Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela, With Gustavo Dudamel, Announces US Tour

Gustavo Dudamel and his Simón Bolívar Orchestra's, the top orchestra of the renowned Youth and Children Orchestras and Choirs Program, known as "El Sistema", will tour for 5 North-American cities, performing 7 concerts pointed by Latin-American compositions.

This North-American tour starts at November 28th in Berkeley University, CA, when for 4 days the Venezuelan musicians will participate in a residence with seminars, master classes, chamber music concerts in schools and communities of the city and two more concerts -November 29th and 30th -- at famous Zellerbach Hall, with its 2000 people capacity.

The 3rd concert will be on December 2nd, at Chicago Symphony Center -the Chicago Symphony and Symphoniette's official home-. Then, the Concert Hall at Kennedy Center in Washington Dc, will receive the Simón Bolívar Orchestra on December 4th with its 2442 sold-out tickets for this concert. The Kimmel Center for Scenic Arts -the Philadelphia Orchestra place- will be the next stage for the fifth concert on December 5th.

The arrival to New York, on December 6th, coincides with the Musical America Awards ceremony, presented to Gustavo Dudamel and José Antonio Abreu as "Musician of the Year" and "Educator of the year", respectively.

The Venezuelan participation in "Voices from Latin-America" festival at renowned Carnegie Hall, starts on December 7th with Venezuelan Brass Ensemble's concert, under the direction of Thomas Clamor. On December 8th, SBOV's members will perform a chamber music concert, debuting with 4 pieces from the composers: Gonzalo Rubalcaba (Cuba), Danilo Pérez (Panamá), Enrico Chapela (México) and Esteban Benzecry (Argentina). Those pieces were commissioned by the Carnegie Hall specifically for the occasion.

The residence schedule's events at Carnegie Hall also includes conferences about the Venezuelan musical and social program, master classes, family and community concerts closing with two concerts at Stern Auditorium, on Dec 10th and 11th. Throughout the tour the following pieces will be performed: Sinfonía India, Carlos Chávez (México); Tres versiones sinfónicas, Julián Orbón (España); La noche de los Mayas, Silvestre Revueltas (México); Rituales Amerindios II- Chaac, Esteban Benzecry (Argentina); Choros Nº 10, Heitor Villa-Lobos (Brasil); An Alpine Symphony, Richard Strauss (Germany) and La Cantata Criolla, by Antonio Estévez (Venezuela).

This is Simón Bolívar Orchestra's third Tour of the United States. The first time was in autumn, in 2007, with sold out concerts in LA, San Francisco, Boston and New York -in including their first time at Carnegie Hall- where the orchestra was conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and Simon Rattle as part of "Berlin in Lights' program". In January 2012, SBOV had a 3 week-residence in Walt Disney Hall and joined to LA Phill for the Mahler Project, led by Gustavo Dudamel, which included 16 concerts between LA and Caracas and the 9 Gustav Mahler's Symphonies.