Five crucial things Dudamel can teach orchestras

Dudamel offers orchestras a number of urgent challenges, challenges that need to be addressed by a musical scene that, at its worst, can be grey, dull and mediocre.

1, Rethink the hierarchies of the symphony orchestra.

What comes through strongly when orchestral musicians talk about Dudamel is that, while he is very clear about what he wants from them, he is a musicians' musician, rather than the traditional dictatorial maestro-monster. Venezuelan music education is essentially communitarian. All teaching is done in groups; the focus is on the collective and not the individual. This is one of the reasons he gets so much out of musicians. He is one of them.

2, Remember: it's supposed to be fun.

Dudamel's introduction to music was via his trombonist father's salsa band as much as through his orchestral playing. The kind of unabashed, party-time pleasure Venezuelans take in salsa leaks right into their attitude to classical music. Experiencing music should be about having a brilliant time - even though a journey with the masterpieces of classical music may take you to the darker places of the soul.

3, Play (and hear) every concert as if it is your last.

Dudamel said this week: "For us in Venezuela, everything is new. And for us every time we play something, it is also like the last time. This is how I grew up."

4, Throw out tradition; abandon routine.

Well, perhaps not quite. "I respect and have learned a lot from the European tradition," said Dudamel. But he, as a Latin American, is also free from much of the baggage carried by classical music in Europe and North America, where even to be interested in classical music immediately (though often unfairly) shunts you into a certain class paradigm. "When young people see orchestras just sitting down and doing concerts each week, they see something routine. They can't understand what people enjoy about concerts," he said. There are far too many orchestras in the country going through the motions with workaday, dreary concerts. This needs to change.

5, Don't be ashamed of classical music.

"In Venezuela going to a symphony concert is like going to a pop concert. Everyone feels very proud. It is our symbol. We have our flag, our national anthem - and now our orchestras. The citizens feel part of it," said Dudamel. The Government must get behind our orchestras without cringing about their perceived elitism. And our orchestras need to be proud and unashamed of their power to engage with the beacons of western art, and to communicate their excitement afresh. That way, American audiences will be swept to their feet by their orchestras

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2008/08/what_dudamel_can_teach_british.html