2018-2019 season
Article about the Northeastern students who performed in the BPYO for the Brazil Tour. Article by Irvin Zhang. Read the article on News@NorthEastern.
Suffice it to say, the tour was an extraordinary experience, musically and culturally, and, for me, a conspicuously potent introduction to a new continent." -Jonathan Blumhofer. Read the full article on the ArtsFuse.org.
"Rising from the insuppressible enthusiasm of maestro Benjamin Zander—who founded the (senior) Boston Philharmonic Orchestra 40 years ago—this ensemble of fantastically talented 12- to 21-year-olds delivers exactly what you want from a night at the orchestra: to be blown away. Whether playing the notoriously difficult Mahler (one of the maestro’s specialties) or another canonical composer, they deliver youthful energy and just a touch of wonder." -Boston Magazine. Read the article here.
BPYO Brazil Tour Review by Jonathan Blumhofer. Read the full review on the ArtsFuse.org.
Mahler 6 Album review by John Quinn. Read the full review on Music Web International.
"One could not hope for brighter, more attractive and hope-inspiring emissaries from the America we hold dear. They can serve with certainty to summon our better angels." -Lee Eisman. Read the full review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer.
Radio feature of the BPYO.
"there was no want of love in the orchestra’s playing, or in the interpretations of BPYO founder and conductor Benjamin Zander." -Jeffrey Gantz. Read the full review on Boston Musical Intelligencer.
"Surely, this is an orchestra that plays at a level rivaling top-flight ensembles. And, in Zander, they’ve got a dynamic conductor who’s both an inspiring teacher and experienced Mahlerian." -Jonathan Blumhofer. Read the full review at the ArtsFuse.org.
"This account of Mahler’s Ninth is a formidable achievement and all the more so when one considers that it is given by young musicians and that it is a live performance. It’s not just the technical accomplishment that has impressed me, however; it’s also the orchestra’s engagement with the music and their commitment. The performance is conducted superbly by Benjamin Zander and if his excellent booklet notes don’t convince you that he has thought deeply about the symphony then listening to his interpretation of it will do so. I can only say that each time I’ve listened to this performance I’ve been gripped by it from start to finish." -John Quinn. View the full review on Music Web International.
"If the idea of a youth orchestra tackling a work as deep and profound as Mahler's Symphony No. 9 appears incongruous, don't be deceived: under the unerring stewardship of Benjamin Zander (b. 1939), the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (founded by the conductor in 2012 and comprising 120 musicians ranging in age from twelve to twenty-one) delivers a mature performance that's not just credible but superb." – Ron Schepper. Read the full review on textura.org.
"Benjamin Zander’s 80th birthday celebration this season has, so far, resulted in some fine and, last weekend, revelatory performances by his Boston Philharmonic and Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (BPYO)." - Jonathan Blumhofer. Read the full review on The ArtsFuse.org.
"Playing with the kind of presence and passion you'd normally only expect from Euro versions of ensembles like this, the AFM needs to step up to make sure kids like this never have to take day jobs in order to keep the music alive. Just glorious." – Chris Spector. Read the full review on Midewest Record.
"For all of you who thought that the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, when it was conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, was just the berries as a young musical aggregation, you need to hear this recording. It’s really an impressive achievement." -Lynn Bayley. Read the full article at Art Music Lounge.
There was an elegiac quality to the BPYO’s spring season finale: the program was both a commemoration of the end of World War 1 and a farewell to the ensemble’s graduating members. And its inclusion of Ives’ visionary The Unanswered Question served as a memorial for guest conductor John Heiss’s son, Frank, who had died unexpectedly a few weeks earlier. The latter, given the full spatial treatment – string aureoles emanating from the lobby in Sanders Theater framing a solo trumpet up in the balcony and a quartet of flutes onstage – was this packed year’s unforgettable moment. Full review here. -Jonathan Blumhofer
"But listening to the overall enthusiasm and energy on display, I began to think that “Youth” in an orchestra’s name should be a positive." – Jeffrey Gantz. Read the article in the Boston Musical Intellgencer.
"Without question, this BPYO rendition of Shostakovich Ten was one of the most urgent and necessary of any symphonic score I’ve heard all year." – Jonathan Blumhofer. Read the full article at the ArtsFuse.org.
"The BPYO is way more than just a youth orchestra: it’s a world-class ensemble that happens to be made up (mostly) of teenagers. They return to action for the new season the Sunday after Thanksgiving with Anna Federova playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no. 2 and music director Zander conducting further works by Carl Maria von Weber and Dmitri Shostakovich." -Jonathan Blumhofer. Read the full article on The ArtsFuse.org.
- The Boston Musical Intelligencer -BPYO Tour to Europe
"So by the time of the last performances, the BPYO had become as immersed in Mahler’s worlds as anyone could expect in a two-week tour; one rehearsal proved the orchestra could play the first five minutes or so of the symphony from memory, and every busload had groups of young people who could sing longer stretches of the music — it had become part of their interior lives.
Zander did on several occasions remark on how astonished Mahler would be to hear performances of some of his most difficult and challenging music performed at this level by a youth orchestra. That is no doubt true — the youth orchestra movement scarcely existed in Mahler’s day." Read the full article on The Boston Musical Intellgencer.
2017
