Classic Conduct

L.A.'S PHILHARMONIC WINS GUSTAVO DUDAMEL

Hollywood is always on the lookout for the next big thing. Come fall, its newest breakout star won't be on the big screen but on the stage of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. When Gustavo Dudamel becomes music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic he will be poised, at the age of 28, to become the kind of wide-ranging, energetic ambassador for classical music not seen since the meteoric rise of Leonard Bernstein, more than 60 years ago.

Dudamel's reach is already global. "My home is the plane," he jokes. The Venezuelan is music director of Sweden's Gothenburg Symphony and in his 10th year as music director of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. And, defying the odds in the classical-recording industry, he's become a best-selling artist for Deutsche Grammophon. How many young musicians, let alone classicalmusic conductors, can boast of being chosen as the "next big thing" on iTunes, as Dudamel was for his recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony?

He gained the notice of L.A.'s outgoing music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen, at the Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition in 2004, which led to guest conducting appearances with the philharmonic and finally this position. Dudamel treats his players with the abiding warmth of long-lost family members. His conducting philosophy: nothing more than instinct, he says. "The most important thing is to take from the musicians their attention and energy for the music. And to have fun."

ROBERT J. HUGHES