The show was inspired by Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music, oboist Blair Tindall's 2005 memoir of her professional career in New York playing various high-profile gigs with ensembles including the New York Philharmonic and the orchestras of numerous Broadway shows.
During Rodrigo's introduction, a part of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th is playing. The same theme also plays a major role in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), in which Malcolm McDowell (Thomas) stars as protagonist Alex.
Many of the orchestra scenes feature real musicians from The Chelsea Symphony and the New Westchester Symphony Orchestra. Members of the Chelsea ensemble were hired to play for the series premiere in New York.
Rodrigo's career highlights (recited by Gloria to the New York Symphony audience) are similar to those of Gustavo Dudamel, on whom Rodrigo's character is loosely based: like Dudamel, he won the Mahler Conducting Competition, made his opera debut at La Scala in Milan, and became principal conductor for a Scandinavian orchestra (Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden). The choice of background music during Rodrigo's introduction, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, is not accidental either: it was the first piece that Dudamel conducted when he was named Music Director of the LA Philharmonic.
Clever juxtaposition of Beethoven's 9th Symphony playing during Malcolm McDowell's retirement speech on stage as conductor. The same tune was used in the soundtrack for McDowell's 1972 film A Clockwork Orange.