Newton Classical Idol Conductor: Benjamin Rous
Benjamin Rous enjoys a full musical life as conductor, violinist, and composer. He is the music director of Brahms Society Orchestra in Cambridge, a post held since 2000. He is entering his second year as assistant conductor of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and works as a staff conductor at Manhattan School of Music. In the 2007-08 season he will work occasionally for the St. Louis Symphony as assistant conductor. The fall of 2007 also brings his debut on New York’s Bargemusic series as one of the conductors of The Chelsea Symphony.
A native of New Hampshire, Boston became his musical home during high school when he began playing violin in GBYSO (now BYSO) and in New England Conservatory’s YPO. Rous went on to study music at Harvard, where he served as music director of Harvard’s Bach Society Orchestra. He later served as music director of Harvard’s Lowell House Opera for its production of Carmen. His conducting studies followed at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Kenneth Kiesler. While at Michigan he was music director of the Campus Symphony Orchestra, and assistant conductor for two University of Michigan Opera Theater productions.
Rous has performed regularly as violinist and violist with the Arcturus Chamber Ensemble of Carlisle, Massachusetts, since its founding in 2000. As orchestral violinist, he recently performed in the Berlin-based Mahler Chamber Orchestra and in Bologna’s Orchestra Mozart, under the batons of Claudio Abbado and Daniel Harding. His compositions have been performed by the Portland Youth Symphony, the New England Conservatory Preparatory String Orchestra, the Boston Latin High School String Orchestra, and the Fromm Players at Harvard. Interested in spontaneous composition and improvisation, Rous has performed in experimental ensembles in Boston and Atlanta as violist, violinst, and conductor.
In the summer of 2006 he was selected as an Academy Conductor at the Aspen Music Festival, where he worked under the guidance of David Zinman, George Manahan, James Conlon and others. In the summer of 2007 he made appearances with the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, Ontario, and with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris in Vendome, France.
