| Princeton University Concerts (PUC) is proud to announce a comprehensive schedule of concerts and events centered around its first Artist-in-Residence, conductor Gustavo Dudamel, in his first major academic residency that is at the heart of PUC’s 125th Season. The residency will take place over the course of three visits to Princeton’s campus in December, January, and April 2018-19 and will include concerts curated and led by Maestro Dudamel, community and educational events, and a series of themed talks, discussions and interdisciplinary exhibits exploring music’s relationship to the world around us.
The performances include three chamber concerts curated by Maestro Dudamel featuring ensembles from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Berlin Philharmonic, as well as a residency opening musical party with venerated Afro-Venezuelan folk music singer Betsayda Machado and Grammy-nominated cuatro/mandolin virtuoso Jorge Glem. The residency will conclude with Maestro Dudamel conducting two performances of the Princeton University Orchestra and Glee Club April 26 & 27, 2019, one at Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall, and the other a newly-announced FREE (but ticketed) concert in Trenton, NJ, at the Patriots Theater at the War Memorial, which is open to members of the local community and beyond.
Reflecting Maestro Dudamel’s belief in music’s capacity to bring people together and serve as a platform for world change, the residency will also include a number of community and educational events. Each chamber concert will be open with a preview performance by El Sistema-inspired programs from Boston, Los Angeles, and New York City, and the residency will conclude on April 28, 2019 with a day of shared music-making in the tradition of the El Sistema “seminario,” featuring hundreds of students from El Sistema programs throughout New Jersey and beyond, including Trenton Music Makers from New Jersey, Play on, Philly! from Philadelphia, and OrchKids of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
In keeping with PUC’s vision of bringing classical music beyond the concert hall, Maestro Dudamel’s three trips to Princeton will also include a series of themed talks, discussions and campus-wide interdisciplinary collaborations with several academic departments at Princeton University. Conversations and panels, all hosted by Maestro Dudamel and featuring distinguished thinkers from a range of fields, will center on the following topics: Art, Education & Social Change, Art & Faith, Art & Nature, and Art & Society. Interdisciplinary events include a screening of “The Liberator” a film by Alberto Arvelo for which Maestro Dudamel composed the music, an art exhibit by local artist Marsha Levin-Rojer, and more. |
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Chronological Lis of Public Events
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| Events take place in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall, unless otherwise noted. A public residency schedule will be continually updated at princetonuniversityconcerts.org.
VISIT #1: DECEMBER 1-2, 2018
Saturday, December 1, 2018 Opening Celebration
- 7:30PM: Opening Remarks
- 9PM: Betsayda Machado & Jorge Glem in “Aguinaldos y Parrandas”
Sunday, December 2, 2018
- 1PM: Pre-concert Preview by students from the Boston String Academy
- 2PM: Quartet 212 with Emily D’Angelo, Mezzo-soprano
- 4PM: Gustavo Dudamel & Don Michael Randel discuss Art, Education, & Social Change in Latin America in a public conversation
VISIT #2: JANUARY 7-9, 2019
Monday, January 7, 2019
- 6PM: Pre-concert Preview by students from the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (“YOLA”)
- 7PM: Musicians from the Los Angeles Philharmonic
- 9PM: Post-Concert Panel on Art & Faith, moderated by Gustavo Dudamel
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
- 4:30PM: Panel Discussion on “El Sistema” moderated by Professor Stanley Katz in McCosh 10
- 6PM: Art Exhibit by Marsha Levin-Rojer at the Bernstein Gallery, Woodrow Wilson School
VISIT #3: APRIL 22-28, 2019
Monday, April 22, 2019
- 7:30PM: Screening of “The Liberator” at the Princeton Garden Theatre with Q&A
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
- 6PM: Pre-concert Preview by students from the Harmony Program of New York City
- 7PM: Ensemble Berlin (Musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic)
- 9PM: Post-concert Panel on Art & Nature moderated by Gustavo Dudamel with Nobel prize-winning physicist Kip Thorne and others
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
- 8PM: Late Night Chamber Jam with members of the Berlin Philharmonic
Thursday, April 25, 2019
- 8PM: Gustavo Dudamel & Fintan O’Toole in Conversation – “The Artist in Society”
Friday, April 26, 2019
- 6:30PM: Pre-concert Panel about the Arts and Social Change moderated by Professor Stanley Katz
- 7:30PM: Gustavo Dudamel Conducts the Princeton University Orchestra & Glee Club
Saturday, April 27, 2019
- 4PM: Gustavo Dudamel Conducts the Princeton University Orchestra & Glee Club at the Patriots Theater at the War Memorial, Trenton, NJ
Sunday, April 28, 2019
- Afternoon: Communiversity Showcase featuring hundreds of students from El Sistema-inspired programs throughout New Jersey and beyond
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| NEW CONCERT IN TRENTON – While the concert on April 26, 2019 in which Maestro Dudamel conducts the Princeton University Orchestra and Glee Club is sold out, Princeton University Concerts is announcing a reprise of the program on Sunday, April 27, 2019 at 4PM in a FREE (but ticketed) concert at the Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton, NJ. In tribute to both Princeton University Concerts’ and Maestro Dudamel’s dedication to making the arts accessible to all, this free (but ticketed) concert welcomes the local community and beyond to hear the world’s great music. The program features Franz Schubert’s Gesang der Geister über den Wassern D. 714, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, and the complete incidental music to Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61 in a special performance that will also include video projections by Venezuelan film director Alberto Arvelo. Tickets are required, and will be available at noon on Monday, April 1, 2019 online at princetonuniversityconcerts.org and by calling 609-258-9220.
