Patronage

It is with great pleasure and excitement that I accept the generous proposal put forward by the Intendant of the Beethovenfest, our highly esteemed friend Ilona Schmiel, to become patron of the Beethovenfest Bonn 2010.

In previous years we entered a fruitful programme of collaboration and exchange with the Beethovenfest. The »Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela« has already performed twice in Bonn. Now the Beethovenfest has invited a second Venezuelan orchestra: the »Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra« is the wonderful expression of a recently formed musical generation of selected young people and children, all of whom come from the middle and lower classes.

The average age in this orchestra, and its social background, throw more light on the nature of the »National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs« in our country. It is about a project that goes beyond the merely artistic impact to embody the historical, social task and mission of music in Venezuela and to exercise a transcendental function via the route of the Venezuelan people’s aesthetic education through music.

During her first visit to Venezuela in 2004 Ilona Schmiel, with visionary intuition, sensed the new and enriching perspective that would open up the Beethovenfest to the participation of our musical youth under with Gustavo Dudamel as its shining conductor. The associated Beethovenfest in Caracas was subsequently set up and it has held three significant festivals to date.

At the time of the Beethovenfest 2010 Venezuela will be taking on a new bright responsibility for the future: the organization of the Latin American Beethovenfest. To do this we are offering our best efforts in the harmonious collaboration with the Beethovenfest Bonn. Thus we continue to find ourselves on the joint path of a clear and goal-oriented promotion of new generations of young conductors, composers and soloists.

Dr. José Antonio Abreu
Founder of »El Sistema«

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