Venezuelan Pianist to Play at Obama Inauguration

Si se puede! A Venezuelan pianist groomed by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra will be performing at the inauguration of President elect Obama next week.

Her name is Gabriel Montero. She will perform with the master cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, and clarenetist Anthony McGill — get this — right before Barack Obama takes the oath of office.

Montero says: “I’m very excited to be part of this great day. It’s going to be a great moment for the entire world.”

Montero is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. She first came north on an educational scholarship from the Venezuelan government.

In the clip below, watch her take a silly ditty that is the theme song for the BBC children’s program The Wombles and turn it into an amazingly beautiful improvised piece. Improvisation is Montero’s trademark, according to the New York Times.

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Venezuelan Conductors Invade U.S. Classical Music Scene

Venezuela’s Gustavo Dudamel is on his way to becoming a household name. He is credited with reviving classical music, and will surely gain more attention when he assumes his post as conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra in 2009.

It so happens that another Venezuelan conductor, Eduardo Marturet (pictured above), heads up the Miami Symphony Orchestra. Though Marturet honed his music skills abroad in Europe, he later returned to Venezuela and preceded Dudamel as director of Venezuela’s Youth Symphony Orchestra through 1995. More recently, in 2006, his “Encantamento” won a Latin Grammy for Best Classical Album.

The Miami Symphony Orchestra began its 20th season last Saturday. The first performance featured a star performer, the violinist Alexis Cardenas, who is a also Venezuelan. Watch him wow the crowd in the video below.

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Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra Wows U.S. Crowds

Once again, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela is on tour in the U.S. and making a big impression on music fans and critics alike. Last night, the Venezuelan group performed in Los Angeles.

The star of the tour is clearly Gustavo Dudamel, the renowned young conductor who was tapped to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic starting next year and who was recently profiled on 60 Minutes.

Dudamel is known as a maverick of classical music, an innovative composer with a unique style and boundless energy. Though most of the reviews of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra performances focus on Dudamel, he has attributed his own success to “El Eistema,” a government-funded youth orchestra program established in Venezuela in 1975. Still today, it continues to bring music education to low-income children who would otherwise lack access to involvement in the arts. Founder Dr. José Antonio Abreu was awarded the Glenn Gould prize this year.

To read glowing reviews of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra’s recent performances in California in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and the Oakland Tribune. Next week, they head to Chicago and London.

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