Venezuela: Abbado to conduct young Latin Americans as part of celebrations of CAF 35th anniversary

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) and the 30th of the Venezuelan System of Youth and Children's Orchestra, Maestro Claudio Abbado, who is considered the most important conductor of the contemporary era, has been training and staging the Latin American Youth Orchestra since the start of the year, strengthening the Social Action Program for Music promoted by the CAF, and as a preparatory phase of the CAF Latin American Youth Symphony Orchestra which this multilateral institution is also promoting.

CAF Executive President Enrique García said that the multilateral organization, "oriented to social rescue and strengthening of civic culture, is using music to contribute to the integrated education of the human being, exalting the noblest values of the individual and reinforcing family and community links, in a higher and better cohesion of social fabric, participation and solidarity." All this is no more than the human face of development, vertices of progress which the CAF considers especially important.

The Social Action Program for Music comprises the Andean and Latin American Youth Symphony Orchestras, Andean Choral Voices (VAC), the Andean Traveling Conservatory (CAI) and the Andean Lute Workshop (TIAL).

Prior to the concerts, maestro Abbado will direct the First Workshop 2005 of the CAF Andean Traveling Conservatory - created in 2001 - backing this innovative option, which provides musical education for children and young people from underprivileged communities, as a tool of social integration. The Conservatory will include a large group of young people from Latin America (two to four from each country) and, as special guests of Abbado, a group of musicians selected by the Cuban Philharmonic Orchestra. As an initiative of the CAF, young Haitians will also participate for the first time as a gesture of solidarity to this Caribbean people in their critical situation.

The people of Caracas to enjoy the best in music

The concert of the Latin American Youth Orchestra - formed by 260 musicians aged 16 to 24 from all the countries of South and Central America and some of the Caribbean – under the direction of Abbado, is an unprecedented artistic event in the recent history of classical music in the region.

The program selected for the concerts will be held on Saturday 22nd at 7pm and Sunday 23rd at 6pm consists of the Symphonic Poem La Mer and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

Descendant of a family of musicians, Claudio Abbado studied in Milan and Vienna. He won the Kusevitski prize in 1958 and the Dmitri Mitrópulos prize in 1963. He was musical and artistic director of La Scala of Milan from 1968 to 1986; the London Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1989; the Vienna State Opera from 1986 to 1991; and the Berlin Philharmonic from 1989 (recently succeeded by Sir Simon Rattle). In 1987 he formed the Mahler Orchestra in Vienna. He has premiered works of Manzoni and Nono, and recorded the most important symphonic cycles: Brahms symphonies and choral music, and the symphonies of Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Mussorgsky, Dvorak and Mozart.

The orchestra’s inaugural concerts, scheduled for January 22 and 23 in the Ríos Reyna Room of the Teresa Carreño Theater, are sponsored by Banco de Venezuela/Grupo Santander, the Ministry of Health and Social Development, the Teresa Carreño Foundation, CANTV and the embassies of Italy and Holland, with the collaboration of other organizations such as Venezuela Sin Limites, Shell de Venezuela, Digitel Tim, Aerolink, Italian Institute of Culture and Giovanni Scutaro. The event continues the commemorative activities of the 35th anniversary of the CAF and 30th of the Venezuelan Youth and Children's Orchestras.