OPENING CELEBRATION – The residency will kick off on Saturday, December 1, 2018 with opening remarks followed by a musical party led by venerated Afro-Venezuelan folk music singer Betsayda Machado – the voice of Venezuela – and Grammy-nominated cuatro/mandolin virtuoso Jorge Glem. In a program called “Aguinaldos y Parrandas,” the duo, together with an all-star cast of Maestro Dudamel’s colleagues Diego Álvarez on percussion and Gonzalo Teppa on bass, gives us a taste of timeless holiday traditions that are to this day celebrated throughout Latin American villages in a performance described on NPR as “one of the most joyful shows I’ve seen in years.” The event is free and open to the public but requires tickets. The general public can obtain tickets beginning Monday, November 19, 2018 at 12PM online at princetonuniversityconcerts.org or by calling 609-258-9220.
PANEL DISCUSSIONS & PUBLIC TALKS – Maestro Dudamel will put music in the context of our times by leading a number of public conversations with distinguished thinkers from a range of fields. These include:
- Sunday, December 2, 2018 at 4PM in Richardson Auditorium: Following the first residency concert curated by Maestro Dudamel, the conductor sits down with acclaimed musicologist and Harvard Dictionary of Music editor Don Michael Randel to discuss Music, Education and Social Change, with an emphasis on his native Latin America. Thanks to the vision of Maestro Dudamel’s mentor, José Antonio Abreu, classical music can be found flourishing across Latin America, with enormous audiences at concerts and kids of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds engaging in intensive, free music lessons and playing in orchestras together. As a force for education and catalyst of social change, music and politics too are often entwined. The pair discusses these issues and more during this public conversation. Free to Quartet 212 ticket holders.
- Post-concert panels moderated by Maestro Dudamel on Art & Faith (Monday, January 7, 2019) and Art & Nature (Tuesday, April 23, 2019) with a range of scholars, including Nobel Prize-winning physicist Kip Thorne. Free to concert ticket holders.
- Wednesday, January 9, 2019 at 4:30PM in McCosh 10: A Panel Discussion on the El Sistema music education program, moderated by Princeton University Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director of the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies Stanley Katz, with panelists including El Sistema alumnus and champion Gustavo Dudamel, Acting Director of Education at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association Elsje Kibler-Vermaas, Founder and Executive Director of NYC’s Harmony Program Anne Fitzgibbon, and Princeton undergraduate student Lou Chen ‘19. Free, unticketed.
- Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 8PM: A Public Conversation between Gustavo Dudamel and Fintan O’Toole, one of Ireland’s leading public intellectuals on “Arts and Society,” moderated by Melissa Lane, Princeton University Class of 1943 Professor of Politics and Director of the University Center for Human Values. Free, unticketed.
EDUCATION & COMMUNITY – The residency will also highlight Maestro Dudamel’s singular ability to inspire and empower the next generation of music-makers with a series of classroom visits and educational events culminating in a collaboration with Trenton Music Makers – the local program inspired by El Sistema, the Venezuelan program which has been at the core of so much of Maestro Dudamel’s life and work. On Sunday, April 28, 2019, in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall, hundreds of students from El Sistema-inspired programs throughout NJ and their guests, Play on, Philly! and OrchKids of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, will come together for a day of shared music-making: a “seminario.” The long-standing tradition in the El Sistema movement of bringing students together for a large-scale experience will include Maestro Dudamel working with the programs’ instructors, and sharing his invaluable experience of working with El Sistema orchestras. The seminario will conclude in a public Communiversity Showcase dedicated to Maestro Dudamel. The culmination of Maestro Dudamel’s residency invites everyone to witness the power of the El Sistema program and the passion of its young students in this public performance that brings the community together through music.
Students of representative El Sistema-inspired programs from around the United States will also perform prior to each of the three concerts curated by Maestro Dudamel in pre-concert previews:
- Saturday, December 2, 2018: Students from the Boston String Academy perform at 1PM prior to a concert by Quartet 212 at 2PM in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall. Free to Quartet 212 ticket holders.
