NEW YORK (AP) — Gustavo Dudamel jumped up and down on FAO Schwarz’s giant keyboard during his first trip to New York as a 14-year-old.
He’s returned three decades later with far more numerous and somewhat smaller instruments at his disposal as music director of the New York Philharmonic.
“It’s a lot about that bubbling energy, this city,” he said this week at his office in David Geffen Hall.
Now 45, Dudamel took over as music and artistic director last week after 17 celebrated seasons leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is the 27th man to head the New York orchestra, following luminaries that included Gustav Mahler, Willem Mengelberg, Bruno Walter, Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez.
A product of Venezuela’s El Sistema music education program, Dudamel was a violinist with the National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela when he played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in October 1995 and traveled with the orchestra by bus for a concert at the United Nations.
“They said we were going to cross a tunnel that is under the river, and we were: `Like, what?’ That was kind of another world,” Dudamel said. “I remember before getting to the river, there were the Twin Towers. Then I saw Statue of Liberty, and then they took us to the U.N. And then they took us to the toy store. We were like in paradise.”
Dudamel's early schedule is a whirlwind. An opening concert at Radio City Music Hall on Sept. 10 was hosted by actor Liev Schreiber and featured Lizzo, St. Vincent, Joaquina and Aaron Tveit. The celebration continued with an after-party high atop Manhattan in the Rainbow Room.
“Gustavo Dudamel is not an easy person to describe,” Schreiber told the concert crowd. “Imagine if you added a teaspoon of Billy Joel, an ounce of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a cup of Tito Puente to a dash of Barbra Streisand.”
Dudamel shifted downtown the next day for a Sounds of Remembrance performance at the World Trade Center arts center for 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.”
Subscription concerts started this week with Sergei Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, which he conducted for his New York Philharmonic debut on Nov. 29, 2007.
“There are not borders. There are bridges," Dudamel said. “A symphonic orchestra can also be immersed in a pop, folk, musicals. We are all in the same space. I think that is the message.”
Just a month into his tenure, the orchestra embarks Oct. 9 on a two-week, 10-show European tour, then returns in November to Carnegie Hall, its home from 1891 to 1962, for concert performances of Puccini's “Tosca.”
“There’s this chemistry and passion that he brings to the table, which 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 usually has a car with a driver, Dudamel also walks around New York and takes the subway when there is heavy traffic, getting recognized at times.
With his dark mop of black hair and Giorgio Armani conducting suits, Dudamel is so much the image of a 21st century conductor that Gael García Bernal's character for the “Mozart in the Jungle” television series was patterned after him.
Still, he is somewhat traditional: He prefers listening to music on vinyl records and frequented The Record Collector on Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles for additions to his collection. He thinks his first record was of Daniel Barenboim leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's “1812” overture.
“I love the sound of the LPs,” Dudamel said. “I destroyed some of them because I was stopping, because I was rehearsing conducting. My father was so angry."
Dudamel also maintains a home in Madrid and remains undecided whether to seek an apartment on New York's Upper West Side, near the orchestra's Lincoln Center home, or in the Chelsea neighborhood downtown. He's become a fan of some of the city's top restaurants, mentioning Cosme, Milos, Mercado Little Spain and Casa Ora, renowned for its Venezuelan cuisine.
Ticket revenue for this season has increased by 8% through the same time last year and seats sold in September are up 20% vs. 2025. Subscription package revenue is at $12.4 million, rising from $11.3 million.
One of Dudamel's first changes was to move the second violin section from his left to his right, opposite the first violins, and to switch the double basses from his right to his left — a formation he used in LA. He's shifted the entire orchestra closer to the front of the stage at David Geffen Hall and had their seats bunched closer together.
“It feels like giant chamber music,” violinist Alina Ming Kobialka said. “It’s nice to have the brass and not 500 miles away from us.”
Dudamel has a five-year contract and will spend about 15 weeks with the orchestra each season. He began his first rehearsal on Labor Day, Sept. 7, with a short speech to the musicians, some of whom played in his New York Philharmonic debut.
Dudamel recalled then music director Lorin Maazel took the unusual step to personally introduce him at his first rehearsal in 2007. Dudamel was aware of the orchestra’s reputation then as a difficult ensemble.
“I was very afraid,” he remembered thinking. “I’m going to be shaking for the very first few minutes. But at the end it was such a beautiful and wonderful journey,”
Gustavo Dudamel takes the podium for his first concert as music director of the New York Philharmonic at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026 (AP Photo/Ron Blum)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, Conductor Gustavo Dudamel speaks at a news conference at David Geffen Hall in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, a day after beginning his new position as music director for the New York Philharmonic. (AP Photo/Ron Blum)
Gustavo Dudamel appears with the New York Philharmonic at a Sounds of Remembrance concert to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ron Blum)
President Donald Trump suggested that the European Union allowing Canada to become an associate member could be a “hostile act” and threatened to respond to the proposed move by imposing more tariffs on the bloc.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home to campaign for the midterm elections, but not without a scathing rebuke from Republican Rep. Thomas Massie for all the unfinished business. Massie’s resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the war in Iran and his bipartisan effort to release more files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation are being left behind.
