The Simón Bolivar Youth OrchestraFrom Financial Times
By Andrew Clark
The mood this week at London’s Southbank Centre was jubilant. Thousands of people of all ages thronged the arts centre to hear Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra under its charismatic 28-year-old conductor, Gustavo Dudamel.
Infants and teenagers listened intently as the Venezuelan virtuosi played Bartók – a composer not known for inducing long attention spans. After Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony, the applause raised the roof. The Venezuelans threw their brightly coloured jackets into the crowd like footballers.
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