Nuno Coelho, Stephen Mulligan, Elena Schwarz, and Jesús Uzcátegui
Selected for the LA Phil's 2018/19
Dudamel Fellowship Program

Los Angeles, CA (June 27, 2018) - The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association has announced the four conductors who will participate in the 2018/19 Dudamel Fellowship Program: Nuno Coelho, Stephen Mulligan, Elena Schwarz, and Jesús Uzcátegui. Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, together with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, created the Dudamel Fellowship Program in 2009 to provide a unique opportunity for promising young conductors from around the world to develop their craft and enrich their musical experience through personal mentorship and participation in the LA Phil's orchestral, education, and community programs.

"The most important and fulfilling part of my work is to mentor extraordinary young people," says Dudamel. "On behalf of the LA Phil, I welcome these four outstanding young conductors into the program and look forward to helping them become their best, as both musicians and people."

The Fellows will work alongside Dudamel and musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as visiting artists and conductors, and will also work with students in key LA Phil education programs. The program for each of the Fellows will run separately. The Fellows will hone their skills through observation and application, such as conducting Los Angeles Philharmonic youth concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall, participating as cover conductors, and serving as mentors themselves through participation in programs such as Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA).

"Over the past nine years, alumni of this program have gone on to accomplish amazing things in their careers, and I have no doubt this exceptional group will go on to do the same," Dudamel says.

Dudamel kicks off the classical season at Hollywood Bowl with a Bernstein 100 Celebration featuring Sutton Foster and Brian Stokes Mitchell on July 10. This summer season, his concerts also include Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 featuring Khatia Buniatishvili (July 12); Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with Itzhak Perlman (August 21); and the Tchaikovsky Spectacular, complete with fireworks (August 24 and 25). Dudamel also conducts Verdi's Otello for the first time (July 15), leads a fully danced production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker (August 14 and 16), and teams up with guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (August 17 and 18).

The 2018/19 Dudamel Fellows are:

Nuno Coelho (Portuguese), who will be conducting:

January 19 & 26, 2019
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Toyota Symphonies for Youth

January 30, 2019
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Pasadena Showcase House Youth Concert

Minimalism
The Los Angeles Philharmonic will gleam with the vibrant patterns, shifting phases and steady rhythms of Minimalism in music by Philip Glass and John Adams. Tickets for Toyota Symphonies for Youth concerts are available here.

Nuno Coelho was awarded First Prize at the Cadaqués International Conducting Competition in December 2017, winning him engagements with over 30 major orchestras in Europe, Asia and South America over the next three seasons. Other accolades include First Prize at the Portuguese Radio Conducting Competition, Finalist at the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Competition, and the Neeme Järvi Prize at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival.

As Assistant Conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic from 2015-17, Coelho conducted the orchestra on numerous occasions, in addition to working with Marc Albrecht on symphonic projects and a production of Parsifal at Dutch National Opera. He returns to the Netherlands Philharmonic in July 2018 for a concert at the Concertgebouw as part of Robeco SummerNights.

Coelho has also collaborated extensively with the Orquestra Gulbenkian, and the 2018/19 season will see him further develop this relationship as the orchestra's Guest Conductor, leading subscription concerts and tours. Other forthcoming highlights include a return to the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur, and debuts with the Ulster Orchestra, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia.

In June 2018 Coelho will conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as part of the prestigious Daniele Gatti Masterclass, having previously participated in masterclasses with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Neeme Järvi and Bernard Haitink. As a former Tanglewood Fellow, Coelho also assisted Andris Nelsons, Christoph von Dohnányi, Thomas Adès, and Stéphane Denève, and conducted a staging of Weill's Seven Deadly Sins. Opera projects elsewhere include La traviata, Cavalleria rusticana, and Rusalka.

Born in Porto in 1989, Coelho studied violin in Klagenfurt and Brussels and conducting with Johannes Schaefli at the Zurich University of the Arts. He has since gone on to conduct Kammerorchester Basel, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, and Basel Sinfonieorchester, among other ensembles. In 2014 he received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and in 2015 he was admitted into the German Music Council's Dirigentenforum. He currently resides in Zurich.

Stephen Mulligan (American), who will be conducting:

April 6 & 20, 2019
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Toyota Symphonies for Youth

Ravel's Bolero
Inspired by factory machines and Spanish dance, Maurice Ravel's best-known work, Bolero, is sure to quicken the pulse. It'll be impossible not to get caught up in the insistent rhythms and mesmerizing melody as the Los Angeles Philharmonic performs this timeless piece. Tickets for Toyota Symphonies for Youth concerts are available here.

Conductor Stephen Mulligan has been the Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra since August 2017. This winter, over the course of six weeks, Mulligan stepped in for three Atlanta Symphony classical subscription programs to critical acclaim, working with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and pianists Jorge Osorio and Behzod Abduraimov. This spring, Mulligan was awarded a 2018 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award.

Mulligan has also frequently worked at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, recently assisting John Adams on a production of his opera Nixon in China at Walt Disney Concert Hall and Gustavo Dudamel in a production of Bernstein's West Side Story at the Hollywood Bowl. From 2014-16, Mulligan served as Asistant Conductor of the Winston-Salem Symphony and the Music Director of the Winston-Salem Symphony Youth Orchestras Program. Other recent highlights include appearances with the St. Louis Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Amarillo Symphony Orchestra, Reading Symphony Orchestra, and London Symphonia.

