David Loebel, Music Director
Founded in 1962, the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (YPO) is the senior-most orchestra at New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School. It is composed of 90 gifted young musicians between the ages of 14–18, who are selected annually from over 1000 applicants. In an unusual and rich artistic partnership between youth orchestra and college conservatory, the YPO is guided by Music Director David Loebel, NEC Associate Director of Orchestras.
YPO's Sixteen international concert tours have enriched audiences on four continents and established YPO as one of the finest youth orchestras in the world. In 2007, the orchestra traveled to China, giving concerts in several major cities and collaborating with young Chinese musicians. The orchestra has played in some of the finest concert halls of the world, including Santiago, Chile’s Teatro Municipal, and the Teatros Muncipal of Sao Paulo, the Rio de Janeiro and Musikverein in Vienna, and Reykjavik's Harpa Concert Hall.
Praising “the highly talented teenagers who fill the ranks of the YPO,” and their “expressively charged and technically accomplished performances,” Boston Globe music critic Jeremy Eichler has written: “One of the special pleasures of hearing a youth orchestra comes from knowing that many of its members have been encountering the music, even a cornerstone of the repertory like the Brahms [Fourth Symphony], for the very first time. As a result, the playing can sometimes brim with the visceral thrill of discovery. That was the case here.”
YPO tours biannually with trips that span all corners of the globe. Most recently, YPO embarked on a 10-day tour of Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest in June 2019.
Rehearsals: Saturdays, 3:10–6:00 PM
In June of 2015, NEC Prep's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra toured Iceland! They performed Chadwick, Gandolfi, Chausson, and Rimsky-Korsakov under the direction of David Loebel.
June 21, Hof Cultural Center in Akureyri
June 23-25, Við Djúpið Music Festival in Ísafjörður
June 26, Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík
June 28, Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík
New England Conservatory's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by David Loebel, performs the Imperial March or "Darth Vader's Theme" from The Empire Strikes Back, November 14, 2015 in NEC's Jordan Hall.
David Loebel conducts the NEC Prep Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Holst's Planets: Mars. Recorded live in NEC's Jordan Hall, Boston, November 14, 2015.
2021 - 22 Repertoire highlights include:
Brahms: Symphony No. 2
Dvořák: New World Symphony
Vaughan Williams: Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet
2020 - 21 Repertoire highlights included:
Beethoven: Symphony 7
Vivaldi: Le quattro stagioni
Piazzolla: Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas
O'Connor: The American Seasons
2019 - 20 Repertoire highlights included:
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 (Pathèthique)
Respighi: Fountains of Rome
Mussorgsky: Picture at an Exhibition
Entrance Requirements: Open by audition to highly advanced pre-college players. Admission to YPO is extremely competitive. While orchestral assignments are made by level, not age, most members of YPO are in grades 10–12.
Seating Audition Sign-up: After placement into YPO, all students will take a seating audition. Seating audition information is sent to all registered YPO students. More information coming soon!
Concert Dates:
Sunday, November 12, 2023
Monday, February 12, 2024
Thursday, May 16, 2024