Tribute Concert to Frank Gehry - 9 July 2026

Throughout 2025, Dudamel will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of El Sistema, honoring the global impact of José Antonio Abreu's visionary education program across five generations, and acknowledging the vital importance of arts education. Dudamel will tour internationally with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the National Children's Symphony of Venezuela, and continue to work directly with teachers and students on the ground in Venezuela and in satellite programs around the world.

Dudamel’s advocacy for the power of music to unite, heal, and inspire is global in scope. In appearances from the United Nations to the White House to the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, Dudamel has served as a passionate advocate for music education and social integration through art, sharing his own transformative experience in Venezuela’s El Sistema program as an example of how music can give a sense of purpose and meaning to a young person and help them rise above challenging circumstances. In 2007, Dudamel, the LA Phil, and its community partners founded YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles), which now provides more than 1,700 young people with free instruments, intensive music instruction, academic support, and leadership training. In 2012, Dudamel launched the Dudamel Foundation, which he co-chairs with his wife, actress and director María Valverde, with the goal of expanding access to music and the arts for young people by providing tools and opportunities to shape their creative futures.

As a conductor, Dudamel is one of the few classical musicians to become a bona fide pop-culture phenomenon and has worked tirelessly to ensure that music reaches an ever-greater audience. He was the first classical artist to participate in the Super Bowl halftime show and the youngest conductor ever to lead the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day Concert. He has performed at global mainstream events from the Academy Awards to the reopening of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, and has worked with musical icons like Billie Eilish, Christina Aguilera, LL Cool J, Ca7riel y Paco, Laufey, Coldplay, and Nas. Dudamel conducted the score to Steven Spielberg’s new adaptation of West Side Story, and at John Williams’ personal request, he guest conducted the opening and closing credits of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. His film and television appearances include Sesame Street, The Simpsons, Mozart in the Jungle, Trolls World Tour, and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, and in 2019 Dudamel was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Throughout its history, the NYSOV has been led by world-renowned conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Lorin Maazel, and Krzysztof Penderecki. Alumni of the orchestra include Gustavo Dudamel, Christian Vásquez, Diego Matheuz, and Edicson Ruiz - artists who have gone on to build successful international careers. Many others have pursued different professional paths, carrying with them the values instilled by El Sistema.

The musicians of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela are responsible for training this new generation, sharing their knowledge and experience in line with El Sistema’s established pedagogical, social, and artistic principles. Through sectionals, workshops, and full rehearsals, the young musicians are shaped with a constant pursuit of the highest musical standards.

Fifty years after its founding, El Sistema, now present in over 70 countries and engaging more than 1.3 million children and young people, stands as a global model for inclusion, social transformation, and opportunity through a culture of merit, effort, perseverance, and discipline.

Mr Kantorow began performing professionally at an early age, making his debut at the La Folle Journée festival in Nantes at just 16 years of age. Since then, he has played with many of the world’s major orchestras, including regular appearances with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. Highlights in the coming season include concerts with the Orchestre de Paris, Staatskappelle Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, as well as tours with the Orchestre National de Toulouse, Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic.

He has performed solo recitals at major concert halls across Europe, such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in their Master Pianists series, the Konzerthaus Berlin, Philharmonie de Paris, BOZAR in Brussels and Stockholm Konserthus. He has also appeared at some of the most prestigious festivals, including La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, the Verbier Festival and Klavierfest Ruhr. Chamber music is another of his great pleasures and he regularly performs with Victor Julien-Laferrière, Renaud Capuçon, Daniel Lozakovich and Matthias Goerne.

Mr Kantorow records exclusively with BIS. His most recent recording (solo works by Brahms) received the 2022 Diapason d’Or. His two previous recordings (Saint-Saëns concerti 3-5 and solo works by Brahms, Bartok and Liszt) each received the Diapason d’Or and Choc Classica of the Year in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The solo disc was Gramophone magazine’s Editor’s Choice, his performance described as “a further remarkable example of his virtuosity and artistry, showing both skill and sensitivity throughout”. His earlier recital recordings, entitled à la Russe, also won numerous awards and distinctions, including the 2017 Choc de l’Année (Classica), Diapason découverte (Diapason), Supersonic (Pizzicata) and CD des Doppelmonats (PianoNews).

Mr Kantorow is a laureate of the Safran Foundation and Banque Populaire, and, in 2019, was named “Musical Revelation of the Year” by the Professional Critics Association. In 2020, he won France’s Victoires de la Musique Classique in two categories: Recording of the Year and Instrumental Soloist of the Year.

Born in France of Franco-British heritage, he has studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Frank Braley and Rena Shereshevskaya.