The outspoken Venezuelan pianist also criticises El Sistema, José Antonio Abreu and Diego Matheuz.

The pianist Gabriela Montero has hit out at Gustavo Dudamel accusing him of “collaboration” with a corrupt Venezuelan government regime. In an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt she takes aim against the famous El Sistema education programme, its founders and its current figureheads. “Today, El Sistema has become a corrupted instrument of power and also a lie,” she says.

The Caracas-born pianist, who was in Sydney last week for a sold out concert at the Opera House’s Utzon Room, has been one of her country’s most vocal critics in recent years. Montero, who now lives in Los Angeles, left Venezuela in 2006 as a result of what she describes as feeling unsafe “because of the threat of kidnapping and murder”. Although she wasn’t a Sistema student, her debut as 8-year-old pianist took place with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra conducted by the organisation’s founder José Antonio Abreu, who she describes as “a very good conductor, no matter what you think of El Sistema”. Since then, however, she feels the organisation has become overly politicised. “When El Sistema was founded, it was a model educational project, she says. “Today it is the greatest propaganda tool of the political leadership.”

Montero believes the rot began under former President Hugo Chávez who Montero maintains exploited El Sistema “as a business card for his policies”. She also supports the recent controversial writings of British journalist Geoffrey Baker who raised some serious concerns as well as accusing the programme of “enslaving children” and acquiring the status of a cult. “I strongly recommend his book,” she says. “He has described the authoritarian and reactionary management structure of El Sistema over years of study”.

Montero worries about overtly linking a youth orchestra with the Venezuelan flag. “Clearly it will not do!” she says. “Venezuela is ruled by violence. Medical care is poor and not accessible to everyone. In supermarkets you have to show ID cards and you may only buy something when you are on the right list. The regime is anti-Semitic and anti-European. And El Sistema is complicit in all of this”. She goes on to condemn José Antonio Abreu for political manoeuvring under successive governments but saves her biggest broadside for Los Angeles Philharmonic Chief Conductor Gustavo Dudamel who she declares is “No good!”

“He is El Sistema’s face to the world and thus stands for the idea as well as for the ensemble…. He has chosen to stay silent and yet is actively involved in the events. A wasted opportunity. And a shame.” Montero believes that Dudamel, who grew up with El Sistema and is now a key contender to succeed Simon Rattle at the Berlin Philharmonic, has capitalised on it to gain his current notoriety. But hiding behind the lauded education programme she now believes is unacceptable. “What he does is collaboration… Step back, Mr. Dudamel! End your friendship with the dictatorship!”

Last week in Australia she also took the opportunity to speak out against another El Sistema graduate, Diego Matheuz. “I was supposed to be performing in Melbourne with the Melbourne Symphony and their principal guest conductor,” she wrote on her Facebook page, explaing how she came to be giving a recital in Sydney. A year ago, soon after she had published a letter critical of Dudamel and Abreu, she claims that her manager received “a very embarrassed phone call from an apologetic Melbourne Symphony. My concert was cancelled. Diego wanted to do ‘something else’, which did not include me. The only way I can interpret this sudden change of plans, was that the cancellation of my performance was in retaliation for my public outcry.”

Describing the cancellation, which clearly took place before the MSO season had been announced, as “not the only ‘change of plan’ I have experienced recently with Venezuelan conductors” she went on to enthuse about her Sydney dates. “I am excited to play here, and delighted at the many wonderful people I have been able to share my time with, these last few days I have been here,” she wrote. “I hope to fulfil my promise to play in Melbourne some day soon.”

Update: On Saturday May 9, Gabriela Montero was named one of Amnesty International’s first three Honorary Consuls, chosen “for her ability to inspire others through her art and personal passion, as well as her individual commitment to human rights”.

Get Limelight's free weekly round-up of music, arts and culture.