Phil

Phil Collins faced death two years ago, and has lived to tell the tale.

The Grammy-winning singer recalled to the Times of London how his “kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing” when he was was hospitalized in Switzerland in April 2024 because of alcohol abuse. At the time, Collins’ five children — including “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins — were called to his bedside for what they thought could be his final moments.

“There were some decisions to be made about ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’” he recalled for the profile, published Monday. He added: “People were coming to say goodbye. But I don’t remember them coming, I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”

Collins reflected on his brush with death to the news outlet months before he is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November. His fellow inductees include Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross and Wu-Tang Clan.

The profile about the “In the Air Tonight” and “You’ll Be in My Heart” singer recalled the extent of his struggles with alcohol, including after his divorce from Orianne Cevey. Collins, 75, said when he was drinking, “the calendar [went] out the window” and that he opted for wine for breakfast. The Times of London reported that Collins was hospitalized in November 2023 and swiftly discharged, only to return to the intensive care unit and stay hospitalized for seven months.

“I was very lucky to have come out of that. Needless to say, I haven’t had a drink since,” he said. According to the outlet, Collins has permanent scarring on his pancreas, and his kidneys “barely” function.

Collins spoke about his alcohol abuse earlier this year in a five-episode podcast series with Zoe Ball. He revealed in April that he has a live-in nurse and that it’s an “ongoing” effort to manage his health. He said “everything that could go wrong with me did go wrong.”

“I got COVID in hospital, my kidneys started to back up, you know, everything that could, all seemed to sort of converge at the same time,” he said, adding that he had undergone five operations on his knee.

Collins also admitted in April he’d “probably been drinking too much” and that he recently celebrated two years of sobriety.

Collins spoke in his most recent interview about his desire “to be in love again,” revisited his controversial love life and spoke about mending his relationships with Piers Morgan, Paul McCartney and daughter Lily Collins after various rifts that played out in the media.

“I don’t like people going around thinking I hate them,” he said.

ROCK veteran Phil Collins has admitted he was days from death after secretly relapsing into alcoholism.

The 75-year-old Genesis legend was placed on a life support machine as vital organs, including his kidneys, started to shut down.

Collins said his five children — including Emily In Paris actress Lily, 37 — were even summoned to a hospital in Switzerland to say goodbye during the drama two years ago.

Now sober again, the eight-time Grammy award winner said: “There were some decisions to be made about, ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’

“My kidneys were packing up, my organs were seizing up. People were coming to say goodbye.

“They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again.”

Collins — whose 13 solo hits include You Can’t Hurry Love, Easy Lover and Groovy Kind Of Love — first opened up about his struggle with alcohol in his 2016 book Not Dead Yet.

He said he started drinking while having too much time on his hands and stopped only after being hospitalised with acute pancreatitis in 2012.

Now he has told how he went on the drug Antabuse, which triggers severe sickness if used while drinking alcohol.

Yet, despite this, in November 2023 he was back in hospital because he had hit the bottle again.

He was discharged almost a month later, then readmitted in early 2024, spending seven months in hospital. In January he blamed the stay on contracting Covid.

But, speaking to The Sunday Times’ Decca Aitkenhead, he admitted that it was down to years of alcohol abuse.

He explained: “Something happened and I stopped taking the Antabuse. I resented the fact that I couldn’t drink.

“I’d have wine when I woke up. That was what I’d want for breakfast — a glass of wine. But I didn’t drink into the night.

“I wasn’t really aware of having a problem, to be honest.”

Then an 18-hour bender saw him admitted to intensive care in Switzerland, where he lives. A doctor asked his loved ones: “Is Monsieur Collins’ will in order?”

Looking back, Collins continued: “There were times I would just collapse. One time, I remember getting up to give the kids a cuddle and I lost my balance.

“I left two teeth marks in the tiles in the living room.

“Another time, I was walking upstairs too quickly and I fell down. There was a pool of blood around my head.

“There were various low moments that I’m not proud of.”

He said he had not touched a drop since leaving hospital, but confessed that the effects of boozing have permanently damaged his body.

Over the past decade he has had multiple operations on his knees and his spine, and he has Type 2 diabetes.

Single Collins now needs a 24-hour nurse who ensures he takes the medication he needs and helps him walk six laps daily around his home.

A physiotherapist visits three times a week.

He passes the time watching TV, including Sky News and re-runs of comedy panel show Shooting Stars. He also watches documentaries about serial killers on YouTube, along with Piers Morgan’s show.

