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Jaap van Zweden

photo by Bert Hulselmans

BIOGRAPHY
Born in Amsterdam in 1960, Jaap Van Zweden began his musical career as a violinist, becoming at nineteen the youngest ever concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Since beginning his conducting career in 1995, he has been Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (1996-2000) with whom he made his Carnegie Hall debut, and Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orchestra (2000-2005).

He is presently the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras, Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Chief Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, WDR Symphony Cologne and Oslo Philharmonic, and future plans include debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St Louis Symphony, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, and return visits to the Philadelphia, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and London Philharmonic Orchestras, Orchestre National de France, and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

His opera repertoire includes La Traviata and Fidelio (National Reisopera), Madama Butterfly (Netherlands Opera), Otello, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lohengrin and Vanessa, and his future projects include a concert performance of Parsifal. He has recorded the complete Beethoven Symphonies with the Residentie Orchestra, Shostakovich Symphony No.5 with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Mahler Symphony No.5 (recorded live at his London Philharmonic debut), Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and the Brahms Symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, with whom he is currently recording a Bruckner cycle for Octavia, with Symphonies 4, 5, 7, 9 and 2 already released to great critical acclaim.

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