Celebrating Gustavo!

17 years ago, a 20-something conductor who most people hadn’t heard of arrived in town to become the next music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. 17 years before that, a 30-something conductor who most people hadn’t heard of arrived in town to become the next music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel, and Esa-Pekka Salonen sit after being interviewed.

34 years later, everyone knows who Gustavo Dudamel and Esa-Pekka Salonen are. Quite simply, two of the most in-demand conductors in the world. Their legacies are indelibly intertwined with the LA Phil. Dudamel and Salonen both possess deep intellect, high artistic standards, visionary leadership, a collaborative spirit, and excellent conducting chops, albeit with wildly different styles.

This kind of stability is virtually unprecedented for an orchestra. It is one reason the LA Phil has become the envy of the orchestra world and an organization that others attempt to emulate.

Now, as Gustavo Dudamel prepares to step down from his official role as Los Angeles Philharmonic Music and Artistic Director, it’s difficult to imagine what’s next but easy to trust that whatever direction the orchestra goes, it will be bold and forward-looking. Another virtually unknown individual just beginning their career? A collective of a half-dozen or so conductors doing multiple weeks per season? Anna Handler was just named Conductor-in-Residence beginning next season and Esa-Pekka Salonen is back in an expanded role already, so anything is possible.

Anna Handler, Brian Lauritzen, and Tom Hooten backstage at the LA Phil

Brian Lauritzen

Music director speculation is a favorite pastime for a lot of orchestra-watchers. While it can certainly be fun, it is also important to remember that the conductor doesn’t make the orchestra: the orchestra makes the conductor. The musicians, most especially. For some LA Phil musicians, their next music director will be their fifth.

For his part, Gustavo Dudamel insists his departure isn’t a goodbye. He’ll be back as soon as this summer to conduct the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl. Pink’s may no longer serve Gustavo’s “Dude Dog,” but they took Gordon Ramsay’s off the menu too so no one is safe.

Pink's Hot Dog stand created a custom hotdog for Gustavo Dudamel

Brian Lauritzen

There are far too many highlights of Gustavo Dudamel’s tenure to make a comprehensive list. A few favorites that stand out for me are:

• His first concert: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl with a chorus made up of more than a dozen local choirs and presented for free

• His commitment to continuing the LA Phil tradition of celebrating new music, particularly his partnerships with composers John Adams and Gabriela Ortiz

• His unwavering dedication to the next generation of musicians through not simply paying lip service to music education, but living it and breathing it in everything he does

• Creating a radio show together, at his request, during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic as a reaffirmation that music and radio can connect us even when we are at our most isolated

• Teaching him how to use Zoom so we could make that show

• After a performance of Appalachian Spring, holding the silence in the concert hall for more than 30 seconds

• All the Mahler. In particular, a performance of Mahler’s massive Symphony No. 8 “Symphony of a Thousand,” which Dudamel and the LA Phil and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra performed with a chorus of more than 1,000 singers at the Shrine Auditorium and the next week in Caracas.

The next highlight is right around the corner. Classical California is celebrating Gustavo Dudamel’s 17 years at the LA Phil by broadcasting his final two programs live: Sunday, May 31st and Sunday, June 3rd. Both at 2:00 p.m. and I’ll be co-hosting both with Jennifer Miller Hammel. These live broadcasts will be the culmination in a series of broadcasts of most of Dudamel’s concerts this past season at the LA Phil. That series begins Sunday, April 26th at 2:00 p.m.

Alan Chapman, Gail Eichenthal, Gustavo Dudamel, and Brian Lauritzen.

I can’t wait to share this music with you!

By the way, that 8th Symphony by Gustav Mahler? Dudamel, the LA Phil, and the LA Master Chorale recorded it a few years ago and won a Grammy together. There is a moment at the end where the chorus sings the words, “All that is transitory / is but an image.” In context, it’s a reflection on the impermanence of life and how we transition to be someone or something else while also maintaining the identity we once had in the past. Transitory, but an image.

With Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, that image will forever be transformative.