A bundle of energy
Gustavo Dudamel – a longstanding friend of the Berliner Philharmoniker

“The evening is likely to go down as the coolest conducting debut in the history of the orchestra,” wrote Berlin’s Tagesspiegel after the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Waldbühne concert in June of 2008. The man on the podium was the then 27-year-old Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, whose Spanish-South American programme delighted press and public alike. 

Although he was conducting the orchestra for the first time that evening, Gustavo Dudamel was no stranger to its musicians. An alumnus of “El Sistema”, Venezuela’s internationally-acclaimed musical education programme, Dudamel had been invited by the Berliner Philharmoniker to perform in Berlin with the Venezuelan youth symphony orchestra, and had participated in an Orchestra Academy project and a concert with members of the Philharmoniker.

Since Dudamel’s spectacular debut, his career has skyrocketed. He is currently Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and in the 2026/27 season he will take over the post of Chief Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. He has been chief conductor of Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra since he was 18 years old, and is in great demand as a guest conductor with major international orchestras, and he remains a frequent and much-loved guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Intoxicating style of music making

Dudamel has come to Berlin almost every year for the past ten years, often conducting two programmes per season and offering a wide artistic repertoire: whether with works by Russian or French composers, whether Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wagner, Mahler or New music, he always impresses audiences with his electrifying, energetic style of music making. Over the years, a deep bond has developed between the Philharmoniker and the conductor. In an interview for the Digital Concert Hall, Dudamel said enthusiastically: “It’s not just a virtuosic orchestra that can play notes easily, it understands the essence of a composer. What we call tradition, the sense of knowing, when to take breath, when a phrase needs more time – the orchestra gets that, instinctively.”

... and again and again the Waldbühne, yet again...

The orchestra often invites him to conduct concert events which attract considerable media attention: the 2008 Waldbühne concert was followed by the New Year’s Eve concert, the 2012 European concert in Vienna and two more Waldbühne concerts in 2014 and 2017. In the latter, in addition to music by Richard Wagner, Robert Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony was on the programme. “Fluid tempi, luscious entries – Dudamel brings to life the euphoria that Schumann captured at the time of its composition,”  rbb’s Inforadio commented on the concert. During the Berliner Philharmoniker’s period without a principal conductor, Dudamel accompanied the orchestra on its tour to Thailand, Taiwan and China in November 2018.

In 2025, Dudamel will conduct the Waldbühne concert for the fourth time – presenting a programme that takes the audience on a musical journey across the Americas. The orchestra will also travel with him once again to Asia, for a short tour of Japan with performances in Osaka, Nagoya, and a special “Japanese” Waldbühne-style concert at the foot of Mount Fuji in Kawaguchiko  – one more step in a collaborative journey of mutual musical appreciation.