Pair of lovers group of Nymphenburg porcelain, c. 1760, modelled by Franz Anton Bustelli

The Rococo Basilica at Ottobeuren (Bavaria): architectural spaces flow together and swarm with life

Rococo (/rəˈkoʊkoʊ/ or /roʊkəˈkoʊ/), less commonly roccoco, also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century artistic movement and style, which affected several aspects of the arts including painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, decoration, literature, music and theatre. The Rococo developed in the early part of the 18th century in Paris, France as a reaction against the grandeur, symmetry and strict regulations of the Baroque, especially that of the Palace of Versailles.^[1] In such a way, Rococo artists opted for a more jocular, florid and graceful approach to Baroque art and architecture. Rococo art and architecture in such a way was ornate and made strong usage of creamy, pastel-like colours, asymmetrical designs, curves and gold. Unlike the more politically focused Baroque, the Rococo had more playful and often witty artistic themes. With regards to interior decoration, Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings. The Rococo additionally played an important role in theatre. In the book The Rococo, it is written that there was no other culture which "has produced a wittier, more elegant, and teasing dialogue full of elusive and camouflaging language and gestures, refined feelings and subtle criticism" than Rococo theatre, especially that of France.^[2]

Towards the end of the 18th century, Rococo started to fall out of fashion, and it was largely supplanted by the Neoclassic style. In 1835 the Dictionary of the French Academy stated that the word Rococo "usually covers the kind of ornament, style and design associated with Louis XV's reign and the beginning of that of Louis XVI". It includes therefore, all types of art produced around the middle of the 18th century in France. The word Rococo is seen as a combination of the French rocaille, meaning stone, and coquilles, meaning shell, due to reliance on these objects as motifs of decoration.^[3] The term Rococo may also be interpreted as a combination of the word "barocco" (an irregularly shaped pearl, possibly the source of the word "baroque") and the French "rocaille" (a popular form of garden or interior ornamentation using shells and pebbles), and may be used to describe the refined and fanciful style that became fashionable in parts of Europe during the eighteenth century.^[4] Owing to Rococo love of shell-like curves and focus on decorative arts, some critics used the term to derogatively imply that the style was frivolous or merely modish. When the term was first used in English in about 1836, it was a colloquialism meaning "old-fashioned". As a matter of fact, the style received harsh criticism, and was seen by some to be superficial and of poor taste,^[5][6] especially when compared to neoclassicism; despite this, it has been praised for its aesthetic qualities,^[5] and since the mid-19th century, the term has been accepted by art historians. While there is still some debate about the historical significance of the style to art in general, Rococo is now widely recognized as a major period in the development of European art.

Historical development[link]

Although Rococo is usually thought of as developing first in the decorative arts and interior design, its origins lie in the late Baroque architectural work of Borromini (1599–1667) mostly in Rome and Guarini (1624–83) mostly in Northern Italy but also in Vienna, Prague, Lisbon, and Paris. Italian architects of the late Baroque/early Rococo were wooed to Catholic (Southern) Germany, Bohemia and Austria by local princes, bishops and prince-bishops. Inspired by their example, regional families of Central European builders went further, creating churches and palaces that took the local German Baroque style to the greatest heights of Rococo elaboration and sensation.

An exotic but in some ways more formal type of Rococo appeared in France where Louis XIV's succession brought a change in the court artists and general artistic fashion. By the end of the king's long reign, rich Baroque designs were giving way to lighter elements with more curves and natural patterns. These elements are obvious in the architectural designs of Nicolas Pineau. During the Régence, court life moved away from Versailles and this artistic change became well established, first in the royal palace and then throughout French high society. The delicacy and playfulness of Rococo designs is often seen as perfectly in tune with the excesses of Louis XV's reign.^[7]

The 1730s represented the height of Rococo development in France. The style had spread beyond architecture and furniture to painting and sculpture, exemplified by the works of Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. Rococo still maintained the Baroque taste for complex forms and intricate patterns, but by this point, it had begun to integrate a variety of diverse characteristics, including a taste for Oriental designs and asymmetric compositions. The Rococo style was spread by French artists and engraved publications.

François Boucher, Le Déjeuner, (1739, Louvre), shows a rocaille interior of a French bourgeois family in the 18th century. The porcelain statuette and vase add a touch of chinoiserie.

In Great Britain, Rococo was always thought of as the "French taste" and was never widely adopted as an architectural style, although its influence was strongly felt in such areas as silverwork, porcelain, and silks, and Thomas Chippendale transformed British furniture design through his adaptation and refinement of the style. William Hogarth helped develop a theoretical foundation for Rococo beauty. Though not intentionally referencing the movement, he argued in his Analysis of Beauty (1753) that the undulating lines and S-curves prominent in Rococo were the basis for grace and beauty in art or nature (unlike the straight line or the circle in Classicism). The development of Rococo in Great Britain is considered to have been connected with the revival of interest in Gothic architecture early in the 18th century.

The beginning of the end for Rococo came in the early 1760s as figures like Voltaire and Jacques-François Blondel began to voice their criticism of the superficiality and degeneracy of the art. Blondel decried the "ridiculous jumble of shells, dragons, reeds, palm-trees and plants" in contemporary interiors.^[8] By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order and seriousness of Neoclassical artists like Jacques Louis David. In Germany, late 18th century Rococo was ridiculed as Zopf und Perücke ("pigtail and periwig"), and this phase is sometimes referred to as Zopfstil. Rococo remained popular in the provinces and in Italy, until the second phase of neoclassicism, "Empire style", arrived with Napoleonic governments and swept Rococo away.

There was a renewed interest in the Rococo style between 1820 and 1870. The British were among the first to revive the "Louis XIV style" as it was miscalled at first, and paid inflated prices for second-hand Rococo luxury goods that could scarcely be sold in Paris. But prominent artists like Eugène Delacroix and patrons like Empress Eugénie also rediscovered the value of grace and playfulness in art and design.

Rococo in different artistic modes[link]

Furniture and decorative objects[link]

Rococo mirror and stuccowork in Schloss Ludwigsburg reflect the style's characteristic anti-architectural integration of materials and forms

The lighthearted themes and intricate designs of Rococo presented themselves best at a more intimate scale than the imposing Baroque architecture and sculpture. It is not surprising, then, that French Rococo art was at home indoors. Metalwork, porcelain figures and especially furniture rose to new pre-eminence as the French upper classes sought to outfit their homes in the now fashionable style.

