The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela (SBYOV)
was founded on February 12, 1975, by maestro José Antonio Abreu, and is the most polished artistic product of the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras.

The orchestra has had two principal conductors: its founder, maestro Abreu, who held the post for over two decades and maestro Alfredo Rugeles, its current artistic director. In addition to Dr. Abreu and maestro Rugeles, the orchestra has welcomed prominent guest conductors to its podium, whose contributions to the orchestra’s artistic standards proved invaluable.

The SBYOV has performed with famous soloists and renowned ensembles. It has appeared in many music festivals, gala concerts, and special events in Venezuela and abroad, and it has played at many of the most important venues of Europe, Asia, and North and South America.

The SBYOV’s varied repertoire includes important Venezuelan and Latin-American pieces which have won renown and popularity due to the orchestra’s performances and recordings. Between 1980 and 1981, the orchestra released three albums, and in the nineties, produced some recordings for Dorian under the baton of Eduardo Mata, Enrique Diemecke, Maximiano Valdés and Keri-Lynn Wilson. In 2006, the SBYOV began to record for Deutsche Grammophone under the conduction of Gustavo Dudamel. Since then four compact discs has already been produced.

Since 1976 the Teresa Carreño Theater is its permanent home, wherein the orchestra’s weekly performances are held and the Orchestral Academic Program (Programa Académico Orquestal) is developed since 2001. Through this program, the best musicians from the Núcleos around the country join the SBYOV – led by Gustavo Dudamel – continue their musical education under the tutelage of world-renowned institutions and El Sistema’s most experienced musicians.

Gustavo Dudamel
passionate music-making continues to inspire audiences of all ages worldwide. Currently serving as Music Director of both the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the impact of his musical leadership is felt on four continents. While his commitment to these posts accounts for the major portion of his yearly schedule, Dudamel also guest conducts with some of the world’s greatest musical institutions. This season he returns to the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, and tours with La Scala in opera and concert to Japan. Additional guest appearances include the New York Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Bamberg Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Gothenburg Symphony, where he is Honorary Conductor.

Dudamel makes his first foray into composing for film with the major feature Libertador (the life of Simón Bolívar), for which he wrote the score and recorded it with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. It is being released this season, along with the soundtrack.

Now in his 15th season as Music Director, Dudamel continues to lead the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in his native Venezuela as well as on tour. Starting with a production of Tannhäuser at the Bogotá Opera in July 2013, followed by a 2013 summer residency at the Salzburg Festival, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra then tours to Paris and the Middle East in January of 2014, before travelling to California in February for a residency and joint concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for an LA Phil Tchaikovsky Festival.

Gustavo Dudamel is in his fifth season as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where his contract has already been extended through 2018-19, the orchestra’s 100th season. Under his leadership the Los Angeles Philharmonic has expanded its diversified outreach through many projects, most notably Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), influenced by Venezuela’s widely successful El Sistema. With YOLA, Gustavo brings music to children in the underserved communities of Los Angeles, and also serves as an inspiration for similar efforts throughout the United States, as well as for programs in Sweden (Hammarkullen) and Scotland (Raploch). This season, the students of YOLA will have the unique opportunity of playing alongside the musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in its first ever public “side by side” concert.

At the Los Angeles Philharmonic, it is not only the breadth of the audience reached, but also the depth of the programming performed under Gustavo Dudamel that is remarkable. Programs at the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2013-2014 continue to represent the best and the boldest: eleven world premieres and thirteen commissions; a Hollywood Bowl Aida and Verdi Requiem; a community-wide season opening festival in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Walt Disney Concert Hall, culminating in a gala performance at the Hall; and a seven-city North American tour to San Francisco, Kansas City, New York, Washington DC, Toronto, Montreal and Boston in March 2014. The season ends with a staged Così fan tutte with sets by architect Zaha Hadid, completing a three-consecutive-year Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy project.

An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2005, Grammy winner Gustavo Dudamel has numerous recordings on the label. As part of a major Mahler recording project, his most recent CD release is Mahler 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with Mahler 7 (Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra) anticipated for early 2014. In addition, DG has already released Mahler 5, as well as Dudamel: Mahler 8 - Symphony of a Thousand Live from Caracas(DVD + Blu-Ray), featuring the combined forces of the LA Phil and the Bolívars. September 2013 sees the international release of an all-Strauss disc with the Berlin Philharmonic (CD), and a concerto disc with the Bolívars and Yuja Wang featuring Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto and Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto is scheduled for release later this season. A CD of Adams’ Gospel According to the Other Mary with the Los Angeles Philharmonic is planned for release in March 2014.

Pedro Eustache
Venezuelan-born Pedro Eustache is an openly creative solo flautist-“World-Music” woodwinds-reeds-synthesist-composer, with a unique, richly eclectic, multi-directional personal voice. His musical language is the direct result of years of both solid studies and professional experience in the classical-European, Jazz, World-Music, Popular, and Computer/Electronic music art forms. He graduated from two European conservatories in classical music, has a M.F.A. in Jazz in the USA, & has studied world music disciplines with some of the greatest masters, including India’s living legend Pandit. Ravi Shankar & matchless bansuri master Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, as well as Armenian duduk w/maestro Djivan Gasparian, and to name but a few.

Mr. Eustache’s professional activities go from solo western classical recitals, to more than seven years of symphonic experience, to jazz concerts, pop, world music [traditional & cross-over], in tours, live performances, recordings & lecturing.

He is the main world-winds instrumentalist in John Debney’s soundtrack for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” movie [nominated for best film-music for the 2005 Oscars]. He was a featured soloist in the ’05 Grammy-award winner “Concert For George”, playing for the first time ever the Armenian duduk in a traditional Indian classical music setting, as a member of India’s living legend, & his teacher, Pndt. Ravi Shankar (Pedro is his only latin-american disciple). For more than 10 years he has been the featured winds soloist with new-age super-star Yanni, and has performed, recorded, &/or toured with many others, like latin-rock super star Shakira, virtuoso composer/flautist James Newton Jr., rock star Don Henley, Persian diva Googoosh, & Latin extraordinary Alex Acuña, among many others.

Pedro is the main world winds soloist featured in many movie soundtracks, including Steven Spielberg’s film ‘Munich’ w/film music composer legend, John Williams; Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” w/James Newton Howard (also in ‘The Interpreter’, ‘The Village’, ‘Hidalgo’); as well as in Warner Bros. “Syriana” w/Alexandre Desplat (& Djivan Gasparian!), as well as in the first Hollywood-Bollywood co-production “Marigold”, w/Graeme Revell. Other film, TV & Video Games soundtrack recordings include: maestro Michel Colombier† (‘Largo Winch’), Danny Elfman (‘The Hulk’), Tim Truman (‘Jeremiah’), Russell Brower (Blizzard Entertainment’s ‘World of Warcraft®’), and most recently he is the featured world winds soloist in”Pirates of the Caribbean 3” with Hans Zimmer, among many others.