In the wide-ranging interview, which he carried out with nothing to promote, he said: “I’ve had my run-ins with Piers, but I watch his show every Saturday morning. I really look forward to it, because I find I agree with him.”

Recalling the past year, which saw him reuniting with his children at Christmas to celebrate his ­recovery, Collins said: “I was very lucky.”

He said his illness had brought him closer to Lily, saying she “was sitting beside me in tears telling me, ‘I never thought I’d get these moments’.

“We had an incredible time. I can’t overemphasise how fantastic it was.” Collins also used his Sunday Times Magazine interview to address the end of his marriage to his third wife, Orianne Cevey.

He was previously married to Andrea Bertorelli and Jill Tavelman and met Orianne in 1994 when she was working as a translator.

They wed five years later.

Orianne, 52 — mum of two of Collins’ three sons, Nicholas and pro footballer Mathew — divorced him in 2008 and Collins had to pay a £25million settlement, the largest in celebrity history at the time.

The pair reunited in 2016 but in the autumn of 2020 it was revealed she had secretly married 36-year-old jobbing guitarist Thomas Bates in Las Vegas.

She moved him into Collins’ £30million mansion in Miami, and he even flew to the UK to work with Genesis.

Collins later took Orianne to court to evict her from the house, a move that saw Bates branding him “petty and vindictive” in an interview with The Sun.

Speaking publicly about the marriage bust-up for the first time, Collins said he found out about the couple’s wedding only when Orianne introduced Bates to him.

The singer and drummer said: “She’s not in my best books.

“I’d love to go into detail, but I can just see this coming back to bite me.

“And she’s admitted that she f***ed up big time. She’s aware of what she did wrong, and how wrong it was, and how it must have affected me. But I can’t quite forgive yet.”

Collins said he was still in touch with Orianne but admitted he tried to limit contact, explaining: “I don’t think it’s a good idea right now.

“Just because I know what I’m like. I would probably fall again, maybe. I mean, we were very much in love.”

Collins will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for a second time this November.

In 2010 he was recognised for his work with Genesis and this time will be honoured for his solo work.

The Sun understands he will try to attend the ceremony if his health permits it.

He is also working with Lily’s mother Jill, 70, on a Los Angeles charity auction due the same month. It will feature items from his archive between 1980 and 1995.

All proceeds from the sale will go directly to The King’s Trust, with whom Collins has worked for 44 years after becoming its first celebrity ambassador

Opening up about why he had decided to speak up now, Collins said he wanted to set the record straight on his life and career. And he said he was keen to find someone to settle down with again.

He added: “I’d love to be in love again. I would love a relationship. I think it’s probably too late for that. I’m not a very social person. I don’t go out.”

• Interview by Decca Aitkenhead for The Sunday Times

DAUGHTER RIFT IS NOW HEALED

By Ellie Henman

PHIL Collins has addressed falling out with his actress daughter Lily.

The Emily in Paris star, 37, wrote an open letter to him in 2017, where she credited previous eating disorders to the pair’s troubled relationship.

She wrote at the time, in her autobiography Unfiltered: “I forgive you for not always being there when I needed, and for not being the dad I expected.

“I forgive the mistakes you made. And although it may seem like it’s too late, it’s not. There’s still so much time to move forward.”

She continued: “I’m learning how to accept your actions and vocalise how they made me feel. I accept and honour the sadness and anger I felt toward the things you did or didn’t do, did or didn’t give me.”

Addressing the words in his Sunday Times Magazine interview, Phil said: “I was quite shocked and a little bit sad.

“But she’s told me why now, and she takes it all back.

“She wished she’d never done it. I have a wonderful relationship with Lily now. So everything has a happy ending, most of the time.”

The Genesis rocker also said he has a close relationship with adopted daughter Joely, 53, and his 49-year-old son Simon from his marriage to first wife Andrea.

His youngest children, footballer Mathew, 21, and drummer Nicholas, 25, are also in close contact with him.

Phil added: “There’s been a lot thrown at them over the years, and I dread to think what that’s been like.

“But all of us are good now and have been for a while.”

Once Gordon put England ahead in this latest stormy episode of an old and bitter rivalry, Tuchel decided on a rearguard action.

That had worked for England in their knockout wins over Mexico and Norway – but it would not against a Messi-inspired Argentina.

Tuchel replaced goalscorer Gordon with defender Ezri Konsa with 18 minutes left and switched to a back five. He then brought Nico O’Reilly and Dan Burn on for Declan Rice and Reece James.