Rococo style took pleasure in asymmetry, a taste that was new to European style. This practice of leaving elements unbalanced for effect is called contraste.

During the Rococo period, furniture was lighthearted, physically and visually. The idea of furniture had evolved to a symbol of status and took on a role in comfort and versatility. Furniture could be easily moved around for gatherings, and many specialized forms came to be such as the fauteuil chair, the voyeuse chair, and the berger en gondola. Changes in design of these chairs ranges from cushioned detached arms, lengthening of the cushioned back (also known as "hammerhead") and a loose seat cushion. Furniture was also freestanding, instead of being anchored by the wall, to accentuate the lighthearted atmosphere and versatility of each piece. Mahogany was widely used in furniture construction due to its strength, resulting in the absence of the stretcher as seen on many chairs of the time. Also, the use of mirrors hung above mantels became ever more popular in light of the development of unblemished glass.

In a full-blown Rococo design, like the Table d'appartement (c. 1730), by German designer J. A. Meissonnier, working in Paris (illustration, below), any reference to tectonic form is gone: even the marble slab top is shaped. Apron, legs, stretcher have all been seamlessly integrated into a flow of opposed c-scrolls and "rocaille." The knot (noeud) of the stretcher shows the asymmetrical "contraste" that was a Rococo innovation.

Design for a table by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, Paris ca 1730

Most widely admired and displayed in the "minor" and decorative arts its detractors claimed that its tendency to depart from or obscure traditionally recognised forms and structures rendered it unsuitable for larger scale projects and disqualified it as a fully architectural style.

Dynasties of Parisian ébénistes, some of them German-born, developed a style of surfaces curved in three dimensions (bombé), where matched veneers (marquetry temporarily being in eclipse) or vernis martin japanning was effortlessly complemented by gilt-bronze ("ormolu") mounts: Antoine Gaudreau, Charles Cressent, Jean-Pierre Latz, Jean-François Oeben, Bernard II van Risamburgh are the outstanding names.

Abstract and asymmetrical Rococo decoration: ceiling stucco at the Neues Schloss, Tettnang

French designers like François de Cuvilliés, Nicholas Pineau and Bartolomeo Rastrelli exported Parisian styles in person to Munich and Saint Petersburg, while the German Juste-Aurèle Meissonier found his career at Paris. The guiding spirits of the Parisian rococo were a small group of marchands-merciers, the forerunners of modern decorators, led by Simon-Philippe Poirier.

In French furniture the style remained somewhat more reserved, since the ornaments were mostly of wood, or, after the fashion of wood-carving, less robust and naturalistic and less exuberant in the mixture of natural with artificial forms of all kinds (e.g. plant motives, stalactitic representations, grotesques, masks, implements of various professions, badges, paintings, precious stones).

British Rococo tended to be more restrained. Thomas Chippendale's furniture designs kept the curves and feel, but stopped short of the French heights of whimsy. The most successful exponent of British Rococo was probably Thomas Johnson, a gifted carver and furniture designer working in London in the mid-18th century.

The word 'Rococo' is derived from the French "rocaille", a word used to describe the rock and shell work of the Versailles grottoes. Many pieces of carved furniture dating from the 18th century—in particular, mirror frames—depict rocks, shells, and dripping water in their composition, frequently in association with Chinese figures and pagodas.^[9]

Garden design[link]

The Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo is one of the northernmost Rococo buildings

the Queluz National Palace in Portugal was one of the last Rococo buildings to be built in Europe.

Main: Garden à la française

Examples designed by André Le Nôtre:

• Gardens of Versailles
• Vaux-le-Vicomte
• Château de Chantilly

Architecture[link]

Main: Rococo architecture

Rococo architecture, as mentioned above, was a lighter, more graceful, yet also more elaborate version of Baroque architecture, which was ornate and austere. Whilst the styles were similar, there are some notable differences between both Rococo and Baroque architecture, one of them being symmetry,^[10] since Rococo emphasised the asymmetry of forms,^[10] whilst Baroque was the opposite.^[11] The styles, despite both being richly decorated, also had different themes; the Baroque, for instance, was more serious, placing an emphasis on religion, and was often characterized by Christian themes^[12] (as a matter of fact, the Baroque began in Rome as a response to the Protestant Reformation);^[13] Rococo architecture was an 18th-century, more secular, adaptation of the Baroque which was characterized by more light-hearted and jocular themes.^[12] Other elements belonging to the architectural style of Rococo include numerous curves and decorations, as well as the usage of pale colours.^[14]

There are numerous examples of Rococo buildings as well as architects. Amongst the most famous include the Catherine Palace, in Russia, the Queluz National Palace in Portugal, the Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces, Brühl, the Chinese House (Potsdam) the Charlottenburg Palace in Germany, as well as elements of the Château de Versailles in France. Architects who were renowned for their constructions using the style include Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, an Italian architect who worked in Russia^[15] and who was noted for his lavish and opulent works, Philip de Lange, who worked in both Danish and Dutch Rococo architecture, or Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, who worked in the late Baroque style and who contributed to the reconstruction of the city of Dresden, in Germany.

Rococo architecture also brought significant changes to the building of edifices, placing an emphasis on privacy rather than the grand public majesty of Baroque architecture, as well as improving the structure of buildings in order to create a more healthy environment.^[14]

Interior design[link]

A Rococo interior in Gatchina.

Solitude Palace in Stuttgart and Chinese Palace in Oranienbaum, the Bavarian church of Wies and Sanssouci in Potsdam are examples of how Rococo made its way into European architecture.

In those Continental contexts where Rococo is fully in control, sportive, fantastic, and sculptured forms are expressed with abstract ornament using flaming, leafy or shell-like textures in asymmetrical sweeps and flourishes and broken curves; intimate Rococo interiors suppress architectonic divisions of architrave, frieze, and cornice for the picturesque, the curious, and the whimsical, expressed in plastic materials like carved wood and above all stucco (as in the work of the Wessobrunner School). Walls, ceiling, furniture, and works of metal and porcelain present a unified ensemble. The Rococo palette is softer and paler than the rich primary colors and dark tonalities favored in Baroque tastes.

