In 2017, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra commissioned and performed the world premiere of Ballet Ruse, by local composer Michael Gandolfi.

The composer explains: "The title is an obvious play on words after the Ballets Russes, the great early 20th century ballet company, conceived by Sergei Diaghilev, by which many great scores of Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev, et al, were produced...Although there are no quotes from that literature in Ballet Ruse, there are a few sections in which I simply allowed myself to channel the spirit of a few select passages from that masterful repertoire."  See if you can hear these influences as you listen! 

From our Interpretation Class archives, we bring you a newly-released video of Maestro Zander coaching a young conductor on the second movement of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony during the BPYO tour of Spain in 2016. He explains that conductors "mime the music to give the sound and feeling to the orchestra." 

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