The Dude is headed to New York!

It was announced yesterday that Gustavo Dudamel will be leaving the Los Angeles Philharmonic to take up the post of “music and artistic director” of the New York Philharmonic, beginning in 2026. The double-barrel title is bestowed in the same week as the announcement that Yannick Nézet-Séguin will now be “music and artistic director” of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Nézet-Séguin, who has been music director in Philly since 2012, renewed his contract through 2030.

Granted, both these gentlemen do a lot of heavy-lifting, more than justifying the compound-if-cumbersome descriptors. Dudamel, 42, has been a transformative force in L.A. He is, with the possible exception of Nézet-Séguin, our most visible and energetic young man of the podium. (Yannick, 47, is also music director of the Metropolitan Opera and his home orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal.) I don’t know if the East Coast can handle the combined kinetic energy of Yannick and The Dude.

Dudamel carved out time for a whirlwind residency in Princeton in 2018. Although I got to meet him, our interview had to be conducted via email. Knowing Dudamel, he probably dashed off his responses in a limo on the way to the airport. You can learn more about The Dude and read our exchange at the link.

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/artsandentertainment/princeton-concerts-celebrating-125-years-with-the-dude-gustavo-dudamel/article_a2905abc-098d-5bf5-a56c-20625675fdbe.html

Brace yourselves, New York, and congratulations, Gustavo Dudamel!

Press release from the New York Philharmonic

https://nyphil.org/~/media/pdfs/newsroom/2223/GD-press-release-final.ashx?la=en