LA Philharmonic Live: Dudamel, Mahler And New Music — npr.org

By now the Gustavo-Dudamel-as-wunderkind story is old news. Fans know he started playing violin at age 10, conducting at 12 and became music director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra when he was just 18. Yet Dudamel's stats can still be staggering. He told me recently he was 11 when he played his first Mahler symphony and 16 when he took the podium to conduct Mahler. "My first big piece was Mahler's Symphony No. 1," he said.

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