Welcome to the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductors Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Jaap van Zweden was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the orchestra in 2005
Conductor Laureate: Edo de Waart
Assistant-conductor: Benjamin Levy

Music director Jaap van Zweden

Jaap van Zweden is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Radio Chamber Philharmonic, the two classical orchestras affiliated with the Dutch Broadcasting Music Center. Jaap van Zweden was born in 1960 in Amsterdam and began his musical life as a violinist before moving from stage to podium. He is presently the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Radio Chamber Philharmonic, a position he commenced in the 2005/6 season and which has recently been extended until 2013. He has recently been announced as the Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra a position which he starts in the 2008/09 season, and from that same season, he will also assume the role of Principal Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra.

He began his violin studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory and at nineteen, van Zweden became the youngest concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. As soloist, van Zweden performed under such conductors as Haitink, Dorati, Kondrashin, Bernstein, Giulini, Solti and Chailly but then started his conducting career in 1995. From 1996 to 2000, he held the position of Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra in Enschede with whom he made his Carnegie Hall debut.. From 2000 to 2005, he was Chief Conductor of the Hague Philharmonic (Residentie Orchestra). Projects with this orchestra have included performances of Beethoven’s Fidelio and the recording of the complete Beethoven symphony cycle for Philips Classics.

Apart from an extensive symphonic repertoire, opera also plays an important part in Jaap van Zweden’s career. During recent seasons, he has conducted La Traviata and Fidelio with the Nationale Reisopera in Holland and Samuel Barber’s Vanessa in a concert performance at the Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Last season he made his debut with the Netherlands Opera conducting Madama Butterfly and future projects with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic include concert performances of Lohengrin in the Concertgebouw and Paris, and Tristan and Isolde.

In recent seasons, Jaap van Zweden has worked with orchestras such as the Gothenburg Symphony, WDR Cologne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Munich Philharmonic, Oslo Phiharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Highlights from last season included working with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestras and a mini-residency in Birmingham with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Future plans include debuts with the London Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Philadelphia Orchestra and return visits to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Danish Radio Symphony. He also continues recording his Bruckner cycle with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic for the Octavia label - symphonies 4, 7 and 9 have already been released to great critical acclaim.

Edo de Waart

Edo de Waart was Chief Conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra from 1989-2004. At present he is the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Conductor Laureate of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

Following his studies in oboe, piano and conducting at the Amsterdam Music Lyceum, Edo de Waart served as Assistant Principal Oboistof the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Two years later, he won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in New York that resulted in his appointment as Assistant Conductor to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic. On his return to Holland he was appointed Assistant Conductor to Bernard Haitink at the Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1967 the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra appointed him permanent Guest Conductor and six years later Chief Conductor and Artistic Director. Since then, Edo de Waart has been affiliated with several leading American orchestras as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony and Minnesota Orchestras. Branching out to other parts of the world, Maestro de Waart was the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor of the Nederlandse Opera. He has guest conducted all the major world orchestras. His operatic experience has included appearances at Bayreuth, Covent Garden, Opéra de la Bastille, the Metropolitan Opera and the Salzburger Festspiele. Edo de Waart was recently named Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Opera.

Benjamin Levy

Photo © Thomas Bartel

Benjamin Levy has been appointed assistant conductor with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic as from the 2009-2010 season. He has received the 2008 ADAMI-Young Conductor Award. In 2005, he was awarded the Musical revelation prize by the French union of music critics.
He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon (Premier prix de Percussion) and at the Conservatoire de Paris (Analysis and Conducting) as well as at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen (USA) with David Zinman and at the Academia Chigiana in Siena (Italy).
He has regularly been Marc Minkowski’s assistant. In this quality he worked with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, at the Paris Opéra, with Les Musiciens du Louvre and recently at the Salzburger Festspiele.

Benjamin Levy is the founder and conductor of the Orchestre de Chambre Pelléas. He conducted this orchestra in most prestigious French concert halls: Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Théâtre du Châtelet, Cité de la Musique, MC2 - Grenoble and at the Festival de Besançon, Folle Journée de Nantes, Festival de Radio-France in Montpellier and Nomus Festival (Serbia). During the last seasons, Benjamin was invited by the Opéra National du Rhin, Opéra National de Lyon, Dijon, Avignon and Toulon operas, Orchestre Colonne, Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy, Xalapa Symphony (Mexico) and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Caracas.

Future engagements include a new invitation by the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy, a tour with the Rouen Opéra, concerts with the Orchestre National de Lorraine and Orchestre Lamoureux as well as an opera production with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. He will conduct the Orchestre de Chambre Pelléas in Switzerland, Opéra de Massy, Besançon and de Nationale Opera van België. 

 

Jean Fournet

Jean Fournet (1913-2008) was Chief Conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra from 1961 - 1978 and Permanent Guest Conductor since 1978. Jean Fournet has played a prominent role in the international world of music for over fifty years. He is regarded as one of the leading experts in the field of French music working closely with the great French composers of the 20th century. The New York Times hailed Maestro Fournet as “the classic defender of the French style”.

Jean Fournet graduated from the Nationale Conservatory in Paris with a coveted “premier prix”. He was Artistic Director of the Opera Comique and a conductor at the Paris Opera until 1957. Maestro Fournet taught conducting at the Ecole Normale de Paris from 1945-1962. Albert Cortot, the eminent pianist was instrumental in Fournet’s appointment. In later years, Fournet directed the NOS Conducting Masterclasses in Hilversum and was jury Chairman of the Besancon International Conducting Competition.

Maestro Fournet first appearances in the Netherlands took place in 1950. He made his debut with both the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Jean Fournet was Chief Conductor of the Radio Philharmonic from 1961-1978 and Chief Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 1968 -1973. Besides he was active in the musical life of Japan where he was Guest Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and a frequent director of the Osaka Philharmonic, the Japan Philharmonic and the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Japan.