Mulligan was awarded the Aspen Conducting Prize after studying with Robert Spano as a fellow in the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen from 2013-2014. He then served as the festival's assistant conductor in 2015 and as a guest conductor in 2016. Before attending Aspen, Mulligan studied with Gustav Meier, Markand Thakar, and Marin Alsop at the Peabody Institute, and received his master's degree there in 2013. In 2011, Mulligan graduated cum laude from Yale University, where he served as the Yale Symphony's assistant conductor and was awarded the Wrexham Prize for excellence in performance for violin and conducting.

Mulligan grew up in Baltimore, MD, studying violin with his father Gregory, former concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony and current violinist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Elena Schwarz (Swiss-Australian), who will be conducting:

November 24 & December 1, 2018
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Toyota Symphonies for Youth

Brahms and His First Symphony
Through the eyes of a young girl desperate to finish a homework assignment, learn why it took one of the most famous composers, Johannes Brahms, more than two decades to write his first symphony. This concert is a celebration of that masterful piece and its composer, who never stopped trying. Tickets for Toyota Symphonies for Youth concerts are available here.

Swiss-Australian conductor Elena Schwarz (b. 1985) was prize-winner at the Princess Astrid Competition (First Prize, Norway, 2014) and the Jorma Panula Competition (Second Prize, Vaasa, 2015), and was selected as one of three young conductors supported by the French Performer's Association Adami (October 2016).

She was appointed Assistant Conductor to Mikko Franck at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (2017-2018), concurrently with a Joint Assistantship to the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (Marko Letonja) and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (Asher Fisch).

In May 2017 she conducted a program of Ravel's music at Maison de Radio with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, substituting for Mikko Franck at the last minute, and she recently stood in for him again to conduct a performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 at the Festival de Saint Denis.  Other recent conducting engagements include "Portrait" concerts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Nicolas Bacri), and the Lucerne Festival Academy (Olga Neuwirth), as well as performances with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonietta de Lausanne, Orchestre de Cannes, Orchestre de Pasdeloup, Orchestre de Opéra National de Lorraine, and the 2016 Martha Argerich Festival in Lugano, where she conducted Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto with soloists Renaud Capuçon and Nicholas Angelich.

Forthcoming highlights include conducting engagements with the Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Pasdeloup, Orchestre de Opéra National de Lorraine, Orchestre de Cannes, Musikfabrik Cologne, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and West Australian Symphony Orchestra. She assists Kazushi Ono on a production of Prokofiev's Fiery Angel with the Orchestre de Paris at the Festival Aix en Provence this summer.

After studying cello and musicology at the Geneva Conservatoire and University, Elena Schwarz was admitted to the conducting course of Laurent Gay at the Geneva Conservatoire, from which she graduated with a Master's degree. She subsequently specialized in contemporary performance with Arturo Tamayo (Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana). Further studies took her to Peter Eötvös and Matthias Pintscher, and she participated in masterclasses with Bernard Haitink at the Lucerne Festival and Neeme Järvi at the Gstaad Festival.

Jesús Uzcátegui (Venezuelan), who will be conducting:

February 23 & March 9, 2019
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Toyota Symphonies for Youth

February 19 & 20, 2019
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Symphonies for Schools - free concerts for students in grades 3-6

William Grant Still & The Harlem Renaissance

In the Roaring Twenties, there was a great outburst of African-American art and culture centered in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. Composer William Grant Still was a big part of this, writing for jazz bands and radio shows before moving to Los Angeles to work in films. He filled his symphonies with the sound of the blues and African-American spirituals. Tickets for Toyota Symphonies for Youth concerts are available here.

Venezuelan musician Jesús Uzcátegui has pursued orchestral conducting studies under the guidance of Maestro José Antonio Abreu and served as assistant conductor for Eduardo Marturet, Christian Vásquez, and Sung Kwak.

Uzcátegui has prepared the Youth Orchestra of Caracas (YOC) for some of its tours, including a concert conducted by Leon Botstein on its 2013 Asia Tour. As a guest conductor, he has worked with the Teresa Carreño Symphony Orchestra, Simón Bolívar Symphony, and Caracas Symphony Orchestra.

In 2015, he was the only Latin-American musician selected to participate in the Malko Conducting Competition and conducted performances of the YOC at Teatro alla Scala, as part of an El Sistema residency in Milan. Later that year, Uzcátegui attended the Gstaad Academy, where he studied under the guidance of Ulrich Windfuhr and Neeme Jarvi. Subsequently, he was invited to attend a conducting master class led by Bernard Haitink in summer 2017. In November 2016, Uzcátegui was assistant conductor for Diego Matheuz on the production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville with the Simón Bolívar Symphony.

More recently, he was invited by El Sistema Greece to work in the training of teachers and the creation of their first orchestra.

Among his upcoming commitments is the invitation made by El Sistema England to participate as an orchestral conductor and trainer for the 5th Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra residency in Birmingham, England, with concerts at Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall (London) and at Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Currently, he works as Music Director of the Juan José Landaeta Symphony Orchestra and the Carabobo Youth Orchestra.

 

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under the vibrant leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, presents an inspiring array of music from all genres - orchestral, chamber and Baroque music, organ and celebrity recitals, new music, jazz, world music and pop - at two of L.A.'s iconic venues, Walt Disney Concert Hall (laphil.com) and the Hollywood Bowl (hollywoodbowl.com). The LA Phil's season at Walt Disney Concert Hall extends from September through May, and throughout the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. With the preeminent Los Angeles Philharmonic at the foundation of its offerings, the LA Phil aims to enrich and transform lives through music, with a robust mix of artistic, education and community programs.