Classical music in America has languished for decades, but conductor Gustavo Dudamel—a Venezuelan prodigy who transformed the LA Philharmonic—is now taking over the New York Philharmonic this week with an ambitious mandate to revive the art form's cultural relevance. Can he succeed where predecessors failed? Dudamel emerged from El Sistema, Venezuela's revolutionary music education system, and became a conductor at 18, winning the Gustav Mahler competition at 23 despite competitors decades older.