Integrated rococo carving, stucco and fresco at Zwiefalten

A few anti-architectural hints rapidly evolved into full-blown Rococo at the end of the 1720s and began to affect interiors and decorative arts throughout Europe. The richest forms of German Rococo are in Catholic Germany (illustration, above).

Rococo plasterwork by immigrant Italian-Swiss artists like Bagutti and Artari is a feature of houses by James Gibbs, and the Franchini brothers working in Ireland equalled anything that was attempted in Great Britain.

Inaugurated in some rooms in Versailles, it unfolds its magnificence in several Parisian buildings (especially the Hôtel Soubise). In Germany, French and German artists (Cuvilliés, Neumann, Knobelsdorff, etc.) effected the dignified equipment of the Amalienburg near Munich, and the castles of Würzburg, Potsdam, Charlottenburg, Brühl, Bruchsal, Solitude (Stuttgart), and Schönbrunn.

In Great Britain, one of Hogarth's set of paintings forming a melodramatic morality tale titled Marriage à la Mode, engraved in 1745, shows the parade rooms of a stylish London house, in which the only rococo is in plasterwork of the salon's ceiling. Palladian architecture is in control. Here, on the Kentian mantel, the crowd of Chinese vases and mandarins are satirically rendered as hideous little monstrosities, and the Rococo wall clock is a jumble of leafy branches.

In general, Rococo is an entirely interior style, because the wealthy and aristocratic moved back to Paris from Versailles. Paris was already built up and so rather than engaging in major architectural additions, they simply renovated the interiors of the existing buildings.

Painting[link]

Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage on the Isle of Cythera (1717, Louvre) captures the frivolity and sensuousness of Rococo painting.

Though Rococo originated in the purely decorative arts, the style showed clearly in painting. These painters used delicate colors and curving forms, decorating their canvases with cherubs and myths of love. Portraiture was also popular among Rococo painters. Some works show a sort of naughtiness or impurity in the behavior of their subjects, showing the historical trend of departing away from the Baroque's church/state orientation. Landscapes were pastoral and often depicted the leisurely outings of aristocratic couples.

Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) is generally considered the first great Rococo painter. He had a great influence on later painters, including François Boucher (1703–1770) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), two masters of the late period. Even Thomas Gainsborough's (1727–1788) delicate touch and sensitivity are reflective of the Rococo spirit. Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun's (1755–1842) style also shows a great deal of Rococo influence, particularly in her portraits of Marie Antoinette. Other Rococo painters include: Jean François de Troy (1679–1752), Jean-Baptiste van Loo (1685–1745), his two sons Louis-Michel van Loo (1707–1771) and Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo (1719–1795), his younger brother Charles-André van Loo (1705–1765), and Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Both Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699–1779) and Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805), were important French painters of the Rococo era who are considered Anti-Rococo.

During the Rococo era Portraiture was an important component of painting in all countries, but especially in Great Britain, where the leaders were William Hogarth (1697–1764), in a blunt realist style, and Francis Hayman (1708–1776), Angelica Kauffman who was Swiss, (1741–1807), Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), in more flattering styles influenced by Antony Van Dyck (1599–1641). While in France during the Rococo era Jean-Baptiste Greuze was the favorite painter of Denis Diderot (1713–1785),^[16] and Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788), and Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun were highly accomplished Portrait painters and History painters.

Rococo painting[link]

• 

  Antoine Watteau, Pierrot, 1718–1719

• 

  Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera , 1718–1721

• 

  Jean-Baptiste van Loo, The Triumph of Galatea, 1720

• FdeTroyLectureMoliere.jpg

  Jean François de Troy, A Reading of Molière, 1728

• 

  Francis Hayman, Dancing Milkmaids, 1735

• 

  Charles-André van Loo, Halt to the Hunt, 1737

• 

  Gustaf Lundberg, Portrait of François Boucher, 1741

• 

  François Boucher, Diana Leaving the Bath, 1742

• 

  François Boucher, The Toilet of Venus, 1751

• 

  Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Death of Hyacinth, 1752

• Marie-Louise O'Murphy (1737-1818) painted by Francois Boucher (1703–1770).jpg

  François Boucher, Marie-Louise O'Murphy, 1752

• 

  Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Full-length portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour, 1748–1755

• 

  François Boucher Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour, 1756

• 

  Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767

• 

  Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Inspiration, 1769

• 

  Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Denis Diderot, 1769

• 

  Jean-Honoré Fragonard The Meeting (Part of the Progress of Love series), 1771

• 

  Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Marie Antoinette à la Rose, 1783

Rococo era painting[link]

• 

  Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Still Life with Glass Flask and Fruit, c. 1750

• 

  Thomas Gainsborough, Mr and Mrs Andrews, 1750

• 

  Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Spoiled Child, c. 1765

• 

  Joshua Reynolds, Robert Clive and his family with an Indian maid, 1765

• 

  Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of David Garrick, c. 1765

• 

  Louis-Michel van Loo, Portrait of Denis Diderot, 1767

Cupid fashioning his bow from Hercules' club, by Edmé Bouchardon, 1747–50: rococo in subject and treatment

Sculpture[link]

Sculpture was another area where the Rococo was widely adopted. Étienne-Maurice Falconet (1716–1791) is widely considered one of the best representatives of French Rococo. In general, this style was best expressed through delicate porcelain sculpture rather than imposing marble statues. Falconet himself was director of a famous porcelain factory at Sèvres. The themes of love and gaiety were reflected in sculpture, as were elements of nature, curving lines and asymmetry.

Tomb effigy of Amalia Mniszech in St. Mary Magdalene Church in Dukla by Jan Obrocki, 1773: only details of her beribboned costume are rococo

The sculptor Edmé Bouchardon represented Cupid engaged in carving his darts of love from the club of Hercules (illustration); this serves as an excellent symbol of the Rococo style—the demigod is transformed into the soft child, the bone-shattering club becomes the heart-scathing arrows, just as marble is so freely replaced by stucco. In this connection, the French sculptors, Jean-Louis Lemoyne, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Robert Le Lorrain, Louis-Simon Boizot, Michel Clodion, and Pigalle may be mentioned in passing.