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Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body say they’ve found “reasonable grounds” to believe the U.S. committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including one on a school in the southern city of Minab.
In a non-binding report published Thursday, they also accuse Iran’s theocratic government of carrying out crimes against humanity against its own people.
The report adds to international evidence gathered about possible crimes in the war in Iran, and could eventually be used in efforts to pursue justice in international courts.
The fact-finding mission was created by the Human Rights Council, the U.N.’s top human rights body. The grouping of independent experts is expected to present their findings next week to the council, which is made up of 47 U.N. member countries.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans have nothing left to offer voters than “trying to unload tens of millions of dollars” on the House, Senate and governors’ races.
“But they can’t even stick to their own brand,” he said.
Jeffries pointed out that the Trump-affiliated group is creating “all of these other entities,” which he suggested was so that they don’t have to disclose MAGA Inc. as the spender in the races.
“That should tell you a lot,” he said.
Jeffries said Democrats will have enough funding to defend their House incumbents and flip seats to take back the majority.
He also guided the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Kyl died Wednesday night from a neurological disorder, said Gordon James, a communications professional who is longtime friends with the Kyl family. Kyl had withdrawn from public life in December 2025 after announcing he’d been diagnosed with dementia.
Kyl spent almost three decades in Congress, serving in both chambers, and watched his party undergo a drastic transformation, with his career spanning Ronald Reagan’s presidency to President Trump’s first term.
Former Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who considered Kyl a mentor, described the former senator in a February 2025 interview with The Associated Press as a true statesman and a “workhorse” among Washington, D.C.’s “showhorses.”
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Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is blasting House Republicans for leaving Washington until the midterm elections rather than working to ensure the safety of artificial intelligence.
Some in the tech industry have expressed concerns that an AI unshackled from human control could be destructive — a concern President Trump has rejected as a hoax.
“The AI safety issue is very real,” Jeffries said at a news conference.
To help make his point, he’s noting that some industry leaders have called for the development of AI models to slow down.
“This is a serious issue. It requires serious engagement and serious and immediate action,” Jeffries said. “And we’re going to be here as House Democrats over the next several weeks working on this issue and other issues demanding that Republicans come back into town so we can take care of these very real concerns.”
U.S. stocks are rising Thursday and recovering most of their losses for the week.
Falling oil prices and easing pressure from the bond market helped Wall Street reverse many of its moves from the prior day, when the Federal Reserve hiked its main interest rate for the first time in years and suggested more may be ahead as it tries to get the nation’s high inflation under control.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.9% and was on track for just its second rise in the last nine days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 213 points, or 0.4%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% higher.
Stocks got a boost after the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil slid 2.3% to $103.38. That’s down sharply from the nearly $110 it reached earlier in the week on worries that the war with Iran will keep oil bottled up in the Middle East instead of going to customers worldwide.
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As concern rises over the risks of artificial intelligence, hopes for any kind of global approach depend on cooperation between the U.S. and China — superpowers that seem only to be more skeptical of each other’s AI strategy.
AI governance is expected to be on the agenda in a meeting planned for next week in Washington between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The topic has gained urgency in both countries, with American tech leaders saying that averting worst-case scenarios for rogue AI depends on a degree of cooperation with China.
But both countries are vying for a decisive advantage on AI, with Trump warning that any efforts to regulate the technology would help China. That sets up a meeting in which any agreements might be superficial but a possible start to something larger.
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U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican defending her seat in a competitive South Florida district, is out with a new ad criticizing Trump’s deportation campaign.
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar says in the ad. “The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
With just over six weeks left until Election Day, some Republicans have begun to subtly tweak their campaign messages to downplay their connection to Trump as they compete in close races against Democrats.
Salazar joins some GOP candidates in battleground districts who’ve taken a bolder approach — publicly breaking with the president. For example, two Iowa Republicans this week voted with Democrats and a few other dissident members of their party on an Iran war powers resolution.
Countries are embracing clean power and taking steps to use less energy because of the war against Iran, but it’s not yet enough to help address climate change.
When the U.S. and Israel launched the war in February, some backers of renewables opined it could drive a green transition as oil and gas prices spiked. So far, more than 30 governments have enacted policies to move away from fossil fuels or improve energy efficiency. Yet at the same time, global emissions of greenhouse gases increased slightly and investments in clean energy fell compared to the same period last year.
The Associated Press talked to a dozen experts who said that while the Iran war appears to be helping the adoption of clean energy, the world is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. They said it will take more time for new policies to show results.
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Carney has repeatedly urged what he calls middle powers to resist economic coercion. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, he warned that when countries negotiate alone with a dominant power, “we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered.”
Trump rebuked him the next day.
Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s ambassador-designate to the EU, said Ottawa wants “to get as close as we possibly can” to Europe while increasing Canada’s independence.
While associate membership remains to be negotiated, Canada has already taken a major step. This year, it became the first non-European country to join the EU’s 150-billion-euro ($173-billion) SAFE defense procurement program, giving Canadian companies access to joint procurement as Europe increases defense spending.
