He is an orchestral and operatic conductor born in The Netherlands who studied the oboe and piano at Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and a year after graduation became associate principal oboe for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
He went to the United States and after having won the Dimitri Mitropolous Conducting Competition he become assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic for a year. Once he returned to Europe he worked under Bernard Haitink as the assistant conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Since becoming established in the 1960s he has been appointed as a conductor to several major orchestras and opera companies that have included Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (with whom he premiered John Adams’ work), Minnesota Orchestra, Netherlands Opera, Bayreuth, Convent Garden and Metropolitan Opera.
He has guest conducted for Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande amongst many others and as musical director he worked with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra from 1989 to 2004, for whom he has been made the Conductor Laureate.
As artistic director and chief conductor he has worked with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
He was honoured in 2004 by being made a Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion and in 2005 he was appointed an Honorary Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia.
John Coolidge Adams Recordings
Shaker Loops – Hymning Slews
Philips 475 7551 (CD: Steve Reich: Variations/ John Adams: Shaker Loops)
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
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