Music[link]

The Galante Style was the equivalent of Rococo in music history, too, between Baroque and Classical, and it is not easy to define in words. The rococo music style itself developed out of baroque music, particularly in France. It can be characterized as intimate music with extremely refined decoration forms. Exemplars include Jean Philippe Rameau and Louis-Claude Daquin.

Boucher's painting Le Déjeuner (above) provides a glimpse of the society which Rococo reflected. "Courtly" would be pretentious in this upper bourgeois circle, yet the man's gesture is gallant. The stylish but cozy interior, the informal decorous intimacy of people's manners, the curious and delightful details everywhere one turns one's eye, the luxury of sipping chocolate: all are "galante."

Rococo "worldliness" and the Roman Catholic Church[link]

An interesting illustration of the hostility sometimes aroused by this style (similar to that of early Modernists to High Victorian style) can be found in the critical view of Rococo taken by the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, especially on the unsuitable nature of Rococo for ecclesiastical contexts.^[17] due to the style's lack of simplicity, its outwardness and its frivolity, all of which tend to distract from prayer and recollection.

When the outwardness of the style was toned down it became more acceptable in religious environments and contexts. As such, Rococo decoration was able to be incorporated in sacred architecture, although, due to the style's garishness, even when religious motifs were used the results might not have always been pleasing.

In the interiors of churches the style could be tolerated, especially when its elements were small or did not command too much attention. It was more consonant with the sacristy and other not-for-worship areas than with the church proper. Rococo is incompatible with the solemnity of the Divine Office, nor is it suitable for the elements of worship such as the Tabernacle, the altar or the pulpit. In regards to larger structures and objects, Rococo might be appealing –although perhaps only because of its baroque roots that eventually become apparent–, but its fantastic overtones and features are not suitable for the large walls of most churches.

Architecture[link]

• Del rei igreja.jpg

  Igreja de São Francisco de Assis in São João del Rei, 1749–1774, by the Brazilian master Aleijadinho

• 

  Czapski Palace in Warsaw, 1712–1721, reflects rococo's fascinations of oriental architecture

• 

  St. Andrew's Church in Kiev, 1744–1767, designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli

• 

  The Rococo staircase of Gruber Palace in Ljubljana

Engravings[link]

• 

  Unknown artist. Allegories of astronomy and geography. France (?), ca. 1750s

• 

  A. Avelin after Mondon le Fils. L′Heureux moment. 1736

• 

  A. Avelin after Mondon le Fils. Chinese God. An engraving from the ouvrage «Quatrieme livre des formes, orneė des rocailles, carteles, figures oyseaux et dragon»1736

See also[link]

Visual arts portal

• Rococo in Portugal
• Cultural movement
• Gilded woodcarving
• History of painting
• Timeline of Italian artists to 1800
• Illusionistic ceiling painting

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Edmond and Jules de Goncourt. French Eighteenth-Century Painters. Cornell Paperbacks, 1981. ISBN 0-8014-9218-1.
• Marilyn Stokstad, ed. Art History. 3rd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2005. Print.

Further reading[link]

• Kimball, Fiske (1980). The Creation of the Rococo Decorative Syle. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-23989-6. 
• Arno Schönberger and Halldor Soehner, 1960. The Age of Rococo Published in the US as The Rococo Age: Art and Civilization of the 18th Century (Originally published in German, 1959).
• Levey, Michael (1980). Painting in Eighteenth-Century Venice. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-1331-1. 
• Kelemen, Pál (1967). Baroque and Rococo in Latin America. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21698-5. 

External links[link]

Look up rococo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rococo

• Examples
• Rococo in the "History of Art"
• "Rococo Style Guide". British Galleries. Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/british_galleries/bg_styles/Style04a/index.html. Retrieved 2007-07-16. 

Gonzales
Gonzales at Moers Festival 2006, Germany
Background information
Birth name	Jason Charles Beck
Also known as	Chilly Gonzales
Occupations	Singer, Producer, Songwriter, Actor, Screenwriter
Instruments	Vocals, piano
Labels	Arts & Crafts, Gentle Threat, Kitty-Yo, No Format!
Associated acts	Peaches, Feist, Mocky, Puppetmastaz
Website	http://www.chillygonzales.com/

Gonzales at a concert with Socalled, 2005 at Théatre National in Montreal.

Gonzales, (born Jason Charles Beck; 1972), is a Grammy-nominated Canadian musician currently residing in Paris, France.^[1] Though best known for his first MC and electro albums, he is also a pianist, producer, and songwriter.

He regularly collaborates with the Canadian musicians Feist, Peaches and Mocky. Additionally, he has collaborated with Jamie Lidell on the albums Multiply and Compass, Buck 65 on the album Secret House Against the World, and performed with Drake at the 2011 Juno Awards. According to The New Yorker, "when Gonzales released an album called 'Presidential Suite', Feist accompanied him on tour around Europe and Australia." ^[2]

Biography[link]

Gonzales was born on March 20, 1972^[3] and began teaching himself piano at age three, when his older brother Chris began taking lessons. He was later classically trained as a pianist at McGill University, where he began both his composing career, co-authoring several musicals with his brother, and his performing career, as a jazz virtuoso.

In the 1990s, he embarked on a pop career as the leader of the alternative rock band Son. Son was signed to a three-album deal with Warner Music Canada in 1995, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records. The first release, the Prince/Elvis Costello-flavored LP Thriller, was moderately successful, spawning one single that received heavy radio airplay ("Pick up the Phone") and leading to several opening gigs for the Barenaked Ladies. While the album's production values were limited (Warner Bros. simply released the band's hastily recorded demo), it showcased Beck's gift for melody, and his talent as a self-taught producer.

The latter was even more in evidence with Son's second release, Wolfstein, recorded at a fully equipped studio in LA with the assistance of Chris Beck, then on his way to becoming an Emmy-award winning soundtrack composer. Nominally a concept album about a man who starts turning into a wolf after hitting one with his car, it featured a darker, more complex sensibility than its predecessor, and marked Gonzales's arrival as a musical innovator in his own right.

