Merengue Meets the Symphony Orchestra: Interrogating "Music as One" and the "Terrific" Musical Experience at the Hollywood Bowl

Abstract

on the evening of Tuesday, august 14, 2012, the los angeles Philharmonic inaugurated the second installment of the festival Americas & Americans, at its summer home, the Hollywood bowl. The program would feature latin american symphonic classics and the musical encounter of the los angeles Philharmonic (hereafter, the la Phil) with the Dominican artist Juan luis Guerra and his band, 4.40 (Cuatro Cuarenta). Throngs descended into the famous outdoor amphitheater hours before the concert, congregating in the restaurants and stores that abound in the bowl’s courtyards. The excitement was audible in the cheerful bilingual chatter that emanated from a crowd seemingly as diverse as the population of los angeles. a few minutes after 8:00 p.m., the la Phil opened the evening with the national anthem of the united States, followed by mexican composer Jose Pablo moncayo’s Huapango. after the long applause, Gustavo Dudamel addressed the audience, (which included this author):