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GUSTAVO DUDAMEL,
conductor
An internationally renowned symphonic and op-
eratic conductor, Gustavo Dudamel is motivated
by a profound belief in music’s power to unite
and inspire that has only grown since he began
violin studies as a child in his native Venezuela.
Following training at the Jacinto Lara Conserva-
tory and Latin American Academy of Violin, at
age 15 he began conducting studies with Rodolfo
Saglimbeni, and that same year he was named to
his first conducting position, as music director
of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra in Caracas.
Three years later, he was named to the same po-
sition with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra
and began further conducting studies with its
founder, José Antonio Abreu. Dudamel toured
Germany with the orchestra in 2000, including
a performance at the Berlin Philharmonie, and
then in 2004 he came to greater international
attention as the winner of the inaugural Bam-
berger Symphoniker Gustav Mahler Conduct-
ing Competition. The following year, Dudamel
signed an exclusive recording contract with
Deutsche Grammophon and made his US de-
but conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
which he became music director of in 2009. Re-
cently extending his contract with the orchestra
through 2022, Dudamel has characterized his
leadership of the LA Phil with both the depth of
repertoire performed and breadth of audiences
reached. The orchestra’s programs have includ-
ed numerous premieres and commissions by
composers such as John Adams, Philip Glass,
Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, Esa-Pekka Sa-
lonen, and Kaija Saariaho, as well as the music
and artists of Mexico in its Festival CDMX. At
Dudamel’s initiative, the LA Phil dramatically
expanded the scope of its community programs,
including the creation of the Youth Orchestra
Los Angeles, influenced by the philosophy of El
Sistema. Dudamel’s work in Venezuela remains
the cornerstone of his engagement with young
people, as he steadfastly commits some 25 weeks
to the orchestras and children of El Sistema, also
continuing to lead the Simón Bolívar Symphony
Orchestra on national and international tours.
Named one of
Time
Magazine’s 100 most influ-
ential people in 2009, he was also named
Musi-
cal America
’s Artist of the Year in 2013, adding
to numerous other honors. Gustavo Dudamel is
making his Ravinia debut.
YUJA WANG,
piano
Beginning piano lessons at age 6, Yuja Wang
quickly began honing her talents at the Central
Conservatory of Music in her native Beijing. In
1999, she moved to Canada to attend Calgary’s
Mount Royal Conservatory, where she was the
youngest-ever student, and its Morningside
summer music program. Two years later she
became a Steinway Artist, and in 2002 she en-
tered the Curtis Institute of Music as a student
of Gary Graffman. Wang had already begun es-
tablishing her international career by the time
she graduated in 2008, making her debut with
the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa
three years earlier and earning headline notic-
es in 2007 when she was a last-minute replace-
ment for Martha Argerich in a performance of
Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra. Over the past year, she
has toured with the London Symphony Or-
chestra under Michael Tilson Thomas and the
Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, as well as per-
formed on concerts series with the Munich
Philharmonic and at the Verbier Festival. Wang
also embarked on play–conduct tours with the
Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Or-
chestra of Europe, and she joined both the in-
augural tour of Jaap van Zweden with the New
York Philharmonic and the final tour of Yannick
Nézet-Séguin with the Rotterdam Philharmon-
ic. She reunited with frequent collaborator vio-
linist Leonidas Kavakos for a European recital
tour in the winter, and she recently concluded
a solo tour of the US and Europe, with stops in
New York, San Francisco, Rome, Vienna, Ber-
lin, and Paris, among many other music centers.
In addition to being a cultural ambassador for
Rolex, she was recently inducted into Giorgio
Armani’s Sì Women’s Circle for integrating her
love of fashion into her performances. Wang has
been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon re-
cording artist since 2009, the same year she was
named
Gramophone
’s Young Artist of the Year,
and was named
Musical America
’s Artist of the
Year for 2017. Yuja Wang attended Ravinia’s Ste-
ans Music Institute in 2004 and made her first
return to the festival last summer.
6:00 PM THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2018
BENNETT GORDON HALL
RAVINIA’S STEANS
MUSIC INSTITUTE
PROGRAM FOR
PIANO & STRINGS
This evening’s program will feature
chamber works by Johannes Brahms and more.
The participants’ biographies can be found in the
RSMI program book distributed at this concert,
and the evening’s complete repertoire
in the included program insert.