Jaap van Zweden
(c) Hans Vanderwoerd/IMG
The New York Philharmonic has today announced Dutch conductor, Jaap van Zweden, 55, as their new Music Director. Van Zweden’s initial contract as successor to Alan Gilbert will start with the 2017/18 season and last for 5 years.
Van Zweden has served as Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2008 (with a contract going until 2019) and Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic since 2012, with an initial contract of four years.
Studying the violin, at age 15, he won a violin competition; this allowed him to attend The Juilliard School in the United States, where he studied with Dorothy DeLay. In 1979, aged 18, he became the concertmaster of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, a position, which he held until 1995.
Van Zweden began to work as a conductor after Leonard Bernstein invited him to lead an orchestra rehearsal in Berlin. He became a full-time conductor in 1997. His first Dutch conducting post was as chief conductor with the Orkest van het Oosten in Enschede, the Netherlands. Van Zweden was chief conductor of the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague from 2000-2005. In 2005 he became chief conductor and artistic leader of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in Hilversum.