- Monday, January 7, 2019: Students from the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (“YOLA”) perform at 6PM prior to a concert by musicians from the Los Angeles Philharmonic at 7PM in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall. Free to Los Angeles Philharmonic Musicians ticket holders.
- Tuesday, April 23, 2019: Students of the Harmony Program of New York City perform at 6PM prior to a concert by Ensemble Berlin. Free to Ensemble Berlin ticket holders.
Another event that will bring the community together through music is PUC’s annual Late Night Chamber Jam on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 8PM in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall. Amateur orchestral musicians of all levels and ages are invited to join musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic in a community sight-reading fest, following the ensemble’s performance the previous evening. Free and open to all, but reservations are required and will be available in the spring.
VISUAL ART & FILM –
- “Music Made Visible: Metaphors of the Ephemeral,” an art exhibit by local artist Marsha Levin-Rojer, responds to Maestro Dudamel’s understanding that the power of music lies in its invisible beauty, “the fact that sound, vibration, and harmony can create something in us.” This exhibit, on view at the Bernstein Gallery at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from December 1, 2018 to January 31, 2019, explores how something invisible and ephemeral can feel so concrete. Free, unticketed.
- Movie Screening at the Princeton Garden Theatre: “The Liberator” – a film selected by Maestro Dudamel, directed by Alberto Arvelo, celebrates the life of Simón Bolívar as a force of freedom throughout South America. A Q&A will follow. Tickets available at the Princeton Garden Theatre.
In addition to all of the public events listed in this release, Maestro Dudamel will spend time in classrooms throughout the Princeton University campus as well as in Trenton Public Schools, working with student musicians, music teachers, and local area educators from the Trenton Music Makers Program. Princeton University student writers and visual artists will also contemplate the themes of Maestro Dudamel’s residency through Princeton University Concerts’ annual Creative Reactions Contest.
Additional residency events and details will continue to be announced throughout the season. The overarching goal of Gustavo Dudamel’s residency at Princeton University Concerts is to bring people together through music, to consider the impact and relevance of music both inside and outside of the concert hall, and to explore the role of the artist in our times. |
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| At only thirty-seven, renowned symphonic and operatic conductor Gustavo Dudamel has already done more for the arts than most achieve in a lifetime. Currently in his tenth season as Music & Artistic Director at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and his nineteenth as the Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, he continues to travel across the globe making guest appearances with some of the world’s most celebrated musical institutions including, this season, an international tour with the Berlin Philharmonic and a debut at the Metropolitan Opera.
Although the list of world-class ensembles he has conducted is impressive, Gustavo Dudamel’s name commands a sense of awe within the classical music industry and beyond—he has harnessed his role as a leading artist to reach deep into the spheres of innovation, education, and social reform. At the heart of all of Gustavo Dudamel’s initiatives lies a dedication to music’s capacity to unite, and to serve as a source of motivation and inspiration. This dedication is most apparent in his commitment to raising awareness for the role of music education in social development, a subject about which he has spoken at the United Nations, as well as at the White House in a keynote speech at the 2016 National Medal of Arts awards.
In true Dudamel fashion, he does much more than speak about these issues—he actively serves this cause: advising, guest directing, fundraising, and founding countless organizations around the world, all of which are devoted to providing music education in underserved communities. These include Big Noise (Scotland), Superar (Vienna), SerHacer (Boston), and El Sistema Sweden. This devotion to education and social change stems from Dudamel’s own musical background in Venezuela’s El Sistema.
Although for these reasons he is hailed as the “musical messiah,” Dudamel rejects this title; for him, what he does is not just about engaging people in classical music but engaging them in life-changing journey through music. “I cannot say that music is the only thing that will save the world,” he says, “but we have to put art somewhere far more central to the main sense of our society.”
In the past few years alone, he has created the Gustavo Dudamel Foundation, established to promote access to music as a human right and a catalyst for learning, integration, and social change; he was key in establishing Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), an educational initiative of the LA Philharmonic providing free instruments, intensive music training, and academic support to students from underserved neighborhoods “empowering them to become vital citizens, leaders, and agents of change;” and he created the “Orchestra of the Future,” taking young musicians from across five continents to perform at the 2017 Nobel Prize Concert.
With the impact of his accomplishments on and off the podium, Dudamel transcends mainstream media: he has been featured on 60 Minutes three times, was the inspiration for the award-winning TV show Mozart in the Jungle, and was recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2009. Dudamel was the first classical musician to feature in the Superbowl Half-Time Show and was the subject of the PBS Documentary Dudamel: Conducting a Life. He guest-conducted the film score of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and has appeared with everyone from Conan O’Brian and Stephen Colbert to Elmo on Sesame Street. Dudamel’s influence knows no bounds, and he is able to speak to diverse audiences, always with the same strong, pure message – offering a vision of beauty and hope in troubling times. |
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