“Last Saturday in Los Angeles, conductor Gustavo Dudamel made his debut with a new orchestra. Not some chamber-scale off-shoot of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he takes up the music directorship in a few months, but a group of about a hundred children, aged from 7-14, who play with YOLA, the Youth Orchestra LA.

It’s an inspirational scheme. The LA Phil have set this orchestra up in a financially and musically deprived suburb of the city in partnership with the Harmony project – an LA-based charity that gives free instruments to those who would never otherwise have the chance to play violins, trumpets, or cellos – and the EXPO centre, which provides the venue for the rehearsals. When I was there a couple of weeks ago, I heard these kids play an arrangement of the finale from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Some of them had only been learning their instruments for a few weeks, and the most experienced just for a few months, so we’re not talking a budding National Youth Orchestra here. But as well as the conductor’s attempt to stop the flute section sticking pencils into their instrument and to command a bit of discipline in the ranks of an unruly cello section, there was an impressive commitment to get through the piece, and an uninhibited and enthusiastic racket”. Fuente original