MUSIC FOR EVERYBODY

Gustavo Dudamel is teaching classical music to middle school students. He says “Guys! Violins, I hear you playing but it’s so boring.” But Gustavo is not a music teacher. He is the director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He also leads another music group: the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. The group teaches young people how to play in an orchestra. Without it, these students don’t have a chance to learn how to play a musical instrument.

Youth Orchestra Los Angeles is only two years old. Students are all from poor families. They don’t have a lot of money to send their kids to a music school. Gustavo doesn’t get any money for teaching these kids. He does it for free. The group practises three times a week. All students attend the classes. They never miss a class.

Gustavo is from Venezuela. In his country the government gives free music education to poor kids. They also give free instruments to hundreds of thousands of children in Venezuela. He got the idea from there. He says “In my country, classical music is an artistic, social project. My goal is music for everybody. People say that it’s a crazy idea but I believe it and I work for it.”

For Gustavo, culture is an important part of life. He says it’s very important like health and education. It’s even as important as food. He believes the orchestra is an important tool for teaching other things. It can teach discipline and teamwork.

He teaches the Latino culture to his students too. “I believe that America is one. Of course we have South, Central and North America, but there is only one continent, together. I’m very proud to be Venezuelan, Latino, South American and American” he says in an interview.