Gustavo Dudamel

“It's not that people don't like classical music. It's that they don't have the chance to understand and to experience it.”

“Going to a concert can sometimes be very difficult. It can be a long journey. There's the ticket prices. But when the music goes to the community - not the community coming to the concert - they say, 'Wow! I didn't know that this music was so amazing!'”

“Whenever I listen to a children's orchestra, I learn. They feel everything, they enjoy everything, they have amazing energy.”

“In my imagination yes, I remember, when I was six years old, I was conducting all this concert in my house. But now it's real.”

“A friend gave me a CD of the 'Pathetique' Symphony as a Christmas present. I went home, and I put on the CD expecting to listen to Tchaikovsky. But it started 'ta ta ta taaa.' It was too long for me. I didn't understand it at first, but then I fell in love, in love, in love.”