Conductor Chosen for Dallas Orchestra

 

Conductor Chosen for Dallas Orchestra

AP

DALLAS (AP) - The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has hired a new music director, who will begin a four-year contract in September 2008.

Jaap van Zweden will conduct 12 weeks during his first year, and 15 weeks during the three following years, the symphony announced Thursday.
Jaap van Zweden Conductor Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Radio Kamer Filharmonie
Music Director Designate, Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Principal Conductor Designate, Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra

Jaap van Zweden was born in 1960 in Amsterdam where he began his violin studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory. At nineteen Mr. van Zweden became the youngest Concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and then started his conducting career in 1995.

Mr van Zweden is presently the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he commenced in the 2005/6 season, and from the 2008/09 season, he will also assume the role of Principal Conductor of the Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has worked with many orchestras around the world such as the City of Birmingham Symphony, Gothenberg Symphony, WDR Cologne Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berne Symphony and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights from last season included working with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Danish Radio Symphony. In the 2006/07 season, he will debut with the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestras as well as the Orchestre Nationale de France and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and return invitations include the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and the City of Birmingham Symphony.

Season 2006/07
Although well-known in his native Netherlands, van Zweden is a relatively unknown conductor in the United States.

The 46-year-old Van Zweden, who spent 16 years as concertmaster at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, began conducting part time in 1994. He performed his last concert as a violinist in 1997. In 1996, he was named chief conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until 2003.

From 2000 to 2005, he also was music director at the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague.

Van Zweden was selected during a search process that began three years ago when Andrew Litton announced he would leave the post in June 2006