It would be a misguided statement to say there has been hype surrounding the arrival of Gustavo Dudamel, the 28 year-old new music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. There’s real electro-magnetism felt throughout the land drawn in by the intense beam of passion The Dude exudes. Yet expectations are at a strain in equal clamor to the compliments and acclaim showered upon the young incumbent. Will today’s welcome concert spark from the maestro a flame to char away LA’s socio-political malfunction?

In typical LA fashion recruiting this dynamic conductor from Venezuela (and replacing the former Finn Esa-Pekka Salonen) is another example of the city and its institutions that continue to make conscious efforts to spur international awareness and stir intercultural influence—ideals of solidarity via diversity that is taking decades to ripple out into our communities, and if I may borrow a page from the John Singleton script of “Higher Learning” (1995), still demographically separated by Asia America’s “Chinatown,” the white yuppies of “Disneyland,” the “South Of The Border” Hispanics, and “The Black Hole” of African Americans. Those ideals just haven’t echoed through.

Culture in the form of what you’d find in sports and entertainment sections of newspapers have traditionally been the bane of assets left to prop up the image of any major metropolis or its wannabe’s.

But The Dude is different. He’s not just hype and he’s not just a prop. As an organic product of the El Sistema musical education program in Venezuela you will find a nomenclatural irony with the healing substance I foresee Dudamel bringing into today’s “politricks” of establishment and, perhaps even give it renewed meaning.

Also known as the Barack Obama of classical music for the media blitz and his multitasking talents GD will have his work cut out for him. Alone however he is not. And every great talent that was ever propelled to any height of success or limelight is with its equivalent level of support. Here I would like to highlight two key elements and people that drove purpose to his arrival.

Founded in 1975 by Venezuelan conductor, composer, keyboardist, economics and law professor, and former congressional deputy <gasp>, El Sistema is the exalted vision of Jose Antonio Abreu. It is a system built on the spiritual underpinnings “to create beauty” vis-à-vis organizational structures where “everyone is responsible for others and the others are responsible for oneself.”

El Sistema’s principle cornerstone allows music to call upon more rooted spiritual, mystical, or divine concepts. Its program utilizes music as an emotional outreach to the unseen and would be the impetus to connect our higher selves with inspiration to create material harmony. 400,000 members, 125 youth orchestras, and 30 professional orchestras in Venezuela alone speaks of the pragmatism itself. Although when you hear of once troubled youth Lennar Acosta testify that being given a clarinet “felt better in [his] hands than a gun,” that speaks volumes! No doubt Jose Antonio Abreu would conclude:

The huge spiritual world that music produces in itself, which also lies within itself, ends up overcoming material poverty.

His approach to music is like a plant manufacturing individual confidence through social activity, and therefore is also a harbinger of interdependence in all levels of community. If El Sistema’s success can be replicated in LA and other parts of the world Gustavo Dudamel could be the vindicating response to historian Arnold Toynbee’s call that the world is in a dire spiritual crisis.

As a reflection of that disconnection with the divine amongst Los Angelenos, there also isn’t much connection by way of our neighbors, colleagues, or communities. I tend to point the finger at greed and one of its effects—the car “culture”—creating a complex of separation distinct from other metropolitan cities that rely on the use of public transportation to involve human interaction.

A close number two would be the the top-down elitism in politics whereby money is tossed at special interests for votes sometimes known as allocating budgets or the creation of programs—also a separatist view absolving higher-ups from micromanagement duties and flaws. California, a state that stands in the top 10 economies of GDP alongside nations, certainly has a lot to micromanage.

To meet at the middle the LA Phil has adopted the model of El Sistema, but fusing public and private funds, to work with key handlers of their respective budgets and programs. LA boasts a populous metropolis of Hispanics, yet after many decades the idea somehow just dawned on the LA Phil to outsource visibility to Tustin-based Hispanic marketing firm alPunto. Maybe the metaphor was finally made to the Dudamel skin tone. But according to Sonia Marie De Leon de Vega, founder and director of LA-based Santa Cecilia Orchestra, the LA Phil should have reached out to the Latino community 20 years ago.

As a local model De Leon de Vega’s orchestras and choirs target solely on the Latino community, and to whom six of their annual concerts are sold-out. In its 17th season her “Discovering Music” program has also reached out to the families of 40,000 children across 35 schools and provides free violin lessons and mentorship services to 250 elementary and middle school students.

Here she makes the distinction that her orchestras are social extensions from within that “take concerts to the people rather than the people to the concerts”—alluding again to the elitist attitudes of bureaucrats throwing hasty invitations with high expectations of predominantly low-income Latino and black residents to attend concerts without having to make more visceral connections with them. Sure these invites to the Classical Tuesdays/Thursdays summer series at the Hollywood Bowl are free, but there is definitely something wrong with the program if I’ve seen more elderly Caucasian and Asian folks hiking onto these bus passes than the predesignated racial groups.

I recall an orchestral experience I had been involved, and the depth of Abreu’s kind of vision barely scratched the surface. The group comprised of nationally auditioned and selected Chinese-American youth pulled together into its base in Dallas, Texas and was dubbed the North American Elite Youth Orchestra (NAEYO). The orchestra was stitched together in the name of noble principles and the leadership reflected personal glamour and glory over team morale. The absence of a spiritual host prevented this group from manifesting any viable social flourish. And suffice to say the founding delusion of NAEYO in 1995 never made it into the 2000s.

On the other hand we’ve seen El Sistema and Discover Music sprout respectively from a systemic approach of spiritual inquisition to social induction; they function in their targeted locales. But I as a Greater Los Angeleno citizen have the more desperate hope the adopted strategy by the LA Phil is not too late considering the economic crunch we are in.

Gustavo Dudamel certainly bears a heavy cross on his shoulders although he doesn’t seem to exhibit any of its pressure. He’s still conducting two other youth orchestras in LA and Venezuela. And perhaps his light-hearted, child-like quality is what’s most refreshing about him.

It’s also worth mentioning some perspective by noting I had left out the LA Phil’s motive to revive youth and audience interests in classical music. As important as that may be to programmers of the genre amidst the surge of music omnivores, I’m inclined towards a bigger picture that LA Phil President Deborah Borda has pointed out. Music education is “to foster a sense of harmony and a reason to excel—traits that our children take with them throughout their lives, even if it’s not in music, to reverberate across the broader community.” For this greater good, I am not as concerned with the revival of classical music if it can’t get squooshed into the already full plate. It’s a relatively small sacrifice I’m willing to accept in exchange for the musical messianic mission to help resurrect optimism and wealth into my hometown. Bravo Gustavo!

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