52 Quotes by Gustavo Dudamel

For me to rehearse with a children’s orchestra a Mahler symphony was to really work. We had three or four weeks of rehearsal with the orchestra, every day eight or nine hours, putting the First together. I had been conducting Tchaikovsky a lot and Beethoven, but Mahler was different.

In my imagination yes, I remember, when I was six years old, I was conducting all this concert in my house. But now it’s real.

I have eaten very well in Los Angeles. Marvelously!

I set out to create a means whereby music could be a way of vindicating the rights of the masses.

I studied music since I was four years old, and from that moment I became part of a family. And that family has taught me things; not only musical things, but things I have to face in life, and that is where the success of the system lies.

I want to work with the big orchestras. I want to have a big family.

Los Angeles is a very special city. It’s a great ethnic mix, a great cultural mix.

I wanted to play my violin and have my musical expression through the instrument. But then I was really young when I had my first opportunity to conduct.

My relationship with the Philharmonia Orchestra brought me many times to London and I will always reflect positively on that early period of development with them – their patience, their warmth, their dedication.