During his inaugural visit to New York as a 14-year-old, Gustavo Dudamel bounded up and down upon FAO Schwarz’s colossal keyboard.

Three decades on, he has returned as music director of the New York Philharmonic, with a considerably more numerous and marginally diminutive arsenal of instruments at his disposal.

“It is, to a considerable extent, a matter of that effervescent vitality — this city,” he remarked this week from his office in David Geffen Hall.

Now 45, Dudamel assumed the mantle of music and artistic director last week, having concluded 17 celebrated seasons at the helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

He becomes the 27th man to preside over the New York orchestra, succeeding a lineage of luminaries that included Gustav Mahler, Willem Mengelberg, Bruno Walter, Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez.

A protégé of Venezuela’s El Sistema music education program, Dudamel was serving as a violinist with the National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela when, in October 1995, he performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and journeyed with the orchestra by bus to give a concert at the United Nations.

"They informed us that we would be traversing a tunnel situated beneath the river, and indeed we were: 'Like, what?' That was, in a sense, an altogether different world," Dudamel said.

"I recall that prior to reaching the river, there stood the Twin Towers.

Then I beheld the Statue of Liberty, and subsequently they conveyed us to the U.N.

And then they escorted us to the toy store.

We were, as it were, in paradise."

Dudamel’s nascent itinerary is nothing short of a maelstrom.

An inaugural concert at Radio City Music Hall on Sept. 10 was emceed by the actor Liev Schreiber and boasted performances by Lizzo, St. Vincent, Joaquina and Aaron Tveit.

The festivities carried on with an after-party perched high above Manhattan in the Rainbow Room.

“Gustavo Dudamel is scarcely a straightforward individual to characterise,” Schreiber informed the concert audience.

“Conceive of infusing a teaspoon of Billy Joel, an ounce of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a cup of Tito Puente into a dash of Barbra Streisand.”

The following day, Dudamel decamped downtown for a Sounds of Remembrance performance at the World Trade Center arts center, marking the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“Music belongs so profoundly to moments like this,” Dudamel said softly.

“Music cannot undo what happened.

But when words can no longer reach where we need them to go, sometimes music can.

It can give sorrow a voice.”

The subscription concert series commenced this week with Sergei Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony, the very work he wielded the baton for upon his New York Philharmonic debut on Nov. 29, 2007.

“There are no borders. There are bridges,” Dudamel said.

“A symphonic orchestra can be no less readily immersed in pop, folk, musicals.

We all inhabit the selfsame space.

I think that is the message.”

Scarcely a month into his tenure, the orchestra sets forth on Oct. 9 upon a fortnight-long, ten-performance European tour, thereafter returning in November to Carnegie Hall—its domicile from 1891 to 1962—for concert performances of Puccini’s “Tosca.”

"There exists a certain chemistry and passion that he brings to the table, and it is infectious," said Sherry Sylar, associate principal oboe since 1984.

"When he's rehearsing, he addresses the orchestra as 'My dears.'

He'll start to give you a constructive criticism, but it's always with that as the address to the orchestra.

Nobody has ever done that before.

It just sort of changes the way you accept the criticism or suggestions."

While he customarily has a car and driver at his disposal, Dudamel also traverses New York on foot and avails himself of the subway when traffic is congested, being recognized on occasion.

With his dark mop of black hair and Giorgio Armani conducting suits, Dudamel so perfectly embodies the archetype of a 21st-century conductor that Gael García Bernal’s character in the television series “Mozart in the Jungle” was patterned after him.

Nevertheless, he remains somewhat steeped in tradition: he harbors a predilection for listening to music on vinyl records and was a habitué of The Record Collector on Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles, where he sought additions to his collection.

He believes his first record was of Daniel Barenboim leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s “1812” overture.

"I adore the sonority of the LPs," Dudamel remarked.

"I obliterated some of them, for I was ceasing, for I was rehearsing conducting.

My father was incandescent with rage."

Dudamel likewise retains a residence in Madrid and remains equivocal as to whether he ought to procure an apartment on New York’s Upper West Side, in proximity to the orchestra’s Lincoln Center headquarters, or within the downtown Chelsea neighborhood.

He has cultivated an appreciation for several of the city’s preeminent dining establishments, making mention of Cosme, Milos, Mercado Little Spain and Casa Ora, the latter celebrated for its Venezuelan fare.

Ticket revenue for this season has risen by 8% relative to the corresponding period last year, while seats sold in September are up 20% against 2025.

Subscription package revenue stands at $12.4 million, up from $11.3 million.

Among Dudamel’s inaugural modifications was the relocation of the second violin section from his left to his right, positioning it opposite the first violins, alongside the transposition of the double basses from his right to his left — a configuration he had employed in LA.

He has since shifted the entire orchestra nearer to the front of the stage at David Geffen Hall and had their seating arranged in tighter proximity.

"It resembles nothing so much as chamber music on a gargantuan scale," observed the violinist Alina Ming Kobialka.

"There is a certain gratification in having the brass situated not 500 miles distant from us."

Dudamel's contract, spanning five years, will see him devote approximately 15 weeks per season to the orchestra.

On Labor Day, Sept. 7, he inaugurated his first rehearsal with a succinct address to the musicians, several of whom had figured in his New York Philharmonic debut.

Dudamel recalled that Lorin Maazel, then music director, had taken the unconventional step of personally introducing him at his inaugural rehearsal in 2007.

Dudamel was cognizant of the orchestra’s reputation at the time as a formidable ensemble.

"I was utterly petrified," he recollected thinking.

"I shall be trembling for the first several minutes.

Yet ultimately, it proved to be such a beautiful and wondrous journey,"