Conduct online (or on your iPhone) with Gustavo Dudamel

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We can dream but chances are most of us will never get the opportunity to take the podium at Walt Disney Concert Hall to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Online, however, you can be whomever you want to be. In fact, the L.A. Philharmonic has recently launched an Internet game / simulation that allows you to ‘conduct’ alongside its new music director, Gustavo Dudamel.

As anyone with experience in live music knows, it’s all about the cues. The Web game, titled ‘Bravo Gustavo,’ asks you to use your keyboard to hit the cues for Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie Fantastique,’ performed by the L.A. Phil conducted by Dudamel. (The music is courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon.)

Players must hit the cues for the string, woodwind, brass and percussion sections. Points are awarded for accuracy and speed.

You can play the game at www.laphil.com/gustavo/game/ or you can download the game to your iPhone. According to the orchestra, the iPhone application adapts the mobile device into a virtual conducting baton that uses the accelerometer to ‘directly affect the overall tempo and note duration of the music – just like a real conductor.’

The game, which was created by the company Hello Design, is part of the new ‘microsite’ that the orchestra has just launched to promote the arrival of Dudamel.

-- David Ng