Jaap van Zweden

Honorary Chief Conductor

Jaap van Zweden is honorary chief conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he was chief conductor until 2011. He also held that position with the Orkest van het Oosten, the Residentie Orkest and deFilharmonie. After a period as Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, he became Music Director of the renowned New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 2018 and has been principal conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra since August 2012.

From violinist to conductor
Jaap van Zweden, born in Amsterdam, began his career as a violinist. He studied at the Conservatorium in Amsterdam and the Juilliard School in New York. At the age of 19, he was appointed concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. As a soloist and concertmaster he worked with conductors such as Haitink, Dorati, Kondrashin, Bernstein, Giulini, Solti and Chailly.
In 1995, he started his conducting career. Shortly afterwards he made his debut in Carnegie Hall and toured Europe, Japan and South America. In August 2005 Jaap van Zweden became the chief conductor of the classical orchestras of the Muziekcentrum van de Omroep in Hilversum. With the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, he gave highly praised concerts in the Singapore Sun Festival and made concert tours to, among others, Manchester, Birmingham, Berlin, Vienna and Cologne. In August 2011 he made his debut at the BBC Proms with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

Acclaimed as an opera conductor
Jaap van Zweden is a regular guest with the major orchestras in the United States, Japan and Europe. Besides the symphonic repertoire, opera plays an important role in Van Zweden's career. In recent seasons he has conducted Beethoven's Fidelio, Verdi' s La Traviata and Barber 's Vanessa, among others. At the Netherlands Opera, he made his debut with Puccini's Madama Butterfly. He conducted the highly praised concert performances of Wagner's Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Parsifal with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Groot Omroepkoor and vocal soloists in the NTR Saturday Matinee in the Concertgebouw.

Highlights
Highlights of the past seasons were Van Zweden's performances with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony and the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich as well as the concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Cd recordings
Jaap van Zweden recorded the complete symphonies of Beethoven with the Residentie Orkest. With the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra he recorded all of Bruckner's symphonies for Challenge Records. His recording of Wagner's Parsifal, performed live in the NTR ZaterdagMatinee by the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Choir and vocal soloists, was awarded the Edison Classical prize 2012 in the Opera category. He recorded Mahler's Fifth Symphony with the London Philharmonic and Shostakovich's Fifth with the Philharmonic. Recordings of symphonies by Tchaikovsky and Beethoven have been released on the Dallas Symphony Orchestra label. In August 2010, Van Zweden recorded Mozart's piano concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and David Fray.