Benjamin Zander started his early musical training under the guidance of his father, in his native England, with lessons in cello and composition.  When he was nine, Benjamin Britten, England's leading composer, took an interest in his compositions 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.

He left school when he was fifteen to study in Florence with the great Spanish cello virtuoso, Gaspar Cassadó, who was his teacher and mentor for the next five years.  He completed his cello training at the State Academy in Cologne, travelling extensively with Cassadó and performing recitals and chamber music.  In 1964, Benjamin Zander completed a degree at London University, winning the University College Essay Prize, and a Harkness Commonwealth Fellowship for post-graduate work at Harvard.  Boston has been his home ever since.

In 1967 Mr. Zander joined the Faculty of the New England Conservatory, where he teaches the Interpretation Class, conducts the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, and regularly conducts the Conservatory's orchestras. Twenty-three years ago he became the Artistic Director of the joint program between NEC and Walnut Hill, a boarding school for the Performing Arts.

During his thirty-five year tenure as conductor of the New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic, he has taken the orchestra on 13 international tours, made five commercial recordings, and several television documentaries for PBS. In 1979, he became the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.  In their twenty-eight seasons together, they have performed an extensive repertoire, with an emphasis on late Romantic and early Twentieth Century composers, including a traversal of the complete cycle of symphonies of Gustav Mahler.

To celebrate the orchestra's 25th Anniversary in 2003-2004, the BPO completed an all-Mahler season, including a concert of Mahler's Second Symphony in Carnegie Hall. ,The BPO has recorded five extremely succesful CDs, all of which are listed in the Penguin Guide of the Best Recordings of the Past 20 Years.  Their recording of The "Rite of Spring" was named as one of the ten most important Musical Events of 1992 by the New York Times.

Benjamin Zander has established an international reputation as a guest conductor.  He has conducted the Israel Philharmonic for three consecutive years, and conducted orchestras as diverse as the Bournemouth Symphony, the Scottish and Irish National Orchestras, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Malaysian Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and appeared with the National Youth Orchestra of New Zealand, and the Australian Youth Orchestra.

He has a unique relationship with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London with whom he is recording a series of Beethoven and Mahler symphonies for the Telarc label.  Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh symphonies, and Mahler's symphonies 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 have been released thus far