For the first time, Gustavo Dudamel was joined by a co-host—his son Martín Dudamel Maturén. In this interview, Gustavo shares how The Carnival of the Animals brings together playful music, global folktales, and young narrators to spark imagination and cultural connection.

There are a lot of different pieces you could play for a young audience. Why did you choose The Carnival of the Animals?

It’s a piece that my son Martín, who co-hosted the episode with me, loves. I also loved it as a child. It's a very playful piece that speaks to the imagination. The music invites listeners to create images and even narratives in their mind, which is a beautiful thing.

Martín narrates one of the stories in the episode. Can you tell us a little bit about the other featured narrators?

Yes! I am so proud to have children from YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) and other El Sistema-inspired programs in Brazil and the UK help us share these beautifully animated folktales. Even though they live far apart, these young musicians are all connected through their music and their imaginations. The same is true of the stories they’re telling. The folktales come from different cultures, but they reveal that we are all united in our impulse to create.

Do you think young people relate to music differently than adults do?

As a musician, of course, but also as a listener. The beauty of being a young person is that you live in a world where you are discovering everything. I try to keep that way of thinking alive in myself because, as adults, we think we know everything and can enter into situations with a type of prejudice. Music allows us to remember our childhoods when we were discovering things and creating our own visions and ideas.

There is a purity in the way a child interacts with the world, which plays into the imagination. It’s summed up by that beautiful word—innocence.

A Playlist by Martín Dudamel Maturén

We asked Martín to put together a playlist of the music he loves the most, and the results were as far-reaching and exciting as you might expect from the child of a world-famous conductor known for embracing all types of musical expression. The nine-year-old musician’s playlist takes us from David Bowie to Le Sonora Matancera by way of half a dozen or so of his dad’s own recordings.

Gustavo Dudamel has said that “music allows us to remember our childhoods when we were discovering things and creating our own visions,” and so, we invite you to listen like a child, as though it were for the very first time.