Benjamin Zander started his early musical training, in his native England , with cello and composition lessons under the guidance of his father. When he was nine, Benjamin Britten, England 's leading composer, took an interest in his development and invited the family to spend three summers in Aldeburgh in Suffolk where he lived. This led to a long association with Britten and lessons in theory and composition from Britten's close associate Imogen Holst, daughter of Gustav Holst.

In 1967 Mr. Zander joined the Faculty of the New England Conservatory, where he teaches his famous Interpretation Class , conducts the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and regularly conducts the conservatory orchestras. During his thirty-one year tenure as conductor of the Youth Philharmonic he has taken the orchestra on twelve international tours, made five commercial recordings and several PBS specials.

In 1979, after seven years as the conductor of the Civic Symphony Orchestra of Boston, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra was founded specially for him. In their twenty-four seasons together they have traversed a wide repertory from Bach to specially commissioned works, with an emphasis on late Romantic and early Twentieth Century repertoire, especially the symphonies of Gustav Mahler. To celebrate the orchestra's 25th Anniversary in 2003-2004, the BPO performed an all-Mahler season, including a performance of Mahler's Second Symphony in Carnegie Hall.

Over the last decade, Benjamin Zander has launched an extensive international career. He guest conducts all over the world, appearing frequently with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London , in regular subscription concerts at the Royal Festival Hall. He is in the process of recording with them a series of Beethoven and Mahler symphonies for the Telarc label, which has garnered extraordinary critical acclaim and several prestigious awards.  Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh symphonies, and Mahler's symphonies 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 have been released. High Fidelity named his recording of Mahler 6th as the best classical recording of 2002.  His recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 was released in February of 2004 to great critical acclaim.

In 2002 Mr. Zander made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic, and returned to conduct four performances of Mahler's Third Symphony with the orchestra in 2003. Recently he has also conducted orchestras as diverse as the Bournemouth Symphony and the Malaysian Philharmonic in Kuala Lumpur . 2003-2004 brought return engagements with the Israel Philharmonic, the Scottish and Irish National Orchestras, and debuts with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Australian Youth Orchestra.

Mr. Zander has become recognized as one of the seminal teachers of the era, expanding audiences for classical music everywhere through radio and TV appearances, pre-concert lectures and master classes. He has been featured in an hour-long profile on the BBC and on CBS's "60 Minutes. In recent years, he has presented an acclaimed series of masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music in London for young conductors.

Mr. Zander was awarded the 2002 "Caring Citizen of the Humanities" Award by the International Council for Caring Communities at the United Nations.

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