Benjamin Zander

Zander's main instrument was the cello. He began studying at the age of ten and became the youngest member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the age of twelve. He went as a boarder at Uppingham, as a music scholar at the age of thirteen and thence attended St. Paul's School in London so he could continue his cello studies with Herbert Withers. At the age of fifteen, Zander became a student of the Spanish cello virtuoso Gaspar Cassadó and moved to Florence and Siena, Italy for the next three years. He completed his cello studies at the State Conservatoire in Cologne, Germany where he served as an assistant to Cassadó.

After living abroad for five years, Zander returned to England, completed his A levels and studied at University College London for a degree in English Literature, winning the University-wide English Literature Essay Prize. During his period of study at University, he performed regularly as a cellist, giving recitals and chamber music concerts with the King-Zander-Arieli Trio and he taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School for gifted children.

In 1965, he won a Harkness International Fellowship and travelled to the United States for graduate work at Brandeis University, Harvard University and with Leonard Shure and Ernst Oster in New York.

In 1967, Zander joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music and remained on the faculty until 2012. In July 2012 the New England Conservatory and Preparatory School conferred on him the title of Faculty Emeritus, acknowledging his significant contributions to the school over 45 years.[2] This followed his being dismissed in January 2012 for negligence amid allegations he had hired a videographer to record concerts, who had (with Zander's knowledge) previously served a prison sentence for sexual assault of a minor.[3] Zander later acknowledged that hiring the videographer, Peter Benjamin, without informing school administrators was a "significant oversight."

Benjamin Zander is the Conductor and Music Director of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, a youth orchestra in Boston comprising both high school and college age students. The BPYO rehearses at The Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston's South End. Their premiere performance took place in Symphony Hall on 25 November 2012. On the program was Strauss' Ein Heldenleben, Beethoven's Egmont Overture, and Elgar's Cello Concerto with Alisa Weilerstein as soloist. BPYO's first international tour took place the summer of 2013 as the entire orchestra visited The Netherlands to play Mahler's Second Symphony in the Concertgebouw.

• Interview with Charlie Rose
• Interview with Bruce Sellery on YouTube
• WGBH Public Television Boston on YouTube
• TED Talk: "The transformative power of classical music" (TED2008)