I witnessed a phenomenon Friday night at Disney Hall that I will never forget.

The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, conducted by its music director and the LA Phil’s music director-designate Gustavo Dudamel, played a program that was such a tour de force on so many levels that I dreamt about it all night.

This orchestra has gotten a lot of ink lately; here’s the blurb about it from Friday night’s program:

The SIMÓN BOLÍVAR YOUTH ORCHESTRA OF VENEZUELA (SBYOV) was founded by José Antonio Abreu and a group of fellow musicians who were inspired by the ideals of Simón Bolívar. The orchestra is comprised of over 200 young musicians between the ages of 12 and 26, and is the flagship of the orchestral academic program of the State Foundation for the Venezuelan National System of Youth and Child Orchestras (or FESNOJIV – Fundación del Estado para el Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela).

FESNOJIV involves some 250,000 members across the country in a system of pre-school orchestras (4 to 6 years), over 90 children’s orchestras (7 to 16 years), over 130 youth orchestras (16 to 20 years), and over 30 professional adult symphony orchestras. Seventy-five percent of these children live below the poverty line. “For the children that we work with, music is practically the only way to a dignified social destiny. Poverty means loneliness, sadness, [and] anonymity. An orchestra means joy, motivation, teamwork, [and] the aspiration to success.” (José Antonio Abreu) FESNOJIV employs over 15,000 music teachers and includes training in instrument making, arts administration, and new media.

The FESNOJIV’s orchestral academic program allows the musicians of SBYOV to explore a demanding repertory through masterclasses and concerts that involve soloists from leading orchestras and arts institutions, among them members of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Sibelius Academy of Finland, the Stuttgart Bachakademie, and the New England Conservatory of Boston. They have also worked with international conductors including Sir Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado. For six months out of the year they work with Gustavo Dudamel, their Music Director and also a product of FESNOJIV.

The SBYOV has toured three times in Germany, appearing in major venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie and the Essen Philharmonie. They have also performed at the Parco della Musica in Rome, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, and the Lucerne Easter Festival. In the summer of 2007, they appeared at the BBC Proms, the Edinburgh Festival, and venues around Germany, including the Schleswig Holstein Festival and the Semperoper Dresden. This autumn they will perform in Mexico, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Carnegie Hall in New York, where the orchestra will be conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and Sir Simon Rattle as part of the “Berlin in Lights” Festival.

The SBYOV records for Deutsche Grammophon, and has released two recordings – Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 – with Gustavo Dudamel.
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The program began with Beethoven Symphony No. 5.

I knew something was different from the moment the orchestra walked onstage. The parade of musicians — women in long black, men in black suits, white shirts and long black ties — never seemed to end. The orchestra was enormous; 40 violins, 14 violas, doubled winds and brass. The audience applauded (and occasionally whooped) with an ardor that suggested something more than appreciation. This was national pride—or if not that, the fierce loyalty of fans rooting for their championship team.

The Beethoven was outstanding, on any level, and brilliantly led. Ferocious energy, uniformity of concept and execution, crisp, bold, thrilling. You don’t need to hear it any better.

What struck me most was how well-trained all of the musicians seemed to be. Every string player was pulling their weight, intonation was excellent, quality of orchestral sound round and varied. Where did this seemingly endless parade of excellently trained young musicians come from? Who bought the instruments? Who trained the teachers? How did this happen?

The intermission buzz was palpable. Lots of families with younger children, lots of conversation in Spanish. Not your typical LA Phil subscription crowd.

When the orchestra gathered for the second half, another shock: The stage was now filled with 200 musicians! Not 40 violinists, but 58!! Eight horns, six trombones, etc. What the…???

The orchestra played three Latin and South American showpieces – Huapango by Moncayo, Danzón No. 2 by Marquez and Suite from Estancia by Ginastera. Again, the performances were electric and first class. Dudamel (who conducted the whole program from memory) obviously had the orchestra in the palm of his hand – after all, he had grown up with many of the players, and now he and the orchestra had reached the highest levels of the concert business. What a thrill for everyone! And what a sound the group made – I was sitting behind the orchestra, and my body was literally vibrating with the wall of sound coming at me.

