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  • LAPA
  • François López-Ferrer, Chloé van Soeterstède, Camilo Téllez and Enluis Montes Olivar Selected for the LA Phil’s 2021/22 Dudamel Fellowship Program
  • Aug. 30, 2021
  • Associate Conductor Paolo Bortolameolli Contract Extended to 2022

    Los Angeles, CA (August 30, 2021) – The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association has announced the four conductors who will participate in the 2021/22 Dudamel Fellowship Program: François López-Ferrer, Chloé van Soeterstède, Camilo Téllez and Enluis Montes Olivar. Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, together with the LA Phil, 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, learning and community programs.

    “I am so deeply proud of all that we have achieved with our Fellows program, and it gives me great inspiration to welcome such a diverse group of talented young conductors to Los Angeles. What makes our program so unique is the way that it goes beyond the concert hall and into the community, serving as a center of culture and education for the entire city. I look forward to welcoming, working with and integrating them into our LA Phil family,” said Gustavo Dudamel, Music & Artistic Director, LA Phil.

    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 learning programs. The program for each of the Fellows will run separately. The Fellows will hone their skills through observation and application, participating as both cover conductors and as conductors, and serving as mentors themselves through participation in programs such as YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles).

    Paolo Bortolameolli, former Dudamel Fellow (2016/17 cohort), was appointed Assistant Conductor of the LA Phil for a one-year term in 2017/18 and promoted to Associate Conductor in 2019/20 for another year which has now been extended through summer 2022. As part of his duties, Bortolameolli will serve as the cover conductor for Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and for guest conductors throughout the orchestra’s subscription season.

    The 2021/22 Dudamel Fellows are:

    François López-Ferrer (Spain; United States)

    Conducting Symphonies for Youth/Symphonies for Schools - Elementary

    Saturday, February 12, 2022, 11AM SFY
    Saturday, February 19, 2022, 11AM SFY
    Tuesday, February 22, 2022, 10AM & 11AM SFS
    Wednesday, February 23, 2022, 10AM & 11AM SFS 

    Spanish-American conductor François López-Ferrer came to international attention after a critically acclaimed debut at the 2018 Verbier Festival, where he substituted for Iván Fischer in a shared program with Sir Simon Rattle and Gàbor Takács-Nagy.

    In demand as a guest conductor, López-Ferrer’s recent and upcoming highlights include debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orquesta Nacional de España, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Berner Symphonieorchester, Orquesta Sinfónica Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Orquesta de Valencia, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile, Orquesta de Extremadura, Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquesta Joven de la Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquestra Sinfônica do Paraná and the Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre.

    As Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and the May Festival, he conducts the CSO’s Young People’s Concerts and provides artistic support to the CSO’s Music Director, Louis Langrée, and the May Festival’s Principal Conductor, Juanjo Mena. López-Ferrer is one of six participants to be featured in the 2022 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. He previously served for two years as associate conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile (OSNCH) and Principal Conductor of the Ballet Nacional Chileno, and he was the youngest-ever Conductor-in-Residence of the OSNCH’s summer concert series.

    López-Ferrer was winner of the inaugural 2015 Neeme Järvi Prize awarded at the Menuhin-Gstaad Festival and received third prize at the 2018 OFUNAM International Conducting Competition. He was previously a member of the prestigious Deutsche Dirigentenforum.

    López-Ferrer holds a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne, under the tutelage of professor Aurélien Azan Zielinski, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where his teachers included Joel Hoffman, Miguel Roig-Francoli and Michael Fiday.

    Chloé van Soeterstède (France)

    Conducting Symphonies for Schools - Secondary

    Thursday, February 24, 2022, 10AM
    Friday, February 25, 2022, 10AM

    Chloé van Soeterstède is attracting the attention of orchestras across the globe for her intuitive, sensitive, expressive music making and her charming and positive presence on the podium. She is praised repeatedly for her attention to detail, her energy and enthusiasm and her efficiency in rehearsal. Many orchestras are re-inviting her, and the coming seasons will bring many debuts across Europe and North America.