The two sides have also discussed closer cooperation on energy, critical minerals, artificial intelligence and digital trade.
The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth of districts, according to a new study.
A report by Protect Democracy found that 34.8 million people — about one in 10 Americans — now live in a different district than they did during the 2024 election cycle. And about one-fifth of all Americans now live in a district where more than a quarter of voters are new to the district compared with the last election cycle.
The findings display the stark overhaul that partisan redistricting fights kicked off by President Trump last year have caused for Americans across the country. The new congressional maps are increasingly drawn in ways that favor partisan politics over factors like geography and shared communities. That raises concerns among scholars about how the country’s hyperpolarized politics are affecting American democracy.
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday embraced the prospect of his country becoming the European Union’s first associate member, saying closer ties with the continent would ensure no country could control Canada’s markets or undermine its sovereignty.
Carney’s speech to the European Parliament repeatedly extolled cooperation between Europe and Canada — but the relationship with the U.S., which has defined Canada’s economy for decades and has increasingly soured, hung over the address.
Trump’s tariffs, demands for economic concessions and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state have pushed Ottawa to reduce its dependence on its neighbor and seek a far deeper economic, security and political relationship with Europe.
Carney told the parliament he welcomed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal, unveiled Wednesday, though he acknowledged that “associate membership” remains to be defined.
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The singer, a Kennedy Center honoree in 2008, questioned the closing of the performing arts center for repairs and called the ongoing controversy surrounding its operation “galling and painful to witness.”
The award-winning superstar said in a statement to The Associated Press that renaming the National Cultural Center after President John F. Kennedy in 1964, following his assassination the previous year was “a fitting choice, because he was a true champion of the arts.”
“Since then, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has stood as one of America’s great cultural venues,” she said. “I was deeply honored to be included in the 31st annual class of Kennedy Center Honorees. For me, and for so many artists, that honor represented something larger than a career recognition. It represented a belief in the importance of art to the life of a democracy.”
She opposes attempts to add President Trump’s name to the center, adding, “You can easily imagine my indignation at seeing this revered institution become the subject of such a bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that if the United States impose additional sanctions on Russia, it would hinder the Washington-led effort to end the war in Ukraine.
Peskov’s remarks come after the U.S. House on Wednesday passed a broad package of sanctions targeting Russian officials and key pillars of the country’s economy as lawmakers look to deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of the financial resources needed to wage the war against Ukraine.
The bill now heads to President Donald Trump to be signed into law. It represents the most ambitious effort to support Ukraine since Trump’s return to the White House.
“We are, of course, monitoring the passing of this document. This falls into the category of unfriendly actions. And, of course, the U.S. imposing some additional sanctions would definitely complicate the efforts to find a peace settlement in Ukraine,” Peskov told reporters during his daily conference call.
Fencing went up Wednesday around the main Kennedy Center building, a day after the Trump-aligned board voted to close most of the performing arts center for repairs. A Democratic congresswoman who is a trustee quickly sought an emergency court hearing to prevent what she called the “unlawful closing.”
The board’s vote Tuesday came after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning President Donald Trump’s name to the building.
The Republican president had said in a social media post that the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was permitted to move forward with plans to add his name to the building.
Activists who've opposed the closure said there's been no vehicle or pedestrian access to the building Wednesday. An Associated Press reporter who approached the main building was told by a security guard that it was closed.
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Speaker Mike Johnson is closing up the House early, sending lawmakers home Wednesday to campaign for the midterm elections after what he claims is the most productive Congress in decades.
But not without a scathing rebuke from GOP Rep. Thomas Massie for all the unfinished business.
Massie’s resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the war in Iran and his bipartisan effort to force the release of more files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation are all being left behind, blocked from votes.
“We’re calling off Congress? And we’re in the majority?” Massie railed from the House floor.
“I’m trying to get justice for the Epstein survivors,” he said. “I’m trying to stop a war.”
Massie, the renegade Republican from Kentucky, seized control of the chamber for a blistering hourlong speech criticizing Johnson, the Republican majority and the work he said the speaker is refusing to conduct to lower prices for Americans and hold the Trump administration accountable.
“Why would we be canceling days when the country is burning?” Massie said. “We should stay here for every day that’s on the calendar and we should debate.”
Johnson insisted “the House has done its job.”
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President Donald Trump suggested that the European Union allowing Canada to become an associate member could be a “hostile act” and threatened to respond to the proposed move by imposing more tariffs on the bloc.
Trump conditioned his threat Wednesday on the “intention” of European leaders, saying that, “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe.” He also suggested the U.S. could cut off trade with Europe in certain areas.
Trump called the prospect of Canada joining the EU “laughable” and called America’s neighbor a “terrible trade partner.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday embraced the prospect of his country becoming the European Union’s first associate member, saying closer ties with Europe were meant to ensure no country could control Canada’s markets, impair its sovereignty or undermine its freedoms.
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President Donald Trump waves as he arrives on Air Force One, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Gastonia Municipal Airport, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Gastonia, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
