The newest class of Dudamel Fellows at the Los Angeles Philharmonic can look forward to more than just next season. The orchestra’s program for rising conductors — inaugurated in 2009, the same year Gustavo Dudamel took over as music director — has served as a reliable stepping stone to bigger things. Not least return appearances with the LA Phil: Last summer at the Hollywood Bowl saw six former fellows taking the podium.
The fresh faces joining the orchestra for the 2022–2023 season are Luis Toro Araya, Rodolfo Barráez, Linhan Cui, and Chloé Dufresne — announced yesterday. Each conductor leads two concerts in the LA Phil’s Symphonies for Schools series and acts in other performing and educational capacities, from covering main-season programs at Disney Hall to mentoring the young students in Youth Orchestra Los Angeles.
As in years past, the incoming fellows are all thoroughly international. Barráez hails from Venezuela and is now finishing a master’s degree in Berlin, and Cui started her studies in China and is currently a doctoral student at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Representing Chile, Araya just accepted a post with the National Orchestra of Spain, and Dufresne has won prizes in her native France, after time at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
Dudamel summed up the program experience in a statement from the orchestra. “Bringing these emerging talents from all different backgrounds to my Los Angeles Philharmonic and having the chance to work with them onstage and in the community is a constant source of inspiration and joy,” he said.
