Captain Decius' photostream  

The conductor of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Ben Zander, was unjustly fired by New England Conservatory from the position a month ago on unfair and dishonest grounds. Sign the petition! He was a brilliant musician and a world renowned interpreter of Mahler. He recently just lead the orchestra on a two week tour of Eastern Europe, culminating in a sold out concert of Mahler's 9th Symphony (Youth orchestras never play that kind of stuff) in Vienna's Musikverein, also known as the Golden Hall. He has been the conductor of the YPO for 39 years and has lead the orchestra on 17 international tours, establishing the YPO as one of the finest youth orchestras in the world. Zander is also a public speaker, leading conferences on the appreciation of classical music.
For me, he was not only a conductor, but a friend.

If you are unconvinced, watch this video of him speaking.

Also watch this, a video about our Eastern European Tour.

If you are unconvinced of our talent, watch this: (YPO) here.

My friend was nice enough to get some pictures for me.

Only three more towers to go.

I built! I don't know whether this will amount to anything.

A picture of me playing a !Strad! at Oberlin Conservatory. The violin is owned by the United States Library of Congress. It is estimated to be worth about 6.5 million dollars and widely agreed upon that is it one of the top 4 violins in the world. The violin is in perfect condition, and it has the original label by Antonio Stradivari inside the body. The bow is nothing special as far as I know. In fact, the bow felt a little too heavy for such a violin.