Boston Philharmonic Orchestra Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 with Sarah Brady, Benjamin Zander conducting

Here Maestro Benjamin Zander is discussing the power and importance of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony with audio examples & interview with WGBH's Brian Bell BPYO

Zander has lead 22 youth orchestra tours, but the most recent tour with BPYO to South America has left a different and deep impression. Read to learn why!

A message from Ben Zander about the success of BPO's Mahler 2nd performances and the BPYO's upcoming Mahler 6th performances.

Remembering Don Davis, principal trombone

Benjamin Zander shares a story about a student's audition.

Benjamin Zander discusses Holst's The Planets and Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra.

To dramatize this assignment, I told the orchestra the story of the great cellist Jaqueline Du Pré, who, at the age of five, entered her first competition. She was seen running gleefully down a corridor with her cello held high, like a banner. The parent of another child, seeing the broad grin on Jackie’s face, said: “Well, I can see that you have already played”. “No!” Jackie flashed back, “I am just about to!”

Emily used the first assignment to resolve a difficult situation concerning a perennial issue for musicians playing in orchestras – namely her seat assignment, and thereby, came up with an insight that could be useful for everybody:

For this assignment I asked the members to report back about their steps, so I was inundated. It was hard to choose from the vast number of written responses to this assignment. One day I will put their responses in a book!