Southbank (London) treated to the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra

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Sounds Venezuela - The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall

Saturday 18 April 2009, 7.30pm

Gustavo Dudamel (pictured) conducts the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar (Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Venezuela's youth orchestra) through Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, a piece that shocked audiences when it was first performed, thanks to its intensely rhythmic score and complex musical techniques. The later half of the performance will have a Latin flavor with music from Venezuelan and Mexican composers.

Marshall Marcus, Head of Music for the Southbank Centre in London, said "They will sweep aside every preconception people have about classical music. Anyone who ever thought classical music was not for them - this is the one thing they should see. They demonstrate what we've perhaps been missing in Europe - musicians performing out of a sheer, goddam, unbridled desire to live the music."

The economist José Antonio Abreu established the orchestra on 12 February 1975 in an attempt to get the youth of Venezeula a chance to do something other than get involved with drugs, crime and gangs. The orchestra is under the auspices of Fundacion del Estado para el Sistema Nacional de las Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela, known colloquially as El Sistema. Based at the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex in Caracas, it is considered the apex of the nation's system of 220 youth orchestras.

Saturday 18 April 2009, 7.30pm
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Interval
Antonio Estevez: Mediodia en el llano
Silvestre Revueltas: Sensemaya
Evencio Castellanos: Santa Cruz de Pacairigua

Gustavo Dudamel conductor

Tickets available online

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