As far as Warner Bros. was concerned, however, the album represented too radical a change in direction, and suffered from a dearth of singles acceptable to the Canadian pop charts—perhaps the most upbeat, catchy tune on the album had the radio-unfriendly title, "Making a Jew Cry". The label gave little promotional support to the release, and parted ways with the band soon after. (While remaining largely silent on the experience in interviews, Gonzales did recount part of his Warner Bros. experience in "Candy", the opening track to his 2000 album, The Entertainist.)

Gonzales at the Mod Club in Toronto 2009.

Recognising that pop success had as much to do with a good press angle as musical talent, Gonzales decamped to Berlin in 1999, where he decided his Jewish faith could give him a marketing edge. However, he spoke no German.^[4] He adopted the 'Chilly Gonzales' moniker after reportedly being hailed as such by a stranger in the street, and developed this into his popular stage persona as a Jewish supervillain MC. Of moving away from Canada, what Gonzales said in an interview was: “My experiences in Canada had been disappointing, because I hadn’t really stepped up on the extra-musical elements of music making." ^[5]

With this change in image came another major change in Gonzales's musical style. His three albums on the German Kitty-yo label were largely built around rap, though his skills as a keyboardist shone through on a series of interspersed instrumental tracks. European critics and audiences were more receptive to the eclectic and experimental nature of Gonzales's output. His first Kitty-yo single, "Let's Groove Again", became an immediate dancefloor hit upon its 1999 release. (It was later used in a BBC promotional trailer for their new TV programme The Restaurant aired in 2007.) Gonzales became a fixture in both nightclubs and on the summer pop festival circuit.

In 2004 the performer released an album entirely made up of instrumental material, "Solo Piano". Highly acclaimed by public and critics alike, it drew immediate comparisons to the work of Erik Satie and so attracted a new global audience to his work. "Solo Piano" has been released in several countries, and remains Gonzales's best-selling album to date.

In the meantime Gonzales continued to develop as a producer and songwriter for other artists, collaborating on singles and albums with Peaches, renowned chanteuse Jane Birkin and budding indie star Leslie Feist. The output of the latter collaboration—Feist's 2003 album, "Let It Die"-- became a bestseller, won critical acclaim and industry awards, and became the basis for her breakthrough as a mainstream pop artist. Gonzales returned as a key contributor on Feist's 2007 album, "The Reminder", which was nominated for a Grammy and won a Juno Award.

In early 2008 he announced he was going back to the studio as a singer in his own right, and had re-signed with a major label, Mercury Records. On April 7 Soft Power was released. While maintaining a typically eclectic mix of styles, Soft Power was in some ways a stylistic return for Gonzales—his most purely pop recording since Thriller, though with a sound inspired more by the seventies hits of such artists as the Bee Gees and Billy Joel. Of his choice to sing on this album, Gonzales said in an interview, “I was afraid of doing an album with a bunch of guests, as so many people could’ve expected. I didn’t want to open up my Rolodex and get everyone to sing for me. I thought, ‘No, I want to put myself in more of a danger zone.’” ^[6] Gonzales said in an interview that he works in the Bee Gees style of music: "There's a Bee Gees cover on Feist's album Let it Die "Inside and Out" which I'm sort of responsible, for better or worse, for putting on that album." ^[7]

Apart from his solo career, he is also a member of the Berlin-based hip-hop band Puppetmastaz.

On May 18, 2009, at the Ciné 13 Théâtre (French), Paris, he broke a world record for the longest solo-artist performance with a total time of 27 hours, 3 minutes and 44 seconds, breaking a record set by Prasanna Gudi.^[8]

On September 25, 2009, he challenged singer/songwriter/fellow pianist Andrew W.K. to a piano battle at Joe's Pub in New York City. After twenty minutes of back and forth, Chilly finally threw a gold necklace at Andrew, distracting him long enough to claim victory. A rematch has been talked about but not yet organized.

He may be most famously known by his song "Never Stop" on his 2010 album which the opening piano tune was featured on the original Apple Inc.'s iPad commercials. ^[9] Apple even went as far to make an electric guitar version ^[10].

Discography[link]

• Let's Groove Again - Single, 1999
• O.P. Original Prankster - (EP), 1999
• Gonzales Über Alles - Kitty-Yo, 2000
• The Entertainist - Kitty-Yo, 2000 (under the name "Chilly Gonzales")
• Presidential Suite - Kitty-Yo, 2002
• Z - Kitty-Yo, 2003
• Solo Piano - No Format!, 2004
• Soft Power - Mercury/Universal, 2008
• Ivory Tower - Gentle Threat, 2010 (under the name "Chilly Gonzales")
• The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales - Gentle Threat, 2011 (under the name "Chilly Gonzales")

DVD content[link]

• From Major to Minor - 2006 - No Format!

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Site
• Kitty-Yo: Gonzales
• No Format!
• Epitonic: Gonzales^{[dead link]}
• Ustream: 27-hour concert highlights
• Thought Catalog: Introducing Chilly Gonzales
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/20/gonzales-longest-solo-concert
• Chilly Gonzales in session at the Rob da Bank show
• [1]
• 2011 Interview on the Jekyll and Hyde Show, 106FM Jerusalem

Soo Bae (b. Apr 1977) is a Korean-Canadian cellist who currently resides in New York. She was born in Seoul, Korea, and began her cello studies at six years of age. She then moved to Toronto, where she studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She continued her cello studies at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she received her Bachelor of Music in 2001. Bae received her Masters of Music degree and then the Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School.

Bae has won several awards and competitions, most notably the 2006 Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank National Competition. Her first place award is the three-year loan of the (c.1696) Bonjour Stradivarius Cello. Other recent accomplishments are awards from the 2006 Adam International Cello Festival & Competition, New Zealand, and the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition.

Bae maintains pursuits in the community; she founded Angelos Mission Ensemble in 2004, a Christian music academy for students of stringed instruments. The purpose of the Ensemble is to educate and mold future Christian musician leaders. The organization was incorporated in 2006 as a non-profit corporation, and she continues to direct the organization with her fiancee Jason Suh.

She collaborates with other musicians in innovative ways, most recently with jazz saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera in November 2006. She also formed a trio with Grammy-award-winning fiddle player Mark O'Connor, and pianist Soyeon Lee in 2006. She co-founded a duo, "Walk 132", with her pianist and guitarist fiancee.