It was clear almost instantly that Tuchel had called it badly. It did nothing but invite Argentine pressure and those late goals. This one was almost all on Tuchel.

If there was one statistic that brutally condemned his approach, it was that England only had 12% possession between taking the lead and Martinez’s winning goal nearly 40 minutes later.

Such was England’s sudden attacking need in the closing moments that Tuchel threw on Ivan Toney after 96 minutes – his first appearance of the tournament.

Toney’s “blink and you’ll miss it” cap also brought some of Tuchel’s selections under scrutiny. Was Toney simply picked for a penalty shootout that never came?

And the debate around Tuchel’s defensive picks, especially at right-back, will continue to rage.

Tuchel gambled on the injury-prone Reece James staying fit – but when the Chelsea defender was sidelined with a hamstring issue, right-back suddenly became a problem position.

The position turned into musical chairs between Jarell Quansah – injured against Panama then sent off against Mexico – Djed Spence and Ezri Konsa before James was back for the semi-final.

All this while Trent Alexander-Arnold watched from afar, his natural gifts ignored by Tuchel on the basis of defensive frailty.

And as the ashes are raked over, Tuchel’s decision to ignore the creativity of Cole Palmer and Phil Foden – easy to say with hindsight given both had poor seasons with Chelsea and Manchester City – and Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White will be revisited.

Jordan Henderson, whose tournament ended in bizarre circumstances when he broke an arm amid the celebrations after the win against Mexico, was taken for his influence around the squad but was never going to be a serious on-field performer.

If Tuchel valued his professionalism and personality so much in this area, why not take Henderson on his backroom staff and open up a place for a younger, more creative player?

This was a desperate day for England – and Tuchel and his tactical approach.

A day when it could easily have been said, as the song goes: “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.”

ADULT content star Lily Phillips has had her say on the ‘degrading’ moment where she was shooed away by Phil Foden’s girlfriend.

The controversial OnlyFans star addressed the viral video which saw her being swatted away by Foden’s partner and left Lily feeling ‘like s**t on a shoe’.

The moment was captured while the Manchester City ace was spotted ringside at Tommy Fury’s box-office clash with Eddie Hall.

Viewers watched as the porn star was turned away abruptly by mum-of-three Rebecca Cooke after asking the footballer for a selfie.

Lily explained her version of the toe-curling situation on TikTok and how she found it unnecessary – just because of the industry she’s in.

“The Phil Foden debacle, I just want to clarify a few things here. I went over as a fan just to ask for a photo.

FOD OFF!

Moment Phil Foden’s girlfriend shoos away Lily Phillips after asking for selfie

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Huge rapper secretly took Lily Phillips on date after sliding into her DMs

“I didn’t know if he had a missus or a girlfriend in all honesty, I didn’t even know she was with him.

“When you’re at the boxing, you’re just sat next to random people most of the time.

“Usually when you go up to a celebrity to ask for a photo, you ask them, not the people around them. That’s just from my experience.

“And before I could even finish my sentence, I was shooed away. 

“See, I think it’s your prerogative if you don’t want to get a photo with me, that is so fine.”

Lily continued: “I think there are definitely different ways to go about communicating it. 

“And acting like I’m a piece of s**t on your shoe because of the industry I’m in is a little degrading I may say.

“I will say, a simple ‘no thank you, not today’ probably would have just sufficed.

“That’s just my opinion and opinions are subjective.”

Rebecca shares three kids with the footballer and has been with him since they were at school.

Followers were divided as they commented on her video.

One user stated: “She [Rebecca] was taking care of business.”

“The only thing that is surprising here, is that you’re surprised,” noted a second.

“She didn’t shoo you away at all, she’s protecting her family,” wrote a third.

Others backed Lily and supported: “Well said. No need to be disrespectful to people.”

“Seriously just a photo. Why did she do this?????” asked a second.

“There is no issue with someone asking for a photo. I watched the video – she did seem a tad aggressive, like you were going to ask something sinister,” observed another.

Lily, who is famous for several outrageous NSFW stunts, was seen working her way around the arena on the night of the Fury vs Hall fight.

She was spotted stopping and getting pictures with various celebrities attending the event.

At one point, she even approached Molly Mae, who recently welcomed her second child, a boy named Midas.

Golf legend Phil Mickelson is refuting an accusation that he inappropriately touched a female employee at a prestigious golf club in Southern California a few months ago.

