Monday (1/16) on the Dallas Morning News online, Scott Cantrell reports, “Jaap van Zweden, in his fourth season as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, will also become music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic starting in the 2012-2013 season. Recently named Musical America’s Conductor of the Year, and widely viewed as a major rising star, van Zweden will succeed another Dutchman, Edo de Waart, in the new position. In a press release, van Zweden says, ‘This is an ensemble of 90 talented musicians which possesses great musicality as well as potential. It deserves its reputation as one of the best in Asia. My work as music director will go beyond the concert stage, and will include what I think are essential elements for the growth of the orchestra, such as the education program and advocacy for a world-class home for us in the West Kowloon Cultural District.’ In the press release, Hong Kong Philharmonic CEO Michael MacLeod says, ‘Those who witnessed the four awe-inspiring concerts that Maestro van Zweden conducted last November know he is a musician of the highest caliber. His work with the orchestra has been truly inspirational.’ … Van Zweden last year resigned from the two European orchestras he had headed, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra in Belgium.”
Posted January 17, 2012
