Jaap Van Zweden

Jaap van Zweden, who makes his San Francisco Symphony debut this week, is Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Born in Amsterdam, Mr. van Zweden became the youngest concertmaster in the history of that city’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at age nineteen. He began his conducting career in 1995 and has been chief conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (1996-2000), Residentie Orchestra of the Hague (2000-05), Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra (2008-11), and chief conductor and artistic director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra (2005-11). He is now Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra.

Jaap van Zweden has appeared as guest conductor with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Munich Philharmonic, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Orchestre National de France, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland, and Philadelphia orchestras. On the operatic stage, he has conducted La Traviata and Fidelio with the National Reisopera, Madama Butterfly at the Netherlands Opera, and concert performances of Verdi’s Otello, Barber’s Vanessa, and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, Parsifal, and Lohengrin at the Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic.

Recent highlights include debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, and the Boston Symphony, and his BBC Proms debut conducting the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8. Highlights of his 2012-13 season and beyond include subscription debuts with the Orchestre de Paris, National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as well as returns to the Orchestre National de France, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago and Saint Louis symphony orchestras, and Rotterdam and London philharmonic orchestras.

Jaap van Zweden’s recordings include Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Petrushka, and the complete Beethoven and Brahms symphonies. He is currently recording the cycle of Bruckner symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. He has recorded Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 with the London Philharmonic (LPO Live), Mozart piano concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and David Fray (Virgin), and performances of Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger, and Parsifal. He has also recorded symphonies of Tchaikovsky and Beethoven  on the Dallas Symphony’s own label. Last November, Mr. van Zweden was named Musical America's 2012 Conductor of the Year.

(October 2012)