’Youngest conductor in the world’: Teenage sensation from Venezuela’s ’El Si

’Youngest conductor in the world’: Teenage sensation from Venezuela’s ’El Si

Mangalore Today News Network

Precocious Jose Angel Salazar may be the youngest conductor in the world at just 14 years old.

The Venezuelan teenager directs an orchestra of between 70 and 80 musicians, half of whom are older than him.

He was recently appointed to the role at the Youth Orchestra of Nueva Esparta, and is the latest success story to come out of his country’s orchestra system El Sistema.

He modestly dismisses the assumption he is the youngest conductor of all time, pointing out that there may be another ’in some small town somewhere’ in an interview with The Guardian.

El Sistema previously produced famous conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Edicson Ruiz.

Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Dudamel was named one of Time Magazine’s top 100 most influential people in the world in 2008-09, while Edicson Ruiz became the youngest musician to join the Berlin Philharmonic at 17.

Jose joined El Sistema aged eight, and came from a family who had had very little exposure to classical music, let alone formal music training.

He lived with his schoolteacher parents and his grandparents, who he has taken with him on his musical journey.

’My father now talks to me about symphonies and variations, something he knew nothing about four years ago,’ he said.

The young man has been in his new post for just a week, but is too young to earn a wage under Venezuelan law and may need a scholarship or grant.

He plans to study music at university, but also intends to learn German to help him with understanding the classical canon.

’I went to a brass concert with my dad and grandfather and I cried three times,’ said Jose, but he admits that leading his peers is more challenging than working with adults.

’It’s hard because I have to find the way to communicate, or sometimes tell off kids who are much older than me, he said.

’Conducting is a wordless language. I have to convey confidence to the musicians in order to get a confident performance back from them.’

Musical greats: Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Dudamel was named one of Time Magazine’s top 100 most influential people in the world in 2008-09

El Sistema was founded 37 years ago by Jose Antonio Abreu, a retired economist and politician who was also a conductor and pianist.

Courtesy: Dailymail London