According to Golf Digest, Mickelson allegedly approached the worker at Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe and made “nonconsensual and inappropriate physical contact.” After she rejected him, she reported to her supervisors and accused him of sexual misconduct.

Mickelson hired Tom Clare, a top defamation attorney, who said video evidence contradicted the allegations.

“There is a great deal of misinformation circulating and, while Phil’s full attention is devoted to a private family health matter, he has retained defamation counsel and is determined to hold accountable any publication or individual trafficking in speculation or false rumors,” Clare said in a statement to Golf Digest.

Clare did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said it investigated but found no evidence of an assault. However, the allegation resulted in the immediate removal of Mickelson from the golf grounds and revocation of his longtime membership at the club.

Farms Golf Club said in a statement to the golf magazine that it conducted a thorough investigation before confronting Mickelson and stood by its decision to end his membership. Farms also said no video cameras were in the area where the alleged misconduct occurred.

“Following a staff member report of member misconduct, the club provided immediate and ongoing support to the staff member, conducted a thorough independent investigation of the incident and took decisive action,” the statement read. “This individual is no longer a member of The Farms Golf Club.

“To protect the safety and privacy of our staff and member, we are unable to speak further on the matter.”

Mickelson, who turns 56 next week, withdrew from professional golf this year because of family health reasons, last playing at the LIV Golf South Africa in March. A married father of three, Mickelson won six major tournaments on the PGA Tour — three Masters, two PGA Championships and one British Open — before he left the tour in 2022 for the upstart LIV Golf League, which will lose the financial backing of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund this fall.

His estimated career earnings exceed $1 billion, including $97 million in PGA Tour prize money, a reported $200 million signing bonus to join LIV Golf and an estimated $800 million from endorsements and business ventures.

Mickelson was one of the most popular players on the PGA Tour before his controversial move to LIV and comments about his Saudi backers, and his career survived some unsavory headlines, several of which pertained to gambling.

The Detroit News obtained federal court records that claimed a mob-connected bookie handled bets for Mickelson and was accused of cheating the golfer out of $500,000 in 2007.

Mickelson was accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016 of getting an insider trading tip and buying $931,000 of stock from sports gambler Billy Walters. Mickelson was not charged and agreed to pay back the amount.

Federal auditors investigating Mickelson’s role in the scheme found that his gambling losses totaled more than $40 million from 2010 to 2014, according to an unauthorized biography of Mickelson.

Speaking to Alison Mitchell, former England player Phil Tufnell says the Lord’s pitch was “not a good look'” for Test cricket as he, alongside former England captain Michael Vaughan, criticise the surface used for the first Test between England and New Zealand.

READ MORE: England begin Ashes rebuild with win over NZ

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The Genesis frontman has stepped away from the spotlight due to health issues

Phil Collins has shared a health update, admitting he has no plans to perform again.

The former Genesis frontman, 74, has remained out of the spotlight since several health setbacks left him unable to continue his music career.

He recently underwent five knee surgeries and developed kidney problems.

During Friday’s (May 22) episode of BBC Breakfast, Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt returned to our TV screens as they presented the day’s top stories from the UK and beyond.

Not long into the programme, the presenting duo announced that the hitmaker sat down with one of their colleagues to share a health update and plans for the future, four years after retiring from performing.

The singer, who has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, appeared on the show in a pre-recorded interview with culture reporter Charlotte Gallagher.

Speaking to Charlotte, he opened up about his knee problems but revealed that he is “healthier than he has been in a while.”

He said: “The last 18 months have been fine, but before that, not so good. Everything health-wise caught up to me at the same time. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong, but everything is fine now.”

The star continued: “I had a problem with my knee, which I had for a while, but I played through it – toured through it. But eventually, I had to have a knee operation, and I had to have five – five times because it kept either getting infected or it broke, so I was inactive for a long time.”

Phil’s music career began in 1970, when he joined Genesis as drummer. While remaining with the band, he also had a solo career in the 1980s, which included hits such as Against All Odds and Two Hearts.

Despite feeling better, he admitted he has no plans to perform again, but he has been working on some music he could release if he ever decides to make a surprise return.

In a candid moment, he said, “I can’t really see it (performing) happening, but I’m healthier now than I have been for quite a while. I mean, this Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – they asked if I would perform and I said no because you know, you’ve got to be match fit to do something like that.”

He explained, “You can’t just go on stage, you’ve got to rehearse, and then by that point, if you’ve not been singing, your voice is going to be shot, and then that’s not going to be good, so I’d rather not do it.

