Dudamel Takes NY Philharmonic Baton at Radio City Concert — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Gustavo Dudamel officially became conductor and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic on Thursday at Radio City Music Hall, leading a concert packed with special guests.
- Liev Schreiber hosted the evening, calling Dudamel a "New Yorker by way of Venezuela" and offering a playful "musical arepa" metaphor to describe him.
- Lizzo performed alongside the orchestra, playing flute (showcasing her classical training) and singing hits, while St. Vincent, Joaquina, and Aaron Tveit also collaborated with the ensemble.
- The program opened with George Gershwin's "Overture to Strike Up the Band" and included 21st-century works by Philip Glass, Jessie Montgomery, and Arturo Márquez.
- Radio City Music Hall now features Sphere Immersive Sound — the same 3D audio "beamforming" and wave field synthesis system used at the Las Vegas Sphere — delivering consistent audio across all 6,000 seats.
- Dudamel was appointed in 2023 but only now takes the post because classical music transitions are drawn out by annual subscription cycles and multi-year programming plans.
- Venezuelan Grammy winner Joaquina told Deadline Aaron Tveit's voice at soundcheck blended with the orchestra in a "carefully crafted and intentional" way she hadn't heard in a venue in years.
Why it matters: Dudamel inherits a post previously held by Toscanini, Mahler, and Bernstein, and his celebrity-heavy debut reflects an explicit audience-outreach strategy beyond the renovated Lincoln Center home. The Radio City concert leveraged the brand-new Sphere Immersive Sound system to deliver consistent audio across all 6,000 seats, marking the orchestra's first major showcase of the upgraded sonic ambitions.
Ask SkimNews
