The BBC Music Magazine, one of the most prestigious prints on the international music industry, dedicated its cover to Gustavo Dudamel and published an extensive article about the Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela on its June edition, by journalist Jeremy Pound. With the title “Molto Gustavo!”, the magazine praised the work that Master José Antonio Abreu has done for over three decades in our country.

Just on time for the launch of "Fiesta", the most recent recording of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela conducted by Dudamel and produced by the Deutsche Grammophon, the article’s author talks with the Venezuelan conductor. Pound considers him the musician with the largest progress in current times, with appearances at the Royal Albert Hall of London –for the BBC Proms, last August, as well as other venues in Europe and the United States along with the Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, that have raised the most positive critiques: "The single fact that his name appears on the program cover will guarantee a sold-out venue".

The journalist also analyzed the new CD: "Fiesta is a collection of the same Latin American pieces that have made even the most conservative audiences to get up from their seats and dance. This impressive group of musicians, the best end-product of this Sistema that supports the least privileged youth, has shined as much as they do when they interpret traditional pieces by Shostakovich and Saint-Säens. But the Latin repertoire–Ginastera, Márquez, Bernstein, among othes, is what has shaken the most rigid venues".

Among the points touched by this article, the social work that the Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela –an institution adjunct to the national government’s Department of Participation and Social Protection, is one of the most important. About that, Pound explains that "El Sistema has prevented thousands of youth to fall in the world of drugs or crime, and has helped many others to rehabilitate (…) Now Abreu is focused on the development of the concept of “El Sistema” in other Latin American countries, at the same time as Scotland begins to create a pilot project based on this experience, as announced last summer".

Translated by Rolando Betancourt