Whenever I listen to a children's orchestra, I learn. They feel everything, they enjoy everything, they have amazing energy.
Gustavo DudamelI think it's a very important collaboration between the conductor and the orchestra - especially when the conductor is one more member of the orchestra in the way that you are leading, but also respecting, feeling and building the same way for all the players to understand the music.
Gustavo DudamelFor 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.
Gustavo DudamelIt's a physical challenge. It's a spiritual challenge. I'm studying almost every day a different symphony, not returning to any one for a week.
Gustavo Dudamel