Maestro Gustavo Dudamel’s residency at Princeton University Concerts, in honor of our 125th anniversary, will launch on December 1-2, 2018

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL RESIDENCY LAUNCHES

Events December 1-2, 2018 include performances by Betsayda Machado (the “Voice of Venezuela”), Quartet 212 (from Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) with mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, students from the El Sistema-inspired Boston String Academy, and two public discussions with Maestro Dudamel about Art, Education, and Social Change: one with musicologist Don Michael Randel, and one with

New York Philharmonic President & CEO Deborah Borda.

Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, Princeton University Concerts’ first Artist-in-Residence, will come to campus for the first visit of his extensive residency on Saturday and Sunday, December 1-2, 2018. At the heart of Princeton University Concerts’ 125^th anniversary season, this residency spans a series of events showcasing music’s unique capacity to unite people and disciplines, and to serve as a catalyst for social change.

Maestro Dudamel’s first visit will launch in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall on Saturday, December 1 with a two-part, FREE Opening Celebration. At 8PM, Maestro Dudamel and musicologist Don Michael Randel discuss the relationship between art, education, and social change in Latin America—a theme at the heart of Maestro Dudamel’s residency. Dr. Randel was the Chair of the Board of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has previously served as the president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the University of Chicago, among other prestigious positions.

The conversation will be followed by a musical celebration at 9PM: venerated Afro-Venezuelan folk music singer Betsayda Machado – the voice of Venezuela – and Grammy-nominated cuatro/mandolin virtuoso Jorge Glem come together for “Aguinaldos y Parrandas,” a program sampling the timeless holiday traditions celebrated throughout Latin American villages, described by NPR as “one of the most joyful shows I’ve seen in years.” The duo will be joined by an all-star cast of Maestro Dudamel’s colleagues, including Diego Álvarez on percussion and Gonzalo Teppa on bass in this jubilant tribute to Maestro Dudamel’s cultural heritage.

Tickets to the Opening Celebration (discussion and concert) are free, as are many events that are part of Maestro Dudamel’s residency, and will become available on Monday, November 19, 2018 at 12PM online at princetonuniversityconcerts.org, or by calling 609-258-9220. Tickets to the 9PM performance include admission to the public conversation at 8:00PM.

On Sunday, December 2, the day’s residency events will begin at 1PM with a brief performance by students from the Boston String Academy, an El Sistema-inspired program utilizing music as a vehicle for social change by providing an intensive after school string program for young inner-city students. This event will be a Musical Preview for Quartet 212 and mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, performing at 2PM in the first of three concerts curated by Maestro Dudamel.

Quartet 212, an ensemble featuring principal members of the MET Orchestra will bring a program reflecting the diverse range of chamber music. Concertmaster David Chan, principal cellist Rafael Figueroa, violinist Catherine Ro and violist Dov Scheindlin translate their long experience in the operatic world into an expressive vocal quality imbuing all of the music that they perform. From the origins of the string quartet to a newly commissioned work by Princeton University Professor Donnacha Dennehy, from a rare chamber work by operatic composer Guiseppe Verdi to Ottorino Respighi’s setting of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “The Sunset” with mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo (Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Program), this concert promises to remind us of music’s intimate relationship with the human voice, and of chamber music’s innate communicative power. Maestro Dudamel will be making his Metropolitan Opera debut this season.

Following the concert, Maestro Dudamel will be joined onstage by Deborah Borda, President and CEO of the New York Philharmonic, to continue the conversation about Art, Education, and Social Change. This post-concert talk is free to concert ticketholders.

Admission to the Pre-Concert Preview and Post-Concert Discussion is included with concert tickets to hear Quartet 212. Concert tickets are $30 General/$10 Students, available online at princetonuniversityconcerts.org or by phone at 609-258-9220.

Further details about Gustavo Dudamel’s residency at Princeton University Concerts, consisting of three extended visits throughout the year in which the Maestro will participate in panel discussions, public talks, events featuring students of El Sistema programs, art exhibits, celebrations of Latin American culture and much more, is available at princetonuniversityconcerts.org.

ABOUT DON MICHAEL RANDEL

Don Michael Randel is Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Chicago, a prominent American musicologist, and the fifth, now retired, president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He has previously served as the twelfth president of the University of Chicago and during that time as faculty member in the Department of Music. While on the faculty at Cornell University, he chaired the Department of Music there, and served as Provost and as Dean of Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences.

In his academic work, Randel specializes in the music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Among musicologists, he is particularly known for his publications on Mozarabic chant, Arabic music theory, and Latin American popular music. He has published on Rubén Blades and is currently working on Schumann and Cole Porter. He has served as editor of the third and fourth editions of the Harvard Dictionary of Music, the Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music, and the Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians. His essays and articles appear in Ḗtudes Gregoriennes, The Musical Quarterly, the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Music and Language, De Musicología, MLA Notes, Disciplining Music, edited by Phlip V. Bohlman and Katherine Bergeron,and Words and Music. He is the author of An Index to the Chant of the Mozarabic Rite and The Responsorial Psalm Tones for the Mozarabic Office. He is a triple alumnus of Princeton University, having earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in musicology there.