“But whether I would go out again… I would contemplate. I’m constantly saying to myself, ‘I’ve got to go back down into my studio at home.’’

The singer added: “I’ve got lots of lyrical ideas that I write down, and there are things that are half-formed and a couple of things that are finished. So there’s something that I can get my teeth into to start working on.”

BBC Breakfast airs everyday from 6am on BBC One and iPlayer.

On the second weekend of May, Gustavo Dudamel gave the New York Philharmonic a salsa shock. He gleefully brought the startled players together with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, an uptown salsa and jazz band, for concerts at Lincoln Center and Washington Heights. The city‘s classical music fans treated it as a cultural breakthrough; Dudamel is expected to transform the orchestra as a cultural institution when he returns in the fall as its music and artistic director.

A day later he was back in Los Angeles to begin rehearsals at a Walt Disney Concert Hall that had been fantastically transformed by Frank Gehry for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s staging of “Die Walküre.” Transformation — be it cultural, orchestral, personal — has marked Dudamel’s 17 years as music (and more recently artistic) director of the L.A. Phil, which is now coming to an end with his three weeks of concerts in Disney to close the season June 7, followed by a celebratory weekend at the Hollywood Bowl in late August.

But meeting with Dudamel in his dressing room after a “Walküre” rehearsal (the opera begins Tuesday night at Disney and runs for six nights, an act a night, the full opera performed twice) , he says as he has said before, he does not think of this as a culmination, merely the beginning of a new adventure. He’s apartment shopping in New York. But he is keeping his house in Los Angeles.

He’s also departing with two very long new titles as “Die Walküre” premieres: the Diane and M. David Paul Artistic Cultural Laureate of the L.A. Phil and Jane and Michael Eisner Founding Director and Conductor Laureate of Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA).

Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Feb. 22.

(David Butow / For The Times)

“We are talking about projects,” he says. “Look, I’m coming back for two weeks in December,” when he will lead Beethoven programs. He returns in the spring. The Bowl will always be a second home.

“I’m living here and I’m not living here,” he explains. “The connection will always be here.”

The energy in New York is, he continues, “super exciting.” And what excites him the most is how comfortable he feels with the very real differences between L.A. and New York.

“As a Latino from Venezuela,” he says, “I have an immediate connection with the New York that is home of salsa. When I was in the womb I was hearing salsa.” His father, Oscar Dudamel, is a trombonist and salsa musician.

But he adds that mariachi, ubiquitous in Mexico and L.A., is also an integral part of Venezuelan culture. “What I have to say is that I am blessed. I’m blessed that both cities are now part of my life.”

Bringing ‘crazy’ ideas to Los Angeles

L.A., of course, has been the major part of his adult life. At 24, an unknown, he made his dazzling U.S. debut in 2005 leading the L.A. Phil at the Hollywood Bowl. Four years later, he became the orchestra’s music director and caught the world’s attention.

There is no doubt that Dudamel’s extraordinary talents would have meant a major career wherever he landed. But, here, he inherited the world’s most culturally open major orchestra, where fresh thinking and new music thrive. Disney Hall allowed him the extraordinary freedom to dream. Being back at Disney, Dudamel admits, is very emotional, especially conducting “Walküre” with Gehry’s sets of billowy, sumptuous clouds and fanciful white papery horses.

“Frank is here with us,” Dudamel exclaims about the architect, who died in December and with whom he had become close. Conducting Wagner’s opera, in many ways, sums up Dudamel’s ambitions, the way he has connected with more sides of L.A.’s cultural landscape than possibly any other artist.

In L.A., Dudamel grew as an artist and a person, he says, through his relationship with an orchestra that is uniquely flexible and a welcoming community. This allowed Dudamel to be what he likes to call “crazy.”

“I remember the first time I came here. I didn’t have a chance to do or see anything,” he says of his Bowl debut. “So, I remember driving from the airport to Sunset Boulevard, where my hotel was, and I didn’t understand anything. But immediately it was the connection with the orchestra.”

Frank Gehry designed the sets for a Jan. 18, 2024, performance of Wagner’s opera, “Das Rheingold,” with Gustavo Dudamel leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Flash forward 20 years from 2005 to 2025. In what seemed like a truly crazy idea, he brought the L.A. Phil to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, where he led a varied set of classical favorites and appearances with pop stars, for 150,000 people shouting “L.A. Phil! L.A Phil.” Among the highlights was “Ride of the Valkyries,” the English title of “Walküre.”

