Jos van Veldhoven

Jos van Veldhoven studied musicology at Utrecht University, and choral and orchestral conducting at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He has been artistic director of the Netherlands Bach Society since 1983, in which capacity he has compiled literally hundreds of programmes which have made their mark in the Netherlands and far beyond. Time and again he brings together tradition and adventure. Under his direction an impres- sive CD series of the major Bach works was produced and the Netherlands Bach Society undertook tours of Europe, the USA and Japan. Jos van Veldhoven has attracted frequent attention with performances of newly discovered repertoire within the realm of early music, including noteworthy performances of oratorios by Telemann and Graun, Vespers by Gastoldi, reconstructions of Bach’s St Mark Passion, the Köthener Trauer-Music and many unknown seventeenth-century dialogues. He has also conducted many contemporary premieres of Baroque operas by composers including Mattheson, Keiser, Bononcini, Legrenzi, Conti and Scarlatti.
As a guest conductor Jos van Veldhoven has worked with the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Netherlands Radio Choir, the Flemish Radio Choir, the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, the Robert Schumann Philharmonie, the Essener Philharmoniker and Het Brabants Orkest. With the producer Dietrich Hilsdorf he created a cycle of staged Handel oratorios for the opera houses of Bonn and Essen. In 2014 he directed the world premiere of Oídipous by Calliope Tsoupaki during the Holland Festival.
Jos van Veldhoven teaches choral conducting at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 2007 he was appointed Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion for his pioneering services to early music.