Boston Philharmonic reeling after conductor’s annotated scores stolen from his car

In less than 24 hours, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra had his car stolen not once, but twice from Brattle Street in Cambridge, according to police.

Though the vehicle and some of the items inside have been recovered, three of Conductor Benjamin Zander’s annotated musical scores and some other items are still missing. The suspect also remains at large.

On its social media accounts Monday, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra shared that Zander’s “cherished marked up musical scores,” as well as some other items had allegedly been stolen.

The scores were two copies of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 – one with a cover and one without – and one spiral-bound 11-inch by 17-inch copy of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben with cardboard covers, the orchestra said.

“It is hours and hours and hours and decades of work that he has gone into, and of course it is really difficult to have it happen so close to the performance,” Elisabeth Christensen, managing director of the Philharmonic, told NBC10 Boston.

“He has been preparing the orchestra for this performance since September with these scores, and now, we have just two more rehearsals before he has to perform and he is starting from scratch with these scores,” Christensen said.

Among the other items stolen were conducting batons made of cork and wood, a gray metronome, and miscellaneous documents in a small blank suitcase, according to a post on the orchestra’s Facebook page.

Cambridge police first responded to a Brattle Street home Sunday, Nov. 6 at 11:30 a.m. for a report that a car had been stolen, according to police reports.

Names and personal details were redacted from the police reports, but a department spokesperson confirmed that a conductor’s car was stolen twice and his musical scores were taken during one of the thefts.

The victim reportedly told police that he had parked his car in front of his home Saturday, Nov. 5 at around 6:30 p.m. and noticed it was gone the next morning. The keys had been inside the car at the time, a police report noted.

A friend found his car and they were able to arrange for it to be towed back to his home.

The victim told police that he planned to get new license plates – as they had been taken – and keys for the car, the report said.

Later that night, police were called back again.

The victim and his assistant told police that his car, a 2019 white BMW model 330xi, was stolen from his driveway, where it had been parked behind another vehicle, according to the report. The incident took place at about 10:30 p.m., the victim said.

The conductor told police that his car had been towed back around 1:30 p.m. after it had been stolen the first time and it had been locked and parked in the driveway since then.

The car was found on River Street at 12:45 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 7 and returned, according to the police report.

“We continue to investigate these incidents and are in the process of attempting to generate probable cause in hopes of proceeding with charges,” Jeremy Warnick, a spokesperson for Cambridge police, wrote in an email.

The orchestra believes that the missing scores and other items may be somewhere in the Allston-Brighton area and requests that the public reach out with any tips.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the orchestra by email at [email protected] or by phone at 617-236-0999.

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