The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Vezuela, El Sistema’s top orchestra, wrote a new chapter in its history. The orchestra, made up of 300 musicians, gave a memorable concert under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel for 5,000 Greeks and their gods at the 2010 Athens and Epidaurus Festival last June 23.

Tickets were sold out three weeks in advance. Five thousand people attended the concert by the SBYOV at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an ancient amphitheater located on the south slope of the Acropolis of Athens. Though taking pictures is not allowed in this venue, hundreds of cell-phone cameras started clicking as soon as the members of the orchestra put on their Venezuelan-flag jackets. The Theater ushers looked at each other without knowing what to do. They could not help it, as they could not prevent a large number of people from going backstage and waiting in long lines to say hello to the Venezuelan musicians.  Among these people were Leonidas Kavakos – who expressed his desire to perform in Venezuela – and the renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis.

This breach of protocol occurred immediately after the SBYOV performed a work that broke with the musical traditions of a time: Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The work narrates the dance before death of a girl who was offered as a sacrifice to the god of Spring in order to gain his benevolence. Before thousands of Greek souls at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Venezuelan orchestra wrote a new chapter in its history by performing the “Rite of Spring” in the middle of summer, in the land of the Greek gods.

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SBYOV. European tour. Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Athens. Greece. 23-06-2010. Photos: Fesnojiv.

Theodorakis, who rarely leaves his home because of his health condition, said that these musicians are revolutionizing culture, and hoped that someday the Venezuelan orchestra would perform his work Canto General a Neruda.

The renowned Greek composer, who spoke in favor of the creation of a symphony orchestra made up of Venezuelan and Greek musicians, was applauded by the 370 people who attended the presentation of El Sistema (and the Greek projects inspired by the Venezuelan music education program) at the Megaron Hall.