Top Venezuelan pianist urges music world to snub youth orchestra linked to Maduro
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Gabriela Montero asks promoters to cut ties with El Sistema on 2025 Europe tour, after alleged theft of election. One of Venezuela’s most celebrated musicians, the pianist Gabriela Montero, has called on concert halls and music promoters to cut ties with her country’s world-renowned youth orchestra as a result of Nicolás Maduro’s alleged theft of this year’s presidential election.
The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (SBSOV), which has close ties to Maduro’s administration, is scheduled to perform at some of Europe’s most prestigious classical music venues in January to mark the 50th anniversary of Venezuela’s world-famous music training programme, El Sistema.
The tour, which includes concerts at London’s Barbican, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Berlin Philharmonic, will coincide with the expected start of Maduro’s third term, despite widespread suspicions that he stole July’s election. Even regional allies Brazil and Colombia – whose leaders have longstanding ties to Maduro’s political movement, Chavismo – have refused to recognise Maduro’s claim of victory. Their leftwing presidents, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Gustavo Petro, are not expected to attend the 10 January inauguration in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. This month Petro said it was clear that Venezuelans “no longer wanted” the Chavistas in power.
The Venezuelan orchestra has been celebrated around the world for its effervescent performances and work training virtuoso musicians from poor backgrounds. But critics claim that in recent years – as Venezuela has slipped into authoritarian rule and economic turmoil – Maduro’s regime has turned the orchestra into an international propaganda tool. Maduro’s close allies the vice-president and oil minister, Delcy Rodríguez, and the president’s son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, were appointed to El Sistema’s board in 2018.