External links[link]

• Soo Bae
• Concert Artists Guild Bio Page
• Canada Council 2006 National Competition Winner

Yo-Yo Ma 馬友友
Ma plays the cello during the "Presentation of the Crystal Award" at the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 25, 2008.
Background information
Born	(1955-10-07) October 7, 1955 (age 56) Paris, France
Genres	Classical
Occupations	Cellist, composer, pedagogue
Instruments	Cello, piano, viola, violin
Years active	fl. ca. 1961–present
Labels	CBS, RCA, Sony Classical
Associated acts	Silk Road Ensemble
Website	yo-yoma.com
Notable instruments
Violoncello Davydov 1712 Stradivarius Domenico Montagnana 1733 Luis and Clark

Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is an American^[1] cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001^[2] and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.^[3] Ma is regarded by some as the most famous cellist of the modern age.^[4]

Early life[link]

Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris on October 7, 1955, to Chinese parents and had a musical upbringing. His mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist and professor of music at Nanjing National Central University. His family moved to New York when he was five years old.

At a very young age, Ma began studying violin, and later viola, before settling on the cello in 1960 at age four. According to Ma, his first choice was the double bass due to its large size, but he compromised and took up cello instead. The child prodigy began performing before audiences at age five, and performed for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower when he was seven.^[5][6] At age eight, he appeared on American television with his sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, in a concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Ma attended Trinity School in New York but transferred to the Professional Children's School which he graduated at fifteen years of age. ^[7]He appeared as a soloist with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra in a performance of the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations.

A painting featuring Yo-Yo Ma hanging in Currier House, his residence at Harvard University

Ma studied at the Juilliard School at age nine with Leonard Rose and briefly attended Columbia University before ultimately enrolling at Harvard University later on. Prior to entering Harvard, Ma played in the Marlboro Festival Orchestra under the direction of nonagenarian cellist and conductor Pablo Casals. Ma would ultimately spend four summers at the Marlboro Music Festival after meeting and falling in love with Mount Holyoke College sophomore and festival administrator Jill Hornor his first summer there in 1972.^[8]

However, even before that time, Ma had steadily gained fame and had performed with most of the world's major orchestras. His recordings and performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites recorded in 1983 and again in 1994–1997 are particularly acclaimed. He has also played a good deal of chamber music, often with the pianist Emanuel Ax, with whom he has a close friendship back from their days together at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

Ma received his bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1976.^[9] In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.^[10]

Career[link]

Ma performs at the White House for (left to right, seated) President Ronald Reagan, Crown Princess Michiko and Crown Prince Akihito of Japan, and First Lady Nancy Reagan, 1987

Ma currently plays with his own Silk Road Ensemble, which has the goal of bringing together musicians from diverse countries all of which are historically linked via the Silk Road, and records on the Sony Classical label.^[11] Ma's primary performance instrument is the cello nicknamed Petunia, built by Domenico Montagnana in 1733. It was named this by a female student that approached him after one of his classes in Salt Lake City asking if he had a nickname for his cello. He said, "No, but if I play for you, will you name it?" She chose Petunia, and it stuck.^[12] This cello, more than 270 years old and valued at US$2.5 million, was lost in the fall of 1999 when Ma accidentally left the instrument in a taxicab in New York City.^[13] It was later recovered undamaged. Another of Ma's cellos, the Davidov Stradivarius, was previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré who passed it to him upon her death, and owned by the Vuitton Foundation. Though Du Pré previously voiced her frustration with the "unpredictability" of this cello, Ma attributed the comment to du Pré's impassioned style of playing, adding that the Stradivarius cello must be "coaxed" by the player.^{[citation needed]} It was until recently set up in a Baroque manner, since Ma exclusively played Baroque music on it. He also owns a modern cello made by Peter and Wendela Moes of Peissenberg, Germany, and one of carbon fiber by the Luis and Clark company of Boston.^[14]

In 1997 he was featured on John Williams' soundtrack to the Hollywood film, Seven Years in Tibet. In 2000, he was heard on the soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and in 2003 on that of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He collaborated with Williams again on the original score for the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha. Yo-Yo Ma has also worked with world-renowned Italian composer Ennio Morricone and has recorded Morricone's compositions of the Dollars Trilogy including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He also has over 75 albums, 15 of which are Grammy Award winners. Ma is a recipient of the International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

Ma was named Peace Ambassador by UN then Secretary-General Kofi Annan in January 2006.^[15]

On November 3, 2009, President Obama appointed Ma to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.^[16] His music was featured in the 2010 documentary Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, narrated by Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman.^[17][18][19]

Playing style[link]

Ma with Condoleezza Rice after performing a duet at the presentation of the 2001 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards.

Ma has been referred to as "omnivorous" by critics, and possesses a more eclectic repertoire than is typical for classical musicians.^[20] A sampling of his versatility in addition to numerous recordings of the standard classical repertoire would include his recordings of Baroque pieces using period instruments; American bluegrass music; traditional Chinese melodies including the soundtrack to the film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; the tangos of Argentinian composer Ástor Piazzolla; an eclectic and unusual collaboration with Bobby McFerrin (where Ma admitted to being terrified of the improvisation McFerrin pushed him toward); as well as the music of modern minimalist Philip Glass in such works as the 2002 piece Naqoyqatsi. He is known for his smooth, rich tone as well as his considerable virtuosity, including a cello recording of Niccolò Paganini's 24th Caprice for solo violin, Zoltán Kodály's cello sonata, and other demanding works.

Notable live performances[link]

On July 5, 1986, Ma performed on the New York Philharmonic's tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, which was televised live on ABC Television.^[21]. The orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, performed in Central Park.

Ma performed a duet with Condoleezza Rice at the presentation of the 2001 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards. Ma was the first performer on September 11, 2002, at the site of the World Trade Center, while the first of the names of the dead were read in remembrance on the first anniversary of the attack on the WTC. He played the Sarabande from Bach's Suite in C minor (#5). He performed a special arrangement of Sting's "Fragile" with Sting and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ma has also appeared as a Pennington Great Performers series artist with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra in 2005.