The symbolism of doing “Walküre” is, for Dudamel, unmistakable. Wagner’s four-part “Ring” cycle, of which “Die Walküre” is the second opera, strongly influenced the “Star Wars” films Dudamel grew up with. The saga’s composer John Williams is another L.A. legend who became for Dudamel like family. Williams has, in fact, written a fanfare, “Bravo Gustavo!” that Dudamel will premiere on June 4 in a concert in which he celebrates the musicians of the L.A. Phil.

The “Walküre” production, moreover, further expresses his desire to remain connected with L.A. When asked whether he still plans to complete the “Ring” cycle with the L.A. Phil, which he began two seasons ago with “Das Rheingold,” he says, “completely.”

It’s a radical notion, to say nothing of an extraordinarily expensive and time-consuming challenge for any orchestra given to a former music director, but Dudamel has never been one to take no for an answer. “At my last conversation with Frank,” he recalls, “I said I was coming to talk about ‘Siegfried’ [the next opera in the cycle], and he said, ‘You are crazy.’”

“That was Frank. He freaked out about the operas every time I talked to him about them. And then he came up with fabulous ideas.

“You know I never dreamed about coming to the L.A. Phil. I was happy in Venezuela and guest conducting elsewhere. But when I met Frank and John [Williams], I knew I had come to the right place.”

One reason Dudamel was happy in Venezuela was his position as music director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, part of El Sistema, the country’s famed music education program. He brought a version of that to Los Angeles with YOLA, which offers free musical education to students. Bringing young people together to learn — and not just to play music but to listen to each other — has grown increasingly essential to him.

Gustavo Dudamel has fun with John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl as he conducts the L.A. Phil during “Maestro of the Movies: John Williams with the LA Phil” on July 9, 2023.

(Emil Ravelo / For The Times)

On Thursday evening, USC awarded Dudamel an honorary doctorate during its graduation ceremonies at the Coliseum, where Dudamel also gave the commencement speech.

“I will never tire of repeating this: music, art and beauty are universal rights,” he told the graduates, urging them to go out into the world listening to others, seeing others, paying attention to everything. These are the practices he has long championed as the essential need for youth orchestras.

This was, in fact, almost precisely what he said when he first arrived in L.A. “I was very young, but I grew up with these ideas,” he told me.

“You have to say to the students, ‘Stop! Let’s pause. Just listen.’”

“It’s a way to really connect with what surrounds you, but also connect with yourself. That’s the beauty of all the layers of listening we do as musicians. I now think that is our main tool. In the end it’s not listening only to sounds. It’s listening as connecting with others.”

Practicing what he preaches

As Dudamel plans for his next chapter, he indicates that the advice he gives students is what he is also saying to himself.

YOLA students perform on stage during a “Gracias Gustavo Community Block Party” at the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood on Oct. 11, 2025.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

What L.A. gave him, he concludes, is a greater depth of his own listening. There was the guidance of Deborah Borda, who, as the orchestra’s president and CEO, hired and mentored him. There were the opera productions with Peter Sellars, who made him look deeply inside himself. There were the communities to discover and with which to collaborate.

New York, he insists, will be a further continuation of this process. “There are a lot of things to do. As I did here, that will be not only conducting but spending a big amount of time doing other things. I will have to listen to the community. Every place is different.”

And every place needs to be, for Dudamel, connected. He began his last season in Disney in the fall with the world premiere of Ellen Reid’s “Earth Between Oceans,” a bicoastal co-commission between the L.A. Phil and the New York Philharmonic, sonically evoking the environmental difference between L.A. and New York. He recently repeated it with his new orchestra in David Geffen Hall in New York.

In L.A., Reid’s score felt like a vast, moving, spiritual soundscape of our fires’ fury as well as our coastal fancy. At Geffen, it became a gripping showpiece, like attempting to zoom in a Ferrari through Manhattan streets, were they ever empty — the thrill of taking it all in.

Dudamel says his favorite place in New York so far is the orchestra’s archives. Becoming absorbed in the history of America’s oldest orchestra gives him new ideas. He wants simultaneously the old, the new and the many.

He also insists on ever more connections. ”We are making, many, many projects together,” he says of the L.A. Phil and the New York Philharmonic. That includes bringing the two orchestras together in a further experiment in listening.

“That‘s very important to me, one of my dreams. And it’s not difficult,” he says. “We have plans and it’s beautiful. We have to do that.”