    In 2021/22, van Soeterstède’s European debuts include the RTVE Symphony Orchestra (Madrid), Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Valladolid), Tenerife Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn, Gävle Symphony (Sweden), and Bournemouth Symphony. She also returns to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for a concert in their Cadogan Hall series, to the Orchestre National de Lorraine, the GiOrquestra in Spain and makes her debut with the Orchestre d’Auvergne on a tour of French summer festivals, before returning for a concert in Paris later in the season. In North America, she debuts with the Orlando Philharmonic and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony orchestras.

    During she 2020/21 season, van Soeterstède returned to or made debuts with most of the major UK orchestras, including the BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, London chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Past engagements elsewhere have included many across her native France, with orchestras such as the Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre National du Montpellier, Orchestre National de Lille amongst others.

    Van Soeterstède conducts a wide range of repertoire from Mozart and Mendelssohn to Prokofiev, Vaughan Williams and Tchaikovsky. In 2019, she conducted the world premiere of Benjamin Attahir's Syrian Voices in France and regularly programs works by contemporary composers such as Jessie Montgomery, Roxanna Panufnik, Annamaria Kowalsky and Anna Meredith. At the 2019 Deutscher Diringentenpreis in Cologne, she was awarded the Bärenreiter Prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary work, as well as third prize overall.

    In 2012 she founded the Arch Sinfonia, a chamber orchestra based in London, which has been applauded for its vibrant and boundless energy, its wide range of repertoire and its initiatives to build bridges between artists and audience. Van Soeterstède also loves to work with young musicians, and, as such, works regularly with orchestras at Wells Cathedral, Chetham’s schools and conservatoires across the UK.

    Van Soeterstède was born in 1988 in France. After studying viola in Paris and then at London’s Royal Academy of Music, she studied conducting with Clark Rundell and Mark Heron at the Royal Northern College of Music (2015–2017), where she was awarded the Kennedy scholarship and was also supported by the Derek Hill Foundation. In 2019 she was appointed the Taki Concordia Fellow 2019–21 by Marin Alsop.

    Camilo Téllez (Colombia)

    Conducting Symphonies for Youth

    Saturday, March 26, 2022, 11AM
    Saturday, April 2, 2022, 11AM

    Colombian conductor Camilo Téllez currently serves as Associate Conductor of the Frost Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Gerard Schwarz. In 2019, he was a finalist at the Amsterdam Conservatorium Competition, where he had the opportunity to conduct the Netherlands Philharmonic and the Hague Ensemble. He has conducted and collaborated with orchestras in the United States, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Brazil, and Colombia. Some of these include the Berlin Sinfonietta, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Palm Beach Symphony, Florianopolis Camerata, and the Manizales Symphony Orchestra.

    Téllez is passionate about the power of social transformation through music. In 2017/18, he served as Music Director of 40 Horas, an El Sistema-inspired outreach program supported by the Colombian government to foster talent in economically disenfranchised areas of his hometown of Bogotá, Colombia. Téllez founded a symphony orchestra for local youth and a children’s choir that performed in venues across Bogotá. Through his work, he has brought music to some of the most vulnerable communities in the United States and Latin America.

    A staunch advocate for new music and the celebration of contemporary Latin American composers, Téllez frequently conducts the contemporary music ensemble Alia Musica in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the summer of 2021, he served as Assistant Conductor for the Chicago Opera Festival’s production of Mozart’s

    Don Giovanni, and he will compete in the International Conductors Workshop Competition in Atlanta, Georgia.

    Téllez holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and an Artist Diploma from the University of Miami Frost School of Music. He studied piano performance and orchestral conducting, graduating with honors from the Juan N. Corpas University in Bogotá, Colombia. Téllez has assisted conductors such as Gerard Schwarz, Giancarlo Guerrero, Thomas Wilkins, Carl St.Clair, Federico Cortese, Marzio Conti, Arthur Fagen, Cliff Colnot, Kenneth Kiesler, Gary Thor Wedow and Nir Kabaretti among others.

    Enluis Montes Olivar (Venezuela)

    Conducting engagements to be announced

    Belonging to the new generation of young conductors of El Sistema, Venezuelan musician Enluis Montes Olivar has an innovative spirit in the search for new sounds. His repertoire is wide and includes composers from classicism through romanticism, contemporary music, and new musical genres. Furthermore, as a Venezuelan, he enjoys taking Latin American repertoire wherever he performs.

    On July 22, 2021, Enluis made his debut at the legendary Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with more than 10,000 people in the audience, and according to music critic Tony Frankel, “The result was a master class in musicianship.”

    After the death of maestro José Antonio Abreu in March 2018, Enluis was responsible for conducting one of the most numerous orchestras and choirs in the world, made up of 10,771 musicians, in what was the posthumous tribute to the founder of El Sistema de Orquesta y Coros Venezuelan.

    His professional experience is extensive. In May 2019, he was invited by maestro Gustavo Dudamel to be part of the prestigious Dudamel Conducting Fellows program during the 2019/20 season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he had the opportunity to follow the guidance, teaching and the advice of the Venezuelan maestro, in addition to assisting him in numerous concert programs with the LA Phil and renowned international soloists, to promote and develop his artistic musical career.

    He began formal studies of orchestral conducting with Teresa Hernández in 2011, followed by José Antonio Abreu in 2012, under whose guidance he received his most comprehensive training as a musician. During these latter studies, he joined the Academic Training Program for Young Musicians, Teachers and Directors of El Sistema, where he studied with countless teachers, including under the guidance of Gregory Carreño and Franka Verhagen. Enluis was sponsored by the HILTI Foundation to attend the El Sistema Orchestral Conducting School and the Inocente Carreño Itinerant Music Conservatory, under the tutelage of Pablo Castellanos and Dick van Gasteren.

    Paolo Bortolameolli

    March 4-6, 2022
    Camille Thomas, cello

    Miguel FAŔIAS El Color del Tiempo (except Friday)
    ELGAR Cello Concerto
    TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”

    Currently Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chilean-Italian conductor Paolo Bortolameolli has a bustling concert schedule across the Americas, Asia and Europe. In addition to his post in Los Angeles, he is also Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Esperanza Azteca (México) and Principal Guest Conductor of Filarmónica de Santiago (Chile).

    Having conducted every significant orchestra in his Chilean homeland and been awarded prizes four times by the Arts Critics Association as Symphonic and Opera Conductor of the Year, Paolo has regular conducting relationships across Latin and North America, Europe and Asia, including the Houston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Orchestra della Toscana (Italy), Gulbenkian Orchestra (Portugal), Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar (Venezuela), Orquesta de las Américas, Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia (Spain), Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires (Argentina), Orquesta Sinfónica del SODRE (Uruguay), Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (México) and Orquesta Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, in addition to the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil).

    Paolo’s relationship with the LA Phil continues through the 2021/22 season, when he will conduct subscription concerts and increase his engagement with the soon-to-be-opened Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center designed by architect Frank Gehry. Paolo has conducted concerts at both the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall every season since his arrival in LA, including a landmark new production of Meredith Monk’s inventive opera ATLAS, performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2019. Also in 2021/22, Paolo will work with other top orchestras in North America: Kansas City Symphony, San Antonio Symphony and Charlotte Symphony, as well as orchestras and opera houses at the highest level across Europe.

    About the LA Phil 
    Under the leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil offers live performances, media initiatives and learning programs that inspire and strengthen communities in Los Angeles and beyond. The Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra is the foundation of the LA Phil’s offerings, which also include a multi-genre, multidisciplinary presenting program and such youth development programs as YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). Performances are offered on three historic stages—Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and The Ford—as well as through a variety of media platforms. In all its endeavors, the LA Phil seeks to enrich the lives of individuals and communities through musical, artistic, and learning experiences that resonate in our world today.  

    Subscriptions for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2021/22 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall are currently available. To purchase, please visit laphil.com or the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office. For more information, please call 323 850 2000.
  • Contact:
    Sophie Jefferies, sjefferies@laphil.org
    Lisa White, lwhite@laphil.org