But now the real fun started. After a prolonged standing ovation and many curtain calls, the lights in the hall dimmed. When they went back on, the orchestra members were wearing their signature warmup jackets, with blazing national colors and “VENEZUELA” printed across the back. Dudamel appeared similarly jacketed, and the encores began.

First, Dudamel introduced a surprise guest conductor, John Williams, who conducted the orchestra in – what else? — his “Star Wars” Overture. (Of course, he was wearing a Venezuela jacket, too.) Wild applause. Then, Dudamel conducted an unidentified Latin-American work featuring two of the players exchanging their normal instruments for guitar and percussion out in front of the orchestra. More ovations. The next encore (that’s three now) was what has become a signature YouTube phenomenon, “Mambo” from Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.” In the score, Bernstein instructs the musicians to yell “Mambo!” at a few crucial places in the dance. The Bolívars go him one better: They not only shout, but stand, dance, twirl their instruments in the air and generally have a huge party onstage, somehow always returning to their seats in time to play their parts. I saw the YouTube video, but trust me, it’s nothing like seeing it live. Trumpets twirling their instruments above their heads, cellos and basses whirling their axes around, everyone raising the roof. I knew Bernstein, and nothing would have made him happier.

I was sure that was all, but after the next wave of wild cheering, Dudamel returned to conduct the last movement of “Estancia” again, but this time with orchestra players darting up out of their seats seemingly randomly, dancing all over the stage, bows flying, sticks waving, playing this very difficult music from memory! Now the place really exploded. The atmosphere was like a stadium after a victory. And the players responded like the heroes they are: They all tore off their warmup jackets and one by one, tossed them into the crowd. This was no longer a concert – it was a miracle.

The players gradually put their suit jackets back on, and Dudamel led out onto the stage the man whose vision made this all possible, José Antonio Abreu, the conductor and educator who started El Sistema 30 years ago. He looked a bit gaunt, but basked in the cheers and adulation of audience and orchestra alike. He and Dudamel stood talking to each other for quite a while during the ovation, and eventually Dudamel gave him the baton. The audience and players went even wilder. He then led the orchestra in a performance of the Venezuelan National Anthem. We were all on our feet, and much of the crowd was singing along. Following curtain call after curtain call, Abreu and Dudamel finally led the concertmaster and the rest of the players offstage.

A few thoughts:

1. This is all funded by the Venezuelan government, and has been for decades. And the genius of it is that it’s not funded by the Ministry of Culture. It’s funded by the social services sector of the government, because El Sistema was originally conceived as a way of giving children an alternative to a life of poverty and crime. To paraphrase Abreu, if children are holding violins, they can’t hold guns.

2. It’s a good thing for Venezuela that the price of oil is high, because it must cost a lot to replace all those jackets!

3. The success of this orchestra should put to rest once and for all the notion that Western concert music is an elitist phenomenon. Concert music can thrive anywhere. It takes imagination, a firm vision, single-minded determination and generous support for it to flourish, but its communicative power is accessible to all.

4. An orchestra can be a civic ambassador unlike any other. When Los Angeles wants to strut its stuff to the world, it doesn’t send the Dodgers. It sends the Philharmonic (which is touring European musical capitals this month).

5. Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s current leader, may be a nasty dictator, but after last night, my sense is that this orchestra is bigger than he is. Sure, he could pull the plug on it, but he’d be a fool to do so. El Sistema has survived many different governments over the years, and my guess is that it will outlive this one, too. The arts need not live on the cultural fringes of society — they can be very, very powerful.

6. One person can make a difference. Abreu started with 11 kids in a garage. His program now reaches 250,000 and the world’s great concert halls. What are we going to do to make a difference?

- Neal Stulberg, Director, UCLA Philharmonia