[6] As she recalled later, her passion for conducting developed during classes of Hungarian composer and conductor Stephan Strasser, who taught gifted children during his visits to Baku.
[4] She started as a concert pianist and studied with Boris Berlin in the preparatory department of the Moscow Conservatory.
The profession of conductor was considered exclusively male, and Dudarova's appearance was unexpected for the members of the admissions committee, which included Leo Ginzburg, Grigory Stolyarov [ru] and Lev Steinberg.
Dudarova's biographers often quote her answer to the committee's question as to why she decided to become a conductor: "Because I don't fit on the piano.
[13] For thirteen years, from 1947 until 1960, Dudarova was a junior conductor at the Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra.
[2] In 1960, Dudarova took over the Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra as chief conductor and artistic director, a position she held until 1989.
In November 1972, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Veronika Dudarova went on a foreign tour to Poland for the first time.
[16] In 1979, the orchestra went on tour to the GDR, taking part in the VII International Festival of Contemporary Music.
She made her first recordings of works by such composers as Georgy Sviridov, Aram Khachaturian, Tikhon Khrennikov, Andrei Eshpai, Rodion Shchedrin, Mikael Tariverdiev, Alfred Schnittke, Elena Firsova, and many more.
[18] She collaborated with distinguished performers, including Vladimir Spivakov, Leonid Kogan, Valery Gergiev, Natalia Gutman, and others.
Toured Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Japan, Iran, Turkey, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Peru, and Cuba.
[20] In 2003, she offered Pavel Sorokin the post of chief conductor, but remained the artistic director until her death in 2009.
[6][3][22][23][5] Colleagues and journalists have praised her distinctive, expressive style of performance and her ability to feel the music deeply.
[11] Dudarova's colleagues recalled a curious case when she fired a trombonist three times for drunkenness and absenteeism, but then invariably hired him because he auditioned better than other applicants.