ABOUT BETSAYDA MACHADO

Betsayda Machado is the “Voice of Venezuela.” Raised in the small village of El Clavo in the region of Barlovento, her recent rural recordings with lifelong friends Parranda El Clavo brought new attention to the Venezuelan Afro-Soul genre, “Tambor,” a spirit-shaking percussion and voice fiesta, said to make dancers float. After the pair’s New York City debut in January 2017, The New York Times called Betsayda and Parranda: “The kind of group that world-music fans have always been thrilled to discover: Vital, accomplished, local, unplugged, deeply rooted.” Machado has been singing since she was five years old. At an early age, she won the Black Voice of Barlovento award in her home town. The genres she has traveled through her career range from traditional afro rhythms to the bolero, gaitas and even salsa.

ABOUT BOSTON STRING ACADEMY

The Boston String Academy (BSA) is a non-profit organization inspired by El Sistema, dedicated to introducing children at an early age to music, and promoting a love for and engagement in music making. They provide a vibrant after school string program for inner-city young students, offering many performance opportunities, master classes, lessons and ensemble settings that enable students to build self-confidence, discipline, commitment, social skills, and other fundamental values essential to every child’s development, and to forge social integration through music by creating a path for young people to become sensitive, responsible and creative human beings. The BSA was founded in November, 2012 by Marielisa and Mariesther Alvarez, and Taide Prieto-Carpio, graduates of the Boston Conservatory, and of El Sistema programs in their home countries of Venezuela and Peru. BSA currently offers three programs in the Chinatown, Allston and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston, serving more than 100 students.

ABOUT QUARTET 212

Quartet 212 is an exciting new ensemble on the international scene. Comprising four leading players from the legendary MET Orchestra in New York City, the quartet was formed at the Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot festival in the Burgundy region of France. The quartet’s name pays homage not only to the group’s Manhattan roots (212 is the area code for New York City), but also to the town of Beaune, France (postal code 21200), where the quartet played its first concert in 2012.

Quartet 212’s playing is notable for its uncommon vitality, vivid characterization, remarkable unanimity of attack, and above all the expressive and vocal quality derived from the players’ long experience in the world of opera. Quartet 212 has collaborated with many of today’s greatest artists including cellists

Quartet 212’s repertoire ranges from the classics of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert to Debussy, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and the Second Viennese School. The players also share a passion for mentoring leading instrumentalists and singers of the younger generation, and for the fine wines of Burgundy. Their first recording, a disc of the Mozart and Weber clarinet quintets with French clarinetist Pierre Génisson, has won numerous awards including the UK Sunday Times “Album of the Week” and the prestigious “Choc de l’Année” award from the French press.

ABOUT EMILY D’ANGELO, mezzo-soprano

Italian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, from Toronto, Canada, is in her first year of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She recently sang the role of Second Lady in excerpts of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel in Walt Disney Concert Hall. She made her European debut in the 2016 at the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro under the baton of James Conlon, as well as her North American debut in 2016 with the Canadian Opera Company as Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte, also covering the title role in Ariodante. In June 2017 she made her American debut with Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Annio in La clemenza di Tito. She will debut Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia this summer at Glimmerglass Festival in a new production by Francesca Zambello.

Ms. D’Angelo has been the recipient of numerous awards: 2^nd Prize at the 2017 Neue Stimmen Competition and 1^st Prize at the 2016 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, 2017 Gerda Lissner International Voice Competition, 2017 Canadian Opera Company Quilico Awards Competition, 2016 American National Opera Association Competition, and the 2015 Canadian Opera Company Centre Stage Competition.  She is a graduate of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio and was a two-time fellow at the Ravinia Steans Institute. 

ABOUT DEBORAH BORDA

Throughout her career, Deborah Borda has extended the artistic, commercial, and technological boundaries of American symphony orchestras. She became President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Philharmonic in September 2017. Prior posts include President and CEO, David C. Bohnett Presidential Chair, of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic; General Manager of the San Francisco Symphony; President and Managing Director of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; and Executive Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In 2015 she became the first arts executive to join Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership as a Hauser Leader-in-Residence.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s success during Deborah Borda’s 17-year tenure was chosen for case studies by Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School. During her first decade in Los Angeles, Ms. Borda designed an acclaimed business, education, and curatorial plan credited with restoring the orchestra to robust artistic and financial health. She reinvigorated plans to build and launch Walt Disney Concert Hall, oversaw the addition of a new shell for the Hollywood Bowl, and reimagined and diversified programming at both venues. She also spearheaded the appointment of music director Gustavo Dudamel. Committed to the orchestra’s social imperative, Ms. Borda and Mr. Dudamel invested in groundbreaking educational initiatives, including the founding of YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles), which provides free after-school instruction to children in underserved communities, and the national Take a Stand initiative, which promotes the El Sistema philosophy of social change through music.

A graduate of Bennington College and the Royal College of Music and a former professional violist, Deborah Borda is in demand internationally as a consultant and lecturer. She received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. In 2018 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and was also named Chair of the Avery Fisher Artist Program. Her accomplishments in the field of orchestral music have been cited in numerous reviews and articles, both nationally and internationally.

ABOUT GUSTAVO DUDAMEL

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’Brien 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.