There are many attractive flower gardens at private homes near Harvard Square. At first glance, the riot of roses, dahlias, peonies, and purple allium outside Benjamin Zander’s home is another lovely spot to admire as you move along. But stop for a minute, and you’ll see a sign taped to a music stand.
“More beauty in the back, please peek!”
The invitation to stop, look, and enjoy a private garden embodies Zander’s spirit of generosity and encouragement, which he pours into the young musicians he leads as founder and conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
“It is the ultimate joy for a human being to contribute to other lives, and that’s what I do,” he said during a recent conversation in his back garden. “It gets me excited in the morning and keeps me up to midnight every day, and it is exciting and wonderful.”
Zander, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra conductor, created the BPYO in 2012. The tuition-free orchestra includes 120 young musicians ages 12 to 21 who perform at Symphony Hall in Boston, Carnegie Hall in New York, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the Berlin Philharmonie, among other internationally renowned halls. The orchestra tours regularly: South America in 2017, Europe in 2018, and Brazil in 2019. In 2023, the orchestra toured South Africa.
Later this month, six Belmont students will tour five European cities with the orchestra, performing in concert halls in the cradle of classical music. Daphne Lee, violinist; Ian Lee, violinist; Brian Lee, cellist; Jaiden Lee, cellist; Hailey Peck, violinist; Priscilla Lee, violinist, and Henry Monroe, cellist, will perform in some of Europe’s most famous concert halls, including the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Musikverein in Vienna, and the Stadtcasino in Basel, Switzerland.
Jaiden Lee, a 15-year-old sophomore at Belmont Hill School whose brother Brian is also a member, is making his second trip with the BPYO. He toured South Africa last year.
“It was an amazing experience,” he said. “We went to Soweto and performed in a small church in a district where blackouts were very common. In the middle of a long Mahler performance, the whole church suddenly goes dark. The audience gets out their phones and starts shining their lights. Mr. Zander kept conducting. We didn’t mess up at all. Everyone was in tears at the end of the night.”
Daphne Lee (no relation to Jaiden), a 15-year-old violinist attending Belmont High School, also toured in South Africa last year.
“It was amazing to meet the people, and a great reminder of why we play music, to come together and enjoy it with people,” she said. “It really is an art where you can overlook any sort of language or racial barriers. Meeting people of so many different backgrounds through the connection of music is really amazing and unique.”
According to Zander, the orchestra’s motto is “Shaping future leaders through music.” Focusing on leadership is important.
“We ask them to think continuously about how they interact with the world. Are they passive or taking initiative, changing the conversation? As musicians, are they moving and feeling the music in such a way that people around them feel the direction and shape of the music, the dynamic of the music?” he said. “Many come in quite shy and self-effacing, and by the end, they have confidence, energy, and direction. They are making decisions.”
Daphne said the focus on leadership is a message she has taken to heart.
“It is really something I’ve taken into my personal life,” she said. “Leading not just from a ‘leadership position,’ but to be able to inspire people from anywhere, from any position in my life.”
Jaiden said Zander’s passion is unique among his many mentors.
“He likes to preach about the idea of ‘possibility’ instead of ‘possibilities,’” he said. “He emphasizes the difference between the plural ‘possibilities’ as small goals you work toward, and a singular possibility that is something endless, open-ended, that you keep striving for.”
In a letter to Zander, Daphne Lee wrote, ‘To be able to perform these works on the stage of Symphony Hall alongside some of the most inspiring musicians I’ve gotten the chance to know is going to be something I will hold onto for the rest of my life. I hope that each and every member of the audience listening to this concert will receive as much joy and purpose from this music as it has given to me.”
While a visitor chats in the back garden with Zander, a young couple wanders in. Both are struck with shyness when he waves them in and invites them to look around. When asked why he invites strangers to see the garden, he ties the answer to the lessons for his young students.
“It’s an integrated life, and every part of it is connected,” he said. “The whole thing is spirit and love. It has everything to do with music. Come see the garden – such beauty. I use every possible opportunity to enhance their lives to give them more experiences, more memories. And that is why we take them on tour because they’ll never forget that as long as they live. It will be with them forever.”
To listen to the BPYO and learn more about the orchestra and classical music in general, visit Zander’s website at benjaminzander.org.