He performed John Williams' "Air and Simple Gifts" at the inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, along with Itzhak Perlman (violin), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet). While the quartet did play live, the music played simultaneously over speakers and on television was a recording made two days prior due to concerns over the cold weather damaging the instruments. Ma was quoted as saying "A broken string was not an option. It was wicked cold."^[22]

On May 3, 2009, Ma performed the world premiere of Bruce Adolphe's "Self Comes to Mind" for solo cello and two percussionists with John Ferrari and Ayano Kataoka at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The work is based on a poetic description written for the composer of the evolution of brain into mind by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, and featured, at the premiere, a film of brain scans provided by Hanna Damasio plus other images, coordinated with the music during the performance.

On August 29, 2009, Ma performed at the funeral mass for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Pieces he performed included the Sarabande movement from Bach's Cello Suite No. 6, and Franck's Panis Angelicus with Placido Domingo.^[23]

On October 3, 2009, Ma appeared alongside Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the National Arts Centre gala in Ottawa. Harper, a noted fan of The Beatles, played the piano and sang a rendition of "With A Little Help From My Friends" while Ma accompanied him on his cello.

On October 16, 2011, Ma performed at the memorial for Steve Jobs held in Stanford University's Memorial Church.^[24]

In 2011, Ma performed with American dancer Charles "Lil Buck" Riley in the United States and in China at the U.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culture.^[25]

Media appearances[link]

Ma has appeared in an episode of the animated children's television series, Arthur, as well as on The West Wing (episode "Noël", in which he performed the prelude to the Bach Cello Suite No.1 at a Christmas dinner at the White House), Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In The Simpsons episode "Missionary: Impossible", Ma, (voiced by Hank Azaria) runs after Homer Simpson along with many other frequent guests of PBS.

He also starred in the visual accompaniment to his recordings of Bach's Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello.

Ma was also seen with former Apple Inc. and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs. Ma was often invited to press events for Jobs's companies, and has performed on stage during event keynote presentations, as well as appearing in a commercial for the Macintosh computer.

Ma was a guest on the Not My Job segment of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on April 7, 2007, where he won for listener Thad Moore.^[26]

On October 27, 2008, Ma appeared as a guest and performer on The Colbert Report.^[27] He was also a show's guest on November 1, 2011, where he performed songs from The Goat Rodeo Sessions with fellow musicians Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile.^[28]

According to research done by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of Harvard University, in 2010 for the PBS series Faces of America, in which Ma made an appearance, a relative had hidden the Ma family genealogy in his home in China to save it from destruction during the Cultural Revolution. Ma's paternal ancestry can be traced back eighteen generations to the year 1217. This genealogy had been compiled in the 18th century by an ancestor, tracing everyone with the surname Ma, through the paternal line, back to one common ancestor in the 3rd century BC. Ma's generation name, "Yo", had been decided by his fourth great grand-uncle, Ma Ji Cang, in 1755.^[29][30]

Personal life[link]

Ma married his long-time girlfriend Jill Hornor, a German language professor, in 1977. He proposed outside her apartment. They have two children, Nicholas and Emily, and reside in Winchester, Massachusetts.^[31] Ma's elder sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, who was also born in Paris, is a violinist married to Michael Dadap, a New York–based guitarist from the Philippines.^[32]

Discography[link]

Awards and recognitions[link]

Avery Fisher Prize

• 1978

Award of Distinction (International Cello Festival)

• 2007

Dan David Prize

• 2006

Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) (honoris causa)

• 2005 Princeton University

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

• 1996 Brahms/Beethoven/Mozart: Clarinet Trios (Sony 57499)
• 1993 Brahms: Sonatas for Cello & Piano (Sony 48191)
• 1992 Brahms: Piano Quartets Op. 25, Op. 26 (Sony 45846)
• 1987 Beethoven: Cello and Piano Sonata No. 4 in C & Variations (CBS 42121)
• 1986 Brahms: Cello and Piano Sonatas in E Minor Op. 38, and F Op. 99 (RCA 17022)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance:

• 1998 Yo-Yo Ma Premieres – Danielpour, Kirchner, Rouse (Sony Classical 66299)
• 1995 The New York Album – Works of Albert, Bartók & Bloch (Sony 57961)
• 1993 Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante/Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme (Sony 48382)
• 1990 Barber: Cello Concerto, Op. 22/Britten: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68 (CBS 44900)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance:

• 1985 Bach: The Unaccompanied Cello Suites (CBS 37867)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition:

• 1995 The New York Album, Stephen Albert: Cello Concerto (Sony 57961)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album:

• 1998 Yo-Yo Ma Premieres – Danielpour, Kirchner, Rouse (Sony Classical 66299)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album:

• 2010 Songs of Joy & Peace (Sony Classical B001BN1V8U)
• 2004 Obrigado Brazil (Sony 89935)
• 2001 Appalachian Journey (Sony 66782)
• 1999 Soul of the Tango – The Music of Ástor Piazzolla (Sony Classical 63122)

Glenn Gould Prize

• 1999

Kennedy Center Honor

• 2011

Latin Grammy for Best Instrumental Album

• 2004 Obrigado Brazil (Sony 89935)

Léonie Sonning Music Prize

• 2006

National Medal of Arts

• 2001^[2]

Presidential Medal of Freedom

• Nominated: November 17, 2010^[33]
• Awarded: February 15, 2011^[34]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Asian Americans portal
	Biography portal
	Music portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yo-Yo Ma

• Official Website
• Yo-Yo Ma at Allmusic
• About Us, The Children's Orchestra Society, ChildrensOrch.org, 2007
• Yo-Yo Ma in Conversation from WGBH Radio Boston
• Yo-Yo Ma Interview on Time.com, October 2008
• Yo-Yo Ma Podcast Series produced by Sony BMG Masterworks
• Yo-Yo Ma TV Interview with Ennio Morricone from C Music TV
• 2006 Dan David Prize laureate
• Welcome to Baku: Yo-Yo Ma: Silk Road Ensemble with Alim Gasimov and Fargana," by Aida Huseinova in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 14:2 (Summer 2006), p. 14

Gustavo Dudamel
Dudamel at the European Tour, 2008
Background information
Birth name	Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez
Born	(1981-01-26) January 26, 1981 (age 31) Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela
Genres	Classical
Occupations	Composer, conductor
Instruments	Violin
Years active	1999–present
Associated acts	Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Website	www.GustavoDudamel.com

Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez (born January 26, 1981) is a Venezuelan conductor and violinist. He is the principal conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony in Gothenburg, Sweden, and music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles, California.^[1] Dudamel is also the artistic director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela.

