Whenever the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and its charismatic conductor Gustavo Dudamel perform, they receive a highly enthusiastic welcome from audiences and critics alike. At just twenty-six, Dudamel has already been Musical Director of the youth orchestra for eight years and is acknowledged as one of the most important conductors of his generation. However, this is not just the story of some prodigy. Dudamel himself describes music as a „social life-saver” and it is true that he and the orchestra are top of the bill in a unique music programme which may seem more than a little strange in the countries of origin of traditional concert culture.
The 220 musicians who belong to the orchestra are from all over Venezuela. The youngest member is fifteen, the oldest twenty-three years old. The Bolívar Youth Orchestra owes its existence to the musician, economist and politician José Antonio Abreu. In 1975 he was gripped by the vision of offering children living in poverty a new perspective on life through music. Despite several changes in government his state-funded network of music schools, the „Fundación del Estado para el Sistema de Orquesta Juvenil e Infantil de Venezuela” (or FESOJIV), continues to be successful in pulling young people out of difficult and criminal situations and showing them the way to a new life. There are now around 30 professional orchestras, 125 youth orchestras, about 15,000 music teachers and a quarter of a million pupils receiving musical training. Children as young as two years old are offered music lessons free of charge and the instruments are provided free of charge. Of course, children are not given one-to-one-lessons but are immediately integrated into an orchestra, since motivation, mutual respect and joint efforts towards communal success are at the heart of this project.

Playing in the orchestra is, for all of the members of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, not just a job, but a way of life. Their lives have been changed thanks to music and it is precisely this fundamental experience that is manifest in their concerts. Their interpretation of works is full of life and hope, uplifting and lively. Gustavo Dudamel’s work with these young people is of a highly professional nature and has been widely acknowledged by many of his illustrious conducting colleagues. Thanks to his masterminding skills, all of the tour concerts by the „Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar” were sold out six months prior to their taking place. That applies to their appearance at the 2007 Beethoven Festival in Bonn, which featured Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, the „Eroica” and the „Symphonic Dances” from Bernstein’s West Side Story. Before the tour can get underway, however, the young musicians have to get down to some hard day-to-day work in Caracas, which means weeks of intensive rehearsals; after all, there is great excitement about such a concert tour and expectations are high.

The documentary film directed by Enrique Sánchez Lansch will be broadcast on Deutsche Welle TV in German, English, Spanish and Arabic. DW TV offers viewers all over the world information and arts-related news from Germany, Europe and around the world. In Germany the film will be shown on the CLASSICA channel. CLASSICA is the first digital television channel for classical music and is broadcast exclusively by the PREMIERE premium television services.