Sitting in on 'Mozart in the Jungle:' the New Westchester Symphony Orchestra

The New Westchester Symphony Orchestra is the background orchestra in several episodes of Amazon.com’s comedy-drama series “Mozart in the Jungle.”

The orchestra scenes for the series—loosely-based on the 2005 memoir, “Mozart in the Jungle” by oboist Blair Tindall—were shot at SUNY Purchase.

“The music supervisor for the production contacted us back in October 2013, asking if we were interested in being the background orchestra in the pilot episode,” said Belinda Kan, executive director of the 3-year-old NewWSO, an audition-free community orchestra based in White Plains.

At the time Kan had only heard of Netflix’s original series. Amazon, which is new to producing, won big at the recent Golden Globe Awards for its original comedy series “Transparent.”

Ten episodes of “Mozart in the Jungle” were released in December. The series about the sex-drug-and-politics world of classical music stars, among others, Bernadette Peters, Malcolm McDowell, Gael Garcia Bernal, Debra Monk and John Hodgman.

“The most surreal part of the experience for me, dating back to the filming of the pilot, was being on stage with Joshua Bell, a rock star of the classical music world. It is beyond most amateur musicians’ wildest dreams to share a stage with him,” Kan said. “Also, we had little idea of who was going to be starring in the pilot, so when Bernadette Peters walked out onto the stage, you could hear a lot of jaws dropping. It was then that I realized that we might be participating in something quite significant.”

Members of the orchestra were also invited to the series premiere party Dec. 2 at Alice Tully Hall. The series was released Dec. 23.

“We have all gotten a kick out of seeing ourselves on screen,” Kan said. “When we founded the group, we never would have thought that a project like this would be on our radar. But sometimes opportunities come up and all you have to do is take them!”

Conductor Benjamin Niemczyk and Kan co-founded the New Westchester Symphony Orchestra to provide a place where musicians of all ages and abilities could play the same great orchestral repertoire that professional and auditioned orchestras play. Most of its members play music as a hobby and have careers outside of music. Many of its members are also retired or raising families.

The memoir ”Mozart in the Jungle” sought to paint a picture of what the lives of musicians are really like, countering the perception that musicians are rich people who walk around in tuxedoes all day.

NewWSO players can be seen in Episodes 1, 2, 3, 6, and 10. NewWSO provided half of the players, with the balance coming from the NYC-based Chelsea Symphony.

The series can be seen on Amazon.com with an Amazon Prime membership.

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