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Venezuelan youth orchestra to star in the new season at Festival Hall
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent14 Apr 2009
The orchestra now hailed as the most successful youth music project in the world takes up residence in the Southbank Centre today.
Such is the excitement surrounding the Simó* Bolívar Youth Orchestra from Venezuela that thousands of free tickets for rehearsals are on offer after its concerts were the fastest in the new season to sell out.
Even more people will be able to see the orchestra, thanks to live relays of both rehearsals and concerts.
The ensemble first made headlines in Britain two years ago when they gave a joyous concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The Proms debut ended with them throwing their colourful jackets into the audience - recipients were clearly identifiable streaming home wearing the national colours of Venezuela.
Now the orchestra is back in Britain for an entire week - called Sounds Venezuela - to play concerts and take workshops at the Southbank Centre.
About 30,000 people are expected to take part in the week, including 10,000 taking advantage of free tickets for events from now until the weekend.
Marshall Marcus, the Southbank's head of music, said: "We've got one of the most extraordinary orchestras in the world arriving and we wanted to offer this beyond our normal concert audience. We thought it would be a wonderful opportunity for people who may not have been to a classical concert before."
The orchestra is the product of a groundbreaking publicly-funded scheme called El Sistema, established in Venezuela in 1975. It takes some of the poorest and most socially deprived children in the country and gives them a means of escape through music. Today, under dynamic young conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the group has won praise from the likes of Sir Simon Rattle for its professionalism.
It is being copied in pilot projects in London and Scotland. José Antonio Abreu, the scheme's founder and director, will discuss the orchestra's development in a series of symposia as part of the residency.
Christina Coker, chief executive officer of Youth Music, the lottery-funded charity for young people in the UK, said Britain had a mass of young orchestras and ensembles, but what Venezuela had done was to make sure the poorest had the opportunity to take part - and it had done so over a long period of time.
"The orchestra is the culmination of 30 years worth of investment in a social project. We should really take note of that. It's been a way of changing their lives and fighting their way out of poverty," she said. On the back of the Venezuelan residency, the Southbank Centre today announced that the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain is to become its first official youth partner. It will perform its annual spring London concert at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday.
The best of the rest at the South Bank
Beethoven season including Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Staatskapelle performing the five Beethoven piano concertos and Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment playing Beethoven's complete nine symphonies. November 2009 to May 2010
Philharmonia Orchestra celebrates its 65th birthday with a gala conducted by Riccardo Muti. 30 March 2010
Bernstein Project. A celebration of the American composer Leonard Bernstein curated by the conductor Marin Alsop and including a performance of Bernstein's Mass, a huge work for orchestra and choruses including a boys' choir, marching bands and a rock band. 20 September 2009 to 9 July 2010
Shell Classical International series of concerts with world orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Bernard Haitink, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with Mariss Jansons and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Ivá* Fischer and Julia Fischer
Polish music weekend curated by violinist Nigel Kennedy, below, including four concerts in the Royal Festival Hall and films and food. 29-31 May 2010
