Monday, February 8, 2016

YOLA at the Super Bowl halftime: hit or miss?

Most of us saw or heard from friends about the performance of Gustavo Dudamel and YOLA at the Super Bowl halftime show. I encountered this article that represents not so positive opinion about the performance, it's value and it's reasons. The note of skepticism takes over from the very first sentence: "How disappointing was it that Gustavo Dudamel and Youth Orchestra Los Angeles were relegated to accompanying Coldplay and singing along with Chris Martin, BeyoncĂ© and Bruno Mars? It was disappointing. " And then he keeps going with the fact that kids weren't introduced, the purpose of Gustavo on the stage wasn't explained and that YOLA should've been given a chance to have their own performance of classical music piece.
I think the idea behind the outreach programs such as El Sistema is to give children a opportunity to experience music, playing an instrument, working in an orchestra and let the music change their life. The children of YOLA had been greeted, cheered for and treated as super stars which I can imagine had been an amazing experience for a lifetime. So is it really wrong that they were accompanying a pop song or that Beethoven was put aside for this only time? Enthusiastic musician plays music for music and is open for experiments, just as Gustavo and YOLA had an outstanding and successful performance in collaboration with the representatives of pop culture. Nobody expresses judgmental opinions when Boston Pops plays Twelve Days of Christmas for fun, so what's wrong with YOLA playing for Coldplay?
Would it be great if YOLA was given it's own performance and bought some classical music to the sport fans?- Of course and let's hope that now it's more likely for them to get this offer. Is there a possibility that this super bowl could have passed without YOLA at all and still remain popular?- Absolutely, so as classical musicians let's appreciate the attention and chance that was given to those kids. Personally I am proud of those kids, happy for the opportunity that was provided for them and I think they did an amazing job at the halftime show.

No comments: