Today is Dutch Violinist and Conductor Jaap van Zweden's 63rd Birthday

Van Zweden is currently the Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic

 

Initially studying violin in Amsterdam, Van Zweden won the Oskar Back violin competition, which enabled him to attend the Julliard School and study with Dorothy DeLay. In 1979 he was awarded the Concertmaster position of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra aged just 18- the youngest to have won this position at the time. He served the orchestra for 16 years.

 

Van Zweden began to work as a conductor after Leonard Bernstein invited him to take an orchestra rehearsal in Berlin. He has stated that he learned much about conducting from observing the conductors who led concerts of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He conducted smaller ensembles initially, and became a full-time conductor in 1997, holding several conducting posts in the Netherlands.

 

His first appearance in the United States was with the St. Louis Symphony in 1996, followed by the Dallas symphony Orchestra in 2006- a concert that was highly successful and resulted in Van Zweden becoming the orchestra's next Musical Director.

 

Van Zweden is currently the Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra- a position offered back in 2012 that has been extended for multiple seasons- and New York Philharmonic, who first offered this position to Van Zweden back in 2016 and have subsequently extended his contract until 2024. Van Zweden has announced that he intends to resign from the New York Philharmonic at the close of the 2023-24 season.

 

In January 2024, Van Zweden will begin his next appointment as Musical Director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, with an initial contract of 5 years.

 

BEETHOVEN | SYMPHONY NO. 5 | JAAP VAN ZWEDEN & ORCHESTRE DE PARIS | 2019