Born in 1981 in Barquisimeto-Venezuela, Gustavo Dudamel studied harmony, solfege and counterpoint from a very early age. He was ten when he took up the violin, and soon was also studying composition. At the Jacinto Lara Conservatory his violin teacher was José Luis Jiménez, and after that he worked with José Francisco del Castillo at the Latin American Academy of Violin.
1995
Named music director of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra.
1996
Begins studying conducting in Venezuela with Rodolfo Saglimbeni.
1999
Continues his conducting studies with José Antonio Abreu and is appointed music director of the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, an ensemble founded by Abreu that is widely recognized for its role in transforming the lives of tens of thousands of impoverished youths; over the next years Dudamel tours with the orchestra to countries including Chile, Mexico, the USA, France and Italy.
2000
With the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra he undertakes a much-acclaimed tour of Germany that includes a concert at the Philharmonie in Berlin.
2002
Finalist in the inaugural Maazel/Vilar Conductors’ Competition.
2004
Wins the inaugural Bamberger Symphoniker Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition (among the jury are conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Leon Botstein, Lawrence Foster and Jonathan Nott, composer Magnus Lindberg, consultant Ernest Fleischmann, and patroness Marina Mahler, granddaughter of the composer); deputizes at short notice for Franz Bruggen with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra at the Beethovenfest, Bonn; conducts Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven Symphonies nos. 3 & 5 in Caracas; Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado accept Dudamel’s invitation to visit Venezuela and conduct his orchestra.
2005
Conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra at London’s Royal Festival Hall as part of the International Conductors’ Academy; wildly acclaimed concerts (including Mahler’s Fifth Symphony) with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium; BBC Proms debut conducting the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, deputizing at short notice for Neeme Järvi; his “Power of Music” concert takes place at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn on 23 September, as part of the city’s Beethovenfest – on the programme: Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7 and works by Latin-American composers. With the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra: another tour of Germany and the inauguration of “The Inter-American Center for Social Action Through Music”, a new concert venue in Caracas. Other European debuts this year include Rome’s Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Beethoven: Ninth Symphony), Verbier Festival (UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra in a programme of Revueltas, Stravinsky and Berio), Camerata Salzburg, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, plus further concerts with the Philharmonia at the Aldeburgh Festival and his US debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This year Gustavo Dudamel signs an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon.
2006
Concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra in Great Britain, the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in Italy and Germany, and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Gothenburg; debuts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Foundation, Dresden Staatskapelle, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala and Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, as well as a 10-day tour of Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (with pianist Yundi Li) and an appearance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival. Opera engagements include Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at the Berlin State Opera and Mozart’s Don Giovanni at La Scala. First DG release is scheduled for this year: Beethoven Symphonies nos. 5 & 7 with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. In April, Gustavo Dudamel is appointed Principal Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Sweden, starting in 2007/2008
