The Venezuelan poster-boy conductor is due to become artistic and music director of the New York Philharmonic in eight months’ time. The position has the highest profile of any US orchestral position. Dudamel, who turns 45 this month, has held close links with successive governments in Caracas. Today, United States forces swooped to capture the corrupt Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, with whom Dudamel has had an on-off and latterly on again relationship. Dudamel led European tours of the regime’s showcase El Sistema orchestra in 2025. He has maintained that his loyalty is to the Sistema organisation and not to its...