Gustavo Dudamel to perform at Olympics festival in June

Gustavo Dudamel will make a few appearances this summer as part of the London 2012 Festival, the large-scale cultural celebration running parallel to the Olympic Games. Dudamel will perform with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela at a June 21 concert in Scotland. The festival's website states that Dudamel will lead the orchestra at an outdoor concert in Stirling, Scotland, near the famed Stirling Castle. The concert will be part of a four-day residency for Dudamel and the orchestra in Raploch, a district of the city. Big Noise Raploch is a youth program modeled after El Sistema, the Venezuelan music education program in which Dudamel studied. Musicians from Big Noise are expected to participate in the outdoor concert. Dudamel and the orchestra also are scheduled to hold a residency at London's Southbank Centre, during which they will perform at the Royal Festival Hall. The residency, set to run June 23-26, will include performances of Richard Strauss' "An Alpine Symphony" and Argentine composer Esteban Benzecry's "Rituales Amerindios." In addition to leading the Simón Bolívar Symphony, Dudamel is music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Esa-Pekka Salonen, who is Dudamel's predecessor in L.A., will participate in Olympic festivities by carrying the Olympic torch for part of its British journey.