chavez, are in that murky world of the political left which the social-cultural elite tends to treat like an ongoing game of pin the tail on the donkey.
Clear-cut rightists are in one category while clear-cut leftists are in another category. Mix and match.
Let the hypocrisies, double standards and moral relativism ensue.
Wars between two nations are not the same as tyranny within one country (terrible though it be), which is why the international community address them differently.
Venezuela literally did go to war with French Guyana
The HRF is run by the wife of the guy who called Muslims “cockroaches” – not sure how anyone can take them seriously.
Well, they’re right.
Authoritarian regimes have long used art and arts buildings (concert halls, museums, etc.) to create a perception to the world that they are civilized and allow diverse thought. (And when corporations get in trouble, one of the first ways they attempt to clean their bloody hands is through huge donations to arts organizations. Case and point: when Credit Suisse get caught helping Iran launder money to evade sanctions and was fined $550 million, they suddenly became the global corporate sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.)
While Dudamel’s intentions working with Venezuelan orchestras may be pure, the Venezuelan government’s backing of these orchestras isn’t. And that means that Dudamel is unfortunately a useful idiot.
In the troubled times we live in, musicians and concertgoers need to stop pretending that the arts isn’t highly politicized.
While I probably disagree with Norman 90 percent of the time, I give him credit for being one of the few people who criticizes western orchestras that perform in places like North Korea under the ridiculous pretense that it will somehow help bring about global peace, when all it really does is help legitimize the regimes.
What do you mean by the term “legitimize”? In all these cases, even where there is no democracy, or a democratic deficit, the seat of government is still representative of the sovereignty of that country. Your strategy of isolating those countries objectively hasn’t worked. North Korea and Iran have been isolated for decades, yet the state structures of those countries haven’t changed, and have in fact become more powerful. In my opinion “legitimize” is one of those meaningless liberal words like “problematic”. Your strategy actually empowers authoritarian leaders.
The world doesn’t need this right now. Why doesn’t this guy spend his money on something more useful instead of attacking a classical musician who is focused on helping children and underserved communities?
Well, we cannot reproach him not to stab in the back a political system who transformed an average conductor in a millionaire and influential person. Obviously the only important consideration for Dudamel is Dudamel . We could see that clearly with the Paris fiasco already.
It is possible that if Maestro condemns Maduro then those close to Maestro suffer the consequences back home.
Literally the most important venezuelan alive and these doodoos are trying to bully him? Would not expect anything less.
Venezuela? Cute girl. Makes some great tacos. Tipped her well.
This is like the brouhaha over Netrebko. Some people get righteous about Netrebko and Dudamel not defying the dictators of their countries, not stopping to think they might have family in those countries and need to go there sometimes.
Venezuela is a land of youth and children’s orchestras; whereas, Gaza is a cemetery of youth and children and more. Best to focus on self improvement.
Well, just like Viktoria Mullova maybe he’s just protecting his family and friends who still live in the country? Why don’t we think of this before launching hate campaigns against individuals who have a wonderful career who are seriously caught up in a far more complex situation than we could ever imagine. Just saying …….
This United States just elected a criminal,tax evading , womanizer . Speak to this decision and observe our country first . Stolen elections and condemning dictators : in the night all cats are black
Maybe you should ask yourself a simple question why the Americans could not have found a better candidate to defend their interests than a criminal tax evading womanizer and why even a criminal tax evading womanizer was a better choice for them than the Deep State picked horse-laughing woman of color?
Doubly hysterical: First, they’re charging him with nothing. He did nothing. Second, and by far the most ludicrous, Americans, who just unleashed Trump upon the world, are not who you go to for sympathy here.
A few posters seem unaware that the head of the HRF is Venezuelan and therefore understands the issues around being a Venezuelan dissident. He also surely understands that individuals can always choose to stay silent and justify their silence, but a few take the more difficult route, foregrounding their convictions and the needs of wider society.
Dudamel has the right to stay silent. And the HRF has the right to criticize him for it and to highlight the contradiction between his vague social justice rhetoric concerning music and his silence in the face of gross social injustices perpetrated by his patron, the Venezuelan presidency.
If Venezuela only exported bananas, there would be no CIA involvements in anti Venezuela protests. The protests are about oil at the root.
For over a decade, the people of Venezuela have suffered a crushing economic blockade imposed by the United States. It is inappropriate for Maestro to give comfort to the enemies of Venezuela in the land of the enemy. I would respectfully urge Maestro Dudamel to refrain from criticizing Venezuela until the economic embargo is lifted permanently. Venezuela is not a colony of the US.
For all his talk of fighting for freedom, HRF founder Thor Halvorssen has been closely tied to some of the richest and most influential figures, all while funding questionable operations. Someone should do some research into him.
Gustavo has NOT stayed silent! He has spoken out many many times against Maduro, and even wrote a NYT Op-Ed against him… not sure what more they want him to do?