CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Classical music wunderkind Gustavo Dudamel is facing the heat in his native Venezuela for not speaking out against embattled President Nicolas Maduro while holding a series of high-profile concerts here this week.
Dudamel, the 33-year-old musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, on Wednesday led a government-funded youth ensemble in a commemorative concert in downtown Caracas blocks away from where a student was killed hours earlier in anti-government protests. More concerts to celebrate the 39th anniversary of Venezuela’s El Sistema musical education program are scheduled this weekend, and Maduro is to meet Friday with American architect Frank Gehry to review plans for a concert hall being built in Dudamel’s honor.
