The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra is one of the most active youth orchestras in the world today. Their superb performance skills and youthful and energetic music style have attracted the attention of the world. The Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony Orchestra was founded by the famous Venezuelan conductor and music educator José Antonio Abreu. It is named after the Venezuelan national hero Simon Bolivar. The musicians are aged between 12 and 26 years old. .
As a developing South American country, Venezuela, although the overall economic situation is not very developed, the government attaches great importance to music education in society. In the 1970s, at the initiative of some musicians, the Venezuelan government launched a social music education activity for the poor and established a national foundation called the Venezuelan Youth and Children's Orchestra (FESOJIV). It is this music aid system that allows this country, with 75% of the population in poverty and almost nothing to do with classical music, to have more than 90 children's orchestras (7-16 years old), more than 130 (16-20 years old), and more than 30 Adult Professional Orchestra.
The foundation hired 15,000 music teachers to not only provide food and clothing for these poor children, but also organized concerts for youth orchestras and held a variety of instrumental training courses to improve their music level. It also provides training courses in musical instrument production, art management and new media. The purpose of the foundation is very clear: "The primary purpose of these activities is never to cultivate professional musicians, but to save our children." Over the past 30 years, approximately 800,000 children studying music have benefited from them. As a result, the foundation has won public acclaim for its efforts to transform the lives of tens of thousands of poor young people.
Different from traditional Western music teaching methods, the foundation not only focuses on the development of individual skills, but also focuses on the cultivation of interest and collective spirit of cooperation, thus making the musicians' The feeling of collaboration was established from the start. In addition, the cultivation of these young musicians in learning music is more about stimulating their interest rather than utility. Therefore, when they join a real orchestra, they feel a high degree of tacit understanding in playing music. Although these children had never received the traditional influence of European classical music in Venezuela before, with their love and intuition for music, their wonderful performances gave a fresh look to world classical music, and they soon won widespread praise. At the same time, the musicians of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra often participate in international music exchanges, participate in master classes and collaborate with soloists from famous symphony orchestras and art institutions around the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Sibelius Academy in Finland, Bach Conservatoire in Stuttgart, and New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. In addition, they have worked closely with many internationally renowned conductors.
The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra is the greatest achievement of the foundation’s education, and the musicians are all beneficiaries of this education program. Most of these young people come from poor social backgrounds. Many of them are orphans and have been taken in and provided relief by social charity organizations. The children's experience shocked and touched the hearts of many great musicians, so many internationally renowned conductors voluntarily went to Venezuela to take on the voluntary role of training the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. Not only did they not receive any remuneration, they even paid for their travel expenses themselves. Among them are Abbado, Simon Rattle, etc. At the same time, they also used their influence in the international music scene to call on all music masters to go to Venezuela to guide the training of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. Under their inspiration , many music masters have come to provide voluntary tutoring. It is under the careful guidance of these masters that the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra has performed at an extremely high level and has become one of the world's outstanding symphony orchestras.
The orchestra has traveled around the world with the young conductor Gustav Dudamel. It has toured Germany three times and performed at important venues such as the Berlin Philharmonic Hall and the Essen Concert Hall. They also performed at the Music Park in Rome, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and the Lucerne Easter Festival. In the summer of 2007, the orchestra traveled to the BBC Proms, Edinburgh Music Festival and some famous performance venues in Germany. In the autumn of 2007, as part of the "Berlin Lights" festival, the orchestra performed a series of concerts in Mexico, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and New York's Carnegie Hall under the batons of Gustavo Dudamel and Simon Rattle. The concert was a sell-out and the band's subsequent tour in Spain was also highly praised. In the summer of 2008, the orchestra toured major European cities and music festivals, such as Berlin, Frankfurt, Lucerne, Baden-Baden, and Helsinki. Their performance at the Salzburg Music Festival also received an unusually high reputation. success.
The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon and released two Beethoven Symphony Nos. 5 and 7 and Mahler's 5th Symphony conducted by Dudamel. 's record. Their wonderful performance won unanimous praise from the public opinion circles! He has become a dark horse in today's classical music world.