The Yale Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1965 by a group of students who saw the growing potential for a large orchestral ensemble to thrive on campus. With a spirit for promoting new music and performing underrepresented composers alongside works of the standard Western canon, the orchestra has become a destination for students who wish to perform orchestral music at the conservatory level while taking advantage of all that Yale – a liberal-arts institution – has to offer. In its more than fifty years, the orchestra has performed in some of the most hallowed music halls in the United States from Carnegie Hall in New York to Benaroya Hall in Seattle, toured twelve countries including Turkey, Russia, Brazil and Mexico, and premiered over fifty works of new music by composers including Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, and Caroline Shaw. YSO alumni have music careers in major orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and the Berlin Philharmonic. The YSO is led by William Boughton, who is in his seventh and final year conducting the orchestra.

Playing in orchestras led William Boughton to discover his passion for conducting, which he pursued in studies with George Hurst and Sir Colin Davis. In 1980 he formed the English Symphony Orchestra and with whom he commissioned 21 new works, made over 90 recordings for Nimbus Records, many of which reached the Top 10 in the US Billboard Charts, and toured throughout the world. He has guest conducted orchestras all over the world from San Francisco to St Petersburg.

He was the Music Director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra from 2018 to 2025, focussing its repertoire a mixture of the Western canon, American heritage and contemporary as witnessed on this recording.