About this Artist

Andrés David Ascanio Abreu was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1987, and at the age of four, he began his musical studies with piano lessons at kindergarten. At the age of 11, he entered Emil Friedman´s School where he started trumpet lessons with José Zerpa and then with Hernan Quintero. In 2000, he auditioned and joined the National Children and Youth Orchestra of Venezuela as a trumpet player. In 2004, he won the audition for the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and became a member of the trumpet section, in which he played for 14 years under such great conductors as Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, Lorin Maazel, Nicolas Harnoncourt, and Gustavo Dudamel, among others. He also performed on recordings with Gustavo Dudamel for Deutsche Grammophon. He studied with professors Jairo Hernandez, Alexander Barrios, Alfredo D’Addona, and Eduardo Manzanilla (at the University Institute of Musicals Studies) and has participated in master class with Wynton Marsalis, Gabor Tarkovi, Allen Vizzuti, Thomas Clamor, Pepe Ortiz, Max Sommerhalder, Giuliano Sommerhalder, and with the Empire Brass, Canadian Brass, and Spanish Brass.  

In 2008, he began studies in conducting with maestro José Antonio Abreu. He has acted as Gustavo Dudamel’s assistant conductor in the preparation of several works for the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. He has guest conducted the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in several concerts and has led the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra, Chacao Youth Orchestra, and Juan José Landaeta Symphony Orchestra. In December of 2018, he conducted Mozart’s Idomeneo with the Simón Bolívar National Choir and Marco Gandini as stage director. He also participated in the Religions and Sustainable Development Goals International Conference at Vatican City. He is the conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela whom he presented to the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Exhibition in Vienna in 2018. He is one of the members of the Simón Bolívar Trumpet Ensemble. Currently, he is the Manager of the Academic Orchestral Program of El Sistema in Venezuela and the Musical Academic Director of El Sistema.