Performances + Events
When Juliano Aniceto was 18 years old he rode a bus for an hour and half to hear an orchestra play. Though he’d studied flute from age 11 in his native Rio de Janeiro and learned bossa nova, samba, and Brazilian folk music, the orchestra concert was his first time hearing a live performance of classical music.
“It was an eye-opening experience,” Aniceto said, explaining that he knew, immediately, “I had to become a conductor.”
“Everyone should be given the chance to discover the power of music in expressing their own voice.”
Juliano Aniceto
Director of Orchestras, NEC Preparatory School; conductor, Youth Philharmonic Orchestra
Today, Aniceto serves as director of orchestras at New England Conservatory Preparatory School (NEC Prep) and conductor of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, which he’ll lead in a May 15 performance in NEC’s Jordan Hall. The concert marks the start of NEC Prep’s yearlong celebration of its 75th anniversary.
The May 15 program will include George Gershwin’s An American in Paris, two pieces of Scott Joplin’s that were transcribed by NEC’s late-former president Gunther Schuller, Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto with 2023–2024 Prep Concerto Competition winner Seokyoung Hong, and James P. Johnson’s Victory Stride. Aniceto explained that the works by the three American composers on the program “are connected, to a certain extent, to jazz,” an American art form, and that the program as a whole reflects a more global perspective.
To Aniceto, celebrating NEC Prep is about paying tribute to “the impact of a powerful arts institution” and 75 years of connection to the community and young musicians of all social backgrounds. Talking about the students with whom he works in Prep’s Youth Philharmonic, Aniceto said, “I would like them to know how important they are and how precious their presence is. Everybody plays a significant role.
“Music can play a different role for every human being,” he said. “For me, it’s my main way to express the truths that I have in my soul and to connect with other people.
“When we are young, we are searching for our voice,” Aniceto continued. “Everyone should be given the chance to discover the power of music in expressing their own voice.”
Aniceto didn’t grow up in a musical family. Raised in one of Rio’s favelas, an environment he described as “extremely dangerous,” he found music, and his young voice, in a local social program. The art form connected him to different cultures.
In his first concert at NEC Prep, Aniceto — motivated by “this idea that we are not attached to an old concept” — led the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of works by Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri, American composer Carlos Simon, and Debussy. Reflecting on that program, he pointed out that “we can create a program that makes sense for the audience and takes them on a journey and is fun for the musicians.” In the case of that program, “the audience experienced the idea of memory and how it projects the future.”
Next year’s Prep concert programs will collectively feature music by Florence Price, William Grant Still, Gunther Schuller, Bernstein, Copland, and Gershwin alongside works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Rossini, Smetana, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Weber, and other composers.
“Music is about finding our way out of the limitations that life and society impose on us,” Aniceto said. At NEC Prep, he said, students can “find their voices but most of all they can have fun.” And he’s more than happy to model that.
In the first Youth Philharmonic rehearsal held after his inaugural concert at NEC Prep, Aniceto asked the orchestra members about their experience preparing and performing theprogram. The timpanist, Aniceto said, shared, “My favorite part was having a dancing conductor.”
“I want everyone to feel the power that music has to move us,” Aniceto said.
Reserve tickets for the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra’s May 15 performance.
