Ilyich Rivas, 16, conducts the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Why the jokes? Outstanding young violinists or chess masters or tennis pros are common. Conducting prodigies are extremely rare, however, because leading an orchestra is a cumulative art that’s rewarded by life experience. It’s about persuading 100 independent-minded virtuoso musicians to take direction and inspiration from the tip of a slender little baton. It requires equal parts compelling musicianship, verbal (and especially nonverbal) communications skills, personal charisma and a shrewd understanding of group psychology.

No surprise that some of the most persuasive maestros alive are very senior citizens — among them Lorin Maazel, 79; Colin Davis, 81; and Pierre Boulez, 84 — and that youngsters in their 40s and 50s, such as Spano and Runnicles, are still on a fast growth curve.

Now meet Ilyich Rivas, 16.

Born in Venezuela, raised in Ohio and Colorado, he’s been waving a baton since he was 6 — at first pretending to conduct the home stereo — under the tutelage of his father, a college professor of conducting with his own professional career. At 9, Rivas stood on a podium for the first time with real musicians, a wind band in Cincinnati. At 10 he led two movements from Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 with an orchestra in Venezuela. People in the music business took notice. They started to talk.

Although he has yet to earn a driver’s license — “I’ve been too busy, or maybe I’m too lazy,” he said when reached at the Swiss resort of Verbier, where he’s studying at a music festival with 82-year-old Kurt Masur — he’s aware of the perilous road ahead.

“If we felt I wasn’t prepared at each step, we wouldn’t move forward,” Rivas said, referring to the career advice he gets from his father and his high-powered agent in London. “I’m overflowing with opportunities that have come in the past year, so it gives me time to choose where I go.

“I don’t want to feel pressure before I’m ready,” he continued. “Every time I stand in front of an orchestra, I want to be fully prepared. That means I go slowly.”

Young conductors are a hot property these days since the meteoric rise of Gustavo Dudamel, another Venezuelan who was discovered at 18 and — despite the intense hype — continues to mature as a substantive artist. Still a kid at 28, Dudamel will take over as chief of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in October, a crowning achievement at any age.

Rivas hasn’t met Dudamel and hasn’t studied music in Venezuela, but he finds the comparisons an honor. And he already shows flashes of what gives a maestro authority.

“Conductors must be themselves,” Rivas said pointedly, “and it’s the diversity of approaches to music that makes them interesting. Dudamel has his way, I have mine.”

Marin Alsop, the first woman to head a major American orchestra and a mentor to many rising conductors, doesn’t hype Rivas. Rather, she describes him as a budding talent who’s worth nurturing. Starting next month, he’ll be in a two-year hybrid program, studying at Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory while assisting at Alsop’s Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

“I saw a DVD of Ilyich from age 8 to 14, and you can see the natural talent,” Alsop said, “Over that time he gets dramatically more capable, and he’ll only grow in depth and profundity.”

It points to a gap in U.S. conductors’ education system. As ASO president and CEO Allison Vulgamore puts it, in Europe there’s a venerable apprenticeship system where provincial opera houses nurture talent. (Runnicles came up this way in Germany.) In America, young conductors scramble to piece together fellowships and assistant conductorships, which isn’t always a smooth path. By giving the relatively inexperienced Rivas a date with the ASO, Vulgamore says, the orchestra is doing its part to foster the next generation.

In Denver, Rivas completed 10th grade in May and then passed the GED exam, allowing him to enroll at Peabody. His whole family — parents and twin sisters, age 8 — has already moved to Baltimore. For his father, Alejandro Rivas, it’s a career juncture. He left his university position in Colorado and has jumped into the world of freelance conductors — the same pool his son will soon enter.

Rivas came onto the ASO’s radar last fall when an agent in London showed Evans Mirageas, the ASO’s director of artistic planning, a DVD of an unknown conducting a Mahler symphony.

“The conductor was obviously young, highly gifted, and the orchestra was playing with real fire and commitment, truly following the indications of the conductor,” Mirageas said.

Within minutes of Mirageas showing the same DVD to Spano and Vulgamore, Spano decided to book him. A concert at Verizon Amphitheatre was the first convenient slot. Only later did the ASO team learn that it would mark Rivas’ American professional debut.

As Mirageas succinctly summarized Rivas’ nascent career: “The word is out.”

Concert preview

Ilyich Rivas conducts the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15. Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, 2200 Encore Parkway, Alpharetta. $21-$59. 404-733-5010, www.atlantasymphony.org