New Leadership for YPO

NEC Announces New Permanent Leadership for Youth Philharmonic Orchestra

David Loebel to be Music Director; Hugh Wolff becomes Resident Conductor

In 2013-14, YPO will Perform 3 Concerts in Jordan Hall, Sharing One with NEC Youth Symphony

YPO Also Partners Boston Ballet School Students in "Next Generation" Performance at Boston Opera House

To Better Accommodate Family Audiences, all YPO Jordan Hall Concerts Are Free, Scheduled on Weekend Nights

New England Conservatory is delighted to announce that David Loebel, Associate Director of Orchestras in the College, will add Music Director of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra to his portfolio (pictured in photo rehearsing YPO and cellist Sasha Brower-Skolnik). Hugh Wolff, Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood Director of Orchestras in the College, will serve as Resident Conductor.  The two new permanent positions take effect in September. Both conductors have worked closely with the orchestra--the senior-most ensemble in the NEC Preparatory School—since 2012. Wolff is currently leading the YPO on tour in Argentina.

In 2013-14, the YPO will play two full concerts in NEC’s Jordan Hall and share one with the NEC Youth Symphony (Steven Karidoyanes, music director). The YPO will also return for the fourth year to the Boston Opera House, May 14, to join the Boston Ballet School’s pre-professional dancers in their annual Next Generation celebration.

Loebel will lead two of the Jordan Hall programs and Wolff will lead one. Boston Ballet Music Director Jonathan McPhee will conduct the Boston Ballet performance.

“We are so pleased that David and Hugh will continue their leadership of YPO,” said Leslie Wu Foley, Executive Director and Dean of Preparatory and Continuing Education. “Both of them offer our high school-aged students an incomparable experience working with seasoned professionals who have each been music directors of major orchestras, but who also have been inspiring conductors of student orchestras. What’s more, this relationship strengthens the connection between Prep and College programs that we have been building for several years.”

All the YPO’s Jordan Hall concerts next year will be free and take place on weekend nights to better accommodate the schedules of families with school children. The season will open Friday, November 22 with Music Director David Loebel conducting Copland’s Appalachian Spring and the Dvorak Symphony No. 8.  Resident conductor Hugh Wollf will lead the orchestra Saturday, February 15 in a Romeo and Juliet-themed program featuring Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and from Berlioz’ Symphonie Dramatique, the movements Romeo Alone and Capulets’ Ball.  On the shared program with the YS, June 1, Loebel will conduct the Brahms Fourth Symphony.  Repertory for the Boston Ballet’s Next Generation will be announced shortly.

Students interested in playing with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in 2013-14 can still schedule an audition by emailing Lisa Husseini at Prep@necmusic.edu  or by calling her at 617.585.1128.

David Loebel Biography
Noted for performances that combine innate musicality with interpretive insight, David Loebel joined the faculty of New England Conservatory as Associate Director of Orchestras following an 11-year tenure as Music Director and Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

Prior to his appointment in Memphis, he enjoyed a decade-long association with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, serving as Associate and then Associate Principal Conductor, as well as Artistic Director of its summer festival, Classics in the Loop. He has also been Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

As a guest conductor, David Loebel has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also conducted the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, New Jersey, and Syracuse, the North Carolina Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, Symphony Silicon Valley, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic, among many others.

Honored five times by ASCAP for his adventuresome programming, David Loebel is a recipient of the prestigious Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award. An equally articulate communicator off the podium, he is a popular speaker and hosted "The Memphis Symphony Radio Hour" on public radio station WKNO-FM.

Active throughout his career in the training of young musicians, Loebel has been Conductor-in-Residence of the New World Symphony and Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra.

A native of Cleveland, David Loebel is a graduate of Northwestern University and a recipient of its Alumni Merit Award.

Hugh Wolff Biography

The Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood Director of Orchestras, Hugh Wolff joined the NEC faculty in fall 2008, and has conducted a large share of NEC's College orchestral concerts in subsequent seasons. In fall 2009, he began work with students admitted to an elite training program for orchestral conductors.

Wolff was principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra (1997–2006), and maintains a close relationship with that ensemble. He has led that orchestra on tour in Europe, Japan, and China, and appeared at the Salzburg, Rheingau, and Mozart Würzburg Festivals. He was also principal conductor and then music director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (1988–2000), with which he recorded twenty discs and toured the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Hugh Wolff has appeared with all the major American orchestras, including those of Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Cleveland. Wolff is much in demand in Europe, where he has conducted the London Symphony, the Philharmonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Orchestre National de France, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Czech Philharmonic, Bavarian and Berlin Radio Orchestras, and Munich Philharmonic. He is a regular guest conductor with orchestras in Japan, Scandinavia, and Australia. He is also a frequent conductor at summer music festivals from Aspen and Tanglewood to Ravinia and Wolf Trap.

For further information about the YPO, check the NEC Website here.

For more information on concerts, check the NEC website here or call the NEC Concert Line at 617-585-1122.  NEC’s Jordan Hall, Brown Hall, Williams Hall and the Keller Room are located at 30 Gainsborough St., corner of Huntington Ave. St. Botolph Hall is located at 241 St. Botolph St. between Gainsborough and Mass Ave.

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY

A cultural icon approaching its 150th anniversary in 2017, New England Conservatory (NEC) is recognized worldwide as a leader among music schools.  Located in Boston, Massachusetts on the Avenue of the Arts in the famed Fenway neighborhood, NEC offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world.  Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. NEC alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.

Founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee, an American music educator, choral conductor and organist, NEC is the oldest independent school of music in the United States. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions.  On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, contemporary improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Programs and Partnerships Program, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors.  Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music, jazz, and contemporary improvisation. Currently more than 750 young artists from 46 states and 39 foreign countries attend NEC on the college level, 1,400 young students attend on the Preparatory level, and 325 adults participate in the Continuing Education program.

The only conservatory in the United States designated a National Historic Landmark, NEC presents more than 900 free concerts each year. Many of these take place in Jordan Hall (also a National Historic Landmark), world-renowned for its superb acoustics and beautifully restored interior, and one of five performance spaces on the NEC campus.  Programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz, contemporary improvisation, and opera scenes.  Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre or Paramount Theatre in Boston, and a semi-staged performance in Jordan Hall. In 2012-13, the operas included: Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, and Rossini’s La Gazzetta.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Senior Communications Specialist
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617-585-1143
Ellen.pfeifer@necmusic.edu