It’s not Christmas yet, but Madrid already comes with gifts for classical music lovers. And beyond the chamber concerts at the Teatro Real or the organ cycles in churches such as the Pontifical Basilica of San Miguel, the National Auditorium of Madrid puts the icing on the cake this season with a concert by the Venezuelan Youth Symphony conducted by the renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
An appointment that is part of the 24 annual concerts organized by Ibermúsica in the Symphonic Hall of the National Auditorium, a music promoter whose goal is to bring to Spain the best orchestras, conductors and soloists in the world. And now it is the turn of the Venezuelan conductor.
When is it and what is the repertoire
The concert will take place next Monday, December 8 at 19:30h. It will be performed by the Sinfónica Juvenil de Venezuela, which will play the monumental Symphony No. 7 in C Major “Leningrad”. A work composed by Shostakovich in 1941 during the first months of the entrance of the Nazi army to the present St. Petersburg, and that ended up becoming a symbol of resistance and hope.
Almost all tickets are already sold out, but you can check which ones are still available here.
Gustavo Dudamel, music as a “fundamental human right.”
The hypnotic conductor with curly hair who conducts with equal parts energy and joy? That’s Gustavo Dudamel. If he didn’t ring a bell as the conductor who revolutionized the Los Angeles Philharmonic, maybe he will from now on because he has already been chosen as Music and Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic for the 2026/2027 season.
Compared to composer Leonard Bernstein for his charismatic conducting, Gustavo Dudamel is one of the world’s most renowned conductors. He was trained in his native Venezuela, and since then he has always defended that “music should be a fundamental human right”. A maxim he has followed in projects such as the one he carried out with the Manos Blancas Choir (formed by children and young people with hearing disabilities), performing Beethoven’s opera Fidelio.
Other classical music concerts in Madrid
If you have not had time to get tickets for his concert, the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid has a wide program that you can check here. Also if you are under 30 years old (and as long as there are seats left), you can get tickets at 5 € for any concert in the Auditorio at the box office, up to an hour before the start.
But there are many more options to listen to classical music in Madrid: organ cycle in the Royal Chapel of the Royal Palace, Candlelight concerts dedicated to Mozart, Vivaldi or Bach, or chamber music at the Juan March Foundation.