Life and career[link]

Early life[link]

Dudamel was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, the son of a trombonist and a voice teacher.^[2] He studied music from an early age, becoming involved with El Sistema, the famous Venezuelan musical education program, and took up the violin at age ten. He soon began to study composition. He attended the Jacinto Lara Conservatory, where he was taught the violin by José Luis Jiménez. He then went on to work with José Francisco del Castillo at the Latin-American Violin Academy. He began to study conducting in 1995, first with Rodolfo Saglimbeni, then later with José Antonio Abreu. In 1999, he was appointed music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, the national youth orchestra of Venezuela, and toured several countries. He attended Charles Dutoit's master class in Buenos Aires in 2002, and worked as assistant for Simon Rattle in Berlin and Salzburg in 2003.

Conducting career[link]

Dudamel began to win a number of conducting competitions, including the Gustav Mahler Conducting Prize in Germany in 2004.^[3] His reputation began to spread, and he was noticed by conductors such as Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado, who accepted invitations to conduct the Simón Bolívar Orchestra in Venezuela.^[4] Dudamel debuted with the Philharmonia, the Israel Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among others, in 2005, and also signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon.

In 2005, Gustavo Dudamel first conducted the Gothenburg Symphony at the BBC Proms, on short notice as a replacement for the indisposed Neeme Järvi.^[5][6]

In 2006, Dudamel was named Principal Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony.^[7] He continues to retain his position with the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra.^[8] He took up the Gothenburg post in 2007,^[2] and his current contract there is to 2012.^[9] Dudamel made his US conducting debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LAP) at the Hollywood Bowl on September 13, 2005 in a program consisting of "La Noche de los Mayas" by Silvestre Revueltas and the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5.^[10]

He made his debut at La Scala, Milan, with Don Giovanni in November 2006. On September 10, 2007, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time at the Lucerne Festival.

On April 16, 2007, Gustavo Dudamel conducted the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert in commemoration of the 80th birthday of Pope Benedict XVI, with Hilary Hahn as solo violinist, with the Pope himself and many other church dignitaries among the audience.^[11]

In March 2008, he made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony. Dudamel was subsequently invited back to the US, to conduct the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall in January 2007 in performances of "Dances of Galánta" by Zoltán Kodály, the third piano concerto of Sergei Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra (the latter of which was recorded live and subsequently released by Deutsche Grammophon).

Music Director, Los Angeles Philharmonic[link]

In April 2007, during a guest conducting engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel was named the LAP's next music director as of the 2009–2010 season, succeeding Esa-Pekka Salonen. His initial contract in Los Angeles is for five years, beginning in September 2009.^[12][13][14] Dudamel began his tenure as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on September 28, 2009 with a rehearsal of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that included the Los Angeles Master Chorale and representatives of eight community-based choruses. His first official rehearsal with the orchestra followed on September 30. On October 3 he conducted Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl in "Bienvenido Gustavo," a free concert, and conducted his official inaugural concert featuring the world premiere of John Adams' "City Noir" and Mahler's Symphony No. 1 with his new orchestra in Walt Disney Concert Hall on October 8.

Awards and media[link]

Dudamel is featured in the documentary film Tocar y Luchar, which covers El Sistema. Dudamel and the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar received the WQXR Gramophone Special Recognition Award in New York City in November 2007. Another US television news feature on Dudamel was on 60 Minutes in February 2008, entitled "Gustavo the Great".

On July 23, 2009, Dudamel was selected by the Eighth Glenn Gould Prize laureate José Antonio Abreu as winner of the prestigious The City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize.

Dudamel is featured in the 2011 documentary "Let The Children Play," a film which focuses on his work advocating for music as a way to enrich children's lives.^[15]

Gramophone, the British classical music magazine, named Dudamel its 2011 Gramophone Artist of the Year. Past recipients of the award include Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Tilson Thomas, Riccardo Chailly, Cecilia Bartoli and Antonio Pappano, to name only a few. The announcement was made at the Gramophone Awards in London on October 6, 2011.

In 2011, Dudamel appeared in the Visit California promotional film aimed at boosting tourism from the UK.

On February 12, 2012, Gustavo Dudamel won a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance, for his recording of Brahms Symphony No. 4 for the label Deutsche Grammophon.

Personal life[link]

Gustavo and his wife, Eloísa Maturén

Dudamel married his girlfriend, Eloísa Maturén, in 2006 in Caracas. Maturén, also a Venezuelan native, is a classically trained ballet dancer and a journalist.

The Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra combined forces with the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela and the Orfeon Universitario of the Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado to make the event a special musical celebration. The wedding took place in the chapel at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Montalbán, a suburb of Caracas.

They have a son, Martín Dudamel Maturén, a U.S. citizen.^[16]

Discography[link]

• 2006: "Beethoven, Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7"
• 2007: "Birthday Concert for Pope Benedict XVI"
• 2007: "Mahler, Symphony No. 5"
• 2008: "Fiesta"
• 2008: "The Promise Of Music"
• 2008: "Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Francesca Da Rimini"
• 2009: "Gustavo Dudamel - Live From Salzburg"
• 2009: "Discoveries"
• 2009: "El Sistema - Music To Change Life"
• 2009: "The Inaugural Concert"
• 2009: "State Of The Art - The Story Of Deutsche Grammophon"
• 2010: "Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps; Revueltas: La Noche De Los Mayas"
• 2011: "Tchaikovsky & Shakespeare"
• 2011: "New Year's Eve Concert 2010"
• 2011: "Sibelius: Symphony No. 2; Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5; Bruckner: Symphony No. 9"
• 2012: "Beethoven: Symphony No. 3"

References[link]

Notes

Further reading

• Tunstall, Tricia, Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music, New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 2012 ISBN 978039307896

External links[link]