The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest continuously operating independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Hall, and is home to approximately 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies, and 1,500 more in its Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education. NEC offers bachelor's degrees in instrumental and vocal classical music performance, contemporary musical arts, composition, jazz studies, music history, and music theory, as well as graduate degrees in collaborative piano, conducting, and musicology. The conservatory has also partnered with Harvard University and Tufts University to create joint double-degree, five-year programs and provide students access to Boston's premier academic resources.
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
The Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (BYSO) is a youth orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts under the artistic leadership of music director, Federico Cortese. Since 1958, BYSO has served thousands of young musicians from throughout New England with three full symphonic orchestras, two young string training orchestras, six chamber orchestras, a preparatory wind ensemble, a chamber music program and a nationally recognized instrument training program for underrepresented youth from inner-city communities called the Intensive Community Program (ICP). The 2017-2018 season marks the celebration of BYSO's 60th Anniversary. Each year, BYSO auditions approximately 850 students from throughout New England, ages 5–18, and accepts nearly 500 young musicians.
Jordan Hall is a 1,051-seat concert hall in Boston, Massachusetts, the principal performance space of the New England Conservatory. It is one block from Boston's Symphony Hall. It is the only conservatory building in the United States to be designated a National Historic Landmark. This building is currently under study by the Boston Landmarks Commission for landmark status.
Bernard Rands is a British-American contemporary classical music composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy. He held residencies at Princeton University, the University of Illinois, and the University of York before emigrating to the United States in 1975; he became a U.S. citizen in 1983. In 1984, Rands's Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He has since taught at the University of California, San Diego, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Boston University. From 1988 to 2005 he taught at Harvard University, where he is Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus.
The Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP) is the oldest youth orchestra in the United States, established in 1924 as the Portland Junior Symphony (PJS). Now based in Portland, Oregon, the orchestra's origin dates back to 1910, when music teacher Mary V. Dodge began playing music for local children in Burns, Oregon. Dodge purchased instruments for the children and organized the orchestra, which would become known as the Sagebrush Symphony Orchestra. After touring the state, including a performance at the Oregon State Fair in Salem, the orchestra disbanded in 1918 when Dodge moved to Portland. There, Dodge opened a violin school and became music director of the Irvington School Orchestra.
Harold Farberman was an American conductor, composer and percussionist.
Donald Palma is a prominent classical double bassist, conductor, bass instructor, and educator of ensemble performance. He is a native of New York City, and is a graduate of the Juilliard School. Palma studied with several noted bassists including Frederick Zimmermann, Robert Brennand, Orin O'Brien, and Homer Mensch.
Based in Baltimore, Maryland, four ensembles comprise the GBYO, the full-sized symphonic Youth Orchestra, the intermediate-level Concert Orchestra, and the beginning-level Sinfonia and Sinfonietta ensembles. GBYO also offers a "Bridges" program, providing entry-level instruction to underserved youth in the city. The GBYO ensembles are in residence at Loyola College in Maryland.
The National Symphony Orchestra is the most important symphony orchestra in Mexico. With its origins traced back as 1881, along with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, it is the second-oldest symphony orchestra in the American continent. The orchestra does not have a permanent venue but performs regularly in the Grand Hall of the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City.
Marcus Thompson is a violist and viola d'amore player known for his work as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and educator. Thompson is a founding member and is currently Artistic Director of the Boston Chamber Music Society, and is Institute Professor at MIT and a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music.
Founded as the Lexington Sinfonietta in 1995 by conductor Hisao Watanabe, the Lexington Symphony is a group of musicians from the Lexington, Massachusetts area.
The conductorless orchestra, sometimes referred to as a self-conducted orchestra or unconducted orchestra, is an instrumental ensemble that functions as an orchestra but is not led or directed by a conductor. Most conductorless orchestras are smaller in size, and generally perform chamber orchestra repertoire. Several conductorless orchestras are made up of only strings and focus primarily on string orchestra repertoire. Conductorless orchestras generally come from the classical music tradition and perform standard repertoire, but many conductorless orchestras promote or specialise in contemporary classical music repertoire. Many contemporary classical music ensembles also regularly perform without a conductor.
Federico Cortese has served as Music Director of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras since 1999. He is also the Music Director of the New England String Ensemble and the conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra at Harvard University. In summer 2009, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.
Mei-Ann Chen is a Taiwanese American conductor. She is currently music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta and conductor laureate of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.
Malcolm Cameron Peyton is an American composer, concert director, conductor, and teacher.
Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra is the affiliated youth orchestra of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. Founded in July 2011, it is the first semi-professional student orchestra in China to be organized and administered by a professional orchestra. Its current Music Director is Huan Jing. The orchestra's members are selected from multiple cities in Guangdong Province. GSYO's rehearsals and training programs take place at the headquarters of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. The administration and training follow the management guidelines of a professional ensemble.
Huan Jing is the resident conductor of Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, and the musical director of Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra. She graduated from the Conducting Department of the Central Conservatory of Music, trained under the tutelage of Professor Xu Xin. In 2009, she obtained her master's degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where she was awarded a full scholarship to continue her doctoral studies. She served as the conducting assistant of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival (2011–2013); she was also the conducting assistant of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra (2011–2013) and principal guest conductor of the Artaria Chamber Orchestra.
Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.
Kristo Kondakçi is an Albanian-American conductor who is currently the music director of the Kendall Square Orchestra, the Eureka Ensemble, and the Narragansett Bay Symphony Community Orchestra. He is also the cofounder of the Women's Chorus, a choral program for women experiencing homelessness in Boston.
