Dudamel to Conduct Europe’s May Day Celebration…

Gustavo Dudamel is preparing to lead the May Day charge in Vienna next week…

The 31-year-old Venezuelan composer and violinist will conduct the Berlin Philharmonic during its traditional May 1 European Concert, which will be broadcast live from Vienna by several international networks, according to the Spanish Riding School.

Gustavo Dudamel

The orchestra has selected the winter pavilion of Vienna’s Spanish Riding School as the venue for this year’s concert.

The prestigious orchestra—under the baton of Dudamel and where French cellist Gautier Capuçon serves as a soloist, will perform Johannes Brahms’s “Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn,” a Haydn concerto for cello and orchestra, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

The concert will be televised by a number of international networks, including Spain’s RTVE.

The Berlin Philharmonic started the May Day concerts in 1991 to mark the anniversary of its founding on May 1, 1882, and it selects a different European location relevant to the history of culture each year.

The orchestra performed at Madrid’s Teatro Real last year under the direction of principal conductor Sir Simon Rattle, with guitarist Paco de Lucia as a guest soloist.

Dudamel is concurrently serving as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra.

He became famous for his dynamic performances with musicians from Venezuela’s National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras.

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