Venezuelan conductor "stupendous" on Sesame St

Grammy-winning Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel is now so famous in the USA he was invited to appear on the popular kids' show Sesame Street, alongside series-veteran Elmo, a sheep playing the violin, an octopus playing percussion and an all penguin choir.

His appearance on the show was "very, very great and amazing", but what else could you expect from a classical music conductor who gets rock star treatment wherever he goes and whose fans call him the "Dude".

Dudamel is so popular in Los Angeles, where he leads the LA Philharmonic, that there's even a hot dog named after him.

The 31-year-old conductor cemented his position as one of the hottest talents in classical music on 12 February when he won his first Grammy Award for the recording of Brahms Symphony No. 4 he did with the LA Philharmonic for the Deutsche Grammophon label.

The mop-haired super-conductor currently criss-crosses the globe, juggling a string of high-profile commitments as the principal conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden, the musical director of the LA Philharmonic, and the artistic director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar in Venezuela.